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Any New Ducks in Your Area (where)?


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I'd like to here some reports as it's been cold and windy. Birds have got to be on the move!!! smile.gif

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I've been seeing some new birds around St. Cloud area. There aren't many yet though. Some Canvasbacks have moved in.

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Hunted in the north metro today for a couple hours - saw a handful of geese, a few decent flocks of mallards, and I shot 1 bluebill. Overall there was enough activity to keep me awake but not enough to burn more vacation anytime soon. I also saw a flock of sanhill cranes which was kinda cool. They didn't respond so well to the goose calls from the other guys on the lake though!:)

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Tons of ducks yesterday afternoon on Pelican (Orr,MN area). The ducks were coming off Nett Lake. Flock after flock until it was time to pick decoys up...and even then they still were coming until you couldn't see anymore cause it was dark...

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Went out this morning and there ain't nuthin new in the area. I opted to leave the goose decoys in the Jimmy this morning and go figure, two singles came over just itching to sit some where. I managed to get one hen woodie and that was it (she was also the only shot that I had all morning). I saw a group of 5 teal trading up and down the lake and that was all! Will have to try a new spot in the morning and see if that is any better. Not much new for waterfowl here in south metro! Have a good one and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

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Went to to Darwin.From Hanover to Buffalo to Darwin I didnt see a duck or any geese flying or on any water.

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Just rolled back f/warroad & rosseau nada lucky 2 scratch a few Cans.rdhds,ringo,& blubls,very few birds all call shy, I guess according to locals the last front brought a few birds but not alot.There still up in CAn. 5hrs past Winpg,to be exact I guess according to a scource.Ended up laving early to head so.pheasant huntin..(ps steer clear of Marshall area, public land beat to death already)

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All I can say is WOW!!! we had more ducks this morning than I've seen all year. We limited out on both ducks (30) and geese (10) hunting a flooded standing corn / soybean field near Brewster. There have been new ducks around all week from the sounds of it and these are definitely not locals. full color mallards, pintails, widgeons, shovelers, blue bills, greenwing teal, and ringnecks were seen and some of each were taken. I'm just hoping tomorrow will be half as good as this morning.

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I saw a increase in numbers in Bigstone this week.Had to head home just as the birds started to show up..

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We had the same thing this morning south of St Cloud...more ducks in the first 90 minutes than I've seen all year. Lots of mallards and ringnecks, and still lots of woodies and teal. Holy geese...we only got a few to commit, but dang there were a lot of flocks in the sky this morning. I learned a VERY valuable lesson this morning....my buddy was up from south of the cities. He has a fantastic pheasant dog so at about 9 we left the decs in the water and pulled the boat out. (He was on a schedule and we wanted to get a couple hours of bird hunting in and didn't want to mess with taking out 3 dozen decs). So as we were walking away from the pond I hear the "hooonk"...I thought..."no!". I turn around and from 75 yards I watch 2 geese drop RIGHT into the pocket in my decs. I could not believe it. What a kick in the ol you know what. grin.gif They honked for 10 minutes straight trying to get a respone from my decs. grin.gifgrin.gif First lesson learned...don't leave your decs out and this will never happen. grin.gif Second lesson...don't leave when there are still lots of birds flying.

Oh well..it was worth it...we came back to the house and limited out on pheasants in 40 minutes. It was a great day today.

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Don't feel bad!

What happened to you is part of the rules.

Whenever you leave here comes birds.

It never fails.

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Lots of new birds today in East Central Minnesota. We killed some pretty heavy mallards, a couple pintails, and some really good looking ringbills. Had one flock of cans work us, but not well enough for a shot. Can't wait until next weekend. Things will only get better from here on out.

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nothing but knew birds today. we got worked by mostly divers. we shot one mallard, a few ringbills, buffleheads, cans, redhead, and bluebills. it was great. i expected a diver or two but was very shocked. had a nice flock of cans land in the dekes five minutes before shooting time and of course before the alarm rang they were gone. good hunt though. 12 birds total. the divers are getting here. time to get burnt hard.

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Hunted a small pond here in the metro this weekend. Saturday was good got a few mallards, gadwail, and two woodies. Today was terrible. Didn't hardly see anything. All the birds were a mile high. I managed to get a hooded merganser. I seen a few buffelheads. So I am guessing that some birds are starting to get pushed down.

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Hey Jimbo,

I was wondering if u could give me a heads up when some birds start showing up in the area. I grew up around the LeCenter/Montgomery area and was wanting to get back there to do some hunting. Hunted Greenleaf lake most of my life, but the last few years it has been pretty dead. Any info would be great.

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I will keep you posted on how we do. I won't be back out until next weekend. I am guessing with this cold front moving through the migrators shouldn't be too far behind.

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Saw a few flocks of divers in the Metro yesterday. Very surprised at the low numbers of geese though. I had a flock of mergansers that kept landing in my decoys, but other than a picture of a nice hood I don't like eating them so I'd rather let them be live decoys. Did get two Goldeneyes which surprised me. We may be in for a few good weeks. I can't wait for the deer season to thin the crowds a bit for us non-Bambi killers.

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Drove through Fergus Falls yesterday around noon. We saw flocks of 10 to 200 geese with a total of about 3,000 birds. They were everywhere!!!

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I hunted east of Fergus Saturday morning. It was a frenzy for once. Great shooting, and I had my six birds by 8am. The odd thing was they were all blue wing teal. Scads and scads of them. What a feast we had Saturday night! I love teal. When they's bank towards me, the sun would catch their wings and it looked like little blue lights blinking. One group had about 60 birds. They were still buzzing me as I picked up my dekes.

Sunday was not as good, but the wind had shifted. Managed two green wings, though. There were some more divers in the area. By 8 am most of the activity was over.

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Yup, I'm 45 miles east of Fergus. Saturday morning we nailed the teal. I had some kids hunting with me who didn't limit out but I did! And you are right, Saturday night was one tasty meal.

Sunday was much slower but did get a mounter drake woodie and a canvasback.

Today was nearly dead. I got two gadwalls out of one flock. That's about all I saw!

I hope it's not going to be another lull.

Randy

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had a few flying saturday morning at the cabin. Shot one drake woodie that was gorgeous. If I had waited two minutes longer to retrieve (doggless this weekend), I could've had a few shots at a flock of geese flying in low. Sandmannd had a few shots at the though. It was a great hunt though between the woodie and being able to be there for a new hunter to get a few shots off, and watching the beavers swimming around.

Don't worry Sandmannd, you'll connect soon!

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Drove back from NoDak yesterday. NoDak was very poor to average on ducks shot and ducks seen.

But coming through Fergus, holy cow! Geese everywhere! You guys h unting there are lucky ducks smile.gif Didn't see to many ducks from the freeway, but the large flocks of geese were impressive.

I NoDak we did get a variety: mallard, pintail, green wing, blue wing, redhead, bufflehead, gadwall, and could have shot spoonies and ringbill buzzed us. Only one flock of snows/blues in the area that we saw. Quite a few Canadas. But it was darn windy and warm over there.

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West of GF, east of DL. The closer to 2 we got going south we saw more birds. We were not in the best area, but we have friends and lots of access to land. We just didn't seem that many, kind of bummed, but we still got some shooting. Good luck!

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Hunted some bigger water today near Fergus. One woodie, one mallard. Had some cans, reaheads, and a few bills buzz my setup. Lots of stuff flying high.

The teal seem to have boogied, however.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

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