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Waterfowl Reports


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My dream is to live in Devils lake during duck season. Then the rest of the year i will live there and catch fish as the season never closes.

Like I said its a dream but one of these days I'll wake up and it will be true. grin

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Just make sure you build your retirement home with a HUGE dike around it!

Honestly though, Gordie. That's a pretty doable dream. North Dakota is a fantastic state, and the Devil's Lake area, as you know, is an outdoorsmen's mecca.

I think that's a GREAT dream! Call me when you get settled in and I'll come over and help you keep all those pesky deer, birds, and fish outta your yard! laugh

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Opened duck today on the Leech Lake Reservation. Hunted Bowstring this morning and it was good. Seen loads and loads of teal. Very few mallards and seen a few canadas. Best duck hunt I've had in a few years.

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Opened duck today on the Leech Lake Reservation. Hunted Bowstring this morning and it was good. Seen loads and loads of teal. Very few mallards and seen a few canadas. Best duck hunt I've had in a few years.
d

Did you see many Ringnecks labortian and thanks for the report.

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Seen some far off birds from time to time with black heads but they were flying high and away. Went back out on Sunday and things really cooled. Might have been because we forgot our decoys at home and were pass shooting.

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I always get uneasy when I hear record numbers or near record numbers, and why are those geese in such massive flocks already ? Maybe that's why we haven't hardly seen a goose since it opened. 4 different counties I hunt in and it's not worth trying, there are few around or they just don't want to fly ? Last year record ducks or something and I'm not sure we saw any ducks, is it tough to find fields for geese ? It's all corn and beans primarily and with no small dairy farmers anymore they aint choppin corn or planting oats ? So the honkers moved west to find the fields ?

Two things constant in this world. Waterfowl are going to fly south and Musky buck is going to scour the same 4 counties and find zero to no ducks or geese. I'm kidding of course. From what I'm seeing it should be a pretty good opener in MN.

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What does everyone thimk about the cold front?

Do you think it will push out the local teal and woodies? Few years ago we had good numbers around then a cold front came in, the woodies and teal got push out and left not many ducks around on opener. Any thoughts about this weekend?

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lol I liked that, no worries, it is too bad really, not for me but the hundreds of kids who will never take a duck, maybe a goose. At least I scouted this weekend, ducks seen 0 geese seen 0. Walked a mile long stretch of river that runs through our section and 0. Some day there is going to be a duck in that river I just know it. River looked great, little to 0 current, lots of downed trees etc. for woodies to stand on, but a goose egg again. All my bowhunting scouts saw a total of a pair of woodducks opening night. Dad said in the 60's you couldn't find a hotel room in our county, roads as busy as opening of fishing, I said how drunk were you in the 60's.

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MuskyBuck go to a different area. The area I usually hunt is a bust this year because the rice got flooded out. We will be driving farther this year for the ducks. Scout, scout, scout and by that I mean different areas.

Whats the saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? wink

The woodies shouldn't leave this early but I am sure a lot of the BWT left with this cold front and NW wind. We saw boat loads of teal last weekend scouting so it should be interesting to see how many of the little buggers are left. Good luck this weekend!

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I have been traveling a lot of the central to eastern side of the state and I have seen more wood ducks than I have ever seen and this morning I noticed a major abundance of teal.

Musky Buck I feel for you as you said how food it once was and noew nothing sorry for your loss. I also think you may want to change your name to Musky Duck grin

Sorry man I just couldn't let that one slide thru.

Good luck to you

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I have been traveling a lot of the central to eastern side of the state and I have seen more wood ducks than I have ever seen and this morning I noticed a major abundance of teal.

I've seen a lot of wood ducks this late summer/early fall too compared to other years. I'm in the southern part of the state.

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Teal and woodies are on the move! Been scouting every other day for the last week.wetlands swell with fowl and then gone,then swell again!! Noticed ALOT more teal on tonight's drive !!

If your area looks nill,lots of teal and woodies still above us!!

Good luck!!

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Hey feathers, tried calling ya and left a message but never heard back. Whatd you Find? I'll be there opener, along with my dad, a buddy and his nefew. My dads heading over there on Thursday to do some more scouting. I'll let ya know what he finds out.

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Hey feathers, tried calling ya and left a message but never heard back. Whatd you Find? I'll be there opener, along with my dad, a buddy and his nefew. My dads heading over there on Thursday to do some more scouting. I'll let ya know what he finds out.

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Had a great opening day (Hutchinson area), a couple birds shy of filled out, half mallards, half teal. Could have had more teal but I think the rest of the group was holding out for the wood ducks that never came.

My dog found everything, so she's in mid-season form. It was great to get out and have the trigger squeeze adrenaline, blow the calls, and bag some birds. I have a great group to hunt with, never a dull moment.

Hope everybody had a great opening day.

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Saw lots of ducks today. Got to shoot too so it was a good day. There was tons of shooting going on all around us. The first shot of the year was about 20 minutes before legal shooting light, I couldnt even see all my decoys! But all in all, it was a good opener!

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bagged birds wise, worst opener in years... But, the birds where where we where, but the lake was dried up really bad, in fact walked shore line to spot and set up layout blinds... Birds where consistantly swinging about 40-50 yds out, which was consistant to keeping just inside the water line, so we where not presented much for great shots. But, the 15 mins before shooting we probably had 1500+ birds circling... Unt was short, once they where banged at for a while they left... about a half hour of good duck moment then they left. The group that got there at 3am, and beat us by 5 where in a much better location to play the wind, and appeared to be getting a few birds...

So, Good show, semi miserable conditions, a lot of ducks, And found out army surplus snow shoes make good mud walkers!!!

Good luck out there!

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South Central MN hunt this weekend was very good for both birds flying and birds in the bag. Both days our group of 3 were a couple shy of our limit and with better shooting it would have been limits both days. Everyone knows how that goes...great opening weekend on the water.

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Hunted southern mn river valley, very poor hunting, everthing dryed up, between 4 of us on Sat we had 1 mallard, today 3 of us had 1 woodie no ducks to be seen

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A buddy and I hunted both mornings with good sucess. Saturday filled out in 25 minutes, 8 mallards GWT BWT Shovler one Goose. Sunday we sat in a little woodie hole and got 6 drakes. The best opening weekend I've ever had and might possibly be the best I'll ever have.

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had a great opener weeekend. Only shot 7 birds Saturday but it was a great mixed bag. 2 drake mallards, hen mallard, drake woodie, hen woodie, drake wigeon, and a golden eye!! Sunday morning we shot a drake and hen woodie,2 teal and 5 geese...one of which was banded smile

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Southern mn river valley. Tons of woodies around. Fast and really close. Sat-2 limits of woodies, several really pretty drakes. Added a hen mallard and merganser. Sun-2 more limits of woodies along with a couple of drake green wings. Best opener in years. 18month old lab did all the work on Sunday and found everything. Hope the success continues.

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Man it's good to see all these good reports. Last year was pretty rough. Hopefully we can hold a few til I'm able to get out on Thursday

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Mankato Area - Got a limit on Saturday and me and the neighbor got 7 on Sunday. Mostly teal with some mallarda and few woodies. The area we had been hunting for early goose was holding hundreds of woodies, but they were for the most part gone with that darn front. If you want a good show, check out the back side of eagle. Hundreds if not thousands of birds there today. Too bad its too low to access because my buddy hunted the north side and only got a couple.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • monstermoose78
      Flushed 3 pheasants today with Hazel but they were flushing 50 yards a head of her. Then we went by some little berries that looked black and hazels tail started going a brown bird gets up I thought hen then the bird banked and it was a grouse. It was good to get her out in the woods. I seen a few pheasants in picked corn fields. 
    • 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. 
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