Most wonderful time of the year

[Neighbor_guy]

"I look forward to opening day more than any other day. It's like Christmas with guns" -Remnar Soady

The long wait is almost over. Tonight is the last night of prep for me. Get the field decoys and layout blind out of the truck. Get the teal and Woodduck decoys out of the shed. Add in a handful of mallards and goose floaters for effect. Kayak and boat loaded up. Guns are cleaned and oiled. Shel bags have been cleaned of last seasons debris and new shells and calls laid in. Dig out the wader socks/pants. And get the dufflebag packed so that I can just grab it after work and go. 

This year will have a different feel to it though.  Our groups traditional opening weekend duck camp has fallen bye the wayside. We are going to be trying something new in new waters. Different slough/lake/river in a completely different part of the state. With a few new faces. With any luck a new tradition will be born.

I have high hopes for a good season. Here is to hoping all of you other waterfowlers reading this have a good safe season as well.

Feel free to stop by here and share your stories, we will celebrate your successes, and laugh together at your tails of leaky waders and duck blind shenanigans.

 

[MJ1657]

I've got the camp stove ready and bought a new frying pan for Saturday morning. Moll is going to make us fried egg sandwiches in our new duck blind. Hope to have a couple ducks laying next to us to look at while I'm enjoying my hot breakfast. 

Were pumped.

[Neighbor_guy]

I think you guys are going to have an excellent time Saturday!!! I am looking forward to seeing how you do. The wind is supposed to be ESE on Saturday so it will be the perfect wind for that blind. 

Based on the number of bluewings that have been in there the last week or so and I suspect you will be sending me pictures early in the day. 

[monstermoose78]

I am stoked for Finn to make his first retreive with big drake woodie in his mouth. I hope the youth stock comes today do I can put it on my 870 for my nephew. 

[Lunker]

Good luck this weekend from across the river. Oct 1 opener here and I'll be heading to Wyoming that weekend, then season closes for a week. So my "opener" won't be until Oct 15...looking forward to it!

[monstermoose78]

870 youth stock came and is now on the trusty 870 for the nephew but he is playing football this weekend instead of duck hunting.

But the old man is going with river rat and I. This means we will scared the ducks with shotgun blasts but will be lucky to bring home a duck or two. Tonight I will pack up the gear and charge Finn's collar. Best luck to all the other might duck hunters out there!!!!

[BoxMN]

We leave after grandson gets his braces tightened at 4 pm!

Granddaughters are not coming this year due to cross country meet, but my brother and his two girls will be up after his #2 (and her choir-mates) sings the national anthem at the Twins game tonight. But we will be in Cabin #10, the same place that we have been for openers for the past 30 years, and our Dad's buddy for the previous about 20 years before that

The SE wind will be perfect for two blinds at our buddy's farm, one on the lake and one in the slough. Don't even need muck boots for these blinds, ha! But I will have waders on at some point, as one project is to remove some old rotted blinds.

If all goes well, and with only 3 kids instead of 6, they should get plenty of shooting at woodies and teal. Then to let the kids shoot about 1000 .22 rounds, some trap shooting, and lunch at the Melby Outpost  with our 85 year old duck hunting mentor.

My wife saw me reading this post and said, "Yep, for you guys it is like Christmas.. with guns...:    

Good luck everybody, have fun, be safe and save the world from those attack ducks!!!

Edited September 23, 2016 by BoxMN

[MJ1657]

19 minutes ago, BoxMN said:

We leave after grandson gets his braces tightened at 4 pm!

Granddaughters are not coming this year due to cross country meet, but my brother and his two girls will be up after his #2 (and her choir-mates) sings the national anthem at the Twins game tonight. But we will be in Cabin #10, the same place that we have been for openers for the past 30 years, and our Dad's buddy for the previous about 20 years before that

The SE wind will be perfect for two blinds at our buddy's farm, one on the lake and one in the slough. Don't even need muck boots for these blinds, ha! But I will have waders on at some point, as one project is to remove some old rotted blinds.

If all goes well, and with only 3 kids instead of 6, they should get plenty of shooting at woodies and teal. Then to let the kids shoot about 1000 .22 rounds, some trap shooting, and lunch at the Melby Outpost  with our 85 year old duck hunting mentor.

My wife saw me reading this post and said, "Yep, for you guys it is like Christmas.. with guns...:    

Good luck everybody, have fun, be safe and save the world from those attack ducks!!!

That sounds like a blast. Even if the ducks don't cooperate... Lol

Good luck to you all. 

[certified jumbo]

Well good luck to ya all........mj, keep me posted

[steve1111111]

Kids sports keep me from hunting much anymore other then a South Dakota trip in late October and early November.  That being said if reports are any indication you guys will knock the snot out of them this weekend and have full straps of teal and woodies. With the mild weather I would think the teal would be as thick as flies. 

[O.T.C.]

I think it will be a good opener also, I haven't said that in 25 years nearly. Finally understand our usually dry august/early sept must be why the birds leave in masses. We are extremely wet and have been flooded some since mid July. The birds have stayed in good numbers, no teal whatsoever but woodies and mallards are plentiful. A flooded bean field and cornfield are where they are. Hopefully not too much water or one will hardly know where to look unless you see them land. Are those flooded standing fields legal to hunt ? If not then no 1 is getting much for action. I'm goose boy in the AM, finally a guy chopped a field, way behind schedule.

[MJ1657]

Have at it this morning boys and girls.

 

Everyone be safe.

[MJ1657]

Lots of action so far this morning. Here's Moll's first of the '16 season. 

[monstermoose78]

Great stuff MJ!! 

[fishuhalik]

Hearing some outstanding reports. Bud was on a big rice lake and had thousands of birds on it. Most all of my buds that know what they're doing are reporting limits. Sounds like one of the best openers in years

[fishingstar]

most reports in this area very poor

way to much water

 

[monstermoose78]

Lots of ducks just not close enough because of sky busters

[MattL]

Overall decent weekend for us. A couple guys started scouting Thursday and found a couple real good opportunities for Saturday morning. We decided to roll the dice and hunt a field on Saturday AM that was drawing in geese Friday AM. That didn't pan out for us and we only got 2 birds to decoy.

Back to scouting on Saturday afternoon and we lined up a slough for the morning holding a mixed bag of ducks. We ended up with a 4 man limit of woodies, mallards, gadwall, and teal in about an hour. Should have been quicker than that but 2 of us didn't get set up exactly how we planned due to water depth and then didn't shoot well. The other 2 guys were set up further from us and finished their limits in 10 minutes.

 

[DLD24]

We saw a ton of woodies, most wouldn't come close enough. We ended up with 9 ducks...Limited out on Blackducks haha

[fishersofmen]

We got a few Sat morning saw lot of birds but not many would come in.

[monstermoose78]

43 minutes ago, DLD24 said:

We saw a ton of woodies, most wouldn't come close enough. We ended up with 9 ducks...Limited out on Blackducks haha

Nice moose

[BoxMN]

We had a good opener in Ashby! Kids shot a lot and even got a few  If adults would have been shooting it would have been limits of teal and possibly even some divers. Kids got to drive the trucks around the farm, shoot .22's, shoot some trap and even learned how to row a boat and retrieve ducks, and also how to pick up and wrap decoys.

Saturday we saw lots of ducks and had the teal coming right into the decoys perfect. Sunday was not nearly as many ducks and the ones that did come just buzzed us. Had to leave at 8:30 due to kids sports in the afternoon. Great weekend!

[Neighbor_guy]

Lots of pressure in the Little Falls area. First time hunting in the area. Most of the "hunters" in the area seemed to subscribe to the show up right at shooting light and set up just up or down river from someone with decoys out, then call wildly and blindly while pass shooting birds. We pulled the plug on our Saturday sit only an hour in when our boat had steel shot hit it the second time. 

We did enjoy ourselves though spending the rest of Saturday snooping around a hard to get to public slough. Then Sunday  we worked a 12-mile stretch of river and scouted up some new water for future hunting. 

Lots of fun, can't wait to see how the rest of the season turns out. 

[MJ1657]

This was Sunday morning after we set decoys. Maybe the duck dock is to comfortable......

[DLD24]

Had a good hunt yesterday, saw tons of birds, most were decoy shy though