2020 Waterfowl Season

[2adrsuess]

Anyone care to share how their season went? This was my first season waterfowl hunting in southern Minnesota, and so far I'm eating license and stamp soup! I started out jump shooting along river beds, and then picked up a dozen mallard decoys and went out on the Mississippi with my canoe. Saw a lot of birds early in the season, but they got few and far between pretty quick. I've been geese hunting public fields as well with two dozen silhouettes, but the geese seem to have moved south as well. Maybe this storm tonight will bring in some fresh birds. I'm telling myself I made all my mistakes this season, and I'll give them hell next year

[monstermoose78]

I just could not get the birds in range all season. I still have fun trying I ended up with 3 ducks.

[mulefarm]

Anyone teal hunting this weekend?

[Wanderer]

I’m ready for it but participation depends on work load.  Had some hiccups this week so I’m a few days behind.

 

I’m still not 100% comfortable with the ID part this early.  And I’m not a newbie.  I watched a flock of 10 birds swimming yesterday until they flushed.  With the lighting (and just possibly my eyesight anymore) I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger until they did the loop and came back over me.  Heads were up instead of down like hooded mergs.  We have equal chance to see either in that area.  And until they fly, swimming around they could just as easily be young wood ducks unless there’s some peeping.

 

The goose season is more why I’d go out anyway but a good decoying flock of teal would be nice.  I just have to have more than one identifier before I’ll shoot.

 

Good luck out there!

[gim]

15 hours ago, Wanderer said:

I’m still not 100% comfortable with the ID part this early.  And I’m not a newbie.

 

I think there is going to be a fair amount of non-teal shot.  But since its technically a violation, we'll never know.  Its not like someone is going to report that they accidentally shot a wood duck.

 

With an early teal season, an early goose season, and a youth waterfowl season, one has to wonder if there are even going to be any ducks left for the majority of hunters during the general opener.  Can't say that I agree with having all these special seasons that cater to a specific group of hunters.  Let's just go back to having a general waterfowl season that opens the first Saturday in October for everyone.

[mulefarm]

Not sure if I agree with all the seasons, but don’t mind trying new ideas to see if the changes would have a positive effect on waterfowl hunting. What’s tough is we have such poor habitat, that all the pressure is located in the few good spots. 

[monstermoose78]

I hope most people let the teal land to

make sure they know what they are shooting. I did see a group 7 this morning in a pond on 95.

[Wanderer]

I saw about 50 birds today and didn’t shoot once; mostly wood ducks.  Lots of shooting from others though.  Another avid waterfowler I know shot 1 teal for all the birds they saw.

 

Not trying to be a negative Nancy but it sounded like a regular opening morning to me and for some it was.  Pic was shared from a guide friend who won’t do the early seasons - teal or goose.  Not one teal in the pile.

 

[gim]

So they unknowingly posted a photo publicly of a pile of illegal ducks?  Essentially they admitted to poaching.

 

I was fishing on Saturday morning around sunrise and saw a fair amount of ducks flying.  There's no way I could positively identify them at that time of the morning.  I can usually tell mallards from wood ducks because of their size and how they fly, but some of them easily could have been teal and I would not have known it.

Edited September 7, 2021 by gimruis

[Wanderer]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

So they unknowingly posted a photo publicly of a pile of illegal ducks?  Essentially they admitted to poaching.

That’s what it looks like but it could’ve also just been fake to rile people up.  I couldn’t find the post when I searched for it so they probably took it down.

 

Heard from another person with a close relationship to some wardens saying they witnessed a 95 or 98% violation rate.  Mostly shooting early and shooting at wood ducks specifically.  That’s just what I head though.

 

I shot at two teal and dropped one.  I let several teal fly by.  I only shot when I was 100% sure.  

[Hookmaster]

Had a great weekend. Saturday morning my buddy was done in 30 minutes and I was done in 50 minutes.    We each hunted in our own boats. I passed on several shots not being sure if they were teal. He called me when he was going in and I had him on speaker phone. I shot my 5th duck while we were talking. 

Sunday morning we both hunted and neither of us fired a shot. Most birds were gone.  Picked up at 8:00 and went fishing. 

I went out Sunday evening at 5:00 and had ducks coming by about every 20 minutes. Couldn't ID them with the way the sun was. Planned to pick up at 7:40. Well at 7:25 a flock came from behind and I let them go and they swung around and came in.  I got a true triple. 3 birds from one flock with one shot per bird. One straight out, one to the right and one to the left. Got back to the blind and 5 minutes later another flock came in low from the left that I didn't see until they flared up and over the rushes. I saw they were teal and one snap shot later, 3 dead teal on the water. Never took a shot over 30 yards. Came home on Monday.

[mulefarm]

Awesome Hook