reports

[delta hunter]

Riverrat,

Yep, that's my truck! I hunted where you were at on opener, but haven't tried their since because of the wind factor. Was out again tonight and got my two woodies! Called them straight into the spread it was almost to easy!

[riverrat56]

Delta, remeber about the middle of the summer when some kid hit the mirror on your truck and ripped it off.....? That woulda been me... ....sorry about that... anywho...nice to know there are still woodies flying around, we aren't headed out again till the weekend, might hunt clear by gibbon on saterday morning and then walk ditches for pheasants/ducks in the midday. Sunday either Hanska or New Ulm Clear, maybe I will see you around, Small world isnt it?

[delta hunter]

No s#$%! It is a small world, still haven't gotten a new mirror yet! I'll be out somewhere tomorrow, since its suppose to be kinda wet, can't work so might as hunt! thought I saw a small flock of mallards to that night, I'm no totally sure about that though!

[Jim Uran]

thought I'd post my results from Mon. nights hunt(mahnomen)area. Pretty calm day but we did our fair share of scouting and we knew the birds were coming. We ended up with 5 ringnecks, 1 beautiful drake redhead, and 3 greenheads. It was a pretty fun night. I seen a ton of divers this time. I'm digging out the bluebills for this weekends hunt.

[schaapj]

Going up to the Crosby area this weekend for the first hunt of the season. Outdoor News has reported the hunting's sucked in that area so far. Wondering if there's any differing reports.

Much Thanks,

schaapj

[riverrat56]

We hunted the managment area outside of town tonight on 14 and got one mallard, should have had a few more but forgot the calls in the truck and the circling ducks were a bit skepical of the mute plastic ducks on the water.

[Guest]

Black Sportsman and myself tossed a coin this morning to see where we would be hunting, and for what... we couldnt make the choice...

Blacksportsman got this for his largest sturgeon to date(47"), and I caught its twin about an hour later.. also caught 2 smaller sturgeon, and a bonus channel cat.

Not to bad for a *hunt* starting at 3:08 pm and ended at 5:30 pm.

[Mark Christianson]

What does that post have to do with waterfowl reports?????

[Ely Lake Expert]

Here is my report, late but I haven't been online much lately. 5 of us go out ready to shoot some ducks. We sat in our normal opener spot for 3 hours and saw 1 duck come through. So we decide to go check this beaver pond about 1/2 of a mile off any road. We sneak in there with our dogs. We see about 6 ducks sitting on the water across the pond, one takes off we shoot at it and suddenly the water around the edge of the pond erupts. I would say between 600 and 800 ducks take off, about 95% mallards. We basically shot as fast as we could reload for about 15 minutes. (there was some real bad shooting at first) We actually had to stop shooting while they were still flying in circles cause we thought we had our limit on hens, which we did so then it became selective shooting. Still we limited out in 30 minutes. 5 hen mallards, 14 drakes, and 1 drake woodie. The next day we went to the same spot and limited out in about an hour. 5 hens mallards, 12 drakes, and 3 woodies. Then monday morning we shot 10 mallards. so all in all 50 ducks, 45 mallards and btw fresh duck is good.

Then is was cold for a week and we went out sunday evening and only shot 3 ducks between me and my dad. The locals are gone.

There my report,

Ryan

[Guest]

Quote:

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What does that post have to do with waterfowl reports?????

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BLB .. its shows the amount of success with waterfowl the last couple days... NONE... Its a good time to catch up on some fall fishing before the northern birds come around.

[chefjim]

went out last night for a couple of hours. 1 goose flew around 4:00 and was skybusted by the someone 100 yards away than nothing until 6:15 then a couple of geese and three mallards came when I was picking up. last night it was so still there was nothing moving. I hope tonight will be better

[mr wizard]

Shot two geese and one drake mallard. One guy. In Ham Lake area. 55 degrees this morning. Only saw 7 ducks. I know there are ducks in the area but they just loafed today. Luckily the geese made up for it.

[WalleyeWeasel]

Hunted Leech lake on fri.=== 3 Mallards 3 buffleheads,4 ringbills, 1 immature canvasback. Lots of birds, very windy, we had a blast..........

[ironman]

East Central MN, 1 Mallard, 1 ringneck, 1 goose. Should've easily had my limit today, it appears I need to hit the range. Frustrating when you know you can shoot better, grrrrrrrrrrr! But even though it was dead calm and not a cloud in the sky...saw lots of birds. Nearly had my hat taken off by a pair of really low flying ringnecks, came outta nowhere right over my head from behind...didn't even know they were there till I saw the afterburners!!! I think they only cleared me by about 3-4 ft. Good humor.

[Borch]

Preety good weekend. Definitely a few northern birds here in central Minnesota. Three of us ended up with 1 ringneck, 1 bluebill, 1 mallard, 1 gw teal and 6 Buffleheads on Saturday. Sunday ended up with 5 ringheads and 2 buffleheads for two of us. Passed on a flock of redheads and bluebills as they were flocked very tightly and we only had one duck left for our limit.

[Eric Wettschreck]

1 Mallard, 1 Teal, 1 Goose.

[ChuckN]

"Better than North Dakota" my friend told me as we saw some of the most intensive hunting we've ever seen for 4 consecutive days! Just returned from a trip to western MN at duck camp.

Going into the hunt on Wednesday I thought to myself we were going to spend a lot of time at camp trying to pass the time, but we found ourselves in 4 days of pure bliss. Dead calm mirror-like lakes and cloudless skies were more common, some days were windy, but overall it was mighty warm.

Incredible hunt. Tornadoes of ducks circled on the lake at sunrise. Limits were easily taken and sometimes mornings were cut short to ensure a return to relax in the evening blind. Our bags had Canvasbacks, Redheads, Bluebills, Ringbills Mallards, Widgeon, and Teal.

If you cancelled a trip to the blind because of the mild weather, it was possibly the wrong move. The birds are here and in incredible numbers!!

[JEV]

It's been pretty slow here in the NW corner of the state. After the first weekend the majority of the birds pulled out. There are still quite a few geese around but the duck numbers are down a lot. Last I was out was a week ago and it was much different then opener. Very few birds flying. My dad was out this weekend and said he seen very few ducks again. A lot of the fields have been worked up around here so the food supply has been exhausted. The birds I cleaned a week ago had empty crops. The birds from opener all had full crops. Hopefully a good cold snap to the north will push some more of the northern birds down into our area.

JEV

[OUTDOORNUT]

I second what ChuckN is talking about. We hunted Western MN also and had some of the best duck hunting I've had in years. Yesterday a 4 man mixed bag limit in 40 minutes!!

Mallards, Wiegons, Gadwalls, Teal, Woodies, Redheads and a two Ringers

[Dean Schellinger]

I'll second the fact that the birds are coming down. Hunted Friday and Sunday and saw quite a few ducks, mostly on Friday. I saw and shot gadwalls, wigeon, GWT, mallards, wood ducks. Lotsa geese. My brother went out sunday and they shot 2 canvasbacks, and saw a lot of bluebills and ringbills, along with a lot of mallards.

Definitely some migrates working their way through! Fun weekend. Ended up with 3 wood ducks, a banded drake mallard, 3 gadwalls, and a goose.

[fallfrenzy1]

Anyone with a report in the Red Wing area? I am going home this weekend to visit the folks and just curious if more birds have moved into the area. Any info would be great!

[Dotch]

Even as far south as we are, we're seeing lessers in large groups. Introduced them to an out of state guy who'd never shot a goose before this AM. He shot 2 and now he's hooked. Moi? I shot like dump today, out of position, a little too patient, but on purpose. I wanted him to get the best shots and he did. Plenty of opportunities for me as the season wears on. Lots of mallards and teal flying around this morning but not coming in close on such a bluebird day.

[thaJman]

RiverRat,

Did you hunt the Gibbon area? If so, how'd you do? I was thinking about heading that way this coming weekend to hunt Swan Lake.

TIA for any info.

[riverrat56]

For ducks not really, I mostly hunt between New Ulm and Hanska, one morning I hunted a slough by Courtland, there was lots of shooting on Swan, but thats on the opposite side of what you would be looking at.

[hanson]

Saturday morning, I found myself in the blind in NW Minnesota with a college friend who has not hunted ducks in over 10 years. I tried to downplay the hunt and lower his expectations so he would not be disappointed in case the ducks weren't moving. I could guarantee him that we would have a good time, but actually shooting ducks I couldn't guarantee.

Well... I must have won the lottery because I have never seen as many Ringbills as I did Saturday morning in a long time. His first hunt in many years turned out to be a good one. From the minute we got our dekes set and legal shooting time rolled around, we were being buzzed by flocks. Flocks coming from the left, from the right, overhead, straight in, it was unreal. I sat back in amazement watching the activity of these little fighter jets tearing across the marsh. Its something else to watch and listen to 30-40 bills dropping and flipping down from way up while banking into the corner of your decoys. I know he was truly impressed.

There were more than a few occasions I was asked, "How come we didn't shoot at those?" I just responded that I like to watch them. Honestly, I don't know. Sometimes the activity gets so overwhelming that you just sit back in amazement and forget about shooting sometimes.

We ended up shooting 5 Saturday along with a lone drake Mallard but let so many other birds fly, it isn't even funny.

The mallard was a nice bonus, considering that was the only mallard we saw all morning. The few times I've been out hunting this year, I haven't seen the numbers of mallards I've seen in the past. I find this a little strange but we also haven't had any big weather systems or cold temperatures up north yet either. The mallards must all be hanging out in Canada still.

Sunday morning was a different story. The birds were gone. We had small flocks working but it was a pretty big letdown after the show we experienced on Saturday.