Manitoba Report

I just got back from a week in West Central Manitoba. Over the week there, duck numbers have slightly dwindled, but there are still “tons” of ducks around there. I’m guessing some moved to south central Manitoba (Whitewater area), because as we drove back, there were a lot more birds there than on the way up. We did not see many birds through North Dakota (along Hwy 2) on the way back either, so I think the motherload may still be just north of the border. With as nice as it’s been, there are probably still a ton of birds north of where we were in Manitoba too. On our trip, we saw a lot of redheads, mallards, gadwals, teal and coots. Missing however, was the pintail. Over the week we saw only three small flocks of pintail. Our first week in September was the same for pintail numbers too. I just don’t know where they are(?). The snow goose numbers are unbelievable though. There are many more snows this year than in past years. ….If we just had the snow decoys with us!!!!
The weather was real nice all week, so there was no big push to move birds out. There is still a lot of water and food available up there, so the birds don’t really have to move yet. The numbers of Canada’s have diminished quite a bit since I was there in late September. We managed a few, but it was obvious they were shot up and all the smarter for it.
Overall, while hunting moslty for ducks, we had a great hunt. We came home with mostly greenheads, Canada’s and a few snows. Manitoba was great to us again and the people were very nice. Border crossing going up was made in minutes. On the way back, it was OK. It only took 1/2 hour at the U.S. border – ever though we did not have to empty the truck. ….Oh well, at least they treated us like U.S. citizens and not criminals this time through.
Once the weather starts to change and freze-up, we in MN should start to see many more birds filter through. Until then, we’ll just have to hunt hard and wait it out.
Good hunting!
Splitshot.