Waterfowl Reports and Migration- 2020

Hunted this morning 10/10 solo. First 45 minutes were quiet but then had a flock of 10 bank high and fast over me. Picked out the lead duck and dropped him as the others whizzed past. Dog made the mark and went on command but it dove multiple times on her. She stuck with it and eventually stuck her head under water and grabbed him. Was pretty pleased.

Had two other teal commit and doubled up which was sweet.

When I cleaned the ducks, saw that ring-neck had two shots through the chest, broken leg and broken wing. Yet he was still diving and fighting until the end. One tough bird…

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Hunted the Sauk Centre area today (and will tomorrow). Saw lots of ringers, mostly locals but some new birds too. Also saw the first flights of cans and gaddies too. We typically see the first push of them right about now. More will follow with cooler temps this week.

Did not see any woodies or teal today for the first time this season. That’s ideal imo.

Yeah, looks like a big temp swing and some stiff NW winds coming this week.

Alot of pintails in western Minnesota on Sunday. Overall more ducks seen with the wind than Saturday.

I’m just a poor southern hunter, so I can’t speak for this last weekend…This Saturday I plan on hitting a small duck hole in my dads backyard that had about 100 woodies in it last weekend. Then maybe a bigger lake hunt Sunday.

Had some wood duck parmesan for supper last night, got me in the mood for more!

Wow. Lows in the mid to low 20s in the northern half of the state. Worried my duck season will get cut short again (after it being almost 80 last Friday)

Do you think some of the smaller sloughs in northern MN could start locking up this next week?

lindyrig79 wrote:

Do you think some of the smaller sloughs in northern MN could start locking up this next week?

I doubt it. The ground is still relatively warm and takes some time to cool off. It may crust towards the end of this front but if it warms up after, I doubt it will stay frozen.

404 ERROR wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>lindyrig79 wrote:</div>
Do you think some of the smaller sloughs in northern MN could start locking up this next week?

I doubt it. The ground is still relatively warm and takes some time to cool off. It may crust towards the end of this front but if it warms up after, I doubt it will stay frozen.

Agreed, still warming up during the day too.

Historically I’d just say that this last big blow will blow a lot of the local birds out of the state and then we’ll be in the lull until Canada starts to freeze up. The real trick is to time the next big surge which will be the biggest, when lakes and skinny water starts to lock up and then hope we don’t get 2 ft of snow and they all blow through the state in one night.

Hope you guys are right. I am seeing highs in the 30s next week, up north. Could see shallow water especially with rice freezing. I should have a report this weekend

Alot of mallards and seen numerous large flocks of speckle bellies yesterday western Minnesota. Mallards and teal filled the bag.

Jensen wrote:

Alot of mallards and seen numerous large flocks of speckle bellies yesterday western Minnesota. Mallards and teal filled the bag.

Specks in Minnesota is that relatively new? Always thought they never saw Minnesota

Rare has been the case in the past. But in the last 4 seasons been seeing more and more and have actually harvested a few in Minnesota.

Well my fears were realized this morning. Tried breaking ice for an hour in the dark and eventually it became useless it was just too thick. Close to a half inch. Set up the best I could right at shooting time but it was a bust. 22 degrees out, the trail I broke refroze heading back in was tough too. Should have known better I guess but didn’t think it would get that thick overnight.

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For all the backwater fishing I’ve done this fall I have heard shooting on one occasion. Very few ducks around. This new shot of cold should have the birds on the wing.

Hunted a private pond this weekend east of Mankato. The pond generally only holds Woodies and usually large concentrations, but are now mostly gone from the area. This weekend wasn’t a total bust, but I shot 1 of the 2 woodies. 2 weekends prior I counted 68 woodies fly into the pond before they started taking back off…

Saw a few bigger groups of divers and a few small packs of Mallards going from one lake to the next, but that’s about it. I imagine things will pick up on the lakes down there for this weekend.

I’ll be heading to the Mississippi this coming weekend to hopefully get on a Mallard hunt. The Mallard hunt could quickly turn into a diver hunt, however…

Out in west central Wi. Some skim ice on the flowage. What ducks are coming through get sucked right in. Bonus, got my first mallard

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I wasnt hunting waterfowl, but up in the Bemidji area for the youth firearms deer season this past weekend and wave after wave after wave of large flocks of divers were flying over. Hard to tell exactly which breed they were, but there were thousands of them. The wind was horrible and I am afraid for you waterfowl hunters it may have pushed many through the state since it was favorable for their migration.

Ended up hitting the Mississippi yesterday. Saw lots of high flying big groups of both divers and mallards. We did ok, finished with 7 birds. A mix between puddlers and divers. Any mallards low enough were very interested and gave us an opportunity, there just wasn’t many low groups…

Big push out of ND Thursday 10/22. Ruined what could have been a greenhead beatdown. Managed some pretty GWT and a stud mallard. Water < 200 acres is iced up. Not ready for short stick season

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I hunted with 3 friends Friday and Sunday. We shot 24 ducks both mornings. Essentially all ringnecks in the W central area on two different lakes. We did not see many ducks that were not ringnecks.

Good reports guys

I was up north on Winni this past weekend. Sounds like we missed out on some good hunting all week long but like Ganderpike said there was a push 10/22 or 10/23 out of the area.

We still did OK and had a couple memorable hunts

Shot my first ever Canvasback. We broke a lot of ice to get out

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Nice can Lindy!

Awesome! Great pics!

Was bored yesterday afternoon. Drove to a local SD lake, threw out 12 floaters. Turned the spinners on and loaded my gun at 3:30pm. Was packing up and walking out at 4pm with a limit. GWT, mallard, & a spoonie.

Didn’t hunt this weekend but was up in the Nevis area and most of the smaller ponds and bays were locked up. Even some ice on Belle Taine by my parents house. And lots of big flocks headed south.

My son and some friends did awesome in Alexandria area this past weekend.

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Have people been seeing much for puddle ducks around central mn? We have been doing very well on divers since the cold hit, but have seen very very few puddle ducks (except for some mallards). Im talking gads, wigeon, spoonies, gwt etc. That push of October puddle ducks seemed non existent??? I’m starting to think a lot of them blew right through or went east or west during that first cold front.

90 percent of the birds harvested this past weekend for us were Gadwalls and GWT. Mallards were all in flocks of a couple hundred and didn’t work to well.