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any new ducks


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I am no duck migration expert....but here in Northern MN (Vermilion, Pelican, Big Rice, and Nett lake) which normally hold tons of birds have been idle since last wednesday. The weather has been too nice since then. Our thoughts is that the ducks have flown back into Canada as this nice weather would allow. On last wednesday we a great deal of ducks on Pelican with reports of the same on Nett. We have not had any significant NW or N winds to push them south, as you southern guys have not been seeing birds either. My only guess is they are back north. I am crossing my fingers for that!

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Quote:

Deadsville up North.

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 on this website earlier in the week or the 2nd weekend DNR C.O. hunter check reports.


Don't go by reports, 99% of the time you will be disappointed.

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Well waterfowl folks I just got back from north-central ND and the locals for the most part have gone south. There is a very minimal amount of duck migration starting but not enough to get excited. The "black" geese were in a good migration with several thousands in and around the Rugby area. In a nut shell the goose hunting was really good but also hard because of all the big flocks were hard to get them to commit. The ducks are just not there yet. We were there from the 9th through the 14th. We field hunted about 90% and did manage some water hunting with some pintails and cans. Over all the best hunt was on Wednesday before most of the ducks left and the new group of geese were valnurable to our set ups.

mr

P.S. a ton of jerky was made this week for family and co-workers!!!! wink.gif

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I was up in the Park Rapids area this weekend. Not alot of shooting in the morning, but wow the evening was a blast.

We had over 500 ducks flying about. Mallards and wood ducks mostly.

We had a flock of I bet 60-80 teal buzz over our heads. My buddy jumps up and says.. what the Heck was that.. I just said birds dumbass - look.

Most fun I have had in awhile - just have to be sure to identify the birds - alot of megansers found their way to the spread.

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I returned from hunting western MN the past 4-5 days and there are ducks around. Location (play the wind), #s/ placement of decoys and calling made a huge difference. There was a lot of pressure in the area over the weekend and the hunting actually improved. Just had to get away from the masses to really get the birds. Our bags consisted of Teal, Mallards, Widgeon, Wood Duck, Redhead, Ringneck, Pintails and a Can (for the wall grin.gif). Another great hunt.

On my travels on back roads on the way to and from the hunt every pothole and pond had ducks in it. There are plenty of ducks around in my eyes. smile.gif

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I saw more ducks today than I have all season. All were high and most were heading east. I believe them to be ringnecks but can't swear to it. Problem is that none of them wanted to come down to say hi. Never fired a shot.

Not sure if they are locals leaving or migrants arriving.

Randy

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Hey Randy,

How you doing? Noticed the first divers (redheads, ringbills, few cans) in the area last Thursday and went out scouting again late this afternoon and there's new mallards around as well. Big fatties in full color. Thinking of heading out this a.m. to see if there's huntable #'s of divers. Looks like we could get some ducky weather come next Wednesday with high's in the low 40's. Give me a call and maybe we can hook up on a week day hunt. (320) 424-1382.

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After the small cold front we had last tueday/wednesday here in central WI there are definitley some larger groups and new ducks moving down(though the last few days have been slow). Before last wednesday we were shooting mallards, ringnecks, shovelers, a few teal, woodies, gadwall and a couple of cans and redheads.

After the cold front we've seen larger groups of mallards, a lot of bluebills, and a lot of mixed divers(mergansers, some bufflehead), a couple of widgeon(my buddy shot a beautiful drake), and gadwall.

Our party has been getting a lot of mixed bags. Like the other day we shot 14 ducks(4 guys), and the most numerous species in the bag only counted for three of them, been pretty interesting.

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What an interesting day on the water today was. I was anticipating seeing some divers winging into the decoys and mallards. Instead I had non-stop wood ducks and green wing teal, and a few mallards. Never saw a diver in the sky after spotting some nice rafts the past week and as late as yesterday. Shot two woodies, two green wing and two mallards. Was the first time I hunted this slough this year and was totally caught off guard because it's typically really good for early divers (mid-October). Woodies flew from half hour before sunrise to as late as noon. In 30 years of hunting have never seen so many woodies in one day, and such big flocks of woodies. It was an interesting and fun day.

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sounds like a blast! wish I could still hunt during the week. being a weekend warrior sucks!

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I only hunted an hour before I had to leave for work. But, I managed one mallard and came awfully close to having a flock of canadas with three snow geese in it fly over in range. I only needed about 15 more yards and I could have popped those snows.

Go figure. Snowgeese and no divers. Never even saw one today.

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Just got back from warroad area.Anticipated great shooting but...not so fortunate most, of the locals moved out and were not replaced. Did however have some shooting on divers as Cans, reds,bluebills slightly moved in to make it somewhat interesting and keep ya attentive. Now its back to work as another wk of vac has been spent guessing when the birds were going2 be around(I have to put in vac time in Jan)

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After the week long soaker we recieved we've got ducks all over the place. we limited this morning hunting a flooded field. SW MN

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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