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2020 Waterfowl Hunting Reports by Troy Smutka of Great Day on the Water Guide Service

Troy Smutka
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Troy Smutka

Troy Smutka 308

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This season got off to a slow start after my son got his first ever bird on his first youth opener. Parker's first shot at a duck or goose got him a ten pound Canada goose. Early regular season netted a few bluewing teal, wood ducks, and a mallard, but we weren't seeing as many birds in central MN as we usually do early in the season. With the cold fronts and even some snow lately, things have picked up with us decoying mallards, pintails, greenwing teal, shovelers, canvasbacks, ringnecks, redheads, and bluebills. Worried about an early freeze up with the current weather and forecasted weather, but we shall see. Good luck, and I will see you out there somewhere.

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Troy Smutka

Troy Smutka 308

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Sorry I haven't posted recently. We have been out hunting pretty regularly. What a weird weather pattern this fall. Guess the weather would be as abnormal as everything else in 2020. Where we hunt in central MN, we have frozen over the small and medium water twice, and then warmed it back open twice. Record snowfall from October is gone in November. With this unusual weather, we have noticed a very irregular migration. Gusty WNW wind and cold days that we thought would be lights out were disappointing, and some good hunts happened on warm SE wind days that we didn't have high expectations. There are still plenty of mallard, bluebills, goldeneyes, buffies, and mergs north of us, but not much using the lakes around central MN right now. We are switching over to field hunting near town, as there are a lot of geese and mallards sitting in town and feeding in surrounding fields. Attached are some pics of our last couple weekends on the water. Hopefully some pics from field hunting with another report will follow after Thanksgiving. Good luck, stay safe, and happy Thanksgiving.

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