to late or just starting

[zackj91]

are the ducks juss starting to fly or did most of them fly already i think they are just starting to fly cause of tjis cold weather might be pushing em' to fly

[jblabsnduck]

It all depends where you are hunting at. Either way it is not to late. The birds are moving pretty good up north(from what I was told and have read) and in the south part of the state it is pretty slow. Need a good cold snap to start them birds moving in from the north. Once it begins get ready. The nexy Big cold snap and I think it will be on but from the looks of the weather it may be a week or two.

[zackj91]

i live in the northwestern part in detroit lakes minnesota went out this morning jumped up 4 mallards an 2 pinntails flew over me but not much flying

[Dotch]

Agree w/jblabs on the southern part of the state. Nothin' movin' much here in the SC region presently. Most locals appear to be long gone except perhaps for some of the year round residents in places such as Waseca & Owatonna. Major corn being harvested so there should be more areas to feed for anything that does migrate thru here. Your weather assessment agrees with what we've seen for here too. Corn running a little wetter than the recent past, taking longer to dry, tillage may be slowed by wet weather for a spell. Hopefully ducks/geese stay around awhile if temps stay moderate. May try it here Sunday AM again.

[Jmnhunter]

went out on the 21st, just scouted a little lake, north of Bemidji, it was very windy/misty and cloudy, had no dekes, called and sat on the little lake. There was alot of flying over head, I think they were mallards, they looked bigger than divers. flying low, and in a flock were about 30 or so, flying SW. should be some coming in.

-Good Luck

[honker23]

Hundreds of thousands still in Canada and Northern ND. I bet this year they will all be here and gone in one big bang. By the looks of things, they won't start for a couple weeks. Not looking good for SC MN.

[Dotch]

Hope you're wrong but you probably won't be. SC MN is not exactly known as a hotbed of waterfowl hunting although there are exceptions. A couple years ago there was still some pretty good hunting locally if you didn't mind getting run over by the deer hunters! And, as a ND resident, I hunted there around Devil's, Rock Lake & Rugby in early Oct. when the weather got cruddy. Everyone assumed the birds had left. Weather straightened out and we were still out after 'em over Thanksgiving. At any rate, a bad day hunting still beats a good day at work.

[skiehunter55]

i think it is just starting to get good up north here, i'll find out tomorrow morning. will be hunting winnie, with the wind switching out of the north/nw tonight along with the light rain, i think it'll make for a good shoot in the morning. my belief is that with no real freezing up occurring and no big snow storms, there's really nothing rushing the birds south. but as you all know that can change in a matter of days.

[bmc]

My buddy who frequents the waterfowler dot com site said a reliable source in Manitoba told him things are starting to freeze up in his area and there's a couple inches of snow on the ground. I've got 4 days to hunt next week and I'm pumped!!! The best is yet to come guys!!!

Brian

[ChuckN]

I've been reading reports from all over Canada. The weather is quite mild here with no cold snap in the near future. The birds are starting to freeze in far north Manitoba/SK and will be here with the help of a cold front.

Just be prepared. Last year was the same way, 2 days before Halloween the migration started with a major cold blast, and by that Sunday the major push was far south. It was THE MOST incredible migration I have ever seen. I hunted around home in Otter Tail County and it was an awesome 3 days of hunting. By the Friday before deer hunting opener (Nov 5th or so) a lot of small deep lakes had froze over, and we had well below zero temps (and no more birds). It seemed my hardcore hunting season was about a week long.