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Waterfowl Reports


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Hunted east of St. Cloud lots of Woodies and seen lots of Mallards good size flocks of them that were not interested in decoys... lots of geese as well saw 6-7 flocks of 20-30 birds each... beautiful morning to be out should have brought some fishing gear and headed to the lake afterward. After reading the reports from DU this year should be really stellar for birds it just sounds like it may take a week or two longer for the birds to come down from canada.

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Carlos Avery opening morning. On the edge and not many made it out that far. Non stop shooting for the first 40 minutes. Only had 4 chances to shoot. Capitolized on one. Ten of us scattered around in there got 10 birds total. Mallards,teal and woodies.Skyblast city as usual. Pass on birds that are too high directly overhead and the parties on each side of us unload on them.Nothing sporting about it to some ppl. You would think they are literally starving and the hail mary shots are their only chance at a meal.

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Stringerless, your a brave man....

The ignorance of the brain dead sky busters is amaxing!

As much as it isn't my kind of thing, Carlos would benefit if it was more controlled ..

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Watched the evening flight over a campfire and a few beers in my backyard. Woodies and teal settled in nicely on my slough. Several larger flocks of mallards winged in from the NW and headed in the direction of some picked small grain fields. A few ragged flocks of geese did likewise. Lots of wood ducks in the air still, they haven't flown the coop yet! Anybody fortunate enough to have tomorrow off would probably do pretty well tucked into a deep cove by one of the oak tree islands on Pelican with a canoe and a couple wood duck dekes. The ones I shot had crops full of acorns. No ducks for me this week, only overtime (unless it rains). The joys of being a pipeliner. Lots of money for shells, no time to shoot them.

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Had the new pup out this weekend. He is 8 months old now and 80#...wow. Either way he did good for a pup. Retrieved 6 on Saturday and a coot on Sunday. Duck numbers were ok on Saturday until about 830am and then it was a couple per hour after that. Was good to get him on some birds at least.

Sunday was almost void of birds with only the coot to show for the morning in the same spot. Woodies flew out super early as the normally do and found a better place to sit then the slough lol. Still a fun weekend and I am excited for the October 11th opener. Time to put some time in the deer stand I guess

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Well I had probably the worst duck opener weekend that anyone could ask for.

Saturday morning, my brother and I went out to some public land because our normal spot was dried up because the farmer tiled his field differently, so that was a bummer. But we got out to the lake at 4:30 and a guy was set up where we wanted to be, so we wandered over to a different spot and set up. People started shooting about 15 minutes before legal time and it was a pretty slow morning for us. We only got 2 woodies. Would've had more probably but the guys we talked to that beat us to our spot had 2 mojo's out in their spread and they were shooting like crazy. We'd see ducks across the lake and they'd make a beeline for the spinners. They must've shot 40 times by 9 o'clock. After we saw the mojo's I called TIP and got on the line with a Conservation Officer and on our way to our truck we met the CO going to talk to the guys. Wish I would've heard what happened to them.

Well on Sunday, tried a small private pond and all the birds that were there the day before didn't come back. I got one woody...would've had a few more if I could shoot straight.

And this morning decided to go out to a lake that I've never tried. Got out there early and started off down the channel towards the big lake. I wasnt going very fast and it took me a minute to realize what was wrong. The weeds and crud on top of the water were so thick it was clogging up my prop. I eventually got out to the main lake but it was white caps and it was a long drive across the lake so I decided to stay close to the landing, well away from where I've watched all the birds go. I was in a bad mood already and once it started raining I packed everything up and went in without firing a shot.

My season can only improve from here...right?!

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Saturday of opening weekend in SW Mn: 3 man limit in a couple hours. Not many teal or wood ducks in our area, mostly larger ducks in the bag. Sunday was much slower like usual...bagged 5 but saw more teal than the previous day.

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Walleyeking that sounds a lot like my weekend. Duck hunting can be a lot of work for sure and frustrating at times as well. If only we could all have a couple hundred acres of private hunting land to ourselves..... grin

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The opener was as good as it could be for me and my brother. We went to a public place and we pulled into the landing as the 9th rig at 330 and thought my spot would have been taken so we loaded up the boat. Headed out and my spot was open. smile a few shots later my limit was filled and people started to peter out and about 10a.m our limit was filled and high fives were had between the 2 of us. I thought it was great as I sat in the same exact spot last year and had the same out come.

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Cold, dark, and windy this morning. Plenty of birds around and they flew all morning. Would have been a great combo but my shooting was very rusty as was my eye for seeing the birds before they were on top of me or past. Ended up with a mallard, woody, and teal. Those species represented the majority of what was flying.

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Well went out this morning before the craziness of the weekend started again. With the wind and rain figured ducks would be flying, and I was right. The only crappy part was that a bunch of other guys had the same idea. Got to the spot about an hour before shooting light and there were already 3 trucks in the lot. Looked like 1 guy was bow hunting and the other two were duck hunting. I sat in my car and watched where they set up, and of course they went right where I wanted to. So i turned around and went to a different spot I knew of to try to salvage the morning.

By the time I got there it was already daylight and I didnt feel like walking all the way to the pond that late so I spent the morning scouting and just watching birds. I ended up meeting a farmer and I got permission to hunt his pond tomorrow, so hopefully my luck turns around! Good luck to everyone tomorrow!

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Small lake in Scandia. Saw about 200 geese total and 50 ducks total. Never took a shot. Nothing was close enough. No migration noted. Average amount of shots in the surrounding area.

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Well the teal and wood ducks have definitely moved on from my corner of the world at least. Went out this morning, got one mallard drake. Only fired one shot. No significant flight noted. Only saw 2 other ducks and a half dozen geese flying by. Relatively little shooting in Pelican. Almost all barrages in multiples of 3, probably skybusting. Will have to sit tight and wait for some northern birds now.

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I agree most of the teal and woodies have left the area. We got a couple mallards and a banded redhead. Not a lot of shooting and a lot less birds flying than I thought would be. This was yesterday I didn't make it out today.

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Woody hen today. Same place,same time. Not nearly as many birds seen as yesterday. Ducks or geese. Only migration noted was robins moving through.

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Got out yesterday AM, northern Metro. Less birds then last weekend. Definitely got smart fast..getting very call and shot shy..seemed most of the blue wing teal have bailed, woodies still around...now if we can just do something about the sky busters..

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Got out yesterday AM, northern Metro. Less birds then last weekend. Definitely got smart fast..getting very call and shot shy..seemed most of the blue wing teal have bailed, woodies still around...now if we can just do something about the sky busters..

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NW Minnesota. After 3 days of strong west/northwest winds, and even blowing snow on Friday, all I've really noted is many of our local birds have moved on.

Big group of woodies in the river behind our house are still there this evening though. I'd wager we've still got a lot of teal and wood ducks in the NW part of the state.

This cold snap, coupled with 3 days of really strong winds has definitely dropped the water temp fast though! If this keeps up, or happens a few more times over the next few weeks, we're going to see a pretty early freeze up this year.

Can't say I saw any new birds coming in from Canada.

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Saw about 20 woodies and a few coots in Cass county this weekend. Unfortunately we weren't set up for duck hunting..

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Drove from Grand Forks to the Iron Range today and saw some birds in the western part of the state but not a ton. Once we got east of Bemidji there were very few birds. Will probably chase grouse the next week or so until I start seeing more.

Kettle

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Near Grand Rapids MN, some birds around, decoy shy and call shy, downsized my spread today and got 2 ringbills and 2 teal. Sunshine and a light breeze made for a nap in the duck boat, probably had a few burn me while I was snoozing smile

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Chisago cty lake. 1 woody hen. Only op we had. Only saw woodies and 1 mallard. 2 geese seen. Not many shots heard.

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a lot more birds than last week with a lot of wigeon and gadwalls in the bag along with divers. A few nice greenheads as well.

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Carlos Avery tonight. Saw 8 ducks during legal hours. The occasional coot shots and hail mary volleys from the refuge road fools.They were still shooting at 6:46 ! A full 14 minutes after legal. Where is Ranger Rick ? This takes place routinely. And we wonder why the ducks become nocturnal.

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Super slow. Washington County.1 high flock of divers before light. 3 woodies swam into dekes from cattails. Let them be. Saw 3 smaller birds high. Never heard or saw a goose. Barely any shooting heard. Slowest day of season for me and by the lack of shooting I heard I would say the same for others in the area as well.

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Super slow. Washington County.1 high flock of divers before light. 3 woodies swam into dekes from cattails. Let them be. Saw 3 smaller birds high. Never heard or saw a goose. Barely any shooting heard. Slowest day of season for me and by the lack of shooting I heard I would say the same for others in the area as well.

+1 here it was horrible this morning.

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Seeing an influx of more divers in North Central MN, most of the BWT and Woodies are gone. Some Mallards around but guessing that they are still MN resident birds. Saw some snowflakes this morning as well. Well see how the weather shapes up in the coming weeks.

Kettle

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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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