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Waterfowl Reports


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Sounds like a dandy week, B@ssmaster. Was out for several hours today and saw few waterfowl in the area. Mid-afternoon, so it was a poor time to judge. 80 degrees, and tons of mosquitos! Very tough conditions.

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Went to a lake west of Otsego. Never got a shot. About a thousand coots in the middle. Hard to compete with them. Some ducks out there but they would just get up,fly in a circle without coming near the shore and go back down. This high pressure system has been here long enough ! We need changes. Did see one high flock of cacklers moving south.

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Hmmmmmmmmmm Lake west of Otsego........................I am sure that lake is not a secret.

whistle

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Found a flooded standing corn field that was finally holding birds. We got our woodie limit and one drake mallard,were going to give it a try in the a.m. should be good.

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we saw a few ducks and managed to get a bluebill and a mallard and stringerless I think I saw that same flock of cacklers this morning when I got home they went over the house no mistakeing the calls of those birds

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no shortage of ducks in eastern south dakota this morning. scouted for honkers last night but didn't get the field so I picked a random wpa to go to this morning. buddy shot his first duck band (drake mallard) and we had 15-20 different flocks of mallards work the dekes as well as a few honkers. our shooting sucked after the wind switched on us but we each walked out with a handfull of green.

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Had one of the slowest goose mornings I've ever seen around the Lac qui Parle area. Saw a loner around 8:00 that wanted nothing to do with our setup, and four others came in at 8:30 that we killed one out of. Those were the only geese we saw all morning. Drove around for an hour, even by the refuge and didn't see a bird. I don't know if the hot weather is affecting the action, but there were no birds to be found.

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Had one of the slowest goose mornings I've ever seen around the Lac qui Parle area. Saw a loner around 8:00 that wanted nothing to do with our setup, and four others came in at 8:30 that we killed one out of. Those were the only geese we saw all morning. Drove around for an hour, even by the refuge and didn't see a bird. I don't know if the hot weather is affecting the action, but there were no birds to be found.

did you scout? not much for migrators down yet, but guys are putting the hurt on the birds that are around...saw some pretty impressive hunts on facebook from a certain maxxed out guide... whistle

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Was in southwest MN and had a much slower day than last Sunday. Saw quite a few birds but still was 1/4 of the birds I saw last weekend. 3 hunters - 5 ducks. Still a nice morning

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We got one ringee this morming and saw a few ducks during shooting hours but WOW we saw hundreds of divers and mallys 15 min or so be fore shooting hours started.. They never came back Oh well thats duck hunting be back at it again tomarrow...

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Same lake. Same story. Coots and ducks in middle. One did make a mistake and come to us and we got it. Spoonie hen !!!!!!!!! 3 mojos,a dozen geese and over 65 duck dekes of mixed species and not one flock even gave us a second look ! Idiots across the lake hunting geese with rifles I think. Had to be, as high as they were shooting at them !

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Our family went out this morn. the four of us got our woodie limit quick only one hen(someone said they were sure it was drake uh! ha!) and one mallard drake. That was all we seen woodies and the one mallard. Must say it was a blast in the flooded corn my wife got the honors of taking the last wood duck, me and my two sons were amazed at the shot she made, she says shes good we said more like lucky.

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Carlos Pool nine from 3;30 - sunset. 1 woodie drake. Only shot we had. Could have had a few others but you all know the story: apparently they are making 6 1/2 inch shells now !! Really, really sad to see !! Was suprised by the lack of ducks after 4. Maybe they have been hunting till sunset every night and the birds are nocturnal already !

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was out tonight near hugo. the first hour and a half was slow. saw a few off in the distance and then a couple honkers. then i had to come in and i shot and all h3ll broke loose and there were birds everywhere for about 10 min then done! like someone shut of the switch. untill sunset when all the geese came back to roost.

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Mosy there are birds are on Lac qui parle, not a ton, you just have to scout a little bit. Last two weekends 56 honkers, 4 blues and 10 ducks (mixed bag). Saturday was insane, 9 man 27 bird limit, got some good video footage of it, hopefully we'll have it this week.

I think it will be another week before we get a push of birds into the area. The reports up in Winnipeg look pretty balmy this week before cooling down next weekend. Birds have moved into Oak Hammock Marsh, but it may be a few weekends yet before we see any of them.

Here's my facebook link for some pics

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MaXXed-Out-Guides/97833614222?ref=ts

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http://www.oakhammockmarsh.ca/pdf/migration-counts-2010.pdf

This is the migration count for Oak Hammock Marsh. This is the refuge that holds the majority of the birds that migrate to Lac qui parle. It's suprisingly accurate because I can match up the majority of the large drops in birds here with large arrivals at lac qui parle in past years. The exception was last year, but that was the strangest year I have ever seen...ever.

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Great weekend on the rice pond. Saturday morning there were 100s of ducks on the pond when we broke the water...sounded like a jet plane taking off. When shooting hours arrived, we ended up with 4 divers and plenty of misses...just my 8 yr. old and I this weekend. We ended the day early since he had a soccer game...didn't go back out. Sunday morning was the same with 100s of ducks on the rice...we left early to do some things with the fam some we could come back out for the evening hunt. There were small groups that would pop in and out but once the sun got close to the skyline, then it was flock after flock after flock. We got our 12 birds for the day and then just sat and watch the pond fill up with ducks...amazing to watch. He had a great time...he said "I can't wait for next Saturday Dad". smile

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Two of us hunted a bean field on Saturday morning running traffic for honkers and only had 4 come in and whacked em. There were not many around, only saw a few flocks. There were 4 of us hunting Sunday morning and saw many geese and some ducks so we shot 15 geese and our limit of mallards...Pics will be in the waterfowl photo section.

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We got one ringee this morming and saw a few ducks during shooting hours but WOW we saw hundreds of divers and mallys 15 min or so be fore shooting hours started.. They never came back Oh well thats duck hunting be back at it again tomarrow...

Same area as opener? Debating on heading north again in two weeks or heading west after some rooster. Watching the weather at the moment to see what it's going to do.

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No not the same area but I ve herd about really good reports by a couple of so called locals they said most birds they have evre seen.

Just have to scout and Ive heard good things from BR

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Hunted three miles east of the outlet of Lower Red Lake on Saturday. Only four people hunting at all in this area. We had a guide get us reservation permits and boy was it fun. Shot 3 mallys, a couple bluebills, and one big canada. Really warm and little wind though. Will probably head back up there this weekend.

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I think my 18 year old has it figured out. He has 3 of my boats stashed around Anoka county and hits each of his spots like a milk run. Doing good every day. No limits but birds that he can decoy without some [PoorWordUsage] shooting when they cross the county line ! He says today he saw a push of ringies. Got a HUGE honker. It wingspan is as wide as his arms out to the side. I told him to quit sending me pics of birds every day before I quit my job ! It's killing me !

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Went out by myself this morning and had some luck. A lot of corn coming out in the LQP area, so I set up on a corn/bean field edge and had good luck. Shot two within 20 minutes and should have had a 3rd, but the shadow from the blind was flaring them at 70 yards. Also jumped a couple woodies.

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hunter, where were you huntin in hugo? i was on a private pond near your description...

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Not many birds left around our area now. Hard frost this morning. Seems like most of our regional birds have moved south. Not seeing much in the air either mornings or evenings.

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Carlos this morning. 2 gads with 1 shot. A BWT and a ringie drake. Did not see much else. Not a lot of shooting.

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Got 4 ringers, a grean wing, and a mallard yest. Today 4 greenheads and a mixture of gadwall, teal, woodies, but no ringers. Not sure where they went. Got a total of 11 today and couldn't find a couple. Lots of shooting this morning and lots of ducks. Western MN

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • 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~~
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