hows everyone's duck season going so far??

[loc9fisher]

hey everyone, its october 19th and im stuck in arizona until thanksgiving (got here in july and today's high was 103; this place sucks). i've missed pretty much all of the waterfowl season except for early goose opener and a short weekend in nodak.

just wanted to talk to some people who've actually seen a duck (unlike those native to this desert) and see how everybody's doing so far.

not looking for secret spots, just to read some interesting stories from those who share my passion.

take care everyone and hope all have a great rest of the season.....loc9

[black max]

It's tough now, and has been sporadic here and there good spots. The northern birds haven't come down out of canada yet, so we are all hunting the remaining local birds and they are very skidish and call shy. I heard that the Dakota's are not very good yet this year also. A friend of mine was up in southern canada for a hunt and said he couldn't believe all the birds up there. I guess we are just going to have to keep waiting for a cold snap to push em down here, but its going to be 80 degrees today and aroung 70 for the rest of the week, so I am not expecting to see any more ducks any time soon.

[Sartell Angler]

So far, the duck season hasn't been that good, but it hasn't been terrible. We have gotten our fair share of shooting in, but there hasn't been any northern birds down yet (for the most part). We hunt west-central minnesota, and on opener, we couldn't believe how many mallards filled the sky all afternoon, but were so reluctant to fly within 100 yards of the ground/water. Most of those mallards can't be found now, and few new birds have moved in. We were up a little past Detroit Lakes last weekend, and there wasn't much for ducks around. A friend of ours went up this weekend, and says the mallards are in and they were everywhere....so i guess we missed out on that. The goose hunting has been above average, however, and we have gotten more of them than ever before. Hopefully, Canada can get some nasty weather, and push some new birds down this way. And although 78 degrees with no humidity are beautiful days in the fall, as a duck hunter I'd like to see some low 40's with overcast skies and a good chop.
S.A.

[Seabass77]

This is my first season hunting on my own and I have been having lots of fun. I've been out three mornings now and we have only gotten 4 birds, but I figure there is a little learning curve there too. We had no ducks the first day, and then two this last Saturday and two yesterday. I plan to keep hunting till season close. I'm heading to ely for three days of duck hunting this weekend. I hope some birds come down.

I have duck fever, bad.

[Borch]

It's been a pretty good season thus far. No limits taken but always 5 or 6 ducks with a honker or two thrown in for two hunters.

Yesterday was slow with just one honker coming in. Everthing else avoided decoys like the plague.

------------------
I bad day of fishing??? I honestly don't know what you're talking about!

[This message has been edited by Borch (edited 10-20-2003).]

[Lowe]

It's been a fairly decent year for the area I hunt (northeast MN, not a duck mecca by any means). The season started out okay with quite a few mallards, teal, and woodies around, averaged a bird or two an outing. Then we got a cold snap, which was just enough to push most but not all the teal and woodies out of the area but not enough to move any of the northern ducks down. Late last week a small pothole I hunt regularly was holding a few bluebills, and my hunting partner had about 150 ducks come in that evening. Mostly mallards, with a small flock of teal and a couple woodies mixed in. Like I said, a lot of them came in after shooting hours, but we managed to bag half a dozen before sunset, all mallards.
Not many geese around lately, but early goose season was pretty good.

[bigdog]

Other than opening weekend this has been the worst duck season in years. Hunting out near lake Christina (Brandon area) and there has been very few birds and very little shooting. We have not even seen high flocks passing by. Have managed a duck or two since the opener but the last time we went out we only had 1 shot.

[loc9fisher]

sorry to hear that most of everybody's season isn't going that well. but look on the bright side......at least you guys can go out. hopefully your seasons will turn around and remember this, a day hunting in minnesota is by far better than 4 months in arizona.

good luck to all and thanks for the posts. it does make me a little happier to hear from people who enjoy this sport as much as i do.

and Seabass.....you've got the right idea!!

take care guys.......loc9

[Goldy]

Hey Bigdog what kind of feed back are you hearing from Joyce on Dan's hunts.(we are seeing alot of birds in the refuge) It has also been very spotty for us hunting north of Ortonville. One morning a slough might have fair shooting and the next be poor. Lets all wish for some cold weather and get our Boss ready to grant us a couple days of vacation.

[bigdog]

Goldy,
Think you may have me mixed up with someone else? I don't know a Joyce or a Dan, sorry.

[NateEboy-1]

On opening day we saw alot of ducks due to all the hunters around us kicking them up. With the 40 mph winds we had that day we didn't drop any ducks. The next day we were at another smaller lake and saw no birds. I work Saturdays so most of my hunting is on sundays and thursdays. I have hunted every sunday and have not fired a shot. When I go out alone on thursdays I see enough to keep me interested until 8am and I bring home 2 for my efforts and I start pulling in the dekes at 9am. My son had no school for three days for M.E.A. so we packed up and headed to Aitkin.The first day we scouted 2 spots and hunted until dark with no sight of any birds. The next morning we were unprepared for the (in your face) shooting that we experienced.Wrong loads,wrong choke tubes and we set up too close to our decoy spreads. It was fast and furious for the first hour but we missed the shots we had. We had 2 geese drop in 10yds behind us that we just sat and stared at in disbelief. They quickly got up and flew safely away as we tried to figure out what the heck kind of goose was that. Later that day we stopped at a friends and got out a bird ID book and discovered that they were Brants. We were quite excited and we set up a new game plan for the following morning. Friday morning we didn't see as many birds but we managed to bring home 4 mallards. This is only my 2nd season hunting ducks but I also have duck fever REAL BAD! My wife thinks I am posessed. Ken

[myzee13]

Nate,
You might want to check your waterfowl i.d. a little closer...to my knowledge, Brants shouldn't be flying anywhere in this vicinity.
On another note, I was out this morning, just passing time on a day off. I was pleasently surprised by seeing some migrants starting to move! There's still some bw teal, but a did see some buffleheads, ringbills, and managed to drop a beautiful drake mallard...definately not a local bird. Granted, the action wasn't fast and furious, but it was encouraging considering the balmy weather lately! I'm headed to SD this weekend so good luck to everyone back in the land of tiling and ditches!!!!!!

[Guest]

Believe it or not my buddy said he seen a Brant over the weekend on Bemidji!! I thought I seen one a week ago but I thought I was imagining things! Nope they should not be here and had never seen one before. Then again I got a Scoter last year and they too should not be around. Ya never know!!

[Old Guide]

I've been looking all over the nw corner of Mn. for some decent consentrations of ducks so far I've drawn a blank...geese we've got, sandhill cranes(but you can't shoot them here!)we've got, some sharptail, partridge and right now some woodcock passing through,but very few ducks.

[Guest]

OK, so what are those little Canada geese that are about the size of a mallard? I've heard them referred to as lesser Canadians, brants and my favorite: Runt Goose.

[NateEboy-1]

myzee13 We did check our Birds Of North America book very closely and although they winter along the east coast if you look at your hunting regs. you will see that the limit in Minnesota is one. It Happens.Ken

[WALLEYENUTZ]

Pete,
Brants are not any type of Canada Goose, but there are (i believe) 7 sub species. cackler is the smallest of the 7.

this sight will tell you the difference

it's a government site

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/tools/duckdist/duckdist.htm

[Guest]

Thanks Nutz! Think I'll just stick to calling 'em Runt Geese. They are tasty, whatever the heck they are, but the skin is so delicate they are nearly impossible to pluck.

[Old Guide]

Pete, we call them peepers up here. Lots of fun to watch thier flying when working decoys. They can turn on a dime! Yesterday we had a flock light next to our field blind, what busy little guys, they even feed fast!

[yellowlab]

I agree with most everyone so far. The shooting hasn't been what I have expected but I can't eat them as fast as I shoot them. I have had the best luck opener shooting woodies. The last few weekends have seen very few. The locals are mostly gone and the northerns are here yet. I went out to Appleton over MEA and saw the fewest ever. The locals out there aren't even going out. Hopefully this cold snap will keep up and it will start to heat up.
PS still picked up a woodie this morning.