Manitoba Duck Hunt

I was to report back to a few of you on the Manitoba hunt I had last week, but got busy until now. Here it is. We drove up from MN metro (94) through ND to Canada & crossed ND/CA border near MN. Cut across southern MA to about the Brandon area. In ND, lots of H2O and ducks/geese in the eastern part of the state. Shooting should be great there! In Manitoba, along southern parts-over to Brandon (N. of Turtle Mtns.), the H2O dries up as you head west. And I mean DRY too!! Not many ducks/geese until you start to find more H2O. We went north from there. As you go north we found more water, but it was still drier than last year. Once you start finding water,…. look out. The ducks and geese are there! More and more were coming in each day too. We hunted the MA opener until Wednesday last week. Did great, but like I say, had to hunt for H2O to get the ducks. Shot just Greenhead Mallards too for a total limit for 2 guys. ….Could have been done in a day if we shot all kinds though. Weather was good for hunting, time was great. Lots of other MN hunters at the hotels. Saw NONE while hunting (anywhere). Much different than MN duck hunting!! Hunted all private land. Never got denied permission at any of the 1/2 doz. places we hunted either. I think most ducks/geese will stay put there until bad weather shows itself to push them out. There is lots of food to eat, so they will stay until pushed out. Going back on October 11th through 19th for the geese (and ducks) next time. ……..Cant wait!!

Forgot to say,…. My 1-1/2 year old lab performed “perfect.” Never lost a bird. She obeyed all commands (even direction hand signals in H2O) and honored the other guys dog while on a retrieve. She even learned to sit by my side and watch for birds herself after a few volleys of shots/retrieves. All my hard work over the last year certainly paid off so far. Watching the dog work was the best part of the hunt!!! No more wading or boating out to find a duck now. Hopefully, no more lost birds either. Good luck !!

Forgot to say,…. My 1-1/2 year old lab performed “perfect.” Never lost a bird. She obeyed all commands (even direction hand signals in H2O) and honored the other guys dog while on a retrieve. She even learned to sit by my side and watch for birds herself after a few volleys of shots/retrieves. All my hard work over the last year certainly paid off so far. Watching the dog work was the best part of the hunt!!! No more wading or boating out to find a duck now. Hopefully, no more lost birds either. Good luck !!

Hey splitshot, was there any water around Rugby south of the Turtle Mtns?

Hey splitshot, was there any water around Rugby south of the Turtle Mtns?

Yellowdog,….. On the way back we came down and went through the Rugby and Devils lake areas back to Fargo. It’s pretty dry in the Rugby area. ….Much drier than last year. We saw more water as we headed east towards MN. There were lots of ducks and geese where we saw water though. From Devils Lk. west it starts to dry up. North of hwy 2 along the northern part of ND – from MN to Devils – and up to the Turtle Mtns. there seemed to be good water/birds. We saw lots of ducks and geese flying out for the morning feed in those areas as we drove back. You should have no problems in those areas. ….If you get west of Devils, you’ll could have some tuff-luck.
Have you checked the waterfowler.com site? I thought I saw a post on there from you. You can get pretty good info (daily) from that site. Good luck with your hunt.

Yellowdog,….. On the way back we came down and went through the Rugby and Devils lake areas back to Fargo. It’s pretty dry in the Rugby area. ….Much drier than last year. We saw more water as we headed east towards MN. There were lots of ducks and geese where we saw water though. From Devils Lk. west it starts to dry up. North of hwy 2 along the northern part of ND – from MN to Devils – and up to the Turtle Mtns. there seemed to be good water/birds. We saw lots of ducks and geese flying out for the morning feed in those areas as we drove back. You should have no problems in those areas. ….If you get west of Devils, you’ll could have some tuff-luck.
Have you checked the waterfowler.com site? I thought I saw a post on there from you. You can get pretty good info (daily) from that site. Good luck with your hunt.

Splitshot, Thanks for the report. We hunt out of Rugby so we may have to do some traveling. I had forgotten about Waterfowl.com Haven’t been on there since I crashed my pc and lost all myaddresses last fall. Thanks for the reminder!

Splitshot, Thanks for the report. We hunt out of Rugby so we may have to do some traveling. I had forgotten about Waterfowl.com Haven’t been on there since I crashed my pc and lost all myaddresses last fall. Thanks for the reminder!