Posted By:
CPAMAN
Guest
Rice/Skunk Lakes-Central MN 11-13-2010 17:59
Cloudy, Accumulating Snow – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Perfect weather in Central MN for duck hunting. Not the heavy snow here that the Twin Cities is getting. Just a steady snowfall with winds at 15 mph. Problem. No ducks! Saw six birds on the two lakes-total! Two mallards and four divers. I shot a crippled goose on Skunk lake as I scouted the two lakes. Had to chase him around for several hundred yards. The only goose left in the area. Frustrating to say the least.
P.S. Discovered when cleaning the goose that it was banded!
[Edited By CPAMAN on 2010-11-14 10:58]
Posted By:
Paul-Burton
Field Editor
Brainerd area 11-13-2010 11:06
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Hunted big water 5 days in the last week and a half. Not much happening in this part of the state. Have bagged a few birds each time but not seeing much in the mornings, weather outlook doesn’t look like it is gonna get too cold over the next week. Still gonna hit it hard and hope for birds to come down
I am guessing it’s quiet other places but would like to see some other reports!
Posted By:
kobear
Web Member
Otter Tail County 11-10-2010 10:45
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 35-40 Degrees
News birds around past few days. Kind of a trickle of migration? Mallards and Geese using bigger lakes to stage out to fields. Some divers around too but nothing major. Should get some shooting if out and about this weekend.
Posted By:
CPAMAN
Guest
Did Not Hunt 11-08-2010 09:49
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On my way back from deer hunting in North Dakota Sunday PM my son and I saw a lot of ducks and geese along the I-94 corridor from Fergus Falls area through Alexandria. Over three dozen sloughs were holding 15-400 ducks and geese. As usual, the peak migration appears to have hit during the deer opener.
[Edited By CPAMAN on 2010-11-08 17:53]
Posted By:
knute
Web Member
Breckenridge/rothsay/Fergus Falls 11-03-2010 21:45
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted this past Sat/Sunday/monday.
Saturday set up on the same slough/wpa as last week and took only one ringer. I did see several hundred mallards fly over looking for cornfeilds though. Packed up and decided to go scouting. Put on about a hundred and fifty mile in the above mentioned area scouting. Picked up a couple ruddy ducks in a little lake in the afternnoon.
After the snow they got last week there is water vertually everywhere. Found a flooded cornfeild with about three hundred mallards in it and three hundred sandhill cranes between the corn and the hayfeild across the road. Found the owner and asked permission to hunt, but was turned down. He said his cousin hunts it.
Sunday set up in backwaters of the river. Had a good day. Got a 14 pound goose and three two curl mallards, and dropped a leg on another, although he flew away.
Monday hit a slightly different area of the river and managed two more mallards(although one was a hen) and a really nice drake woodie before I had to pack up and head for home.
I saw a lot more birds than last week. Definitely starting to migrate, although not in full swing yet by any means.
If your planning to hunt that area you better plan on spending some time scouting becuase there is just so much water that even when they really start flying there are jsut so many place for them to hide, and the feilds are really muddy right now.
Posted By:
Peter-Brown
Field Editor
North Metro, Anoka Cty 11-03-2010 13:39
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
Things have slowed in the Lino Lakes area.
Not a lot to be seen, less to shoot at.
I did notice a few more Mallards hanging around the “safe” areas. Centerville city limits and the golf course.
Some of them will screw up and fall to the gun before things end.
Although I have nothing to show for my last few mornings, the word I get from others is that a duck or two are being taken by some.
I did a drive about yesterday AM, very few rigs parked at the various boat landings.
I’m after Bambi this weekend, I’ll report again later next week.
Posted By:
CPAMAN
Guest
West Central Minnesota 11-01-2010 11:57
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
Hunted out in the Morris area Saturday AM. Two reasons, report earlier in the week indicated birds had moved into this area. Second reason was we gained permission to hunt several cut fields in the area. We were set up for dark geese but the fields were incredibly muddy. Had to set up closer to the farm area as walking in that mud was a disaster and travel via truck or 4-wheeler was impossible.
Ended up not firing a shot! The geese were moving in the AM but nothing came closer than 100 yards of our spread. A few smaller flocks took a look but shied away. We needed to be more out in the middle of the section-wide field in order to get more attention. The most disturbing factor was that we did not see one duck that morning. After we picked up around 10:30, we drove around and did not see a single bird in any of the WPA around the Morris, Hancock, or Glenwood areas. This is even more surprising given that some hunters had success in Central MN the previous Friday or Saturday as posted in the field reports.
Another report from the Herman area was a complete bust as well. Only one duck taken by a group of three hunters with very few birds seen on Saturday AM. One would have thought that October 30th would have been a prime day to hunt after the wind storm and snow storm the previous Monday-Wednesday.
Posted By:
Mendota Go-Devil
Guest
Central MN 11-01-2010 10:45
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 40-45 Degrees
Finally had a great Minnesota mallard hunt this weekend. Got out with my brother for the last 2 hours of hunting time on Friday. It was a nice sunny afternoon with south winds. Our set up was perfect as both the sun and wind was to our back which made identifying the drakes very easy. We shot 6 nice greenheads that evening and could have easily taken a hen each if we wanted to.
Saturday morning three of us went back to the same area. There were lots of mallards but we had a north wind so our morning set up had the sun in our eyes which made identifying the drakes very difficult for the first few hours. Shot a couple of hens early so had to play the “is it or isn’t it a drake?” game for a long time. By 1:00 p.m. we finally shot our last drake for a 12 mallard (9 drakes and 3 hens) limit plus a nice female Pintail. We could have shot some Greenwing Teal and Ringnecks as there were some of them around too but decided to hold out for the Mallards.
Water is very high in this area and the mallards were in the flooded grass.
Posted By:
dstohlberg08
Web Member
central MN 10-29-2010 21:07
Cloudy, Snow & Rain Mix – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Just got back from the cabin, hunted the last couple of days in the area with great success. Lots of ringers around more than I’ve ever seen Wednesday the sky was thick with them. Killed a limit both Wed and Thurs. Less birds seen on thursday. Headed back up on Sunday.
Posted By:
nafd54
Guest
10-29-2010 19:12
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CPMAN, I SAW THE SAME THING LAST YEAR WITH THE FLOCKS OF BLACKBIRDS. IT WAS AMAZING. WORDS CAN NOT DESCRIBE IT. THAT IS SOME OF THE GREATEST THINGS ABOUT DUCK HUNTING. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU WILL SEE. GLAD TO HEAR YOU HAD A GOOD SHOOT.
