Birds between Morris and Ortonville

[sartellangler05]

Hello all! Going out Friday, Saturday in this area for ducks. Anyone from around there seeing any birds? Just want to know what we are getting into before the trip.

[chub]

Do you think your going to get an honest answer?

Best thing I can tell you is, if you hit a migration day you'll likely see birds. not sure much sticks around though

[sartellangler05]

An honest answer is what I'm looking for, yes. I'm going out there regardless and going to put on the miles scouting during the day...so whether someone is feeding me a talk answer, sweet, I'm just getting pumped and wondering if anyone is seeing anything. That is all.

[MattL]

I was up that way last weekend and it wasn't exactly lights out. There was a mix of small numbers of divers and puddlers scattered around on several bodies of water.

Hunted a slough without scouting Saturday am and got 3 birds for 3 guys. They were the only birds to commit right at legal light then it was dead. Saturday evening one of the guys and I hunted a different slough with some birds on it and got 3 while the other guy scouted. He didn't find any birds concentrated anywhere so we ended up staying up a little late and decided to sleep in Sunday AM.

Im sure you can scratch out some birds, but I wouldn't set your sights too high unless things change over the week and some birds start pushing down.

[rayguy]

Here is the straight dope. We were out there last week for four days. Granted weather was like June but it was a lost cause hunting ducks. We know the area pretty well and everywhere we've done well in the past was a zero this year. Very few birds on any ponds and zero geese. Did see a couple good sized Buffelhead flocks but no big ducks and few divers. Drove over to Marsh and watched for a hour and never saw a duck. Only saw one other group duck hunting, thats how bad it was. Pheasants were a little better but there is still a lot of corn standing. Now with this cooler weather and NW wind it may improve but it was the worst ever in twenty five years hunting there for us. Good luck, let us know how you do.

[ESSGuy]

Was in ortonville last 2 weekends for pheasants. Sat by water both Saturday mornings, shot one ring neck. Poor numbers each weekend.headed back for pheasants this weekend. If you've got the dogs, the roosters are there, ducks not so much.

[Todd Caswell]

Piles of internet birds all the way from Morris to Ortonville and all the way in between.. The main thing to remember is that Morris AND Ortonville are both in MN , and WE DO NOT Have good Duck Or Goose hunting, no matter the amount of internet scouting you do it will not matter....

[Neighbor_guy]

well that settles it... I'm going to cancel my weekend plans.... guess I need to try to find another spot to hunt... I had planed on the Ortonville area... The internet guru's said there are no birds out west to be had...

Of coarse I was also told I would never find ducks in the arrowhead region of MN either.... and there's no reason to get out of bed in east central MN either...

In the end you just need to get out there and look for birds. They are there, if you do your scouting, have your decoys out, and are in the right spot, you will get your birds. Its duck "hunting" not duck "shooting". If you can find where the birds want to be, you will have no issues.

good luck all.

[TylerS]

well that settles it... I'm going to cancel my weekend plans.... guess I need to try to find another spot to hunt... I had planed on the Ortonville area... The internet guru's said there are no birds out west to be had...

Of coarse I was also told I would never find ducks in the arrowhead region of MN either.... and there's no reason to get out of bed in east central MN either...

In the end you just need to get out there and look for birds. They are there, if you do your scouting, have your decoys out, and are in the right spot, you will get your birds. Its duck "hunting" not duck "shooting". If you can find where the birds want to be, you will have no issues.

good luck all.

Don't forget, no ducks in North Dakota. Got two feet of snow last night. Ponds all froze. Birds moved south. Pointless...

[mabr]

Not in Morris but west of Alex and I've seen more in the last day than the last 2 weeks.

Most are on bigger water around my area. My private ponds and sloughs have very few and its been that way for a while.

[wally243]

Lets just see how many fellow hunters and land owners we can [PoorWordUsage] off by reporting on the intranet where the birds are. Why doesn't anyone get along anymore and why is everything posted. Gee I don't know............. It must be the tuff winters and the muskies.....

[TylerS]

Lets just see how many fellow hunters and land owners we can [PoorWordUsage] off by reporting on the intranet where the birds are. Why doesn't anyone get along anymore and why is everything posted. Gee I don't know............. It must be the tuff winters and the muskies.....

Got a good pickling recipe you'd care to share??? Pickled mushkee is my favorite, but only the ones over 50 inches.

[sartellangler05]

Went out Friday and Saturday. Friday we were about 15 mi east of Ortonville. Sat on a fairly big body of water. About 40 ducks were sitting on it before we got there. Got two birds to decoy in the first hour, dropped both of them. Gadwall. Jumped a slough around 10 and I ended up getting 3 ringnecks from a group of 6. Long story short, there are birds to be had if you want to work hard for them. Some bodies of water had a few birds sitting on them. However, nothing is flying. Small flocks of 10 birds here and there, VERY few geese. Put on a lot of miles scouting areas between Alberta, Ortonville, and Beardsly. It was nice to get out for the first time this year, but man...depressing. Hopefully next Sunday, Monday will have a change in numbers.

[Neighbor_guy]

Holy wind storm batman!!! It was not a happy trip on Big Stone this weekend.

I can back up the lack of geese. We hunted both Saturday and Sunday and did not see a single goose. Didn't even bother putting the goose decoys out on Sunday morning.

As far as birds go, much more in the air on Saturday, and those that came in on Sunday were much more decoy shy than those the day before. Mainly Divers, reds, buffies, ringers, and spoonies. We did see a few Gadwalls and Mallards, but those were just fly overs.

Was hoping to see a can or two, but that was not to be.

Scouting was definitely the key!!! Knowing which body of water was being used and having an idea of what type of birds would be coming through was the recipe for success. If you were going out there blind hoping to see some dablers you were likely to be disappointed.