2021 MN Waterfowl Reports

The season is coming, folks. That means you get to deal with me for a couple months again!

Who’s started scouting? This year seems to be the year scouting for WATER, not birds…Starting to get a little nervous about not being able to get into any of my backwater spots…I know of plenty backwater spots that will have water, but getting to that water will be the challenge!

Started to snoop around a bit here in the southwest corner. Finding spots with enough water is going to be a real problem unless something drastic happens in the way of rain. Lot of good sized pheasant broods around though.

I went by a small lake a few weeks ago that had hundreds of ducks on it, I’ll be checking again here soon. Won’t be long now!

Find the water and you will find birds from my scouting trips. Goose hatches seem to be lower in most areas.

This is one of my spots. 150 acre lake in central MN. Had 6 ft of water two years ago. This year a little bit of mud and no water. Kinda bummed .

lindyrig79 wrote:

This is one of my spots. 150 acre lake in central MN. Had 6 ft of water two years ago. This year a little bit of mud and no water. Kinda bummed .

On the bright side, no carp, and vegetation is taking root so when it does fill back up, better water quality.

Any idea what happens to the wild rice? Does it survive?

Unless we get a bunch of rain in the next month it’ll be interesting..definitely a game changer, concentrate the birds a little more would be my guess..don’t quote me but i think the wild rice will just go dormant?

Rice crop looks phenomenal. Not much water to hunt a lot of it because it’s so dry. But the birds that can find water and rice shouldn’t go hungry. Seed is amazing and can survive a lot of scenarios for a long, long time.

Anyone going teal hunting next weekend? Temps don’t look super hot. I was listening to the radio and they were discussing it. One thing they were sure to mention was that you can’t shoot until sunrise, as opposed to the general waterfowl season which is 30 minutes prior. I assume this is to better help identify ducks.

gimruis wrote:

Anyone going teal hunting next weekend?

I going to give it a go with a few friends. I will do some driving around Friday to scout and hopefully our private is loaded as it is a deeper slough and should have a good amount of water still.

Hopefully the rain this last couple weeks will help a little..

I’ll be going. There should be teal around. Usually on the regular opener teal are ~70% of the ducks harvested.

We will be going. Was out scouting this morning and the rain we had this last weekend has put a few inches of water in the sloughs that were bone dry and has moved ducks around overnight.

Early goose hunting on Saturday for sure then maybe sunday or Monday teal hunting if we burn up our goose field

Found a ton of ducks in a area not far from home. Probably leave it be till regular season and hope no one else was back there either.
May try early goose. But most likely keep fishing

I will not be hunting Teal this weekend. GASP, I know. I’ll let the hunters that can’t identify birds shoot Wood Ducks and curb stomp em into the mud.

I’ll be Dove hunting tomorrow and goose hunting this weekend. Should be good, been seeing lots of movement already.

Is there an early teal permit like early goose?

Feathers wrote:

That is surprising that a guy like you who seems really in to waterfowl cannot tell the difference between the two in flight. Not all that difficult.

I 100% can, I just don’t think the season is smart so I’m choosing not to participate. Simple as that. Call me a stubborn old wing shooter…

From the MN DNR website:

A five-day early teal season from Saturday, Sept. 4, through Wednesday, Sept. 8, will allow an additional opportunity to hunt teal that otherwise would have migrated south by opening day of waterfowl season on Sept. 25. Hunters may shoot up to six birds. Blue, green-winged and cinnamon teal may be taken in any combination from sunrise to sunset during the experimental early season.

Does this mean 6 birds total for the 5 days or 6 birds per day with a 3-day possession limit of 18?

Anybody know? I sent this question to the DNR. I’ll post if I hear from them.

Netguy wrote:

Does this mean 6 birds total for the 5 days or 6 birds per day with a 3-day possession limit of 18?

I have to assume its a 6 bird daily limit with a possession limit of 18, which is what the general waterfowl season daily bag limits are very similar to.

Only allowing 6 birds total for 5 days of hunting would be pretty restrictive.

Just got the automated email from the DNR that they should respond by tomorrow. If it’s not in my inbox tomorrow am, I’ll call them and post what they say. I agree with gimruis though. 6 birds total could be had in 30 minutes or less if you are in the right spot.

It’s 6 birds daily, possession limit of 3x the daily limit.

6 daily combined BWT & GWT.

I just hope those early teal hunters have enough time to eat all their ducks before regular season opens….

Not me. Since there is an early season there must be to many around so Im gonna shoot everything and put it in the freezer to never get seen again.

ClownColor wrote:

I just hope those early teal hunters have enough time to eat all their ducks before regular season opens….

Its teal with there size they will be gone in no time.

Jensen wrote:

Its teal with there size they will be gone in no time.

X 2

Hopefully eating a couple each evening.

Thanks for posting the limits!!

From the DNR:

Thank you for contacting the Minnesota DNR.

You can only harvest 6 teal per day, but you can have up to 18 in possession.

Please feel free to contact us if you have further questions either by email or by calling 888-646-6367 M-F 8:00 am-6:00 pm and on Saturday 8:00 am-4:30 pm.

Initial reports from the book of faces show a grim reality to a teal season…wood ducks and early shooting. Don’t shoot the messenger, enough illegal shots were had this morning. And will continue for the next few days. Hope everyone here did well…