reports

[hanson]

I think it is interesting that we were given the privilege this fall to shoot 3 hours earlier on opening day unlike the noon opener of years past.

Might as well just put it back to noon if folks can't comply with 9am, eh?

[Jim Uran]

Come on guys this guy is obviously a bonehead don't waste your time on him let's get back to the duck reports. It was pretty slow up here near Mahnomen, Lot's of teal and Woodies still around. More mallards are starting to show up in some of the wild rice lakes around here. Shot a widgeon and a green head Sunday morning I seen a lot of ducks but none would offer up a shot.I had a Heck of a flock of honkers that circled three times before flaring. I don't know what it was but thay split one us. Still got the blood pumping though. I expect to start seeing more Mallards and Divers with this cold snap we are getting. Can't wait.

[jblabsnduck]

You call that having balls????????????

Not in my book is that called having balls.

I will let YOU know I DID call the ED of TIP and I also called the TIP line and not to mention the local CO.

It was just plain dumb. If you knew it was wrong you should have just kept your mouth shut.

You brought this on yourself. No one else did this for you.

Where not all perfect? I will agree with that but when it comes to the possibility of lossing my hunting rights, you bet I am perfect in the field.

You can't follow the rules then stay home. We have laws and rules for a reason.

Stupidity in my book is what that is.

[tbreuhl]

Anyone try the Ely area? We're headed up there after work on Friday to see if we can get lucky. If the ducks aren't there we're at least hoping to get some geese coming down with the cold front coming. Any suggestions?

My dad saw some hunters on Shag Saturday morning but not many shots heard. Hoping with the change in weather we might get some coming in low.

[IceHawk]

Fellow waterfowlers let's get back to the subject at hand and that is reading about everyones success and hunts. As far as setthedrag's comments what he did wasn't right wasn't ethical and it broke a law. I am a beleiver in the game laws and they shouldn't be broken. As far as hunters and true sportsman let's all try to educate (rather than rip)people about what it means to break game laws.

The sport we all love waterfowling is already hurting,numbers are down, habitat is being lost and the future of our sport seems on a downslide. By not obeying laws we are just takeing another step back. Let's try and teach people what it truley means to break rules it's just giving anti's another open door.

Instances like shooting early etc are what gives our sport a bad name. I hope that setthedrag has understood what he did was wrong and it won't happen again. As Hanson stated it is our privelage to be able to shoot 3 hours early and of course I feel it's a big privlage just to be able to hunt. Lets get this thread back on track guys and let's all try to talk about what we love and that's waterfowling.

[Rick]

Set the drag made his own bed.

Warning - Let's get this topic back and stay ON TOPIC.

[riverrat56]

4 woodies for me and my buddy, could have shot at a few teal, but wasn't worth the walk through the mud for those little things. Everyone in our bay was very good about shooting on time, and not sky busting, there were a few untrained dogs, but after talking to one of the guys and finding out it was his dogs first hunt, the yelling didn't bother me. Had a great time can't wait for this weekend.

Saterday afternoon we tried to jump some sloughs, stopped at 6 differnt places (on 4 sloughs holding ducks) and no one was home anyplace, bean harvest was in full swing though, might have had something to do with it.

Good luck and shoot straight

[Riverratpete]

With this weather system coming through the area and lower Canada, what are peoples opionins about what this will do the duck hunting for the weeks to come. 1. Will it shift more ducks into Minn due to too much snow? 2. will it blow all the teal/woodies out of here and we'll have a big lull between migrations? Just curious

[Stratosman]

I havn't been able to head out yet, this weekend will be a bit different (less obligations) hitting a fresh cut corn field that the geese have been landing in and then Sunday I plan on hitting that again or hitting the river nearby, drove by a pond that I hunt this morning about 7:00 and dindn't see more than one or two teal, pretty dissapointing but I hope it improves. I looks like a few people out there are having some luck according to the above posts.

[FOOT]

Just talked to my brother who is hunting central ND. LOTS of Greenheads. The storm and snow really drove them in. In fact they had just come back in from hunting this morning and decided to pack up and come back.

They already had their limit or both ducks and pheasants and decided to come back to MN and give it a try. They went over to ND last Sunday. Not much snow where they were hunting but it rained all day yesterday with fairly strong winds the last two days with cold weather. Pefect duck hunting weather.

2 guys Greenheads, Widgeon, Gadwall and pheasant limits plus they had 3 meals - 2 duck one pheasant.

And I decided not to go until next week, darn.

[iceman16]

just got home from a morning hunt and can you say windy. it sure is a pain in the a$$ to paddle with that wind. ended up with three teals. i ended up gettin my first double. one shot two birds, and a buddy got the third teal out of the bunch. did see some bigger flocks of birds. cold weather much be bunching them up. windy and cold, other then the paddle a great day in the blind. think i will be lookin for a 10 horse for my boat after today.

Iceman

[marine_man]

Quote:

---

2 guys Greenheads, Widgeon, Gadwall and pheasant limits plus they had 3 meals - 2 duck one pheasant.

---

Where were they hunting pheasants FOOT... a game farm? Pheasants don't open up until Saturday in ND...

marine_man

[FOOT]

Marine Man, you are right. Egg on my face. I should have known better coming from my brother, he just wanted to make me feel bad since I had to back out of the trip due to work commitments.

I just called him back and asked him. I think he and his buddy had to pull over and stop the vehicle with all the laughing on their part, especially since I told them I posted their report.

I guess, and don't take this as gospel cause now I don't trust them, but he said they did have a good duck shoot and did eat 2 meals (one roast dusk & one duck fajitas) while they were there.

Now I've got to think of something to get even when we go over the end of the month.

Last year I put 2 pink flamingos in their decoy spread one morning so I guess he was getting back at me.

[mr wizard]

Three mallards, one spoony, one goose this morning.One guy. Windy conditions sure made them want to get in the decoys. Shot two an hour. All singles except the goose came in with twenty buds. Saw some big flocks of mallards flying around after 8:00. Lots of geese in the air at 9:30 when I was headed to work.

[Sartell Angler]

Professor cancelled class for today, so I decided to get out and do a little hunting given the ducky weather. Didn't want to mess with the big boat/blind, so I just threw a bag of dekes in the canoe, grabbed the dog and my gun, and headed for water. At the landing I saw I had company with one other rig, and I knew they would be in the spot I was planning on hunting. Paddled over and saw that there were just two guys and asked if it would be alright if I joined them. Surprisingly I got a "sure!". Ended up with a woodie and a drake shoveler and those two teamed up on a blue winger. My ol' dog is gonna be 11 yrs old in a week but he still made nice retrieves on all 3 birds. Best part of the hunt was coming across some guys who had a good attitude in the field and who were willing to be accomodative rather than overly competitive. Very refreshing to see and as far as weekday hunts go it was a pretty darn good one. The paddle back to the landing against the wind did get a little hairy, however, but that is just part of the game. Can't wait for the weekend!

SA/wdw

[superfish2]

Well three of us hunted a public stop in the south metro. Lots of birds. Ended up with a few, and should have had a few more. First time I've been wet and cold in a long time. Now I really have patch my waders.

[Roosterslayer05]

Hunted in the metro tuesday and wensday morning. Lots of woodies around, i shot my limit of woodies in the first hour tuesday then watched while woodies flew over me the rest of the morning. Wensday i shot a woodie, 1 gwt, and a hooded merganser. I was pass shooting between a lake and a flooded bean field.

[LovenLifeGuy]

I was out today west of the cities and we got 4 woodies, 3 bwt and a goose. We could have shot woodies all day long. We must have had 30 or so come into the dekes. Fun!

LovenLifeGuy

[Guest]

Made it out north of the cities this morning.. some ducks flying early... nothing flying by 9:30.

We ended up with a Drake Mallard, Nice drake woody, and 2 hen ringbills... quite a few woodies flying.. the one I shot had a lot of fat, probably a northern bird, the same with one of the ringers.

A few more birds we should have had.. nothing fast and furious, but steady shooting for a couple hours.

[cmoredrakes]

Yo, set the drag

it is guys like you who give us waterfowlers who follow the law a bad name. A really bad name. If you do something like this again keep it to yourself.

and these guys kicked JerknperchSD out, at least he followed the laws.

sorry for being so mean but, just don't post about something like that again

[Studer]

We have kind of switched gears and been hunting Geese lately. We did fine with ducks as well. In fact while we were cleaning up decoys after dropping a Woodie and a Mallard, I was also in a canoe fighting against the wind and luckily the wind blew me directly into the path of three geese. I stayed down but they knew something was fishy and veered to their left and I did drop 1. I think all would agree...These are some really tough birds. That Goose just refused to die. Dug a pit the later that day and got one hell of a blind. Geese flying everywhere!! Sometimes it seemed a little tough to get them to commit to the Dekes. Quick advice...Do you have better luck with more dekes or less?? We probably have a dozen and a half. Thanks in advance!!!

[Bryce]

Just pitiful set the drag. Hope you have the nads to brag about the fine. Surprising amount of shooting this morn in south shakopee while walking the hounds. Bunch of cut silage around and geese working it. Wish I had time to knock on doors and find out if it's huntable. Get at em boys.

[Sartell Angler]

Studer-

We add more dekes as the season progresses because that is usually what is evident with real flocks of ducks and geese that we see. However, doing something out of the ordinary can sometimes pay off-- just think of how many 2 doz. duck decoy, half dozen goose deke spread birds have seen by mid-season. I've heard of guys going out with a half dozen decoys, placing them well, covering up real well and having success.

REPORT: Action was slow for us today. Saw just a few woodies but still managed to get a 2-man limit. Mallards were flying very high and showing no interest in decoys. No other species of ducks around. Did see one flock of about 40 or so cackling geese which I would have loved to have had decoy but they failed to do so. Need some migrant birds to move in to replace locals already gone. Hunting near Mille Lacs tomorrow most likely. How'd everyone else do?

SA/wdw

[Guest]

It was terrible for us north of the metro this morning.. very few birds and shots where it has been consistent until now.. A few large flocks started coming in late.. appeared to be migrants.. I sure hope so... but they didnt want to come in where we were sitting either.. packed it up early.

Tomorrow is another day.. a WELL RESTED DAY!

[delta hunter]

From what I saw around New Ulm this morning is that a lot birds took off already. Well someone kicked up about 30 ducks on the lake I was on, but couldn't shoot yet with 5 min. till shooting time!! That was pretty much it for the morning, a couple of loners flying, but that's it!