field reports

[Flick]

I spent the weekend in NW MN. 5 of us for the weekend got 30 ducks and 8 honkers. Overall it was pretty slow, numbers were down from last year it was pretty bad. I was surprised we got as many as we did.

[Bryce]

Sunday morning by Hutchinson for 2 guys. New puppies are playing with a an additional teal. -----------------
IBOT's # 17 & 248

[This message has been edited by Bryce (edited 09-27-2004).]

[Mark Christianson]

Hunted near Battle Lake.
Worst opening day of duck hunting for me in almost 25 years of duckin'.
I did not shoot my gun. My buddy shot 3 times at a young greenhead on his side, and blew it.

Is there any ducks in MN? Well, I know there are ducks, but holy crud, where are they? You could see for miles in the high skies, and there were no ducks flying high or low.
On Sunday, we got a few for 4 guys.
Today, my buddy and I got 4 geese and one woodie. The woodie was the only duck we had come in. Wow! I guess I have been spoiled in years past. It was pretty disappointing for the ducks, but the geese saved the day today.

[SEwalleye]

biglake-

We were hunting around Battle Lake as well. We heard a lot of shooting from what sounded like almost straight west of Battle Lake 5-6 miles. Do you know where these would have been coming from? Just trying to fill my curiosity. New to hunting the area, and it sounds like there are better areas to hunt than we were at.

[Benny]

Wow, this was my best opener for the past 5 years.
My group of three guys and one kid hunted near Ortonville, Saturday we limited out by 11AM.Sunday was a tuff day, nothing wanted to decoy in that was with a flock,we got 5 ducks Sunday.
Today it was just my buddy and I and we were soar from the two days of 30 yard cattail swamp walks so we set up on a pond split by a min maintnance road.
Called in a lone goose and two mallards, saw tons of geese today though.

We had a mix of teal,mallards,and one spoon bill.No woodies,pintails,or ring necks this weekend.

We ended up at a differant slew than planed on Saturday, some *****s camped out at the landing.
Don't these people realize it is a federal WMA and camping is not allowed on them?

We saw three campers at Beardsley slew as well, not sure about that one but my guess is they are not alowed to camp there either.

Can't wait to get back out there in three weeks.

Benny

[gtofast1]

Hunted the weekend in the Sherburne NWR sorry to say not to many ducks around when the sky busters are out in full force. Some of them just don't get it. I try to teach my kids to wait to make good clean shots and some dummies start blazing from along way off. They shout we thought you didn't see them. Go figure. Now I know why I take them out for the youth day. Kids did bag a few ducks. With the pressure this place gets the ducks don't hang around long.

[Froggy4371]

Set the drag I saw you on sat. I think. We were the one's searching for the ducks at 11:30. We had a 14' boat with me and big chessie sitting in the front. Give me a shout on me e-mail. I can give you some more info about the lake if you need it or maybe we can hook up and go hunting some time. willsphillip at hotmail dot com

Froggy

[Coots Unlimited]

Nothing great, but it was fun! Except for looking into the glaring sun.

Saturday, got woodies, mallards, teal, snipe, and one goose. Ten total birds.

Sunday, was the same story; woodies, mallards, teal, snipe, and one goose. Eight total birds.

Already thinking about the fun to be had this coming Saturday...

[Rolly22]

Didn't hunt Saturday. Sunday: Beaver pond in North Central MN. 4 guys. 8 Woodies and 9 Mallards.

[Mark Christianson]

SEeye
We actually hunt east of Battle Lake near Vining.
No idea what would specifically be west of Battle Lake. There is an awful lot of water in Ottertail County as a whole.

There wasn't any specific area around us that seemed to be shooting up the ducks. It was pretty sporadic.
We did get to listen to a group somewhere to our west, that did manage some large volleys of shots at 7am Saturday morning. Yes, Saturday. They had the best shooting of the day from what I could tell....

[Fish'n guy]

We did pretty good in our group with 32 ducks for the weekend. 8 came on saturday 1 mallard 1 woodie and 6 blue wings, and Sunday was much better with 3 mallards 1 gadwall 3 greenwings and 17 bluewings. With our exceptional shooting abilities it only took us about ten boxes of shells to get them. OH WELL, we still had a blast and can't wait to get back out!!!!!!!!

[SEwalleye]

7 AM???? I probably didn't hear those shots because I wasn't even to our spot yet. That is absolutely absurd. Maybe we would have had a better weekend if we would have started at 7 am saturday. Then again, I'd be behind bars if I did such a hideous thing.

[Duck-o-holic]

We also had a poor opener this year. Seems to be a common theme on this thread! 4 of us hunted on the weekend, and we ended up with 14 mallards, and 2 gadwall. Shot a drake spoony and one teal for the dog when it got slow, but could have finished out our limits each day on teal if we were into shooting them. Heard a lot of gunning on Sunday morning, but am guessing much of it was at teal, as there were a lot of them around. Could have shot a lot of geese had we not been in the LQP zone.

Pretty disappointed at the low number of mallards we saw. Hopefully the migration will be a strong one this year! Sure would love to trade this week in for one at the end of the season! I am not happy with the opening date this year!!

Good Gunnin'

Duck-o-holic

[deerdragger]

We did fair - 23 teal (all bw, with one gw) and 2 honkers for 4 guys. We were hunting in Becker County. Kinda suprised that we didn't get into any woodies or mallards, but those teal cook up pretty darn good.

[ChuckN]

BLB,
Remember all that talk last year when I said you have to "work" for your birds. LOL Don't assume to kill the birds on the same slough year after year cause it was good 20 years ago.

All kidding aside,

SE Walleye, all that shooting came from the 3 Silver Lakes region. I hear all that shooting year after year (I hunt close to Battle Lake). I swear they are blasting black birds, cause there aren't that many ducks in the area.
Where abouts are you hunting where you can hear them?

[Mark Christianson]

Hey now CD!!! Is that you again??
I did some scouting earlier around our general area, but living 125 miles away doesn't make it easy. You need to point me to the spots you find on your way to work man!!!!
We hunted our slough, my Dad was on another slough, and we had 2 other sloughs on standby.
Just because the birds were there a week ago, doesnt mean they will be there the next week either. Youth day, we saw an awful lot of woodies on our slough. Where did they go? We never shot at one woodduck opening weekend on our slough.

[ChuckN]

Those ducks boogie in a hurry, that's for sure. I had so many ducks on the slough the Monday before opener it was unreal! 5 days later, more than 75% had disappeared. Nothing you can do about that.

Either way, it sure is nice to get out and hunt, right?

[Mark Christianson]

That is true CD!
It was a lackluster hunt for us, but you know what?
Monday etched some memories at least.

[SEwalleye]

Chuck-

Thanks for filling my curiosity. I just can't believe the number of shots in that direction. It was really the only shooting that we heard (we definitely didn't hear ourselves making much noise).My dad and I were hunting to the west of Clitherall Lake. We need to do some more scouting! Something we should have done over the summer on all of those rainy weekends. We hunted this spot last year for the 1st time and did ok, but I think it may have been a fluke. It is a deep pond, and I think that it may be better late season. Thanks again for your help.

[jerkin'm]

Hey Chuck have you got the water level right in the slough in front of your house yet? I have my dekes all ready to set in front of your house. Went out Monday morning and got a couple wooodies and geese. Saw more than I thought since nearly all the sloughs were duck free. Do you do much field hunting for geese? I have some pretty good field hunting access in the area if you are interested.

[Thunderchicken]

Weel I'm sorry to here that a lot of you guys had a tough time over there in MN. I'm originally from Appleton MN and talked with some guys over at the Marsh Lake area and they had a tough time as well. It took a lot of them all day to get half limits. I now live in SD and have had the best waterfowl hunting ever. I have hunted the same slew opening weekend and the second weekend and have limited out everytime. Some days it takes an hour and others it nmay take till noon. It is usually three of us hunting with out a dog which makes things harder. Sat. we didn't even shoot a mallard! We got 6 bwt, 3 wideons, 2 pintails, 3 woodies, 4 gadwals, and 3 geese and was done by 8:20. But Sunday was a diffent story. We got 11 mallards, 3 pintails, 4 widgeon and 5 geese and was doen by 7:50. I think the differanc was we didn't have the mogo with on Sat. and we did on Sun. Hope that this weekend is as good. I tell you what if anyone does come over let me know we always have room for one more!!

Happy hunting!

[ChuckN]

SEWalleye, I thought I heard a shot or 2 from your direction on Sunday morning. I'm hunting just to to east of you about a mile or so.

jerk'n, the rice crop turned out pretty good given the cool summer. Early to mid-September dumped about 8-10" of rain which really filler it up. The ducks appear to have left the area after Sunday's appearance. I haven't observed much. I do field hunt for geese sometimes, I have a couple dozen silouettes, that's about it. Give me a shout if you want to hunt. chunord at yahoo

[ATM]

Thunder, where in SD are you huntinh. Adam

[SEwalleye]

Chuck-

That was me missing a pair of mallards that came in. Any advice on the area? Is the spot I'm hunting a decent spot or should I be looking elsewhere? I'm heading back up this weekend because it looks like a cold front is pushing through on Friday. Maybe is will bring a few ducks into the area. Thanks again!

[honker23]

I know this is a little late..
We had a slow opener for our standards, only 8 and a goose on sat. Sun was better with 15. We were surprised with the lack of teal on our slough. Guys with permission to hunt the flooded fields just pounded limits of mallards, especially on sun. We hunt in south central MN. Good luck to all this weekend.

[Thunderchicken]

ATM,

Say we went out in the Brookings area this past weekend but it all depends on the time of year where we end up going. We have some spots over in the Mitchell area and up in the Webster area. Like I said it all depends on the weather and the hunting pressure. Because everything we hunt in public land. Never had to really had to find a private place. After about the 2nd or 3rd weekend you will never see another duck hunter the rest of the season because of the " Ditch Parrot " season opens then and everyone is after them.

Happy Huntting!

[ChuckN]

SEWalleye,
I'm pretty sure I know where you guys are. I would hunt the shallow, rice pond early season and hunt the other deep one late season.

[SEwalleye]

Thanks Chuck! I have only found the deepwater area. Which is the shallower pond? Good luck this weekend!

[ChuckN]

SEeye, I didn't see your first post, I didn't know you hunted a WPA. I've been wanted to try those spots, but never have.
This weekend could be better?? It's is darn cold out, 39 degrees right now! Good luck.

[Flashman]

We had one of the best openers I can remember. 3 of us filled up Saturday morning at 10:34;15 teal, 1 mallard a ring neck and a red head. Sunday we had 4 hunters, 15 ducks mix of teal and mallards and 2 spooners and a goose. Talking with others that were hunting around us we by far did better then them. Hunted the south shore of Lake of th Woods. I guess we were just in the right spot.