Rapids lake and louisville swamp unit for geese, ducks, doves

[USPENAMC]

any info on your success or lack there off would be appreciated thanks

[Kodiak]

mostly lack there of. During duck opener there are a thousand people in there. and it is deer hunted heavily during archery season. I go down there a lot to scout and the only place i have seen doves is by the maintenance garage in the gravel parking lot. I see people upland hunt the top of the rapids lake unit but it gets pushed about 50 times a day so i bet there isnt any birds in there during pheasant season. If your gonna go get their early for pheasant hunting.

[USPENAMC]

thanks for the info... also any info on any places would be great penasoccer at yahoo (Contact Us Please)

[stayman79]

USPENAMC,

I saw another one of your posts but couldn't find it again to reply. It was the one talking about trying to find places to hunt. Close to the metro any public hunting ground is going to be busy every weekend and even on many weekdays you'll have company. For duck and goose hunting during the regular season I would recommend scouting out small, rural "lakes" that are really glorified sloughs. Get a Gazetteer map of MN(Gander, Fleet Farm, Cabelas) and you'll be able to find the lakes and more public land. IN GENERAL you can hunt those small lakes if they are out of the city limits and you're not within 500 ft of a home or livestock. Most that I hunt you need a boat as the bottom is soft. I don't know of many places to hunt from land. I grew up in Shakopee and have hunted the Rapids WMA on foot. We've done OK down there, but nothing great. I haven't gone there in about 5 years because there are better places to hunt with less competition. As far as the early goose season, from what I hear a field is the best place to be and to find one takes time. I haven't done that myself so I can't help. If you hunt pheasants it's worth your time to drive at least an hour and a half to get into bird country. Check out the DNR's pheasant outlook map and compare it to your gazetteer to see where the most birds and public land coincide.

Good luck!