reports

[Roosterslayer05]

Went out friday morning, me and a friend each got a wood duck. Alot of ducks seemed to have left. Went out goose hunting this morning and shot my limit. Got a really small cackler, seriously same size as a mallard maybe half a pound heavier. I got 2 shots and dropped 2 geese, some new geese seemed to have moved into the area.

[icecold]

Been out 5 times in the last seven days, lots of wood ducks and hardley any mallards, ,been hunting the minnesota river bottoms, ducks seem to be getting less and less every morning that i go out, Hopefully things start improving..

[Borch]

Last two morning the sloug I hunt has had 200+ mallards and wood ducks on it when we got there. Both mornings they filtered out without giving the slouogh a second look and didn't return the rest of the morning. They must be roosting there and feeding elsewhere.

We did manage two beautiful canvasback drakes this morning out of a flock of 12+ birds. Also a couple of geese.

[Sartell Angler]

wow Borch, that is awesome. I have yet to get a Can but it is my ultimate goal duck hunting (actually, a $100 reward banded drake can).

We opted to sleep in this morning as my cold can't get much worse- have a funeral to attend this afternoon and then we're gonna give it a shot this evening for some woodies and maybe the geese if they decide to fly.

SA/wdw

[riverrat56]

Hunted this morning on a private slough, the guy I hunted with said they have been doing really good and the birds have been all over the place, so he convinces me to get up early after a late night at work and walk a mile into this slough, long story short, saw one hen mallard and one loner goose, neither of them wanted anything to do with the spread. And I managed to fall over 2 times in the mud and get stuck up to my knees in mud in my waders. Still a good day.

[riverrat56]

Delta where did you hunt at on saterday? I was on Clear lake that morning and got one woody, another group down the lake got 4 geese. Saw lots of ducks, nothing commited though.

[Borch]

Quote:

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wow Borch, that is awesome. I have yet to get a Can but it is my ultimate goal duck hunting (actually, a $100 reward banded drake can).

SA/wdw

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We really checked them over as they gave us a couple of passes before committing. Didn't see any bands though. Over the years we've shot several cans. Although it's usually a bit later in the season when we've gotten them in the past. I really thought over heading out this evening with all the birds on the slough when we get there. But my wife has other plans for me.

[fisherking01]

Hunted in my back yard this morning and had some good mallard hunting. Saw a couple hundred ducks and managed to take nine. My son Taylor (8) got a drake with a double band, $100 reward, he was really excited! It was really difficult to pick the drakes and that saved a lot of ducks. We were really happy to get three ducks each, and were equally happy that we didn't rake the hens. Now if I can just get my cousin to leave his duck chewing dog at home! Good luck hunting to all, Fisherking01

[lawdog]

After a great opener I got out today and was mightily disappointed. The same spot I limited out on last weekend and three of us managed one honker and one duck. Bumped about 10 honkers and 50-70 ducks off their in the morning boating in and almost none came back. REALLY poor where we were and didn't hear much for shooting in the other sloughs around either.

[Guest]

slow for me this evening too.. hunted the north metro at a different location I havent hunted for years.. seen nothing until around 6 pm.. then we saw a few flocks flying around.. 2 good flocks over our heads.. partner got a little anxios(oops) on the 1st flock and we lost good shooting opportunity, the 2nd flock came in about a million miles per hour and buzzed directly over our head in good shooting range.. appeared to be making the circle to commit to land(or try) in the spread... oops.. they didnt come back. That last flock was divers way too big to be ringers.. pretty sure they were blue's.

It was fun to get out!

[carpshooterdeluxe]

took friday off and went home to benson for the weekend....got two drake mallards on friday morning, then a drake gadwall and a blue wing teal jumping some drainages in the early afternoon while out scouting for the weekend hunts. found an awesome spot on public land that had filled up nicely with the recent rains and saturday morning i teamed up with two others who stumbled upon the spot as well to nail the mallards. 3 guys 12 mallards no hens. that was awesome. best decoying ive ever seen for a cloudless bright morning. today i slept in and went out late to a little stock pond surrounded by a few trees and 180 acres of corn. two shots two awesomely colored drake woodies and i was done for the weekend. weather of last week definetly pushed birds through and by sunday there wasnt many sitting on the visible waters i normally drive by. but with the rains there is lots of hidden wet spots full of waste grain that i can imagine are holding birds all day long. going home again next weekend to take relatives pheasant hunting. not sure what that leaves me for duck hunting time. probably will need at least 13 minutes to shoot my two pheasants and get back into the waders! pheasants everywhere!!!!!!

[delta hunter]

riverrat,

I was hunting on the east shore around the point. All saw was the group of woodies that got up and a couple little groups. I was straight across the lake for the guys that got those 4 geese. I really couldn't see anything to the south of me. cattails are pretty high in that area.

[MIKE IN lINO III]

Went back to Bovey and saw lots of ducks but none of them wanted to commit to my Dekes. Not sure why but I have an idea. I did manage to get a woodie....duck that is.

I think it will help when I get my dock out and a better hidding place.

The guys down the shore from me were doing some serious skybusting. I could see the ducks they were shooting at and they were above the tree line. They called in some flocks that I was working. All in all it was a blast for only my second time out.

Mike

[JEV]

Hunted Friday and Saturday in the same area where we limited out last weekend. Very different situation. Friday I saw very few birds. Saturday, my dad and I managed to get our limit of ducks, but it took much longer. It was nothing like the week before. Very few birds flying. We kicked a lot of ducks and geese off of the water paddling back into our hole, but none returned.

JEV

[FOOT]

Went back up to Battle Lake area this weekend. Not much happening. Saw some high flying ducks but could have only shot at 2, has I not been day dreaming. Another party that I know of 6 hunters got 3 ducks for Sat & Sun.

Tried the woods for grouse but there was already people hunting there.

Tried fishing again. Small northern and a couple small bass. Got a few nice grappie but you'd catch 1 or 2 and the rest would scatter. Got them in about 20' of water just above the weeds in 16 '.

Still nice weekend to be out.

[joe_stack20]

Saturday morning we had a good shoot, 3 of us, 1 Canvasback, 4 red heads, and 5 ringies, 2 short of our limit, it was a great shoot.... one flock of 4 red heads came in...and none of them left, saw some big flocks of divers flying a mile high.

Sunday Morning we brought another buddy with us, and we shot 11 ducks 4 guys, 6 redheads... 1 mounter ringy drake 2 wood ducks 1 canvasback, and a Widgeon. Great shooting and tons of ducks!!! Cant wait to get back out next weekend

[Buckslayer]

Saturday hunted for geese and shot a limit for 4 guys as well as three nice drake mallards. Sunday went to a flooded been field and shot a limit of mallards and 8 geese for 6 guys. At 10 minutes to shooting time, we have atleast 100 mallards trying to land on our blinds and on mojo. Gotta love seeing that. (No Set the Drag, we didint shoot!) One banded goose on Sunday. Hunting has been great so far this season, but scouting is definetely the key. We have put on a lot of miles and put down a lot of beer looking for spots.

[lawdog]

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At 10 minutes to shooting time, we have atleast 100 mallards trying to land on our blinds and on mojo. Gotta love seeing that. (No Set the Drag, we didint shoot!) ... We have put on a lot of miles and put down a lot of beer looking for spots.

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But apparently you have no trouble admitting to driving while or after drinking and/or having an open bottle while driving around scouting.

[Jim Uran]

Mahnomen area over Sat. eve. seen a ton of Mallards. Between three of us we got Six green heads and a couple of blue wings, a beautiful drake redhead and one goose. Seen a lot of ducks a lot more than in the past few weeks. It's looking pretty good around here. Heading out to the old spot again tonight for some action afterwork. Beautiful night up here in north central minnesota.

[Buckslayer]

Who said anything about open bottle? That is a awefully nice assumption that you pinned me down with. Did you read...I said We have put down beers. We means more than one, and one of us always stays sober. And, lawdog, the beers are had while watching a field or pond, or certian side of town, not while driving. But thanks for accusing me! Guess I shouldn't have wrote that, should've know someone would blow it out of proportion and take it the wrong way!

[Sartell Angler]

hey now, its not a big deal. Buckslayer could have posted with less ambiguity and lawdog could have not jumped to conclusions so quickly...who cares

REPORT: got out late sunday afternoon for a field hunt for some geese and woodies...few flocks of geese around but none came close. Managed to take 4 woodies (2 guys) pass shooting from the corn. We need some birds to get pushed down before next weekend. Hoping to head out towards Mille Lacs to a few lakes just to the SW of the big water. Any reports from that area? Maybe all the ringers and 'bills from Grand Rapids will start filtering into that area. One can only hope.

SA/wdw

[Buckslayer]

Agreed, who cares.

[Flipnripem]

Extreme southern Mn. Hunted a flooded corn/bean field. The greenies were buzzen along with a decent population of woodies. Mallards aren`t real thick yet, but, we saw some birds migrating on sun. Also saw a bunch of lessers on the move.

[R Buker]

Hi Guys,

I've been lurking and reading for a while. Thought I'd jump in.

I'm hunting near my home in Parkers Prairie. Ducks have been terrible. The few that I've seen have been high flyers. Geese are saving my day for me. Between me and my partners, we are typically shooting a couple every day.

[riverrat56]

Delta, were you the guy with the blue and white ford? We were back in the gap between the tree lines straight out from the landing, lots of ducks came by early, we had to leave by 8:30 because we had football practice.