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How does look around the Clitherall area? I'll be up there this weekend trying to bag a few duckies. I'm sure our group will be hitting the Sportsman at sometime as well. Good luck all!!

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Hey Sarge, there were lots of ducks a couple weeks ago! smirk.gif With the cooler temps a lot of birds have moved on, but I think it's still going to be a good opener....just not as good as it looked earlier this month.

Maybe see you around at the Sportsmans.

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I hope it will be a good opener this will be my first year hunting public land....and i have been doing some scouting and seeing "some" birds around....Just hate the fact that its public land cuz in the long run all of the scouting a guy does could be worthless come crunch time! Good Luck to all and lets hear what everyone else thinks about this upcoming opener!

smile.gif

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Looking at the weather forcast for this weekend and again it looks as though this opener will be a sunny blue bird days with a forcasted high of 58!! mad.gif

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however i should add that sunny and 58 degrees sitting outside behind a decoy spread is alot more fun then 70 degrees sitting inside behind a work desk! cool.gif

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Fishing is always a great backup to the bluebird skies! It's a win/ win situation. It also beats listening to your wife and kids for a weekend grin.gif

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I'm kinda looking forward to listening to the kid this weekend. He'll be right next to me in the blind. smile.gif

He's pretty stoked. So am I.

If the ducks are around, I'll take 58 for a high over some of the years when its been much warmer than that. Or years when we have had a downpour. Or years its been just ducky, and no ducks were around. grin.gif

Plenty of great shoots have happened on not-so ducky looking days.

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I agree! I always get pumped for opener no matter what the duck or weather forecast is. I look forward to listening to my kid(s) in the blind in a couple of years. I'll just have to put up with my buddies BS until then.

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Joe, 58 is nice that is still like 8 degrees below normal. At 9:00 or half an hour before sunrise on sunday it will be perfect no matter what the temp is. It is hunting season again!!!!! Perfect.... Hot, Warm, Cold, Rainy, Ducks or no Ducks it will be perfect....

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63 on Saturday and 71 on Sunday.

T shirt weather! Its getting close and I cant flippin wait.

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Well i cant really explain how excited i am for this weekend, i missed the whole duck season last year so i feel like a kid in a candy store right now. also the fall walleye bite should be happening so that is good as well. good luck to everybody this weekend and be safe.

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Well...how was it? Our group had a pretty slow go of it Saturday, but I'm assuming most people did with the lack of shooting that we heard. Sunday morning was pretty fun though. We were surprised at how many ducks were actually buzzing around. Overall, a great weekend!!

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Decent. Better than last year for certain.

My son and I got 4 blue wings Saturday, and Sunday morning we got 4 ringnecks.

Very few ducks decoyed for whatever reason, so thankfully the few that came in had good shots made at them.

Good number of ducks milling around overall though.

Very pleasant surprise at the number of ringnecks around!

I wonder if they are locals or if there was a push from up north? Great to see them around again on opener. Been a lot of years since seeing decent opening weekend numbers.

Woodies and teal were awfully slim in numbers though.

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Best opener I have ever experienced.

Unreal the amount of mallards and ringnecks observed. While waiting for the 9am opener I bet there were thousands of birds that covered the water. Lots of coots, but tons of ducks bombing into the coot loads.

We shot teal, mallards, ringbills and one goose. Saturday we got our limit and Sunday 1 duck....very poor shooting. blush.gif

Just seeing all the ducks was what made the hunt. Ringbills dropping from the hi-skies sounding like F-16's coming down. Priceless. grin.gif

Hardly any hunters on this body of water (public), but lots of shooting from nearby sloughs.

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Fair number of ducks, some teal, mostly mallards.

Saturday 9am was brutal, ducks flying for the first 30 minutes then nothing with the blue bird skies. My son had a hard time understanding why we had to wait until 9am and only until 4pm, when for the youth waterfowl in ND we could hunt all day, but I did my best to explain (really comes down to MN has no ducks!)

Lots of geese in the area, but kind of worthless to field hunt from 9am to 4pm. Would rate the opener below average.

Cannot wait to hunt ditch parrots in 2 weeks!

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we saw very few. Close to the worst opener I've had as far as shooting. Still great to be out as the shooting is only part of the experience. We quit at noon and drove around, nearly every public area we drove by had a group in it. Almost everyone we talked to had very little shooting.

We fished on Sunday and did well. Great day for it.

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Say fellas, did ya notice that the stewards of our national waterfowl population upped the bag limit for Mergansers this season? Bless their little hearts. Nothin' like roasted Merganser to highlight a gourmet dinner.

But it DOES make the overall waterfowl population number look higher doesn't it.

On the other hand, since there is nothing to shoot at, we are all saving enough money on pricey shotgull shells to buy lots more chicken.

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ChuckN

did your hunting spot last weekend start with a "P"? Just curios.... you don't have to answer if you wish.

today i drove past a place where there were probably around 800+ ducks flying around.

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I know where Chuck hunted, and sadly I will let the cat outta the bag....

It was a "P"ond..... grin.gif

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yeah i thought that answer might come up...

seriously though, i'm just curious as i won't be hunting this spot, it's just a bit too far from home, and i've got closer spots that are easier to hunt

the place I was thinking of is a lake that starts with a "P"

i don't know if that gives away the spot or not

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Good one BLB. laugh.gif

Nope, didn't start with P. Did you happen to see those high #'s of birds in OT county? I did... I'll give that much. grin.gif

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I'm going to take a guess that it starts with a "C" as long as were playing this game.

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I think he was.... grin.gif Gissert you around this weekend? You need to get over to my place at some point this weekend to share a brew around the bonfire......We can all make fun of Chuckie together.. grin.gif

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Yep, I'll be around. That sounds good. In fact, I am heading home in a few minutes here. Gonna go field hunt some geese tomorrow.

ChuckN knows how to track me down.

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I think that I'm putting 2 & 2 together here Chuck. I am just taking a crack at this based on your pic - Did you happen to talk to a couple of guys with a dog named "Ice"? If so, that was my Dad and I. shocked.gif

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