Scouting this weekend...

[hanson]

I happened to be up at our lake place this weekend and decided to swing by some of our duck sloughs to see how they are looking.

Was I surprised to see the birds I did! Wow! There were at least 75-100 Ringbills out there, a few mallard flocks, and another 50 plus honkers. If these birds stay around this week, we should have one heck of an opening morning on Saturday. Thats a lot of divers hanging around this early!!

Decoys are coming out of storage this afternoon and a little work rigging up some Avery grass on the duckboat and I should be good to go.

Due to work schedule and other commitments, it looks like I'll only be waterfowling 4 days this season. Hope to make them good ones.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

what general area might this be? not trying to pry for secrets, just curious as to where there is good ringbill action. northeastern south dakota and the far west central minnesota areas are holding good numbers of birds right now. some of the sloughs near where i grew up in western minnesota are literally full of teal and widgeon.

[hanson]

Northwest Minnesota- Crookston area.

We usually don't see good ringbill numbers til later in the season. We have had a few families of ringbills and canvasbacks hanging out on our lake for extended periods of time during the northern migration. Perhaps these are nesting locals that are flocking up.

Usually we can expect wood ducks, teal, and mallards for the opening weekend.

[island guy]

I did a lot of driving this weekend. Seems like last year. There are pockets of ducks but most areas I checked had very few. Around west central mn I've just not seen consistent numbers. Some areas held good numbers then I would drive for miles and see nothing.

Some of the areas I saw lots of ducks 3 weeks ago were empty. I've often wondered if the early goose season sends ducks on their way to areas they are not harassed so much??

We saw many flocks of mallards in the area we hunt the early goose season. It's a heavily hunted 30 square mile area. This weekend I saw nothing.

[set the drag]

scouted this morning and saw a few ducks on one of my lakes. good day to scout overcast and light north winds. After that had to blow some $$$ at cabelas. I cant waite till saturday morning.