2017 Waterfowl Reports

I’m heading out that way tonight! Migration is in FULL swing. Should be a great weekend for dustin’ mallards!

DT

Cow decoys…good idea

Winds cranking so hard we can’t keep the decoys from blowing away. 1st flock came right on top of us but we only dropped 4.
DT

Watched about 200 Mallards all dive into the same field at once yesterday in Rosemount. It’s safe the say the wind has blown some bigger flocks south. I see it pretty often with Geese in this particular field, but almost never for Ducks. U of M property, no hunting…

This weekend should be a pretty good one for us waterfowlers in southern MN.

Cass county today, I saw 2 big flocks off some type of divers. I did see a ton of geese though one field had to have over 300 hundred in it.

It’s been pretty decent so far

Hunted the ole miss south of Hastings all weekend. Hunting pressure was relatively low where I was, but I heard quite a bit of shooting to the north of us all weekend.

10/27: Relatively poor day, considering the weather. Ended with 2 teal and 4 mallards. Didn’t see a single bird fly after 9am.

10/28: Good day with good decoying flocks. Ended with a dozen or so, mostly Gadwall and Mallards with 1 or 2 teal mixed in. 2 Geese.

10/29: Another decent day with light hunting pressure. 2 teal (one stud drake for the wall), couple mallards, hen pintail, couple ringers and some more Gadwall.

Starting to see some bigger flocks of Divers come through with a few decoying flocks. Heard reports of good flocks of Cans in the area, but we did not encounter any. Also saw a few Woodies still around, but not nearly in the numbers as a week ago.

Got back from ND yesterday. Spent 3 days hunting. Had 4 man limits each day. Saturday temp was 10 degrees. Had to break ice the whole way out. A lot of the small water is all locked up.

Pretty big fan of decoying these guys

2 bands in one day!

Just wondering where is swan hunting legal . Cant do it in my area but do see lots.

North dakota is a lottery.
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SEMN is seeing floods of divers in the last two weeks. Goldeneye’s are here hot and heavy, as are buffleheads. Still lots of Mallards around and I would expect one or two smaller pushes making their way down in the coming weeks. With lots of sloughs and potholes locked up or crusted over, it can be a battle to find and keep open water, but that’s half the fun late season!

cheers wrote:

Just wondering where is swan hunting legal . Cant do it in my area but do see lots.

South Dakota also has a lottery, have 2 SD resident friends that have shot them and they make for some pretty impressive mounts.

4 AWESOME HUNTS IN WEST CENTRAL, ND THIS WEEKEND. 30 MALLARDS THE FIRST 2 DAYS, AND 250 SNOWS TOTAL THE NEXT 2. I WOULD SAY THEY WILL HAVE BIRDS FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT WEEK MAYBE A LITTLE LONGER.

SNOWS 1

SNOWS 2

DUCKS 2

Mallards working on a zero wind day…

A few hero shots…

Those action shots are way too cool!!!

That’s a wrap for me this season. Yeah, there’s still one more week for us down here, but the bird numbers have dropped off in my area and I don’t have the time or ambition to travel. Yesterday was filled with about 1/2 mile of ice breaking and continual driving around in the decoys to keep them ice free. Saw maybe a dozen Mallards all day with only a handful wanting to decoy. The days prior, we were seeing thousands of Goldeneye in open water and about as many Mallards tucked into the sloughs. Yesterday, dang near nothing.

I imagine if I traveled to the southern reaches of the ole miss in MN, I would find birds. I’m beat, my gear is in disarray, and my boat has been limped along half the season after a transom mishap. Until September 22nd, 2018 folks…300 more days to prep…