the "official" duck report thread

[JohnWester]

So what have you been seeing for ducks in your areas?  I think it's going to be another bad year out in Lowry where we traditionally hunt.  But my dad says there are more ducks in the remer area, so after the opener, i guess i'll be heading up there more.

anyone else?

[jigglestick]

I just returned from a pre season scouting trip in the winnie area. my object was to evaluate the beaver pothole-flowage areas. I will pictures in a little while, but let me tell you, the outlook there is bleak.
on the up side, the river is up a little. not sure where the water is coming from, and it could change for the worse by this weekend, but for now it looks to be somewhat navigable by boat and motor.
one hed woodie in the potholes, and 7-8 what looked like to be blackducks in the river.

I stopped at a neighbors place and got permission to hunt an extension pothole with no other access, with my boys at some point this season. there were mallards woodies and some sort of diving ducks or grebes?
 I did not check any of the rice lakes yet. tomorrow if I do not work, I will check cow bay on bowstring and several other lakes that are going to be thick with rice. the crop was greater than normal in any recent year.
I hope and anticipate to have a good report that way soon.
it may be that I find the best opening weekend possibilities right out our back door  :)

[Benny]

When I went out to SD to scout our area there I saw a lot of ducks on the western MN side.

More so than last year, normaly I start to see ducks on the ponds only a few miles before the boarder, this year I started seeing them by Benson and beyond.

Benny

[Spinach]

We usually hunt the opener near Alex, does anyone have any reports from there?

[Benny]

Although we turn at Suak Center, I did see a fair amount od Geese in the air to the North.

Wasn't paying much attention to the ducks till we gt out a little further.

Benny

[Bufflehead]

 Well, this is from a guy I know that scouted Winnie this last weekend with his boat

"The wife was working all weekend, so I loaded up the three little girls and did my usual pre-season scouting on Winni.

Pretty depressing. First, getting a boat in on the West Side is darn near impossible. I had to jump out and pull it across the sandbars and it took me 20 minutes to get to deep water where usually it takes 2. Richards Townsite is fine tho. Cruising past a point where there is usually 4 feet of navigable water, I ran aground on a sand bar - 200 yards from shore. Secondly, TRF is really low, with old stumps and few deadheads sticking out all over. Had to take it really slow, and places that are usually easy cruising a half mile from shore are a foot deep. Tough to get around to say the least. If the water drops any more it will be impossible to access quite a few areas. Third, I scouted ALL the likely spots, and saw one flock of mallards, and a single flock of ringbills. Nothing else. No teal, no woodies, no divers - nothing. I've never seen so few ducks out there. Really depressing. Fourth, there were fishing boats everywhere all over the lake - so much for resting on the big water....

The ONLY bright spot is that the rice looks great. Hopefully there will be some migrants moving in and using the tremendous amount of food.

---------------------------------------------

 Around the McGregor area, I have to say, I believe alot of the teal and some of the wood ducks headed to warmer places after the last couple of cool blasts. I haven't seen much for Mallards either.

 The only real place around here that is really effectedwith low water is the Mississippi. Too low to even use a boat safely. The back waters(Logan's) are just about or are BONE DRY!

 Not much for geese moving either. We had a nice push of birds into the area with the last cold rainy day but they seem to have moved on also.

 Not looking real good at this point

 Lets hope that come Sat. the ducks prove me wrong

[Ryan Barthel]

Looks to be another banner year...if you put in your scouting time!  Hunt hard scout harder.

[ScottPugh]

Jiggle...  You ever hunt Cowhorn up there?

[Bufflehead]

 I have scouted it but never hunted it.

 I understand it's packed with hunters around opener.

 was nobody around later in the seaon when I scouted it

[Bufflehead]

 Walked about 2.5 miles in to a lake today, I hadn't planned on it but was following a ATV trail after it left the end of a logging road. Just couldn't stop walking, I had to know where this trail would take me(I had a idea)

 Well, I was right. It took me to a secluded lake I had been to before, but I always came in from the other side.

 These guys(I know who did this) cut a trail in and built a blind right on the edge of the water. HMMmmm Public lands, public waters.

 I wouldn't jump on these guys hard work. They must have done all this last year. No one has fixed up the blind yet this year.? I did see several bunches of birds resting and flying around.

 I'll put this on my list of places to hunt during the week. The later in the season it gets, the better it should be. The divers tend to like this place.

 The trail has a y in it and I believe the other trail will also lead to a Prem. duck hunting place. Tomorrow we plan to take a wheeler and run this hunch down.

 Scout boys!! and scout alot! This year more than ever it is going to be VERY important

 Every place I have on my list to hunt so far, has birds there so far.

 Now, if their there when I plan to kill them. Thats another story...LOL

 

[jigglestick]

scott, I used to hunt it all the time. some years were great, some years not so great.
I used to live on the farm that would be on your left hand side as you are driving in on the access road. I used to deer hunt the land directly south of the lake for many years.

the last time I hunted there was about six maybe seven years ago on the duck opener.
it was about seventy five degrees and sunny. winds were calm. about three hours into the hunt without even so much as a glimps of a duck, my brother and I turned to look at each other and without saying a word, we just startied laughing...at each other and how stupid we must have seemed to each other for hunting ducks on such a day

[Wack n Stack]

Hunted near Lino Lakes this morning. Had a problem with fog forming as legal shooting began. It was tuff if they can't see your decoys and your calling will they come? With the gentle wind blowing at my back it was a tough start to my morning.

Well for me a nice drake mallard came and he got wacked I let the hen go.

During the fog storm I had come in I had a couple of birds I was unsure of. The first pass I dropped one. I was totaly surprised when the second on swung again to decoy. I shot dropped that one. After Rocky my yellow got them back I was unsure what they were. I had to go home to get my duck book. Turns out they were a pair drake and hen Widegons (sp?) the colors were pretty decent. So off to my unlce's taxidermy shop. Yup those are Widgons. I thought cool that was a first for me. Took the breats out and they are ready to mount! I was pretty happy.

Around here there still are tons of locals. I am assuming that these are locals as well. I have noticed that the ringbills are swinging the center's of the big bodies of waters. Soon it will be time to set the bills and divers out!

The geese around here are nuts. In a sod fieild there had to be at least 2,000 honkers. People were pulled over taking pictures they were so many. Wish they would let a guy hunt those fields! If you could I would bet my truck that you would need a sinlge shot 410 shooting 3" shells and you would be done in 10 mins. Or you could jump up and yell DIE and they would fall out of the sky

All in all good day. Got three. With the brief change it could make some northern birds at least think it's time to go...........