How did y'all do?

[tealitup]

Quote:

---

Went out Duck Hunting for the 1st time yesterday for opener. I can say for sure that I will be back out. I shot 7 of our 8 birds. It was a blast!! 6 teal and a nice drake woody, along with another drake woody for my hunting partner. We were hunting in Southeast MN.

---

Please read the regulations. You can only take your own limit not your friends. If you do it; do not brag about it on a public forum where it shows you break the law.

Also, it should be noted that we as hunters should be picking up our hulls. A season of plastic shells in the water is not the best... but...

We shot four nice drake woodies this weekend - missed a goose who sneaked in on us at 10 yards! And we were waiting for other birds to have "feet down" for some fun. Its not about the kill right It was a great time.

[USPENAMC]

good morning,

we went out saturday to a place near chaska it was ok i passed up on a few birds that would have probably have fallen real far in the lake and since i didnt have waders, or boat or canoe decided not to shoot. could have had a couple saw good number of birds.

sunday we went out on 212 in buffalo lake minnesota we went out by a gravel pit and we ended up with 5 ducks. i didnt get any we primarily went out there for doves (yes using steel shot) and we saw no more doves. by the way farmers are picking the soy beans up.

i have a question what are some birds that look like geese when they are flying but look really dark black or brown we were wondering (LOONS) can you tell im a first timer

also DONT LAUGH... okay take your punches at the newbie...

I NEVER KNEW DUCKS SMELLED EXACTLY LIKE FISH.. i would have never known until yesterday

[tearin' lips]

I agree tealitup. I picked up these casings for these guys, whomever they were. Nothing quite bugs me more than those who leave their casings. Back up in I. Falls we often leave our blind with a grocery bag full of casings everytime. Mostly from the other hunters who left them there.

Take Care Guys and Good Hunting!

[pathogen]

Quote:

---

i have a question what are some birds that look like geese when they are flying but look really dark black or brown we were wondering (LOONS) can you tell im a first timer

---

I believe what you saw were cormorants. Many more of them around since the days when I was a first timer.

[Sartell Angler]

ended up limiting for two guys on saturday with a mixed bag of GWT,BWT, woodies and mallards.

Sunday we only hunted about 2 hours and shot a nice drake ringer, a young woodie, and 2 mallards. One of the mallards looked like a November bird! Full plumage and was HUGE!

Overall a great opener--saw a lot more birds than last year.

Wish we could post pics on here.

SA/wdw

[dirtking]

Our group of four shot 11 ducks and a big goose sat. and 11 ducks Sunday - pretty good opener - not the best, but pretty good - mix of gadwalls, BW teal, mallards, woodies, and a spoon bill - we were hoping for more woodies but did not get the opportunity as I think the cold snap sent some of them south - and just didn't have too many of the ones that were around fly by - Central Minnesota

[Farley]

Pretty slow for us, got set up half hour before shooting time and 10 minutes later 8 geese landed infront of us. They would start swimming away, I'd give them a cluck cluck, they would swim over and look around, start swimming away, then I'd cluck again and they would come back. This went on for 20 minutes untill shooting time at which time we stood up, took aim and unleashed the fury on them.

We didnt drop a one.

Oh well, we got some good shooting in on some teal and had some mallards work the dekes so it wasnt bad, we shot 4 the first day. I was pretty happy about that until I talked to my uncle and his buddies that shot 27 ducks a few miles away from us. They just werent using the pond we were on. Maybee later in the year but for now looks like we got some scouting to do.

Another buddy I talked to said his group shot 13 the first day. So someone can tell Dennis Anderson that there are ducks in minnesota.

[bigdog]

Two mallard and two teal Saturday, four teal on Sunday. Birds were in the air but stayed away from our end of the lake. Ended up walking potholes and jump shooting. Not much shooting around us Saturday but Sunday was busy.

[hanson]

Lots of mixed reports coming in here.

We could have possibly had one of the best opening weekends ever if we were shooting a little better.

I did an experiment this year with the decoys, we added a bunch of canadian geese to the spread. There is a point in the lake we like to hunt and set up on the leeward side of it with 8 Flambeau goose floaters on the left side in the corner of the bay, a dozen flocked GHG floaters in front of the blind with about 6 mallards mixed in with them. Off to the right we put out another 6 mallards with a dozen bluebill dekes heading out into the wind off the point.

It worked. We had all sorts of birds working upwind and trying to land between the geese and the bluebill dekes. I forgot how fast a flock of bills moves and missed plenty of them.

We hunted opening day for about 2 hours and then Sunday morning for another 3 hours or so and bagged 2 big honkers, 2 drake mallards, 3 blue wing teal, and another 5 ringbills for 3 guys.

I'm going to have nightmares for awhile as I missed a 15 yard or less shot on a big goose about 3' off the water with his feet down. I don't know what happened. I think I may have had too much confidence in the shot and just expected him to tumble. Oh well. Just don't ask me why I only had 1 shell in the gun! Its not a good feeling when you hear 'click' on your second shot!

As for the experiment with the goose decoys, the ducks did not seam to be affected at all by all the goose decoys. In fact, I'm sure it helped. As a bonus though, darn near every loner or pair of honkers locked into those dekes from across the lake and came in on a rope without any calling. We popped 2 of the loners, I missed a gimme, and we had 2 separate pairs land about 15 yards outside of shooting range. We also had some problems with geese locked and coming in when either my dad or buddy was out in the decoys picking up ducks in the boat. Doh! They always come at the wrong time.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend. Seamed to be kind of a "typical" opening weekend with smaller flocks, and a variety of different birds as well.

[RAJ]

We ususally throw in some honkers with our spread and it works will...

The 10 floaters I did have got stolen, so this year I was SOL. We didn't get a lot of birds, but did see a lot.

[Flick]

5 man limits of honkers both days.....a mix of 20 ducks about half mallards and half teal......also picked up a banded mallard, overall it was a real fun weekend.

Overall I would say duck numbers were fairly dissapointing just in numbers of birds flying around....

[Buckslayer]

Went out to the ole opener honey hole and shot 7 mallards, two woodies, 7 teal, 4 geese for 4 guys. Went back to the same marsh and shot 8 mallars, 1 wigeon, 3 woodies and 4 teal on sunday. I'll take that for opener any time.

[BLACKJACK]

Four nice drake wood ducks and three teal on Sat and two wood ducks and a mallard on Sun for two guys. Missed a few easy shots but ended up having some good shooting. Our four partners on a different slough got only three ducks all weekend!

[MIKE IN lINO III]

Sunday we bagged only two BWT, could or should have had a lot more.

Putting out the dekes on Sunday morning and had two ducks try to land on my head, they did land just outside the rice line, out of range. Had four more try to do the same thing 2 minutes later. We hustled to the blind and didn't see another bird. They seemed to have flocked up on Sunday, we saw lots of bunches flying high and fast. They were not interested in the decoys. Great weekend over all. We built our first duck blind on Friday and set it on shore, camoflauged it and had a nice place to sit and watch ducks. We also put out some Goose floaters, I set out two pair to the left and down wind, they seemed to pull the ducks in, I guess they can see them better.

Our lake had no presure from other hunters so it was kind of slow, nice to be out though.

Mike

[IRISHSOBNO4]

"I'm sure somebody will bring this up, so I may as well be him. I'm pretty sure that party hunting for ducks is a no no. By that I mean you not suppose to fill other people's limit. Personally on the ethics side of it..I'm not bothered...between two people 8 ducks were harvested no matter what...but dems da rules. Get ready for backlash."

i have to agree we all need to review the laws.

its great to want to take your kids, but there are

age requirements also.....(12 and a gun safety certificate)

my 12 year old daughter had to wait, as did i.

by the way she got 2 woodies and a green head On sunday.

[mwal]

In MN you can small game hunt at any age. I took my boys at 10 and 11 when they are 12 they must have gun saftey to continue to hunt. Strange rules. They are 19 and 17 now

Mwal

[B420]

Another "typical" mn opener for us in the akeley/park rapids area. On the way out to the blind we flushed some birds off the lake we were hunting and never saw them again. Shot once on saturday morning, not at duck, but at a dove and missed. Saw some birds but they would not even give us a look. Sunday had a group of three bw and gw teal come in, dropped all three. HOORAY I got to fire at a duck! A large flock of geese came over the dekes after that and I managed to bag one of those. A lot of work for very few chances. Only 3 weeks till North Dakota thank god.

[stayman79]

Saturday: West of the metro, two guys, two dogs on a smaller lake. Didn't get a great vibe by the fact that we were there before sun-up and didn't have ducks buzzin' around our heads, although there were lots of local geese. Had it been a sunrise opener we would have had to shoot poorly to not get our 4 geese. Come shooting time the geese had gone out and when they came back they all went for the lawn with live decoys on the other side of the lake. We ended up with 3 woodies, a ruddy and a goose. Wish I could say we had more opportunities but we only whiffed on a group of 3 teal. Packed it in at 1:00.

Sunday: same place with the girls and suntan lotion!

[iamgmc]

NICE SURPRISE,AWAKENED SUNDAY MORNING TO SOUTH WIND AND CLEAR SKIES.DECIDED TO SET UP IN PICKED CORN FIELD.GETTING THE FLY BY'S WHILE SETTING UP DECOYS.THE MALLARDS WERE IN THE CORN 5 GUYS,20 MALLARDS AND 4 GEESE.CAN'T ASK FOR MORE THAN THAT EXCELLENT WAY TO START THE SEASON!!

[Quickstrike]

on saturday morning myself and two buddies all limited by 11:00. with the 3 of us combined we got 3 mallards, 2 woodies, and 7 teal. great fun!

[Labby]

Irish,

MN you may hunt small game at any age. Once you turn 12 you must have gun training. I called the GW on this on when my son was 10. He did confirm this.

Didnt make it out Saturday but sunday was great 20 ducks 6 mallards 1 Drake Redhead 1 woodie rest teal.

2 bonus geese 5 guys

Lab

[eyepatrol]

Many of these reports sound promising. I suppose location may have a lot to do with it, but I know in my area, the numbers have been horrendous for a good 7 years. I really wasn't expecting to get much this opener. For the past 5 years we've got more geese than ducks. But finally this year we saw flocks of ducks flying here and there....not everywhere as in the past, but here and there which is better than nowhere! I'm no biologist and don't pretend to be one, but I wonder why we saw an increase in duck numbers this year? Especially the bw teal....haven't seen that many around in MORE than 10 years! Was there a good hatch this year? Good nesting conditions this year? Are efforts by the DNR and waterfowl groups (i.e. - Ducks Unlimited) finally paying off? I hope whatever the case may be, it's towards the positive.

[buzzsaw]

I was as lucky as I've ever been... three shots and three ducks... a Woodie drake and Hen...and a Greenhead drake. I'm getting a double mount done with the Woodies on driftwood. One Goose as well, they weren't coming in too close unfortunately... the sky was also very high Sunday morning.

[so haaad]

I may have all of you beat this opener. 12 minutes, 4 ducks, 3 shots.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I'm thinking the wet spring had something to do with it. In my area there was good nesting conditions, and I think the little quackers took advantage of it. Haven't seen that for a few years.