Someone Give Me Some Good News!!!

[Ray Esboldt]

Hunted this morning and there were a fair amount of first light ducks, then mostly nothing. We ended up with 6 for two guys (4 mallards, 1 ringbill, and 1 bufflehead). I just didn't see many signs of migrators in our East Central MN spot. Did some birds move this week? I'm hitting Western Minnesota later this week. Someone tell me I was on the wrong side of the state today!!!

[ChuckN]

You are on the wrong side of the state, Ray.

Great hunting over the course of this week...lots of ringbills Wednesday, Saturday and today it was mallards, and lots of them. By far the best season I have ever experienced, and the weather has been great.

Good luck on your trip.

[whitewolf6647]

Way wrong side of the state. You'll see when you get out here.

[hanson]

I took a buddy of mine hunting in NW MN near my hometown for 4 days (Thurs.-Sun.). We only hunted mornings and managed 23 ducks and 2 geese for the weekend. We really had a mixed bag of birds- Buffleheads, Ringbills, 1 Bluebill, Mallards, 1 Wigeon, and almost a Merganser.

Overall, the amount of birds we saw was way down from what I'm used to at this time of year. The first 2 weekends of the season had way more action, probably a couple of the best days I've ever seen.

A couple interesting things were the geese were migrating on Saturday morning, tons of them! But Thurs, Fri, and Sunday we saw very little goose activity.

Sunday morning we had much colder temperatures and I'm guessing that many of the small ponds and sloughs iced over. We saw lots of puddlers on the pond we were hunting. Mallards, Gadwall, Wigeon, and a few stray teal were all flying around. I think they got iced out of their spots that morning.

[eyepatrol]

Did ya cook up a little duck for you and your buddy? I had goose breasts (cubed) in the crockpot Saturday night that was awesome! Put some BBQ sauce in there, a tad too much cyan pepper, and then not quite enough liquid smoke and let her cook for 5 hours. Wow was that good! A little hot too (cyan pepper)

As for the weekend, there were some ducks migrating south through our area both Saturday and Sunday. Ringnecks (mostly), 'bills (not many), redheads (not many) and then a few mallards and a few geese is what we saw moving. Got 6 ducks between 4 of us on Saturday and 11 ducks between 3 of us on Sunday. Ringnecks, gw teal, mallards, 'bills, one redhead and one nice drake woodie. All in all a good weekend.

[hanson]

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Did ya cook up a little duck for you and your buddy?

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Oh did we ever! Mmmmmm...

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I had goose breasts (cubed) in the crockpot Saturday night that was awesome! Put some BBQ sauce in there, a tad too much cyan pepper, and then not quite enough liquid smoke and let her cook for 5 hours. Wow was that good! A little hot too (cyan pepper)

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My mouth's watering. That sounds pretty good!

The funny thing about bringing my friend up north, he's a little caught off guard by the number of ducks we see and the number that decoy awesome and want to land in the decoys. Guess that doesn't happen around the west metro. We also set up for divers and get a lot of up close and personal looks at these fighter jets which he isn't used to either.

[eyepatrol]

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We also set up for divers and get a lot of up close and personal looks at these fighter jets which he isn't used to either.

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Yeah, we had our diver dekes out too and got blitzkrieged by a couple flocks. Sometimes ya just can't swing the barrel fast enough....or they're so darn close the bb's just don't have a chance to pattern.....or worse yet, BOTH! We had both on a couple flocks yesterday.

[hanson]

Here's a little pic of Sunday. Normally we wouldn't have shot that many hens but we were just not seeing anything. Birds were coming in the dekes 1 or 2 at a time and we took what we could. Only 1 duck got away which was a teal until we went to pick up the decoys and 2 hen buffleheads landed in them.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Dude, You're way on the wrong side of the state. I hunted behind Dougs farm this weekend. Should have been after duckies on Saturday and not pheasants. Shot our duck limit in no time Sunday morning.

You gotta get out here.

[Ray Esboldt]

You guys are going to make it hard for me to sleep.

What's the western MN diver count like right now. I may tow the boat to hunt some of the bigger sloughs, even though I've killed plenty on walk in waters.

[ChuckN]

Divers are so-so, besides the ringbills. Overall mixed birds in the sky. The Mallards and Ringbills have been the most populated this year...big greenheads and nice mature ringers.

I really can't confirm a bluebill sighting yet. I hope they come down for a visit this year.

Oh, I would definitely bring the boat and try bigger waters.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Agreed. Only difference is there ARE bills in the big slough behind Dougs farm. Not a million of them, but they are showing up.

Bring the boat.

[Ray Esboldt]

Sweet! I'm going to be a bit north of Slayton. So, if they're there, they should be where I'm aiming.