any new ducks

[hanson]

My dad hunted on "our" spot in NW MN Friday morning and got 2 geese and a couple ring-necks. He said the ringers were everywhere but he couldn't hit anything that flew by the dekes! Thats my dad! According to him, the ring-neck activity was unbelievable compared to opening weekend. Dad mentioned he would have limited in no time flat if he was in the water swatting mood but thank God he didn't! Sometimes you can't keep them critters out of the dekes, what a problem! !

Dad's 2 geese were a continuing experiment with hunting ducks over a minimum dozen GHG Oversize Floater decoys in addition to our regular set of duck decoys. The floaters struck again as I guarantee he did not send a honk out whatsoever on a goose call!

Anybody hunting on water needs to get themselves a bunch of floater geese decoys! It works man!

[thaJman]

Hunted about 75 miles SW of the metro on Saturday and there were a lot less ducks around then the previous weekend. Probably because the majority of the teal were gone and the weather was not perfect with the blue bird skies and 0 wind. 2 of us still managed 11 but we hunted until 1 PM. The bag was made up of 4 ringbills, 2 mallards, 2 gadwall, 1 woody, 1 pintail, and a widgeon.

[magnum mike]

As we feared, this season has been a bust. When the "experts" predict a good year and an increase in duck population, we do poorly. Last year, on the heels of a "bad" report from the "experts", was one of our best seasons in many years. We are averaging 1 duck a day for the entire camp. We are in the Winne area and have tried every combination from big water to backwater. Our own reports from north of the border would be encouraging but we are in for yet another week of moderate weather.

[Kyle]

This cold spell has definatly pushed out birds up here in St. Cloud. I was out duck hunting on saturday morning and didnt see a thing. Hunted until noon for pheasants and still didnt see a duck in the sky anywhere and we drove around a little bit.

[LABS4ME]

Nothing in the Cass Lake to Motley area... and I mean nothing! Seen a total of 8 ducks all weekend. Many different waters were scouted form big to small to small lakes in the woods and all were empty!

My buddies were out by Ivanhoe - Canby area for a duck / pheasant combo... it turned out to be a pheasant only trip as they could've couted the birds seen on their fingers. We need a real weather push!

Good Luck!

Ken

[BEEGONE]

I am no duck migration expert....but here in Northern MN (Vermilion, Pelican, Big Rice, and Nett lake) which normally hold tons of birds have been idle since last wednesday. The weather has been too nice since then. Our thoughts is that the ducks have flown back into Canada as this nice weather would allow. On last wednesday we a great deal of ducks on Pelican with reports of the same on Nett. We have not had any significant NW or N winds to push them south, as you southern guys have not been seeing birds either. My only guess is they are back north. I am crossing my fingers for that!

[bassman222]

Quote:

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Deadsville up North.

Holy crud. There was nothing, I mean nothing up there. I hunted near Bigfork and we didn't see a single duck that was killable. Sure we saw a few flocks 1/2 mile up, but there was nothing like what was reported around Grand Rapids, Hill City, northern Itasca county on this

HSOforum

earlier in the week or the 2nd weekend DNR C.O. hunter check reports.

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Don't go by reports, 99% of the time you will be disappointed.

[Meat-Run]

Well waterfowl folks I just got back from north-central ND and the locals for the most part have gone south. There is a very minimal amount of duck migration starting but not enough to get excited. The "black" geese were in a good migration with several thousands in and around the Rugby area. In a nut shell the goose hunting was really good but also hard because of all the big flocks were hard to get them to commit. The ducks are just not there yet. We were there from the 9th through the 14th. We field hunted about 90% and did manage some water hunting with some pintails and cans. Over all the best hunt was on Wednesday before most of the ducks left and the new group of geese were valnurable to our set ups.

mr

P.S. a ton of jerky was made this week for family and co-workers!!!!

[tealitup]

I was up in the Park Rapids area this weekend. Not alot of shooting in the morning, but wow the evening was a blast.

We had over 500 ducks flying about. Mallards and wood ducks mostly.

We had a flock of I bet 60-80 teal buzz over our heads. My buddy jumps up and says.. what the Heck was that.. I just said birds dumbass - look.

Most fun I have had in awhile - just have to be sure to identify the birds - alot of megansers found their way to the spread.

[ChuckN]

I returned from hunting western MN the past 4-5 days and there are ducks around. Location (play the wind), #s/ placement of decoys and calling made a huge difference. There was a lot of pressure in the area over the weekend and the hunting actually improved. Just had to get away from the masses to really get the birds. Our bags consisted of Teal, Mallards, Widgeon, Wood Duck, Redhead, Ringneck, Pintails and a Can (for the wall ). Another great hunt.

On my travels on back roads on the way to and from the hunt every pothole and pond had ducks in it. There are plenty of ducks around in my eyes.

[RBuker]

I saw more ducks today than I have all season. All were high and most were heading east. I believe them to be ringnecks but can't swear to it. Problem is that none of them wanted to come down to say hi. Never fired a shot.

Not sure if they are locals leaving or migrants arriving.

Randy

[Corey Bohn]

Hey Randy,

How you doing? Noticed the first divers (redheads, ringbills, few cans) in the area last Thursday and went out scouting again late this afternoon and there's new mallards around as well. Big fatties in full color. Thinking of heading out this a.m. to see if there's huntable #'s of divers. Looks like we could get some ducky weather come next Wednesday with high's in the low 40's. Give me a call and maybe we can hook up on a week day hunt. (320) 424-1382.

[RBuker]

Corey,

I'll give you a call today if I get a chance.

Gotta run, my chessie is calling me...

Randy

[wallter]

Corey,

What area?

[Lunker]

After the small cold front we had last tueday/wednesday here in central WI there are definitley some larger groups and new ducks moving down(though the last few days have been slow). Before last wednesday we were shooting mallards, ringnecks, shovelers, a few teal, woodies, gadwall and a couple of cans and redheads.

After the cold front we've seen larger groups of mallards, a lot of bluebills, and a lot of mixed divers(mergansers, some bufflehead), a couple of widgeon(my buddy shot a beautiful drake), and gadwall.

Our party has been getting a lot of mixed bags. Like the other day we shot 14 ducks(4 guys), and the most numerous species in the bag only counted for three of them, been pretty interesting.

[Corey Bohn]

What an interesting day on the water today was. I was anticipating seeing some divers winging into the decoys and mallards. Instead I had non-stop wood ducks and green wing teal, and a few mallards. Never saw a diver in the sky after spotting some nice rafts the past week and as late as yesterday. Shot two woodies, two green wing and two mallards. Was the first time I hunted this slough this year and was totally caught off guard because it's typically really good for early divers (mid-October). Woodies flew from half hour before sunrise to as late as noon. In 30 years of hunting have never seen so many woodies in one day, and such big flocks of woodies. It was an interesting and fun day.

[Sartell Angler]

sounds like a blast! wish I could still hunt during the week. being a weekend warrior sucks!

[RBuker]

I only hunted an hour before I had to leave for work. But, I managed one mallard and came awfully close to having a flock of canadas with three snow geese in it fly over in range. I only needed about 15 more yards and I could have popped those snows.

Go figure. Snowgeese and no divers. Never even saw one today.

[norwall]

Just got back from warroad area.Anticipated great shooting but...not so fortunate most, of the locals moved out and were not replaced. Did however have some shooting on divers as Cans, reds,bluebills slightly moved in to make it somewhat interesting and keep ya attentive. Now its back to work as another wk of vac has been spent guessing when the birds were going2 be around(I have to put in vac time in Jan)

[PerchPounder]

After the week long soaker we recieved we've got ducks all over the place. we limited this morning hunting a flooded field. SW MN