2016/2017 Duck Hunting

Saturday was pretty good for us near Fergus Falls. My son and I got 10 ducks and 3 geese, one brother and his kid got their 12 ducks, other brother and bro in law got 11 ducks and Dad and his 3 buddies got 5 ducks. A lot of woodies, some teal, some ringbills, some mallards and a couple gadwals. Sunday was really slow. Sorry, no pics, but I did get a banded ringbill.

The weekend was a great success in Western MN. Ended the weekend with 66 ducks and 3 geese with 6 guys. Mostly BWT with a few GWT and a handful of Mallards. Didn’t hear much other shooting around us. I wish I could have remembered to take a few pics. On Saturday, 2 of the 3 groups were walking back in by 7:30 with limits. Sunday was much slower but still managed to shoot 18 birds in the group.

It has been good up here on Leech Lake. Heard a lot of reports coming from the rice bays around the lake, for mallards, wood ducks and teal. Went out saturday out on the main basin, got goldeneyes, ringers, teal, mallards, red heads and a can this past week so far. Fun to have the variety right now and surprisingly it has not been that busy out there.

Kind of quiet with reports. Lots of duck of all species in the west central MN area. Seeing large flocks of mallards and divers. Still seeing some flocks of wood duck this morning which surprised me. My friend has been doing well on big water shooting redheads, ringbills and buffleheads. I have not been out much this year but I’m also more of a late season guy.
DT

Didn’t see the numbers this morning that we did yesterday. Didn’t see near the number of mallards today but still saw a decent amount of divers. The only problem is they would turn and cup to come in but then veer off. I think if i would have had more of my diver decoys they would have committed. Just didn’t have the numbers out that they like. We ended the morning with three.
DT

Western MN last weekend started slow but picked up mid day from what I assume were pheasant hunters pushing birds around. Every duck we saw wanted in our hole. Regardless of how high they were theyd cup up immediately and drop right down. Mixed bag of pintails, widgeon, spoonbills, and couple of greenheads. Little slower this weekend but managed a few greendheads, spoonbills, 1 pintail, and a pair of lost redheads. Needing colder weather to get some more moving.

Well I just got back from my first North Dakota duck hunt. Left last Wednesday night arrived in steele around 01:30am. My buddy’s took a kwik nap and I was to excited to sleep so I got some gear ready. We had no time to scout so we went on some advise from Brad-O, and ended up hitting a large body of water with a large diver spead and goose floaters. There were plenty of birds flying around, but most were out of range or not to interested in our spread. We ended up getting 9 ducks and 2 Canada geese. I ended up shooting the first duck of the trip, and if it were the only duck I shot this trip it made it well worth it. I bagged a banded Drake canvasback. Which was banded near Badger MN in 2014 when it was to young to fly. It was my first duck band to go along with my two goose bands, so huge thanks to Brad-O I owe you a cold one. After our first hunt as we were getting off the water we were greeted by the game warden. He was very friendly and checked what he needed to check and was on his way. We spent the rest of the day scouting finding a medium sized public slough with 200 or so widgon and gadwall on it. Found a few private potholes covered with ducks but got turned down everytime.
Day 2 we hunted the widgon hole standing in 3 feet of muck in the cattails. Also, found out my waders had a leak and I spent the morning with very wet feet,  but we were able to bag 11 widgon and gadwall with some very colorful Drake widgons. Once again we spent the remainder of the day scouting to no avail. Until right before sunset we found a freshly cut corn field covered in 5,000 snow geese, Canada geese, and mallards. We got super pumped and couldn’t wait to call for permission, but of course got turned down. At this point we were very much disappointed. One we had no spot and second we knew we were so close to the hunt of our lives. We headed back to the hotel and tried to come up with a game plan. We had an idea of where all those birds where roosting and we knew where they were feeding, so I ended up finding a public spot between the two. We decided to give it a try even if we would strike out, because we knew we would see a ton of waterfowl.
Day 3 we set up 3 dozen mallard and pintail decoys on the edge of a large slough with 2 mojo’s as well. It ended up being one if not the best days of waterfowl hunting each of us in the group has had. We hunted all day, because it was the last day and the birds were flying all day. We bagged mallards, pintail, ringbills, gwt/bwt, gadwall, Canada geese, snow goose, and the last birds that flew over was a flock of 4 specks and we knocked down 3. We shot beautiful drakes in every species, and one of the specks is getting mounted.
Overall, the trip was a success in our eyes. We shot some of the most beautiful ducks we have ever shot and had a blast doing it. We didn’t limit out, but it didn’t matter. From what all the reports and locals said there wasn’t many birds around. I would love to see when there are ducks around someday. Here are some pictures of the trip. Once again thanks to Brad-O for his willingness to share some good spots and advice.

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Started seeing some more divers last weekend a few flocks of big ducks as well. It was a perfect day minus the clear skys and wind dying off. But none the less a 2 man limit is always nice!

I have put the ducks and geese on hold since we got back from Canada to go after some great deer, but the last 2 weekends I can hear thousands of ducks flying over each morning heading out to feed.

Kinda itching to get back in the duck boat, but I have to knock big john down with the bow first.

I made it back in the stand in Wisconsin Saturday hoping for the perfect day but it didn’t happen. It looked like a lot off deer were moving earlier in the week with the cold based on my camera.

congrats jeff on what sounds like an awesome trip. we take trips to sd whenever we can be drawn and never fails a game warden is sitting there waiting for us when we are done. Your luck getting permission was just as good as ours was the one time weve been to nd.

Hunted big water in west central MN today. We shot 8 teal, both green and blue wing. We saw a TON of teal this morning. Really surprised me. Also saw a ton of divers but lacking in the mallard department. Ended with 14 birds for our group. What I find really weird is a majority of the flocks that came in only had hens. Very hard to find drakes. Going to focus more on divers tomorrow. Will probably have out a total of 8 dozen dekes.
DT

Sounds like a darn good shoot DT. Wow, end of October and there are still blue wing teal around? Green wingers I get, they usually come down later, but blue wingers should be long gone. Good luck on your diver hunt with the big spread!!

Spent this weekend duck hunting (too hot for our liking for deer) out in western mn. An ok amount of ducks around, saw mostly gadwalls and green wings, some mallards, couple pintails and did see and shoot some blue wings…. ridiculous they are still around in November. Need some cold weather and quick!

Anyone still hunting? Headed out in an hour in West Central MN.
DT

Made it out for the evening in West Central MN. We kicked a couple flocks of divers up on the way out. Only saw a couple flocks while hunting and nothing wanted to commit. Saw a ton of geese though. This has never been the best evening spot though but it’s easy to hunt so we tried it.
DT

Got to watch some ice form while we were hunting. This is a decent size lake but not very deep. I think a lot is going to freeze over tonight.
DT

headed out to lqp in the morning for some field hunting. Im 100% sure everything out there will be frozen by morning

I think the fat lady is singing for us on the north side of the state. Hunted LOTW on Friday and saw a total of 12-15 ducks. Shot one buff, the only duck to give me a look. 3 other boats out in the same area and I never heard a shot. Never did get into any good diver hunts this year. Spent more time going after mallards in the fields.

Saw 1 flock of geese fly over while deer hunting yesterday. Was going to try and get out this morning but got some deer to cut up and need to catch up on winterizing a few things.

Good luck to you guys in the southern part of the state.

shot the only 2 geese that gave me a chance in a field at LQP today. Some ducks sitting on the refuge but didnt see any flying, at least not on the east side. Most sloughs we saw were frozen over as well. Big water and fields for the last week of the season.

I deer hunted most of the weekend, but did spend the last day of the season(north zone) chasing ducks. Broke up the ice on a small area of the lake. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. Had several flocks buzz the dekes and got a few shots. Ended up with 4 ducks for the morning then pack up all the duck gear for the year. Hasn’t been a very good year at all for duck hunting. I didn’t spend a lot of time chasing ducks because they just were not around. Dad and little brother hit a deeper lake to the west and got their limit Saturday evening and had 8 Sunday morning the last time I talked to them.

Saw a few flocks yesterday nothing to get excited about. Dakota county.

EyeHunter wrote:

It’s still open here in the Southern Zone, although I’m not sure its even worth going. Granted I did more deer hunting this year, but this has been one of the worst duck hunting seasons I can remember in a long time.

We’ve shot less than 1/3 the amount of ducks we bagged last year. Outside of opening morning, the season has been terrible!

Wow, I’ve had quite the opposite down here in the south zone. I did notice that some of my spots in central MN didn’t produce, but I found a pattern and stuck with it and have had one of the best years in a long while. Last weekend we had a tough time getting a 4 man limit because we couldn’t keep the Mallards away, but eventually got it…that’s a problem I LOVE to have!

EyeHunter wrote:

It’s still open here in the Southern Zone, although I’m not sure its even worth going. Granted I did more deer hunting this year, but this has been one of the worst duck hunting seasons I can remember in a long time.

We’ve shot less than 1/3 the amount of ducks we bagged last year. Outside of opening morning, the season has been terrible!

Exact same results for us in west central MN. We have been keeping records for 25 plus years and this year was the 2nd worst ever. About 1/5th of the numbers from our best year ever and about 1/3rd the number of average. Again, I didn’t duck hunt much because of the lower duck number and the strong desire to kill one of the big deer on our farm with a bow, but it just wasn’t good up there at all this year. Dad hunted all but about 10 days of the entire season, so it wasn’t from lack of having someone in the blind. If it wasn’t for our week in Canada I’d still have all but a box of shells in stock for next year.

Yesterday my buddy pounded on the Drake mallards on a lake in West Central MN. We went back today and only got one. The lack of wind killed us as they could go anywhere they wanted.
DT

It has been one heck of a tough fall for hunting. Deer, ducks, pheasants…Mother Nature has just been extremely mild with record temps.

I hunted Manitoba this fall and had one incredible hunt thanks to lots of scouting; our late October hunt was the toughest in 10+ years for our group.

I saw some incredible, unusual migrations all fall. Massive amounts of mallards migrated 2 weeks ago into a SE wind. On a Monday! I witnessed and hunted one lake with thousands of mallards, but there was no wind, no weather and we were bird watching. It was cool though.

Last Friday evening, when the blizzard subsided I snuck out for an evening hunt. It was dismal. I still held hope and went out to the same spot for Saturday morning, and it was probably the best hunt in MN in 15 years. Mallards, Redheads (many!), Canvasbacks and some bluebill/ringbills. I shot my limit and had to watch those massive flocks of Redheads… By Sunday, there was not much for birds and winds switched to SE.

I have not seen much for birds since. I hope for some birds over the long Thanksgiving weekend, but I have a feeling I’ll be likely pulling more walleyes over the side of the boat than ducks. Fishing has been great, and no pressure!

There are still reports I’ve received that Canada is holding a lot of ducks. Canada has been super wet all fall, super mild and they don’t have snow cover in southern provinces. I really don’t know if we will see the final migration that I love so much because the weather is just, again, too mild.

Good luck

deertracker wrote:

Yesterday my buddy pounded on the Drake mallards on a lake in West Central MN. We went back today and only got one. The lack of wind killed us as they could go anywhere they wanted.
DT

That is a gorgeous northern mallard DT!!!

deertracker wrote:

Yesterday my buddy pounded on the Drake mallards on a lake in West Central MN. We went back today and only got one. The lack of wind killed us as they could go anywhere they wanted.
DT

Super tanker! Awesome bird, too bad it was the only one of the day.