Duck hunting 2023

My son has the waterfowl bug bad…
pic from last weekend…

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My dad said there was a ton of ducks around Saturday morning so I figured I would go out yesterday morning. Should have went Saturday.

Pretty good hunting still happening for my son…western Minnesota

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Pothole at my farm north of Mille lacs has been slow this year. Did get a couple yesterday morning. Oslo was happy to get a couple retrieves in.

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Jackfish wrote:

Pretty good hunting still happening for my son…western Minnesota

Is that a pintail on the right in the second photo? That’s a nice looking bird.

Gimruis, yes..Drake pintail…it was a beauty for sure…

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Jackfish wrote:

Gimruis, yes..Drake pintail…it was a beauty for sure…

No doubt about it. Stunning color.

From yesterday. Had a few chances for the 6th duck but didn’t connect. Cody had a great day, as did I.

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Well done netguy!

Love the dog photo Netguy.

So who is hunting in the snow, wind, rain this weekend? Oslo and I will be out.

Nieka and I will be. Shot a rooster that flew over the blind this morning.

I have some friends out in ND battling it right now. Think they shot 70 birds yesterday. Mostly snows with some mallards mixed in.
DT

I’d have to imagine it’s going to be gangbusters from now thru the weekend. Good luck to everyone going out, and let someone know where you’re going in case it turns into the Armistice Day Blizzard!

MN duck hunting is an absolute joke. It’s getting so bad even the prairie pothole region of MN is laughable. Land management and land access are insanely poor. My buddy and I usually shoot around 75 ducks (each) per year. We hadn’t hunted MN in years and last year we shot a fair number of ducks in MN (giving it a chance again). This year, back to good old MN. Empty skies. Scouting this AM was a joke. I was hoping some birds would move down but the weather reports turned out to be typical media hype. The winds and cold and weather north of us isn’t anything special for a duck hunter.

Thank goodness we didn’t assume MN was anything worth hunting in and canceled all our 2023/2024 trips.

It’s (the weather) has the makings of an Armistice day 1940 event.

deertracker wrote:

I have some friends out in ND battling it right now. Think they shot 70 birds yesterday. Mostly snows with some mallards mixed in.
DT

ND is where it’s at. All season long they have land access and birds.

Wade Boardman wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>deertracker wrote:</div>
I have some friends out in ND battling it right now. Think they shot 70 birds yesterday. Mostly snows with some mallards mixed in.
DT

ND is where it’s at. All season long they have land access and birds.

I did find a few years ago that everything around Devils was locked down by guides but yes, lots of birds and places to hunt.

Anyone still waterfowl hunting? Still plenty of open water to be doing it.

When I was deer hunting for 8 days straight, I noticed a serious lack of migrating birds in the sky. Almost none at all, other than a few flocks of geese. Seemed very odd.

A little pond on my way home from work had more ducks on it yesterday than it has all year. Someone hunting it this morning.

Seen quite a few duck hunters along the north end of Mille Lacs this morning… 15′ had to be chilly !!!

I spent a couple of hours in a cornfield this morning. 6 degrees is too cold for the handful of geese we saw. All were in a v headed south. The ponds and lakes here froze overnight too.

Got out last Thursday and Sunday. 4 each day. Thursday should have had a limit but didn’t shoot well. Sunday I stopped after the 4 green heads. Way west central MN lake. Lots of mallards and swans. A few divers.

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Honestly, wrapped up the season this morning in the western metro..another nothing..I’d say its been the worst year in a few for not seeing ducks..or even geese for that matter, not sure what the problem was..migration shifted, bird flu or drought..probably a few things. I know there are people in pockets getting birds but when even the CO’s are saying no ones getting much..must just be an off year..it happens..theres always next year

Got meat?

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One more pic from last Sunday. I think I’m going to print this out and try transferring to a tree stump cookie. Anyone ever try that?

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Jason wrote:

Got meat?

Yep and lots of it. Can’t wait to process it all. First batch of jerky goes on the smoker tomorrow.

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Netguy wrote:

One more pic from last Sunday.

Those are some really nice green heads.