Waterfowl Reports

[Pherris]

Well yesterday was day 1 of my week long adventure. Blue bird skies and very little wind here in Point Du Bois, Manitoba with.warm fall temps yesterday. We hunted for a few hours in the morning and again in the eve. Our group of 5 ended up with 39 ducks with a little bit of everything. We got teal, mallards, widgets,gadwall, pintail and a few others. We were hunting over wild rice from shore blinds. We made a nice lunch out of our morning bag. We made deep fried buffalo duck fingers and boy were they good. Weather is going to sunny and warm today with no wind so we are heading up the Winnipeg river to get some walleye. May do an evening hunt. Looks like weather should get better for hunting as the week progresses.

Good Hunting!

[erikwells]

I hunted Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday morning over a couple dozen shells in west central MN this weekend. We saw lots and lots of geese and failed to bring a single goose into the decoys. The early season we did not see nearly as many birds however they responded more times than not to the decoys. Hunting the same area but moved a hundred or so yards to be next to the picked corn where I had seen geese sitting last week. I am just getting back into waterfowl hunting again and have a lot to learn yet. Anyone have any thoughts on why we went from decoying most birds in August and September to decoying zero in October? I believe we concealed ourselves well sitting 3 rows back in the standing corn. Any suggestions are welcome, thanks Erik.

[Andrew Erickson]

they are smartened up

[fishadb]

If you can pattern them leave the decoys at home and lay in a fence line or weed patch and wait for them to fly over. I have geese sitting in one of my fields right now, the problem is with it raining they never leave so I can get out there.

[BoxMN]

Nice hunt smuts!

[Todd Caswell]

Well yesterday was day 1 of my week long adventure. Blue bird skies and very little wind here in Point Du Bois, Manitoba with.warm fall temps yesterday. We hunted for a few hours in the morning and again in the eve. Our group of 5 ended up with 39 ducks with a little bit of everything. We got teal, mallards, widgets,gadwall, pintail and a few others. We were hunting over wild rice from shore blinds. We made a nice lunch out of our morning bag. We made deep fried buffalo duck fingers and boy were they good. Weather is going to sunny and warm today with no wind so we are heading up the Winnipeg river to get some walleye. May do an evening hunt. Looks like weather should get better for hunting as the week progresses.

Good Hunting!

your along ways east from anything I've hunted up there, went there 9 years and never brought a water decoy with. You head an hour north and west and you will start to encounter more ag fields.

[Musky Buck]

If I have a field they're using I leave the decoys at home, think how many times an older goose has had hunters come out of goose chairs, layout blinds in or near the decoys, round bale blinds, etc. They always skirt us out of range and why decoy when you know they're coming anyway, our experiences tell us they'll land out of range and squak like mad, so we shoot our limit, and get out of the field asap to make use of it again, if we're picking up decoys etc./trucks etc. it just scares the rest away. Got a neighbor who says so and so can call geese like no 1 I've ever seen, I said well it's unnecessary when you already have 500 birds coming to the field day after day and can only bag 3, you just line up according to the wind and if they land short fine they'll take off into it anyway and good night. Hiding without dekes is tough at times but I just lay as motionless as possible using some of the farmers cornstalks to break up my outline, motionless is ultra key, good luck guys the migrants (lesser/a few snows) are in many areas now. The bonus is not having to pack up dekes or drive in a farmers field which some don't like especially in the field conditions we have now. OK here's a tip, I in muddy rainy conditions do use a ice fishing black sled that I painted up camo to keep me out of the mud. Hose off etc. when done so I do use something in muddy conditions the other thing is how many guys are you trying to hide makes a difference, I generally hunt with 1 or 2 others and at times if you know your fields very well a guy can line up the exit route the birds generally take after you shoot at them and put a guy there he often will get better shooting at times.

[erikwells]

Muskybuck, thanks for the tips, makes sense. I am struggling to put the decoys away because they worked like crazy August and September. Conditions and obviously they get smarter as the season rolls along. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around how quickly it changed from almost every flock decoying and decoying to the point of wanting to land to having 20-30 flocks fly by at 100-200 yards and hardly even look. Thats crazy to me but it feels like reality. Thanks again.

[Musky Buck]

I hear ya, I've been hunting MN geese since 1979 and was fortunate enough when they started re-establishing the giant honkers they chose my grandpa's backyard in New York Mills MN. They clipped the wings on 8 pairs and let the young end up wherever they ended up and a flock grew quickly there spreading to nearby Wadena and Bluffton and Perham and beyond. I do use decoys and calling when I'm noticing lots of singles or pairs or small flocks in the area or when the lessers arrive with the migrants, those local honkers get pretty wise pretty quick and it is strange when I hunt a field they are really coming to without decoys etc. But when they finally circle over you they are really shocked when you hop up bangin, when we try to decoy they land too far away and then the pile grows where the live darn birds are then you sit there just screwed, now what lay in your blind for 3 hours, we do our best to pretty much sit middle of the field and conceal with 0 movement and when in range we let drive because we don't want that first flock landing 200 yards away drawing the rest in, we can't simulate enough movement in a large decoy spread, they really start looking it over from out of range and those veteran birds steer the gang usually out of range, scouting really helps because certainly they prefer maybe more toward the end of the field, the middle etc. so we set up making sure we'll get good shooting cutting off them from landing short. It really all depends, lets say we know it will be our last hunt in a field or something like the weekend before deer season so we may decoy anyway but yet will not sit near them usually 1 guy will and it's not me lol, a rookie, those loners or pairs you know, but right now the flocks I'm seeing nightly are growing in numbers where I'm at, they are coming to the corn very high and straight down from pass shooters etc. It's just safer for them. Good luck and experiment and enjoy not picking up decoys at times, just bellied up geese !

[Musky Buck]

Will be going in minutes goose hunting, 0 decoys, the farmer would kill me rutting up his field road, I would imagine, hard part is remember if rain hits their beak or snow they are out to the fields, they'll sit all day in stuff like today so my optimism is shaky, however if they're out there when I get home I will walk the standing corn and line up the wind with them and they will fly off on a cloudy/rainy day in time to pass shoot them, will let the first 3 flocks go by without a shot so I got those to hunt maybe tomorrow night, then it's 3.5" federals until 3 hit the deck. I'm 100% certain they have been sitting there all day with an all-day soaker. Snow, they will head back to open water if it's very cold but not for long they'll fly back out off and on all day on a cold snow flurries kind of day prior to heading south, kinda the last hurrah of them, the last week they'll be around where I live, and the fat layer will be thick lol. I need a banded goose, got 9 in the 80's and 0 since, go into town look at the geese and every other bird seems banded, voodoo on those banded honkers.

[Todd Caswell]

Will be going in minutes goose hunting, 0 decoys, the farmer would kill me rutting up his field road, I would imagine, hard part is remember if rain hits their beak or snow they are out to the fields, they'll sit all day in stuff like today so my optimism is shaky, however if they're out there when I get home I will walk the standing corn and line up the wind with them and they will fly off on a cloudy/rainy day in time to pass shoot them, will let the first 3 flocks go by without a shot so I got those to hunt maybe tomorrow night, then it's 3.5" federals until 3 hit the deck. I'm 100% certain they have been sitting there all day with an all-day soaker. Snow, they will head back to open water if it's very cold but not for long they'll fly back out off and on all day on a cold snow flurries kind of day prior to heading south, kinda the last hurrah of them, the last week they'll be around where I live, and the fat layer will be thick lol. I need a banded goose, got 9 in the 80's and 0 since, go into town look at the geese and every other bird seems banded, voodoo on those banded honkers.

Thats a fine plan if you like pass shooting, I don't care for it, I like em chest out an feet own, theres something to be said about becoming efeciant on a call and realism.

[Lunker]

2 man limit this morning in the rain in WI. 5 mallards, 3 pintails, 3 teal, 1 ringer. Was a great morning, lots of birds moving around.

[Stringerless!]

I am in the same boat as Todd. No decoying =no shots fired. Saw a few bigger flocks of ducks this evening. Couple were upwards of 40 birds each. Yesterdays biggest was 15 birds. Had 1 lone goose come in and decoy right to both of my mojos. Could have ran out in the water and grabbed it by the neck it was so close. MISSED ! My excuse is my over and under only shot once, and it was 4 shot at that. Shot string could not have been much larger than a baseball at that range ! We could hear him coming from behind and I was looking and flagging towards the last place he honked. Thought he was coming over the cattails but out of the corner of my eye saw that he was already lower than them and coming around the point.Inside our closest deke . My son never even got his gun up.No ducks worked us at all.

[Troy Smutka]

Walleyeking 19

It was a very nice drake woodie. There were only four completed bars under each wing, but other than that he was a trophy. One of the ringneck drakes was getting close to fully plumed as well.

[benbosh]

Shot a solo limit of teal in 45 mins this morning in So. MN. 3 GWT drakes, 2 hens and 1 BWT hen. If I would have shot better it would have been a 20 min limit.

[dan z]

The last couple says have been nothing short of phenomenal I'm not saying I have shot a limit everyday but the past five days have been very good. I'll just say that the icing on the cake was shooting 4 surf scooters.

[jparrucci]

Northern MN in the Vermilion area has been horrible. One blue wing teal last weekend. That is the only shot I have fired in 5 or 6 trips. No major move of ringnecks into this area. Glad I am headed south Saturday because it has been real poor around here. At least the grouse hunting has been okay and the dogs like that better

[BoxMN]

I did see a small raft of ringbill on a small lake in the Emily/Crosslake area on my way home Monday night. First time in 14 years that I have seen divers on that little lake, not sure if that is normal or if I am just not there when they usually go through. Cool to see.

[fishuhalik]

The last couple says have been nothing short of phenomenal I'm not saying I have shot a limit everyday but the past five days have been very good. I'll just say that the icing on the cake was shooting 4 surf scooters.

First a speck, now scooters?! Pics please!!

[dan z]

[FowlSki]

Nice work Dan. Seems scoters are becoming more and more common. We shot a couple last year and saw a decent number of them. Good luck making them taste decent. We made one into jerky with a bunch of geese and it still tasted horrible!

[BrdHunter01]

Last weekend:

Saturday ~ teal were everywhere. The DNR at the access said 90% of the groups had limits of BWT.

Sunday ~ not as many teal around, only had 3 in the bag with 8 ducks total for two of us.

Monday ~ the teal were completely gone. Bagged 7 ducks between two of us with a mixed bag. Mallards are still non existent. The ones we did see were very leary, landing outside the decoys or not commiting to anyone (locals I suspect).

[Ufatz]

Hey fellas, I am a little puzzled at the mention of "surf scoters." There are a couple species or sub=species of Scoters and they are primarily coastal birds and migrate along both coasts so I am surprised that you guys are finding and shooting them this far inland. Could the birds you are shooting be something else?

As for cooking them, I used to hunt with an old fella who took the breasts off a dozen or so, soaked them in milk for a couple hours while we tested varying scotches, then rolled them in egg and crumbs and deep fried them. We generally wiped out a platter full.

But lets all do some research to make sure we are actually talking about "surf scoters."

[Markula]

Hey fellas, I am a little puzzled at the mention of "surf scoters." There are a couple species or sub=species of Scoters and they are primarily coastal birds and migrate along both coasts so I am surprised that you guys are finding and shooting them this far inland. Could the birds you are shooting be something else?

As for cooking them, I used to hunt with an old fella who took the breasts off a dozen or so, soaked them in milk for a couple hours while we tested varying scotches, then rolled them in egg and crumbs and deep fried them. We generally wiped out a platter full.

But lets all do some research to make sure we are actually talking about "surf scoters."

Ducks in the pucture are Scoters.

Maybe you should do the research, you'll see they are common to the Great Lakes region.

[Ufatz]

Don't be flip! They are not "common to the great lakes" they are common along the coasts, bred in central arctic of Canada and Alaska. I will concede that is what you guys are shooting; but I am surprised. They DO use the great lakes seaways apparently during migration.

Are you guys shooting them in the NE part of MN? That would make sense.

And, as I related, they can be eaten and are pretty tasty when treated right.

But then, a nice fat woodchuck might roast up pretty nice too when you consider what he eats!

[dan z]

My location is south central Minnesota and thats were I shot them...

[FowlSki]

Ours were shot near the great lakes. I probably saw 20 scoters last year in three different flocks on two different pieces of water. They also shoot longtails on Lake Michigan and occasionally on the eastern side of Lake Superior. Last year I saw a picture of a harlequin that was in a pond in MN. Apparently they get off track from time to time.

I have heard even the sea duck hunters think they taste like garbage. Cool to shoot either way. You can always feed em to the dog.

[mwal]

At our cabin in NW WI 25 air miles from Lake Superior I have shot Old squaw and scoter's. The old Squaw were edible scoter not so much.

Mwal

[Kettle]

North central MN, find the rice and you will find birds. Noticing more and more mallards are becoming call and decoy shy finally took the mojo yesterday and got a few mallards in. My bag has been mainly ringers this week fun to shoot just don't taste like the mallards. Have been passing on the mergansers but have been seeing a lot.

Kettle

[Stringerless!]

Had to work late. Kid was out and saw 2 ducks. That is it ! Not even any while wrapping up he said. Big water in north metro.