2021 MN Waterfowl Reports

Awesome opening weekend again, mallards, teal geese wood ducks and shovelers. Had to put time in on the gravel roads but it paid off.

Had an awesome weekend in western MN as well. Mostly teal but the group got a handful of woodies, Gadwalls and a pintail.

404 ERROR wrote:

Had an awesome weekend in western MN as well. Mostly teal but the group got a handful of woodies, Gadwalls and a pintail.

That is a frameable pic! Can only imagine it in color!

BigWerm wrote:

That is a frameable pic! Can only imagine it in color!

Timestamp was 6:39am. Could barely see anything. iPhone 12 Pro, no editing.

Had a fun opener up in northern Minnesota. Think we had 6 total boats in our hunting party. Handful blanked on the opening morning and a few scratched out a couple birds. My father-in law and me got a mixed bag limit. We had to stop shooting and pick up ducks to verify how many we had after 15 min of shooting. Sunday was a lot slower for us as expected.

404 ERROR wrote:

Had an awesome weekend in western MN as well. Mostly teal but the group got a handful of woodies, Gadwalls and a pintail.

That is a beautiful photo my friend!!!

Had a great opener with a good buddy of mine. Shot 17 ducks and 2 geese for the 2 mornings. There were more hunters than usual in our area, possibly because some of the local water was dry.

Not complaining, but it’s my opinion there were less teal around than normal. Talked to a CO on Sunday who said lots of teal were bagged during early teal season.

Buddy broke in a 10 month pup that was fun to watch. My dog Macy cleaned up this year. Made all her marks including a couple doubles and also found a duck that sailed 20 yards into the cattails. Only thing is she won’t pick up geese, lol.

All in all a great opener, some nice weather also

Didnt see much for teal but what surprised me was the lack of wood ducks. Only seen 2 sunday and 0 saturday that were at least close enough to identify. Normally only being a mile or so off the river they are the majority at least early.

It sounded like Normandy beach by my place Jeremy, you must be on the wrong side of the river!

We saw essentially zero drop in Teal in the spot we hunt for opener every year. Shot plenty. Also got 2 Wood Ducks, which is somewhat rare in the sloughs we hunt. Hoping to go back out there for the second opener.

My dad has a pond on his property east of Mankato and he said it was dang near standing room only for Woodies. Can’t wait to head there this weekend and get my fair share.

The low water on the Mississippi is making it tough to find good spots. Most of the areas we hunt are either high and dry or not accessible by boat. Time to head back to my roots of south central MN…

In the Bemidji area: tons of shooting for the first 15-30 minutes, then really quiet after that. The low water seemed to concentrate hunters. Managed 11 ducks for 5 guys on Saturday morning, with 6 being teal. The odd thing was we only shot 1 diver and saw very few, but most years at least half of the birds we shoot are divers. Not sure what to think about that.

Love seeing that people are getting Pintails. I havent hunted waterfowl in 25 years or so and I dont think I have ever seen one when I was hunting. I always wanted one mounted. Are there more numbers of them these days?

BigWerm wrote:

September 28, 2021 at 10:04 am#2063800
It sounded like Normandy beach by my place Jeremy, you must be on the wrong side of the river!

Its only dad and i that hunt on the lake we hunt but usually it sounds like a war zone down by the river it was pretty quite compared to normal. Dad said there was a bunch of woodies flying the back side of the lake last night around sunset.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Love seeing that people are getting Pintails. I havent hunted waterfowl in 25 years or so and I dont think I have ever seen one when I was hunting. I always wanted one mounted. Are there more numbers of them these days?

Depends what part of the state you hunt. Local pintails are not the mounting type of bird. The northern pintails are the full color with long tail but they usually come through in a few days in late October

Jensen wrote:

Depends what part of the state you hunt. Local pintails are not the mounting type of bird. The northern pintails are the full color with long tail but they usually come through in a few days in late October

My buddy has a beautiful one mounted in his office at work, but he lives outside of Houston Texas so they get all the bounty of prime colored/mature birds. I have wanted my boys to experience waterfowl hunting but Ive sold all of my stuff and really have no interest in getting back into it. I had it lined up with a family friend to take them out one weekend and then she got pregnant.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Jensen wrote:</div>
Depends what part of the state you hunt. Local pintails are not the mounting type of bird. The northern pintails are the full color with long tail but they usually come through in a few days in late October

My buddy has a beautiful one mounted in his office at work, but he lives outside of Houston Texas so they get all the bounty of prime colored/mature birds. I have wanted my boys to experience waterfowl hunting but Ive sold all of my stuff and really have no interest in getting back into it. I had it lined up with a family friend to take them out one weekend and then she got pregnant.

I was speaking about Minnesota. Texas and Mexico have unbelievable beautiful pintails and redheads in full plumage.

Jensen wrote:

I was speaking about Minnesota. Texas and Mexico have unbelievable beautiful pintails and redheads in full plumage.

Oh, no I figured you were. I did shoot a redhead back in college that I was having a buddy mount for me, but funny I never got it back. It was unreal plumage.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Oh, no I figured you were. I did shoot a redhead back in college that I was having a buddy mount for me, but funny I never got it back. It was unreal plumage.

This is a waterfowl thread, Cpt…

404 ERROR wrote:

This is a waterfowl thread, Cpt…

Hehe

My current report. Dont matter if theres any ducks i cant find any shells. Guess im not going this weekend unless i use the 10 gauge and i dont know if i could be quick enough with that heavy thing.

JEREMY wrote:

My current report. Dont matter if theres any ducks i cant find any shells. Guess im not going this weekend unless i use the 10 gauge and i dont know if i could be quick enough with that heavy thing.

What do you shoot? I have some 2 3/4″ and 3″ steel at home I believe. PM your cell, and I can let you know what I have tonight. I’m not duck hunting this year, so you can have it.

JEREMY wrote:

My current report. Dont matter if theres any ducks i cant find any shells. Guess im not going this weekend unless i use the 10 gauge and i dont know if i could be quick enough with that heavy thing.

I have 3 inch steel I would sell. I have a ton sitting around the house. I found a huge stash a couple weeks ago behind a safe I had forgot about. I’m in north branch

Appreciate the offers but turns out my dad had a box i can use. That along with what i have should get me bye. After this weekend i will probably start deer hunting instead. Thanks though.

Woodies are thirsty

We did good this morning and then ran up to the state forest. Flushed 10 grouse only shot 1

Seems to be less talk about waterfowling this year. Has anyone had good success in the last couple weeks?

Hunted a small WMA in the Clearwater area last weekend. Had a guy setup 160 yards away, directly in our shooting line. We didn’t touch off a round, but he sky busted every wood duck that was within 80 yards, even got peppered once.

I will be spending the weekend out in Western MN in the Ortonville area. The cold front hopefully pushed more birds into the area, but the first big push is sometimes hit and miss…Starting to think I’ll bring my Pheasant vest with as well…

404 ERROR wrote:

Seems to be less talk about waterfowling this year. Has anyone had good success in the last couple weeks?

Hunted a small WMA in the Clearwater area last weekend. Had a guy setup 160 yards away, directly in our shooting line. We didn’t touch off a round, but he sky busted every wood duck that was within 80 yards, even got peppered once.

I will be spending the weekend out in Western MN in the Ortonville area. The cold front hopefully pushed more birds into the area, but the first big push is sometimes hit and miss…Starting to think I’ll bring my Pheasant vest with as well…

I miss duck hunting, but not that.

Been decent so far, will be out west again in same area as you merican eagle but will be doing more pheasant hunting than anything once 9am rolls in

Jensen wrote:

Been decent so far, will be out west again in same area as you merican eagle but will be doing more pheasant hunting than anything once 9am rolls in

I’ll be Staying in Sisseton this weekend. Maybe our paths will cross!

Hopefully not at the casino 🤣