How did y'all do?

[IRISHSOBNO4]

you are correct!!!!!! the law pertains to big game.

i still think it is wise to have them go through a safety course before handling a fire arm.

here is the link the reg is on page 22.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/regulations/hunting/2006/full_regs.pdf

[iamgmc]

DID YOU GET ANY OUT OF THE AIR?

[IRISHSOBNO4]

i have believed my father all these years him being a retired cop he said he would never take anyone hunting that didn't have a certificate. i didn't realize that that was his law.

i'll have to thank him for baiting the crow and myself for shooting and eating it.

[Ely Lake Expert]

We did OK, nothing like last year. 14 total 8 saturday, 6 sunday. Saturday we got 4 mallards and 4 green wing teal. Though the teal were pretty crazy, my dad got 4 teal in 2 shots. Sunday we got 3 mallards, 2 bluewing teal, and believe it or not a bluebill.

[so haaad]

iamgmc,

Yep, all shots were from the air. My first shot of the year resulted in the "double teal". The next two shots were on two mallards.

[IceHawk]

Well the opener has come and gone with some birds taken and others missed. Total count for my group was down from previous years 9 mallards 5 teal and a goose. We saw a bunch of mallards but it looked like the woody's were down in the area we hunt.

[caseymcq]

The broad side of a barn would have been safe flying by us. We got one!

[311Hemi]

We ended up with 22 ducks and 5 geese for our group of 6 guys in SW MN. Been going for 7-8 years and I have never gotten a goose (usually only get 1 in our group all weekend), and Saturday morning I got a double on a flock that came in and my buddy got one and then his gun jammed (should have dropped all 4). We both shot one more Sunday morning. Ducks were mainly malards and teal with a few woodies mixed in. Had chances at more but ya know how that goes!!!

[Roamer]

Started out with 6 hunters, 2 of them had to leave early for get this a "GOLF" outing. They took one woodie and 3 mallards. The rest of us wound up with 13 birds in hand. Three woodies the rest mallards. Saw as many birds as last year I'd say in the neighborhood of 600 mallards, woodies and teal all loafing in a pasture with a pond. Did not hunt Sunday. Nice to have a private spot with this kind of action. Hunting should be good until freeze up.

[Mossy19]

Group of 5 guys had their limit of ducks on Sat. by noon and 2 honkers. Sunday not too much flying 11 ducks for six guys on Sunday. Had a mixed bag of mallards, blue wing teal, green wing teal, woodies, spoonbills, and ringnecks. Best opener for us in Sounthern MN in years!

[iamgmc]

MAY THE REST OF SEASON BE SO BLESSED!iTS GOOD TO HEAR SO MANY GOOD REPORTS THIS EARLY IN THE SEASON.THE LAST FEW YEARS WE WERE LIMITED TO LAST WEEK OF THE SEASON TO HAVE ANY NUMBERS.THE BIRDS ARE THE BONUS!!

[merganser]

Great bunch of reports! Great to hear more positive reports than the past few years of marginal reports. I too was fortunate in getting my two drake woodies on Saturday. It took me less than a half hour and I was able to make it home in time to honor a deceased WWII vet with our local legion color guard. It seemed weird shooting blanks out of a rifle after shooting what I swear were blanks out of my shotgun earlier in the morning. Good thing there were so many woodies willing to offer me shots.

[dukhnt]

Best opener in years. There were three of us. Eleven ducks on Saturday, 6 woodies, 3 teal, 1 gadwall, and 1 widgeon. On sunday we shot 9 ducks and a goose, 6 woodies, 2 mallards, and 1 teal.

[crazyfishinut]

Went duck hunting for the first time this year. Big group of guys went to North Dakota and went hunting. We slaughtered them! Gadwells, Malards, Teal, Widgets, Pintails, Honkers, and even 1 Snow Goose. I think we got our limit everyday. We had duck from the grill every night. It's really cool to watch come in on top of you while sitting in a blind.

[Buckslayer]

Whats a widget?

[hanson]

Quote:

---

Whats a widget?

---

I believe that is the little plastic ball that you find in a can of Guiness.

[jparrucci]

Had a great weekend of duck/grouse hunting. Shot my limit of wood ducks on opening moring, and also got a mallard for the bag. Sunday was a little harder (well, the shooting was). I dropped a gadwall doing about 749237439 miles an hour past us. My shooting has really improved this year, thats for sure. Our group never got a limit on any day, but we did get a fair amount of shooting in. One bonus goose also. One of the guys in our group shot a beautiful drake woodie, definitely going to get mounted. I shot a good looking green-wing teal, but the shot to the head probably wrecked any chance of a mount. All in all, a great weekend, with a couple of grouse thrown in. The leaves were still pretty thick, next weekend should be much easier to see all those grouse we kicked up.

One interesting story I have from this weekend: We were set up on a small pond to do a morning shoot of some wood ducks. We are spread out around the pond (safe distances) waiting for the ducks to come in and better light. Well, it was somewhat foggy, and I see a flash about 150 yards to my right on the pond. There are already ducks swimming right in front of me so I was trying to be still as possible. Expecting to see a deer, to my suprise I spot a lone timberwolf creeping up on the wood ducks on the other side of the pond. I knew my friend was very close to where the wolf was, but was pretty well hidden and couldnt see him. It was already past shooting time, and my friend unloaded on the ducks as the wolf was about to spring on them. It was a pretty crazy site to say the least. Watching a wolf creep up on a pond ready to snatch a couple of ducks.

Scary part is, just before shooting time (about 15 minutes before this happened) I had something walk RIGHT behind me. I could hear it coming, and then get so close I could here it breathing, and then sniffing me out. I figured it was a deer, and never even turned around since I already had 2 ducks swimming right in front of me that I didn't want to spook. Kind of scary thinking a timberwolf could have been THAT close to me.

Another thing-I say that it was a timberwolf, the friend closest to the k9 said it was a coyote. It was at least 50lbs, probably much bigger. I am under the assumption that coyotes dont get that big. It was pretty light colored, which made me think it could be a coyote, but the size of it makes me say almost for certain it was a timberwolf.

[brittman]

DNR Site: Often called the timber wolf, the gray wolf is native to Minnesota and is the ... Weight: Between 60 to 120 pounds (coyotes weigh between 25 and 35 pounds.

Coyotes with a good fur coat look like they weigh much more than 35 pounds.

[Sartell Angler]

wolf or coyote, still a great story parucci.

I would lean towards the coyote hypothesis though--timber wolves are extremely wary even compared to a coyote so I would imagine that is what it was.

SA/wdw

[slopmaster]

Sunday we did much better we had 4 guys and we ended up with 12. we shot 5 right away at sunrise and then it slowed down so we left and we had a private slough that we decided to jump and ended up with 7. we had 2 guys walk to the slough through a corn field on one side and the other two walk in on the other side. one group shot and killed two and the ducks just circled around the whole slough and when they came around to me and my friend we shot 5 so it worked out great.we ended up with 4 mallards, 4 blue wing teal, 2 red heads, 1 spooner, and 1 wigeon.

[rippinlips]

5 of us hunted my family pasture pond and limited out both days with 40 birds and almost a 2 day limit of geese 16 geese it was a blast planning on doing it all over again this weekend. The action was a blast there are alot of birds around, are duck limits were mainly mallards. There is nothing better then those orange feet just hanging there as they set into the decoys.

[DitchPickle13]

12-14 ducks and a goose, between 4 guys(5-6 Mallards, a Woodie, and some Teal). Pretty good action, should've had a few more...as usual, but a lot of fun! Here's my dog with a Teal from Saturday afternoon.