2019 Waterfowl Reports

gimruis wrote:

My group got 4 ducks and a goose. I expected better to be honest with the ideal conditions. Not sure what to do with the goose. They really aren’t edible…

Why did you shoot the goose then? Such a waste

We had 6 guys limit out in one area and the 6 others about half our limits. Mix of woodies, teal and some mallards. Lots of woodies around which is nice to see

I think goose is delicious if prepared properly. Only about 40-50 great options.

Saturday was pretty slow before we got rained out at 8:30. Good thing we were only 67 steps from the garage. Got a couple wood ducks Sunday. And a bonus goose while doing homework with the kids in the kitchen. I left decoys in to come in for breakfast, figured I’d go take them out this afternoon after football game. After breakfast a dozen or so geese landed in the decoys. Did moheakan sneak on them. Got one.

9 yesterday 4 today. All woodys in east Bethel

A lot slower today, 1 teal 1 woody. Very few ducks moving.

We hunted a flooded meadow and did pretty well this morning. Lots of puddle ducks and lots of geese around for us this morning. Mallards would not finish how we wanted them to so we took what we could early on then packed up.

Shot a five man limit of teal, mallards, and wood ducks on opener near Fergus falls. Today we did a field hunt on a wheat field near Breckenridge and shot 40 geese and 2 mallards. Great start to the year.

Jeff mattingly wrote:

Shot a five man limit of teal, mallards, and wood ducks on opener near Fergus falls. Today we did a field hunt on a wheat field near Breckenridge and shot 40 geese and 2 mallards. Great start to the year.

14+ guns in the field must have sounded like a machine gun shoot when big flocks came in.

Opener was slower than normal, but we managed a few limits of birds both days. We didn’t see nearly the amount of birds moving compared to years past in the same area. We actually did much better yesterday than Saturday in the same slough. Heading back out west in 2 weeks, hope the water comes down a bit(not holding my breath) and more birds move in.

Our group of three shot our limit Saturday morning in SW Minnesota. We had some storm action roll through but hunkered in and I think we missed the worst of it. Mix of woodies and teal, one mallard.

Macy (my lab) did well on her 3rd season. Made most of the retrieves on her own, the rest she made either with hand signals or throwing a few rocks. She also had a double retrieve (with two ducks in her mouth) and found another one that sailed into the cattails.

gimruis wrote:

Not sure what to do with the goose. They really aren’t edible…

Apperently people have different tastes. I would take a goose over any kind of duck any day.

404 ERROR wrote:

Opener was slower than normal, but we managed a few limits of birds both days. We didn’t see nearly the amount of birds moving compared to years past in the same area. We actually did much better yesterday than Saturday in the same slough. Heading back out west in 2 weeks, hope the water comes down a bit(not holding my breath) and more birds move in.

We thought the same thing. Less flocks of ducks in general, not by a lot but slightly, and less shooting from nearby slews overall. We felt fortunate to limit out.

Sunday was slower as is typical. But we still shot 7 ducks and two geese. The geese were fun as they each decoyed separately.

Should also mention that we spread my Dads ashes in the duck slew. He passed away earlier this year, but had been going down to the same spot since he was a kid basically and it was one of his favorite places.

A few more pics of the weekend:

Awesome dog pic, @lindyrig79!!!

Cool pic of dog @lindyrig79! Sorry about your dad. That sucks. But sounds like you will be with him every time you step into that swamp. I’m sure he’s happy about that.

A friend and I made it out this morning before class. Got 12 ducks and 2 geese before 8:30… and we made it back in time for class. If you can find sheetwater this weekend, get permission. They want it badly.

Charlie W wrote:

A friend and I made it out this morning before class. Got 12 ducks and 2 geese before 8:30… and we made it back in time for class. If you can find sheetwater this weekend, get permission. They want it badly.

good number of birds in west central mn. Saw a ton of teal friday which seemed to half disappear come opener but there were plenty buzzing around all weekend. Lots of woodies which hasnt been the case the last couple of years for us. Overall was a fun weekend even with the storms, being too hot, and too many mosquitos . A LOT of water this year compared to years past.

Any migration reports? The rain has kinda sidelined me along with a bunch of other stuff.

Looking like a NW blow later this week and hopefully I’ll have a report soon

Nothing around Brainerd Aitkin area.

I was in central North Dakota all last week. It’s no wonder I haven’t been seeing any in central MN. They’re all out west!

Was out in the Big Stone/Traverse area and it started pretty dang slow. Scouted about 15-20 different areas on Saturday and found only 1 promising area. Went back for an evening hunt and scratched out 5, mostly divers. Hit the same area in the morning and scratched out 14 by 11am and headed in. Lots of divers and teal, hardly any Mallards in the area. Majority of birds shot were teal, redheads, buffies and ringers.

404 ERROR wrote:

Was out in the Big Stone/Traverse area and it started pretty dang slow. Scouted about 15-20 different areas on Saturday and found only 1 promising area. Went back for an evening hunt and scratched out 5, mostly divers. Hit the same area in the morning and scratched out 14 by 11am and headed in. Lots of divers and teal, hardly any Mallards in the area. Majority of birds shot were teal, redheads, buffies and ringers.

Nice report Merican. Just goes to show how much scouting a person can and should do to be successful. If only we had unlimited time…..

Guess the benefit of some nasty weather moving in later this week is hopefully it brings some ducks with it.

404 ERROR wrote:

Was out in the Big Stone/Traverse area and it started pretty dang slow. Scouted about 15-20 different areas on Saturday and found only 1 promising area. Went back for an evening hunt and scratched out 5, mostly divers. Hit the same area in the morning and scratched out 14 by 11am and headed in. Lots of divers and teal, hardly any Mallards in the area. Majority of birds shot were teal, redheads, buffies and ringers.

Mallards are in the flooded crop fields.

Calendar birds showing up yesterday in SD. seeing more divers, some lesser canadas, more gadwall. Specks flying in the moonlight last night.

Anybody else getting excited about the forecast? Stiff wind, snow and precipitation for the next few days. Heard 2nd hand that some more divers, mainly ring-bills are moving in to the north central part of the state. Hope that’s true.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Anybody else getting excited about the forecast? Stiff wind, snow and precipitation for the next few days. Heard 2nd hand that some more divers, mainly ring-bills are moving in to the north central part of the state. Hope that’s true.

Big Rice lake Refugue just south of mcgregor, had a duck count of 200,000 birds but that was a good week ago or so; i’m interested to see the DNR’s weekly report, usually released thursday afternoons. Some quick checking on the DU migration reports also show an increase of numbers coming in, ND and Southern manitoba had some stiff north winds the last couple of days and this new weather, should, by rights, bring more in…

Hunted near Aitkin this morning. Quite a few ring-neck ducks flying around between 7-10am. High wind and snow made setting decoys in the dark difficult. Ended up getting 3 ducks including a nice drake GW Teal. Was tough getting ducks to decoy for some reason. Will change a few things up and try again tomorrow

A few northern birds down here by Clearwater. The boy got a triple curl! Wish I could have stayed longer. Only got to hunt a couple hours this morning.

Great job kid! Beautiful bird!