2022 MN Waterfowl Hunting Reports by Troy Smutka of Great Day on the Water Guide Service

October 1, 2022

September, 2022

My son has football games on Saturday mornings, so we got out Sunday of the Early Teal Season/Early Goose Season opener, Sunday of the Youth Weekend, and Sunday of opening weekend. Harvested several Canada geese, bluewing teal, greenwing teal, pintails, and a mallard. Decoyed mallards, wigeon, wood ducks, and shovelers on the teal opening weekend, but easily identified them to let them go. Looks like a lot more local ducks in central MN than last season--thanks to rain in the spring before the dry summer began. Migrating bluewing teal on opening weekend in nice bunches and loaded with fat. Always depends on weather, but should see a better flight than last year. Please remember etiquette on public waters so we can all have fun and get along--thanks. Good luck, and I will see you out there somewhere.

October 17, 2022

10/16/22 The cold snap last week got the calendar migrators from the Dakotas starting to move through central MN. We saw twelve species of ducks this past weekend, and harvested eight species. Definitely a lot of teal moving through, including a new influx of greenwings to go along with the bluewings. We targeted these new birds with a mid-sized diverse decoy spread consisting of Canada geese floaters, mallards, pintails, wigeon, teal, gadwalls, canvasbacks, and redheads. We harvested all of these species this weekend except pintails and Canada geese. We did see some large migrating flocks of geese up high, though. We got our first gadwall, wigeon, canvasback, ringneck, and redhead of the season so far, and my son got his first ever redhead. Should be more ducks moving in to MN from the Dakotas and southern Canada this week. Calendar migrators don't need brutal cold and snow to get them moving, just a low enough sun angle, which we have, and west or NW winds, which we are getting. The cold at the beginning of this week may drive out some of the teal and woodies, but plenty more ducks should move in to replace them. Good luck, and I will see you out there somewhere.

November 1, 2022

10/30/22 Been a little slow duck hunting in central MN the past couple weeks. Birds that have been around a while know where they are going and aren't interested in checking out anything new. Finally saw some migrators moving in on Sunday. Identified mallards, gadwalls, wigeon, shovelers, greenwing teal, canvasbacks, redheads, bluebills, ringnecks, and buffleheads. Harvested redheads, bluebills, and GWT. Good luck, and I will see you out there somewhere..

November 16, 2022

11/14/22 The cold snap and snow, while bringing winter early, finally brought a big push of ducks. The Dakota ducks arrived, late, and some Canadian ducks showed up too. Saturday and Sunday we observed mallards, gadwalls, wigeon, pintails, greenwing teal, shovelers, canvasbacks, redheads, bluebills, ringnecks, goldeneyes, buffleheads, hooded mergansers, and common mergansers. Also saw a lot of Tundra swans and Canada geese migrating. Almost coaxed a small flock of snow geese into range as well. We harvested mallards, gadwalls, wigeon, shovelers, greenwing teal, a bluewing teal (believe it or not), bluebills, ringnecks, and goldeneyes. Highlights of the weekend included...a flock of sixty to seventy mallards pitching right in to the decoys without circling, calling back to us all the way; a flock of around a hundred ringnecks coming right down the diver line, landing in and floating right over the decoys; a flock of forty to fifty bluebills bombing right into the hole in our spread; a nice bunch of gadwalls decoying right into point blank range; and harvesting some beautifully colored greenwing teal. Most water in our area will be frozen by the weekend, so we will switch to field hunting for mallards and geese the last couple weekends of the season coming up. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.