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Waterfowl Reports


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I went out for a bit this morning, SE of Hugo. Plenty of ducks flying in the first half hour before sunrise, nothing would decoy of course... Half wood ducks still and half mallards. I was surprised at how many woodies I saw and heard. Went quiet til about 9am. I was cold and the dogs were misbehaving so I started packing it up. Of course two huge flocks of geese came through as I was in the canoe pulling decoys... No shots for me all morning, again.

I heard a couple rounds of shooting in the area from different groups, nothing consistent though.

A few miles down the road I saw three big gobblers feeding on the side of the road. Didn't have my camera though.

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Working in the yard tonight . I live close enough to Carlos Avery that I can hear shots from there. Heard 4. Ringnecks should be in there by the thousands. Not much rice in there this year. A couple years now they have not shown up. Lack of rice ? Putting blinds in refuge and allowing shooting in there twice a week ? Flyway moving west ?

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Found a new spot yesterday for woodies, and alot of them, got there this morning and there where trucks everywhere. I got so mad i came home, i guess i'll pound some bacon and eggs, and try later

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some big mallard feeds where we hunt in SD...unfortunately they are flying out after shooting time. I scouted some honkers this morning, buddies thumped out a 3 man limit of gadwalls in 20 minutes. Brown duck beat down!

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West Rush this morning. 1 Gad drake. Couple small flocks of mallards seen. 3 or 4 small groups of woodies. One pair of teal. 3 trucks at landing. Heard a few shots around. Left at 10:00. Look like we should be fishing ! Man were there boats out there !

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I am up north this weekend chasing most anything I can shoot at. We went out to try a spot near Island Lake, north of Duluth, for waterfowl this morning. I picked the spot since it is a series of beaver dam ponds along a creek line with small lakes on each end. I hoped birds would be moving between the lakes and following this line of ponds. We had one flock of geese come by early and I shot one young one, my cousin missed. One duck buzzed us going north, never saw it until too late. Had two more geese come in low from the south, somehow we both managed to miss both birds unloading both guns. Pretty embarrassing. One other diving duck I could not identify flew in and landed out about 60yd but would not swim closer. We hung it up after a couple hours and went chasing grouse. Heard a couple other groups of geese in the area passing through while grouse hunting.

We put on a bunch of miles trying to find any ducks or geese. It is a sad sight. Not a single duck or goose to be found on many great looking ponds and creeks. Finally saw one small flock of geese on Island Lake. My aunt who lives up here says she hears shooting on the lake in the mornings, I suppose some locals have some spots they motor out to on the lake.

We are going to go back tomorrow in hopes some more geese will fly past. It's a really nice looking spot, just no birds migrating through right now it seems. Hopefully better shooting tomorrow.

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Popular north metro lake. Never shouldered the gun. Sounded like only a few did. Should have been able to hear shots from 3 different lakes. Nothing would give us a look. Did see 2 flocks that were over 50 birds. Big birds. Never did get an id on em.

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So far this season hunting has been very good, my 2 sons and i have been doing good with bags of woodducks ,teal and mallards , we have been hunting the minnesota river bottoms, seem to be holding alot of ducks, Friday and sat were great, today was slow only fired 2 times. wont get out till next weekend as it is looking as of right now. Then its deer season, and who knows when freeze up will be this year, at least the river usally stays open through out the waterfowl season, just have to dodge ice chunks during late season

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Went out in the Ashby/Dalton area Friday morning. Not much flying. 1 Mallard for 2 hunters. Barren skies all around.....

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Headed over to Green Bay(the Bay not the city) friday-sunday for my annual 3 day trip to hunt with some old buddies. Was one of the better hunts I've had out there. Lots of big flocks of divers moved into that area last week, so we had some good action. We each got our cans each day, also got bluebills, redheads, buffleheads, mallards, GW teal, ringnecks, and a ruddy. Really a fun mixed bag hunt.

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Still a lot of woodies on the creeks down here in the southwest corner. Been doing a rooster/duck hunt along our streams with a lot more success on the wood ducks than on roosters.

We set up on a small creek in the Wilmar area this past weekend which we usually see a couple ducks in when we walk it for pheasants. We decided to actually set up and hunt it for ducks and found a lot of wood ducks using it in the last 20 min of the day and first 20 min in the morning. It was a nice surprise!

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Was out this morning around hugo and boy are divers comein down!!! saw one flock of teal and saw a ton of mallards and a little later in the morning the divers started flyin. didnt get anything though, still fun seein the divers!

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North metro lake. The Bull cans are still there ! 4 big flocks got off water at first light and never came back. Both missed on a pair of mallards. Shoulda let em come further. Only oppurtunity we had. Saw a few big flocks of geese out over fields. No where near the lake. Heard a lot of field shooting. One other guy on lake never fired a shot. Still lots of coots. Eagle came hunting for cripples and a black tornado got out of other end of the lake !! Have not seen that many ducks together in along time. One of those things where you wish more ppl were out there hunting to keep em moving. Reminded me of Carlos Avery back in the day before it was ruined.

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was planning on getting out to the winnie area sat-sun but babysitter (grandma) fell through. ended up getting a call at 9pm saturday night that she could watch the kiddos so i called in a favor at work for monday & took off. started sunday morn at a popular rice lake & got a couple ringers, a goldeneye, & a nice greenhead. wasnt too impressed with numbers so we started driving. put on about 300 miles checking 38 different bodies of water. found TONS of swans but few ducks. finally found a little 15 acre rice pond loaded with a ton of ringers & a nice group of mallards. ringers were on the sw part of the lake, mallards were nw, and we decided to set up for mallards on the nw side of the pond. bad move. at daybreak the ringers started pouring back in, mostly in small groups just like you want. had we been set up right we woulda limited out in 10 mins. for some reason the mallards never came. we decided to jump the ringers up at about 9:30 & set up where they were in the hopes they would come back. about 100 of them did, including a flock of about 75 that decoyed just out of range 4 times before committing. man was that an awesome sight! overall it was a great wknd and i shot alot better than expected, since it was my first time holding a shotgun in 6yrs.

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Got back from NE NoDak - thursday thru Monday. Not as many birds as two weeks previous (that was great local bird hunting, lots of birds, many teal and gadwall, some nice redheads and ringbill too).

This trip was still pretty good, we were letting teal pass in favor of mallards, some redheads and even butterballs and a snow goose. But not as many ducks, but more geese in the area, lots more geese. The big greenehads seem to be just getting there, but not in big numbers yet. So we were a bit late for locals and early for the true migrators. We still shot about an average of 4-5 birds per hunter per day, but could have had limits if we weren't quite a picky, or a bit better shots wink

Snows were starting to show up, but not in great numbers. Best morning was one snow, 5 greenheads, on drake redhead, one drake greenwing, once canada goose, one drake gadwall and the lone hen a gadwall. This was for two guys in a little pothole. At least we did better on boy ducks than average for us, haha!

Now time for some bow hunting, and an occassional weekeday trip in North Metro, until deer opener, when I usually chase ducks in AM and deer in evening out in WC MN.

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Still a ton of woodducks in south MN on the rivers. Some mallards but very skiddish. Ended the weekend with six woodies and a mallard. In the area we are holding around 100 woodducks but usually this time of year we are at two to four hundred in area. I hope they are still coming or the mallards get thick. One rooster this weekend that was young and dumb. Heading out this weekend to get deer stand ready and do some duck and pheasant hunting!!! Corn is all down. Earliest occurrence in ten years!!! Deer better watch out and once I get my buck, ducks are the next on the hit list!!!!

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Was out in the north metro this morning for an hour before work. No ducks and one flock of geese is all I saw. I hope we get a push at some point.

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If it wasnt for the six pack of little geese that came in this morning that I took half of the ski was empty. smilefrown

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went scouting at dusk yesterday and saw a bunch (300+) of divers on a tiny pond in the west metro but it's private. landowner said "h.e.double l no" & shut the door in my face. good thing my car gets 35mpg, gonna be putting alot of miles on. 6yr haitus and now i've got the itch again bad!

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Scandia cornfield. 20 geese came and landed in one of the 2 fields at 5:50. Not the field I picked ! Never saw a duck . Heard one single shot. Pheasant?

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Bad this morning. Very few ducks! Heard a cpl volleys, we never shot our guns. Could have poked at some cans and a flock of mallards but both would have been quite the poke! Most mallards are very skiddish, I think they've been shot at a cpl times. No migration at all.

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Went out this morning, didn't fire the gun. Only saw 3 ducks fly right away and then nothing until we were leaving of course then there was several large flocks flying right over our head. Too nice out today!!

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Goose hunted this morning north of isanti. Shot our 6 by 8 o'clock and quickly hopped in the truck to go get breakfast so that the rest of the birds could feed undisturbed. Hopin for a good follow up hunt in the morning.

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We went hunting on Minnesota river bottoms, did terrible today saw 6 mallards total and biffed on 2 of them, the sky was empty ,going out Sunday with the windy forcast hope it is alittle better

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went out this morning blind and the boat had six ducks in it when we pulled into the driveway, early shoot 5/6 were shot before 8'0clock not much flying up in the sky . picked up at noon after we filled the first limit. seen some flocks of geese that didnt land on the lake. was really impressed on how the motor pulled us (3) through the muck at the landing, the new boat in working very well...

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Did not get out till 9:30 when kid came home with van. (hitch on it ) saw 3 ducks. Pair of mallards came right in and I got the immature drake. Let suzy go. When I went out to get him a dozen geese got off lake. Saw one other smaller duck . Heard more shooting during the day than normal.

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On my way home on 94 between maple grove and monticello I saw about 2000 geese all flying low. Not sure if they were locals or just got here, but they were everywhere!

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Hunted around the metro this weekend made a trip out to our land in buffalo shot 13 for 3 guys so i wasnt disapointed... didnt see too many either all the birds that came in were singles or doubles then today hunted in chisago county seen a lot just not a lot came within shooting range but came out with 4 all GWT though? heard a lot of ducks have pushed down though up north buddies said lots of buffle heads and mallards so ill just have to see once i get back up there.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Kettle
      Walked today and yesterday, flushed 9, shot at two and got two. Hopefully next year I'll have a dog to hunt with. Still warm up here, skim of ice on ponds. Weather has been nice. Hopefully walk a bit more the next few weeks. Been pretty cautious walking for birds to not interfere with deer hunters. There sure are not the deer hunters there used to be 
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the South Shore...  The focus for many this week is the ongoing deer hunting season which is a big tradition in these parts, even for avid walleye anglers.  There were some that either already harvested their deer or are more into catching fall walleyes than hunting.     Those that are fishing are taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and excellent walleye and sauger bite that is happening across the lake.  Cold weather is in the forecast in the upcoming days and weeks so that is also getting many excited. The best depths on the south end of LOW are 22-28 feet of water.     Vertical jigging with frozen emerald shiners is catching most of the walleyes, saugers and jumbo perch.  Depending upon where on the lake you are fishing, some slots and big trophies are in the mix as well, but most reports are talking about good numbers of eaters.    Jumbo perch are coming in good numbers this fall which will serve ice anglers well.  Watch out for an occasional pike or even lake sturgeon mixed in with the walleyes.      There are good numbers of walleyes and saugers across the south shore which is setting up nicely for early ice.   On the Rainy River...  There continues to be good numbers of shiners in the river, and consequently, there are good walleyes in the river as well.     Walleyes along with saugers, pike and some sturgeon are coming in up and down the river.  Most walleyes are being caught in 10-25 feet of water in various stretches of the river.   Jigging with live or frozen emerald shiners is the key. Some anglers are also still slow trolling crankbaits upstream to cover more ground and find fish. Both methods are producing solid results. Sturgeon fishing remains strong.  The catch-and-release sturgeon fishing is open into the spring when it changes to the "keep season" on April 24th. Up at the NW Angle...  As temps are getting colder, most are in the woods hunting and not fall fishing, however, for those who bundle up, fishing continues to be excellent.     A nice mixed bag with walleyes, saugers, perch, pike and crappies being caught. Very good muskie fishing with the colder water temps and shorter days.  Some big fish and some good numbers are being caught amongst the islands.  Both casting and trolling is getting it done.  
    • gimruis
      I hunt in the rifle zone so I don't have a need to use a shotgun to hunt deer, but I would be looking at this if there was ever a need to.   There could be state legislation introduced next summer that eliminates the shotgun zone completely.  It has bipartisan support.  Wisconsin removed theirs years ago and MN is usually later to follow.  They've tried to pass it more than once and it came up just short both times.  Probably just a matter of time.
    • Wanderer
      Oh, h e l l no! 
    • leech~~
      Screw that, here's whatch need!  😆   Power-Shok Rifled Slug 10 Gauge 766 Grain Grain Weight: 766 Shotshell Length: 3-1/2in / 89mm Muzzle Velocity: 1280
    • Wanderer
      20 ga has become a real popular deer round in the last 5 or so years.  The rifled barrels are zinging those sabot slugs with rifle like accuracy out to 100 yards easily.  Some go so far as dialing in for a 200 yard shot but really, by 150 they’re falling off pretty low.   I have a single shot Ultraslug in 20 ga that shoots really well at 100 yards.  Most everyone I know that has bought a slug gun lately has gotten the Savage 220 in 20ga.  Problem can be finding the shells you want.
    • leech~~
      My son always bugs me about getting a nice light over-under 20ga for grouse hunting.  I say Heck no, I'm getting a 3 1/2" 10ga so I can put as much lead in the air that I can!!     So, I'm keeping my 12ga.  
    • 11-87
      That’s almost exactly what I was thinking.  Have slug barrels for both   One for turkey and one for deer.      I have a 20ga mosseberg as well. (Combo came with the scope but never used.   I always liked the 12 better
    • leech~~
      Wanderer is right on the money and covered it well.  I was wondering too if you had a slug barrel for one of your guns?  If so you could make that your slug gun with a scope, and the other your turkey gun with the Red dot.  As you can afford it. 
    • Wanderer
      Kinda depends on if you want magnification or quick target acquisition.   More magnification options and better accuracy with a scope.  You get what you pay for too so get comfortable with a budget for one.  Tasco and Bushnell work but I find they lose their zero easier, have low contrast and don’t gather light well in low light conditions.  That said, I’m still using one I haven’t replaced yet.  Vortex has been the hot brand for the past several years for bang for the buck.  Good products.  Nothing beats Swarovski though.  Huge dough for those.  Burris is another decent option.   There are some specific models for shotgun/slug hunting in the economy brands and bullet drop compensation (BDC) reticles.  Based on experience I’d recommend not falling for that marketing ploy.   Red dots are usually lower magnification and easier to get on target.  Reasonably accurate but don’t do well with definition, like searching the brush for your target.  I put a HAWKE red dot on a .22 for squirrels and it’s been good.  For turkey, that’s probably the route I’d go.     If your slug shots are normally not too far and too brushy, I’d think a red dot could work there too if you’re only buying 1 scope.  You’ll be better off dimming the reticle to the lowest setting you can easily use to not over shine the target and get a finer aim point.   If you don’t have a slug barrel, you might appreciate one of those.  I had a browning with a smoothbore slug barrel that shot Brenneke 2-3/4 inch well.  The 11-87 would well fitted with a cantelever rifled barrel. 
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