Duck Reports?

[Ryan Becklund]

Opener was the absolute worst that I have had. Water is real low near Redwood Falls and the ducks were non-existant. Like normal had 2 honkers land in the dekes 10 mins too early. They hung around till shooting time but were a long ways out and didn't get either. Jumped some woodies on a beaver dam by the river and ended the day with just one woodie. Was going to rain on Sunday so we slept in on Sunday. I know....that was lazy....but was not alot of ducks flyin anyways I hear. Good luck the rest of the season!

[Sergeant Slabber]

Complete opposite of Slayer73. This was the best opener I think I've ever had over the past 25 years of duck hunting. Our group of 4 could have easily limited out Saturday if we would have stayed out another hour longer, but there was fishing to be done. Sunday morning took all of 2 hours to limit. Mostly ringers buzzing around, but got some woodies and mallards in the mix as well. My shoulder is killing me!!

[tearin' lips]

Opener was pretty slow for us. A couple guys in the bay got some good pass shooting. Mosly Ringnecks around and no Wild Rice to speak of. Oh, well thats hunting for ya.

On an angrier note. I had to make a call in to the local C.O for a group on Sunday morning that was driving around in the bay we were hunting Rallying the Ducks for the reamining two people in their blind. They had the audacity to drive withing twenty yards of our decoys. They had no business to be anywhere close to where we were hunting!!

These guys also let ducks float for a couple hours before making an effort of retriving them. We watched one of their cripples(drake Ringneck) swim for an hour before he came close enough for us to finish him off. I watched them call their lab back from making a retrive on a couple occasions so they could work another flock that was coming towards them. The problem is that they then seemed to forget about the duck that they called the dog off of. As a result they lost 5 ducks for sure that they did not make a reasonable effort to include in their game bag. We ended up including two of those ducks they lost into our limit so they didn't go to waste. I hope these guys get whats coming to them. There is nothing that makes me angrier than that!

[paceman]

Worst opener I have ever had. 3 of us hunted west of Detroit Lakes. 2 of us never fired a shot. the other guys shot the only 2 ducks within a mile of us. very few geese seen as well.. It can only get better.

[fritz179]

Hey everyone I'm new here, it's about time I know. This opener was about the same as the last few years.

Saturday: 3 b.w. teal, 1 hen mallard

Sunday: 1 drake mallard, 2 b.w. teal and 2 woodies one hen and one drake.

On Saturday morning before shooting time all we saw were wood ducks. Then we didn't see any after 9. But there are lots of them around where the two of us were hunting.

[USPENAMC]

never been duck hunting before i worked saturday until 8 am my father brother, my (5yr) son and I drove around locally only louisville, rapids lake unit, belle plaine, gaylord, areas and didnt find a spot. we could have been a...holes and ruined someones day by forcing our way in but if i have learned something from this forum is to know when to back off and be a respectfull hunter. we ended up driving from 9 am until 2 pm or so not finding a spot so we came home without uncasing our weapons. pretty fun and interesting seeing all the trucks/boats/rigs/people/ and hear the shooting going on. maybe another day.

[SSSTaxidermy]

Very slow opener to say the least...1 Mallard on Saturday, and 2 teal on Sunday. Hunted SE of Pelican Rapids (Erhard). Year in year out, this spot is a Mallard hole. Seen very few birds flying around...And even less geese. Strange...

Oh well, will hit er hard again this weekend.

[Roosterslayer05]

Great opener for my group, 4 of us limited out by 11:25 saturday. We could have been done by 9:30 but we stopped shooting at teal and waited for big ducks. Sunday we got 19. I have never seen so many redheads and Pintails in my life, they were everywhere. As a group we got 18 teal, 10 mallards, 8 Redheads, 5 widgeon, 1 shoveler, and 1 pintail. Was hopeing to get more pintails but they got real wary once the shooting started. I personally limited out on redheads sunday, and got 1 saturday, really suprised we saw so many redheads considering iv shot only 1 my entire life untill this weekend. Scouting paid off and the only competition we had for our spot came in at 8 oclock, three hours too late. Prob saw close to 100 pintails and saw more redheads than that.

[walleyeman1]

This was the best opener in 5 years. Lots of mallards around. Limited Sat, Sun,and Mon. 54 ducks and about half were mallards.

Hopefully the weather stays nice so they stay around.

[Hammer Handle]

Did great!

Very little shooting besides us though. Most people did not do well.

[MinnetonkaMan]

Great opener for us to limited out both days with Mallards, Woodies and shoovlers. Passed on some teal because a big flock of mallys were ready to drop in. Got two out of that group. Exciting weekend!

[wingnutken]

Hey Roosterslayer, what part of the state did you hunt in to see that many birds? I usually hunt close to home (west metro)and I would really like to start venturing out to see more birds. Could you point me in the right direction? Ken

[Gordie]

today was slow to start but ended up with 2 mallards,3 woodies,1 shoveler and 1 honker.

Got love the rain days and no work . I'll stand in the rain all day but wont work in it

[icefishing21]

holy hannah roosterslayer! looks like you guys had a great opener. that mush have been a great time!

[Roosterslayer05]

Yea it was definatly one of my top three hunts ever! I had to keep telling myself I was in MN, it sure felt like NoDak. Ken- I was hunting in Southern MN, thats about all the info I can give you. I talked to other guys in the area that dident do so well, it depended on where you were. Scouting was the key, I actually hunted an area I had never hunted before. I never have my opener spot set in stone, I figure that out in september after long hours of scouting. Legwork, legwork, legwork is really the key.

[wingnutken]

Thank You Roosterslayer. That was all the info that I was looking for and I wouldn't expect anything more. Thanks again, Ken

[delta dude]

Slow was the word for us. Pond we hunted was full of ducks on fri. Once season opened all we had coming in were wood ducks. Most woodies I have ever seen however,some flocks had 20 birds in them. Was fun just watching them buzz the deeks. We were near Graceville. Sunday was also slow. Also it seemed there were few geese in the area we were in.

[JRedig]

First duck opener for me, we shot our limits both days....but we were in NoDak! It was great out there!

[dan z]

was on a local slough and shot a honk,ringer,and a bwt nice day out thier

[slabchaser]

hunted the last two days with some buddies. shot 3 bw teal,1 mallard, 1 wooduck, 1 pintail, and 3 honkers.

[icefishing21]

my buddy went out in savage yesterday to do a little pass shooting before school. they ended up getting a couple of teal. they probably could of shot alot more but he said they got buzzed by like 20 teal. dang things comeout of no where down by where we hunt

[Gordie]

Thats what I love about teal no time to think just react and get on them and squezze the trigger.

The only thing better is and flock of ringbills coming in at Mach 1 on the first pass over the decoys.

[icefishing21]

yeah i agree, on sunday we had about 15 teal come buzing through in the first 5 minutes so fast i think we only got like 4 shots total at them. oh well its pretty fun that way because it keeps you ready. if your not ready its hard to get shots off

[eyewall]

My group of 3 ended up with 33 ducks and one banded teal. It was a typical MN opener with teal all over the place we had a few mallards and gadwalls mixed in to

[ZEEK1223]

I see more ducks and geese in the city. Im getting ready to throw them a handful of corn with a couple sleeping pills mixed in.....lol