Duck hunting the area

[RonZ]

We are going up to grave for the opener. Does anyone know anything about rice lake connected to sand lake or nearby nature lake? We have another spot north of there but need some adventure. Haven't been able to scout much this year. We will scout some the day before on Friday I could bring 2 duck boats if someone with knowledge of the area wants to go.

Jason you have any knowledge on duck hunting the area? I'm not sure if you duck hunt or not.

e-mail for privacy

[Scott M]

I heard that Natures can be pretty good. That's a little bit of a drive if you are on Graves.....Lots of good habitat, wild rice, etc.

Looking forward to it!

[Jason Boser]

hunt alot of ducks but not around there sorry I am not familiar with the area

Jason

[Harty1384]

Both rice and natures are non motorized lakes so bring the paddles. Rice I think would be a little more manageable then natures because its smaller. I dont know how hard either lake gets hit because i have never hunted either but me and my 2 friends are thing about hitting rice on the oppener. Haven't gotten to do alot of scouting in the area but last year there were lots of ring bills, and a few teal around sounds like the same this year.

Good luck

[Boedigheimer]

Ron, rice and nature are very good duck lakes, I hunted natures(squaw) last year and had a blast. Both lakes are low right now which means lots of rice, scout early, find a pocket in the rice and you should be in good shape. Natures has a few hunting camps on it, so there is some pressure, but it has lots of good spots, so it isn't usually an issue. good gunnin'

[Scott M]

I had heard there is one guy that goes into the rice and thins out little landing spots in there for hunting...he's got a permit and everything.

Didn't know there were a lot of hunters up there though...

[bassman222]

Quote:

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Didn't know there were a lot of hunters up there though...

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There will be for the first few weekends...

[RonZ]

We will be going there over MEA. Oct 16-21. I am looking forward to it. Because of extenuating circumstances we had to hunt around here. Did really well but its not the same as going "Up North" to hunt/fish. Thanks for the information guys.

[Scott M]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the ducks with this warmer weather this weekend. Sure hope it gets a little colder. I'll be up weekend after this one....A year ago when I came up at the same time it snowed 4" and the smaller lakes got some good ice. It got really cold that weekend, and then the next weekend it was like 70's. Typical Minnesota, right?

[RonZ]

I was up there at that time also. It was fun hunting in the falling snow. The ringers went nuts that day!

[Scott M]

We pounded some true Canadian geese, big boys but didn't see many ducks. Flushed a few grouse too. Might bring up the bow if things are slow on the upland and waterfowl fronts, but how likely is that.

What are the temps up there? Any snow flurries?

[RonZ]

We are heading out of here next Tuesday at 10:00am. Our plan is to head straight to Rice for the evening hunt.I have a couple questions if someone could help out.

1. What is the easiest way to get on the lake? It looks like there is 2 accesses to the lake. I will be in a 12ft row boat. I will have time to scope things out.

2. Instead of driving to Grave lake that evening we are thinking of staying the night near there. We will have the conversion van so a camping spot would be good enough.

Any help would be appreciated.

[RonZ]

Looks like Anchor Inn may be the answer. Camping and access to the lake.

[SVO]

Look into Barneys on the Bowstring. It is across the road from Anchor Inn, the prices are lower, the accomodations are nicer, and the people as nice as can be. You will not be disappointed.

[RonZ]

I'll do that!

[Scott M]

I'll post a report on Monday RZ.

[RonZ]

Talked to the guy at Barneys. He didn't have a camping spot(seasonal only). Wanted $100 for a night in the cabin. Since we will only be there sleeping about 6 hours seems a little high, but I understand. We will stay at the other place for $20 and grab something to eat at Barneys.

[Tebassco]

Better bring the hot dogs. Barney's food is closed!

[RonZ]

It'll be duck on the grill!! We hope. If the ducks don't mind.

[Scott M]

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.

Ran into a friend of mine while filling up gas in Garrison. He said after the big north winds on Wednesday he didn't see any ducks Th, Fri, Sat, or today. Guess I was a few days late, because earlier in the week he was cleaning up on all sorts of ducks.

I'll be back up next weekend, sure hope things turn around

[Coach Dog]

Saturday we hunted near Marcell and saw a lot of birds (over 100), mostly ringbills and ended up getting 4. We didn't shoot very well, but there was steady action. It was some of the better action I've seen up there in a while. Saw a lot of groups and they really worked the decoys. Only really saw ringbills though. No woodies, no mallards. But when we went out this morning, it sucked. We got 1 ringbill on 1 shot and that was it. We saw 1 little group after than and nothing else. Totally different than saturday.

Also, I caught and released a 12 pound northern saturday afternoon (among many others) so that was cool.

[Scott M]

Glad somebody got some action Coach Dog. Email me if you want to compare notes, if you don't that's fine.

I was looking at everything down 38 and didn't see any birds on the water. Found a little slough that looked promising though.

I'm waiting to hear from a friend that was down by Wabana on a rice lake to see if he did any good.

[MIKE IN lINO III]

We were out on a rice lake East of Wabana.

Dead calm with NO ducks flying. We saw two geese that didn't want anything to do with us. We decided to go grouse hunting and only saw one, no shot taken.

Sunday morning was the same.

Did get alot done around the shack though.

[RonZ]

Oh boy ... Not good reports. We have a secret spot. Hope its not so secret that the ducks don't know about it! Last year we hunted a lake on 38 on Saturday with winds out of the east and snow. Flock after flock of ringers flew over our dekes. Next day wind changed and not one flock We will be doing alot of scouting Wed. afternoon. Maybe I will bring the laptop and post when we are in marcell since they have wireless there.

[Scott M]

South winds are not good, and neither are hot temps. I wish like heck I could wait 2 weeks instead of 1 before I go back up. Might as well bring my bow and try and get my deer...When is the first BIG cold front coming?

[Coach Dog]

i sent you an email...

[Scott M]

Anybody having any luck? Sounds like other parts of the state are seeing birds. Didn't make it up to your parts this weekend but apparently the rain pushed a few birds around from what others are saying (SW MN, Aitkin Co, Bigstone area)

[RonZ]

last week. We seen lots of birds west of marcell.

hunted once north of marcell.

Wed. Morning shoot

Thursday morn. shoot.

Shot 1 ringie north of marcell

[Scott M]

Lookin good. I prolly won't make it back till Nov. 2. Sighhhh...

[Coach Dog]

Nice RZ! Near what lake or lakes were you?