2019 Waterfowl Reports

I was out this morning in the Sauk Centre area again this morning. TONS of ducks. Shot a pile and they never stopped flying. We did not see one duck flying any direction but south. 7 species for us by 8am!!

Went out again today. Same lake. 50 yards from yesterday’s spot. 8 species today, 3 of which were different than yesterday. Pretty cool when that happens. Hope it was like this for everyone else.

Nice work Charlie. Unfortunately it was not that way for us. We shot a pair of wood ducks and that was it. We did shoot a single diver that came in (think it was a ring neck) but it hit the water and dove and never came back up. Overall significantly less flying than yesterday. Also had some of our friends hunting up on Leech they had similar results to us numbers wise

I sat in the tree all weekend, but my bro and dad and buddy had some great action both days. Mostly ringbills, but some gadwalls mixed in.

We had two real good days Saturday and Sunday here in the southwest. From the reports that I read on the migration map it sounded like the migration never made it as far as Leech Lake and east and northeast of there. Best hunting in years for us here though. Thank you North Dakota blizzard.

Sat in a tree this weekend also, but managed to shoot a drake Mallard with the bow . I’ll be hunting south central MN this Saturday and the St. Cloud area on Sunday. Hope it’s a good time.

Saw a ton of ducks Saturday morning, all very high in big flocks and all heading west south west. A few flocks of migrator geese(some snows) heading south also. Seems to be a lot of movement, but nothing benefited us, we ended up with 3 Saturday morning.

Hunted both days this last weekend, solo on Saturday. Managed 2 Goose and Wood Duck limit by 7:30 Saturday and only shot 2 wood ducks Sunday with a buddy in central MN. Saw a few larger flocks on the big lakes in both areas I was at.

This weekend is a R&R before I hit the season hard next weekend and through the rest of the season.

Nice work on the woodies, Merican

I was out in farm country (west central MN) last weekend chasing roosters. Saw a few flocks of duck and geese but nothing major. I usually don’t in that particular area though.

Planning to be back up north this weekend for a duck and grouse combo. Not sure what to expect on the ducks but will report back.

Hunted the backwaters today. Had a fair amount of mallards working our spread but they were definitely weary birds. Got 3 drakes and a lone goose. Also another bird that we couldn’t find. Probably a woody. They were done flying by 1000. It was a beautiful morning on the river, what else can you ask for

Hunted the ole miss yesterday evening. Lots of Mallards in huge groups and quite a few divers buzzing around. Anything in big groups were on a mission but every single 2-4 pack of Mallards didn’t need a bit of encouraging, they were on a mission to land in the decoys. Finished with my 4.

Awesome, nice report guys. I was up north winterizing my place and decided to grouse hunt Sat since it was bluebird (which was fun). Had planned on duck hunting Sun/Mon but my wife called and was sick and needed me to come home and watch the kids.

A little bummed I didn’t get out again… and now looks like most of my small water places will be frozen up this week.

I’ve always heard about hunting the Miss backwaters but never have. Is that something you can point me in the right direction without giving away your spots? (it’s ok if not) I assume there is current? Not familiar with the river at all….

I’ll send a PM your way.

Thanks for the PM guys. Drove from the TC to the SD / MN border today. I saw 10 ducks (total) and one flock of geese. I think the season is about over for me, unless I can get some field access.

Thursday morning we hunted a small crick and shot some mallards and gwt and watched a lot more that just got free passes. We were frozen out of our go-to spot Thursday and it still has not opened up. Did a little scouting and got on a few good hunts between Thursday-Sunday.
Hunted a new large body of water in the St. Cloud area today and yesterday. Lots of divers. I don’t think its over quite yet but will be soon.
Have reports from the miss backwaters of lots of mallards around as well. Planning on hunting there next weekend as deer just bore the crap outta me.

Hunted this weekend on the usual spots. No shortage of Ringers and Mallards, but not many birds wanted to decoy. Moved to where they were landing, they moved to where we were before.

I think I’ll be hanging my Mallards for the season and pulling out the divers for the last 4 weeks.

I got called out in the deer hunting thread so figured I would post my season update. I habe not fired a shot this year. I went on opener but lost my drive to duck hunt this year. My son on the other hand is having a great season. The Can is going on the wall.
DT

Those are two beautiful looking drakes!

deertracker wrote:

I got called out in the deer hunting thread so figured I would post my season update. I habe not fired a shot this year. I went on opener but lost my drive to duck hunt this year. My son on the other hand is having a great season. The Can is going on the wall.
DT

Congrats to your son. Great looking bull can!

This weekend looks like a amazing weekend in west central mn. went out for a bit tonight and had the duck tornadoes happening. Had my lab along which I never do when duck hunting because I was gonna go pheasant hunting. Found a corner of a field and sat there. Those birds wanted in bad with one robo and a couple field decoys. Put the dog in the ranger a few yards away and got one last flock of about 300 to come in. Forgot how to shoot and only got one drake. Absolutely beautiful though and even though my ancie dog messed up the first few flocks I was happy to have him along.

Lastly I know someone is going to roost bust the big water and it’s going to Tick me off and ruin a good hunt tomorrow. I could bust it myself but I just can’t get myself to ever do it. It’s really disheartening knowing it’s gonna happen but it is what it is.

I get tired of hearing the phrase roost bust. It’s called hunting the water which is a big majority of the hunters. I would keep going but I’ll bite my tongue.
DT

deertracker wrote:

I get tired of hearing the phrase roost bust. It’s called hunting the water which is a big majority of the hunters. I would keep going but I’ll bite my tongue.
DT

This ^^^

Went out to the Mississippi with diver lines this morning. Shot 6 mallards…

I was thinking about trying the cannon river this week with the cold temps and have a couple spots picked out. Never tried it. Usually I hunt the Mississippi this time of year but I sold my boat this spring and only have a canoe. Has anyone out there hunted it late season with any luck? I’ve been looking at the stretch east of cannon falls

dave-t wrote:

Has anyone out there hunted it late season with any luck? I’ve been looking at the stretch east of cannon falls

I haven’t hunted it for many, many years but I fish it. Safety is key, the Cannon is NOT forgiving. Always go with a buddy and know exactly where to put in and take out. Unless you’re Superman, you likely can’t handle the current to paddle back up stream in a canoe very far with hunting gear in a few spots.

Good to know eagle. I’m actually gonna check a couple of spots during the day tomorrow to get a feel for it before I decide to hunt. I think I found a shore spot where I could set up an A frame on public land. I’m not as dumb as I used to be, hopefully, so I try to think of everything that could go wrong when I’m looking at a new river. But if you’re saying it’s unforgiving I believe because you post Mississippi reports and that river has handed me my hind end more than once.

dave-t wrote:

I’m actually gonna check a couple of spots during the day tomorrow to get a feel for it before I decide to hunt. I think I found a shore spot where I could set up an A frame on public land.

I’m not saying you wont find a spot, but there’s really only 1 area you can access from the road on public land before you hit the preserve (which would require a bike to access) and there’s no real slack water there. If you plan on biking in with a trailer, you will find many good spots and almost zero hunting pressure.

I know some hardcore folks are still out shooting birds. What has everyone been seeing/hearing? I understand the north zone closes today, but there’s 2 more weeks to go in the south and 1 more weekend in central and everyone’s been pretty quiet for the last 2+ weeks. I know lots of lakes are freezing up, but there’s still tons of open water and super light hunting pressure.

I haven’t been seeing a ton of birds in the normal areas but I’ve managed to find a handful of divers and Mallards still milling around the open water areas.

I’ve been driving out west a lot for work and Fergus falls has been absolutely loaded with geese. I’d like to get duck or goose hunting a time or two more but have no experience down south but I am willing to drive.

fishking22 wrote:

I’d like to get duck or goose hunting a time or two more but have no experience down south but I am willing to drive.

The last weekend of the season in the south is usually pretty busy in all the easy to access spots with out of town hunters looking to get one more hunt in. Unfortunately, the easy to access spots are pretty much the only areas with open water still…