where are the ducks,Darn it!!

[norwall]

Christ I was expecting an influx of birds as I was following Candas weather all last wk and this well to no avail I've seen nada,nathan,zip,nothing but small ponds ice over which should open back up this wknd, are all the birds still in Canada I buddy a mine has a friend in the pas and said they started movin out last wk? Who knows? all I know I've seen nil in so MN. I'll keep waitin tho (crossing fingers) any1 else have a repot of where there staged?

[swedishpimple]

Still good numbers of Divers on Lake Bemidji. It may be a week or two for you Southern boys. Who knows, the season may end before they leave here. Guys have been hunting too, I saw some rigs in town around noon today. I may make it out next week.

[glenn57]

i seen a bunch of mallards in the puddles of north dakota on 11/8/07 driving 94 back into mn.

[schr0563]

Pond behind my office building tends to hold ducks all winter since they have a couple of aerators out in it. A couple of weeks ago 2-6 mallards started coming in daily. All of a sudden, this last Wednesday morning (2 days ago), after the temp had dropped and the north winds had been blowing, the pond fills up with 4 dozen greenheads and about a dozen hooded mergies. Two more cold nights with ice covering many of the neighboring ponds and what happens, not a single duck returns to our pond (even with the open water).

Maybe they came and went. Maybe they haven't come yet. Maybe they're down the road at another lake or pond. Who knows.

[Fish&Fowl]

Good question. There has been absolutely nothing around the Crookston area compared to earlier. And the mallard numbers all season have been pathetic anyways.

Killed a few divers this morning and saw some big strings of geese moving around, but there's gotta be more coming, at least I hope there is. Bad news now is we have a lot of small holes completely frozen and no wind at nite to keep others open.

[SneakAttack]

I was drving home from work today (SE Metro) and noticed a couple small groups of mallards landing in a field so a guy would think thats a good sign, but then i was working in shakopee near 169 and 41 and didn't see a thing all day. A friend of mine from Hibbing called me this morning and said he saw good flocks of ducks and geese including some snows moving thru as he sat in his stand last night. Might be good or might be bad but with 50 some degrees this weekend, river walleyes sound more appealing.

[hanson]

I can corroborate Fish&Fowl's report. We deer hunt in that neck of the woods and I didn't see squat for ducks during my four days in the area. Nothing.

[LABS4ME]

A lot (and I mean a lot) of mallards have settled into Sand Lake in South Dakota. Take those and the smattering scattered throughout the rest of the Dakotas and Eastern Montana and you'll will begin to be able to track your migration.

The birds plain and simple will only use Minnesota if they have to, or are blown into the state. We offer little in the way of duck needs, as opposed to our neighboring states to the west. Our wetlands provide little food and our lakes provide little in the way of rest with the late fall fishing that goes on these days. I too was hoping that more ducks would slide through the state this fall, but the migration IS happening, right now, just not here.

I hope everyone gets out and scratches out at least a decent diver hunt and maybe a mallard hunt yet, once we can pattern the ones that are here as they go from field to roost.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Ufatz]

I posted this earlier, but here it is again: drove a large area of western MN two days ago, right through the heart of what is supposed to be good duck country. Pitiful. A few scattered small flocks. Many geese of course. Dozens and dozens of perfect potholes without a duck on them. Not even a coot. On our big, perfect, gorgeous, picture book pothole we shot FOUR ducks for the season.....on opening day.

That's it boys. I'm done. Not worth the effort any more and too hard to witness after having decades of good waterfowl hunting. Very sad for an old guy.

Sure wish you boys could have seen it back in the days when they didn't add Mergansers to the waterfowl population to make the numbers look higher.

And now the b'bills dying by the thousands. Thats enough for me thank you.

[icecold]

My son and i have had a real good season so far, lots of mallards along minnesota river bottoms, new birds coming in thick this past week, went out 2 mornings before work and did real good on mallards and wooducks

[kc0myy]

The 1st time I went duck hunting I was hooked. With the moring full of birds. I love it I am counting down for next year already. The lake I hunt on and now icing over and this time last yaer there were tons of divers. This year so far nothing. I shot more gesse tha last year. but not as many ducks as last year. i'm 19 years old. I have lots of duck seasons ahead of me so I hope things will get better