Member Photo Credit: Canman OMaddie
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Well fella’s….. I left the house this morning to a balmy 65 degrees and was crazy enough to walk into the back waters 1 1/2 miles. For those of you monitoring us from down South, it was a very dry summer, so going in by boat is impossible in some places. This same spot had about 5 feet of water most of the way last year and this year it has about 12 – 14″ with many dams, sandbars and other obstacles.
After working up a sweat that would resemble 2 a day football workouts, I sat down on the edge of one of the hole to catch my breath.
What transpired over the next 15 minutes was UNBELIEVABLE. I had 300 + woodies come through the decoys and had my 3 drakes in about 6 minutes. That long of walk for 6 minutes of shooting was funny to me. Great way to start the weekend though and I can’t wait for tomorrow morning!
My advice to anyone heading out this weekend would be to get off the beaten path. There are still an abundant amount of local birds around. They have not left….. they are just hiding.
Looks nice! Couldn’t agree more. Dipper and I will be making a 3 mile run in the boat followed by a 1/2 mile walk to get away from pressure. We have an 8yr old & a 9yr old tagging along.
I like your style!
Way to bring those youngsters along as well.
Look forward to hearing about your hunt.
Ottertail county. Worst opener ever. Very, very few ducks. Locals said they saw no broods this year. Lot’s of geese though.
What a great Fall we are having up here in the North Country. Unfortunately, the weather is very balmy and not great for hunting. Since it will be changing soon, I am not going to get too nervous, however we will be stuck with stale local birds for a while I’m afraid.
From the folks I have talked to, opener seems to have been average to a little above average. Some groups were done in short order…. others had slow days.
Not trying to start a war, but it seems some of the areas with higher Early goose hunting pressure produced less results than other areas —- surprise surprise!
Best of luck to all of you that venture out this weekend.
Dipper Dave and I had a decent opener. Neither one of us had as much time to scout before season. Normally we will put on alot of miles (up to 500) to be on the “x”. Due to time our scouting this year meant driving to a proven “x” in West Central MN Just to make sure there was water. We checked two ponds about a mile apart. Spot #1 had plenty of water and about a dozen ducks. Spot #2 was similar with a few honkers too. Both are public and are a work out to get into. We chose #1 and it paid off. Dense fog and little wind made it frustrating. Multiple birds snuck though. The fog burned off petty quick and we were able to bag a two man limit in a couple hours or so.
Day #1
Weather forecasts for day 2 called for a good wind perfect for spot #1 so we hit it again. We had three same success as day #1 but harvested our 2 man limit in an hour and a half. Good wind and no fog was definitely a factor. Very few mallards both days. Lots of woodies.
Dave.
Good work guys!
I’ll be out again Friday. Will post up.
Nice work! Only 57 days left.
Slow for me………….both days.
Hit the woodie hole this morning with a buddy of mine. Ended up with our 6 woodies in about 35 minutes. No other species of ducks seen, however in huting this spot for many years we ussually don’t.
All in all a satisfying start to the 2013 season. I will try to get out at least once mid-week.
Post up!
Sweet looking spot. Awesome start.
Nice hole there!
Good Afternoon Waterfowler.com and welcome to the start of the 2013 MN Duck Season!!!!
I found myself this morning at a new slough I have never hunted before, however the sweat inside my waders, the smell of the mud & cattails along with the faint sounds of people yelling at their dogs meant it must be time.
Despite the Sunny skies, fog and zero wind we were met with a good amount of teal, mallards and gaddies. The only issue we had was our setup. We didn’t have great visability in two directions and we let many changes go by without taking off the safety.
All in all, we did scratch out a two man limit of 5 Mallards, 5 Teal and two Gaddies. It was great to be afield again and very special to be spending my 25th consecutive opening day with my Dad. Another bright spot was our 2 1/2 year old yellow lab retrieving all of the bagged birds including a 150 yard chase of a cripple that ended up on the opposite shore of the pond.
This is why we do it!
Will be out agian tomorrow trying a different hole for some Woodies.
How did everyone else do? Post up!!!!
Is this thing working?
Yep. How was your early goose season?
The annual Reeds Fall Classic Sale starts Friday August 16th.
-Decoys at guaranteed better prices than Game Fair
-Avery Hunter Series Full Body Harvester 6 pack for $99.99
-Avery pothole packs at $24.99
-.22 ammo will be on hand 1000 bricks each day
-Free BBQ lunch Saturday and Sunday
-Summer Clearance
-Truckloads of Ammo
-Trailers full of decoys
-Street will be closed come shop under the tents.
-Try before you buy guns from over 10 factories Saturday from 9-11 am.
Please come help us celebrate the kickoff to the fall hunting seasons next weekend.
Took a trip West for work last week and saw many broods of Mallards and Wood Ducks between St. Cloud, MN and Fergus Falls, MN. Also saw a few goslings as well. Seemed like more ducks than I recall seeing last year at this time, but less Geese.
Counting down the days!
Counting them down here too
Anyone out there?
Fish have been cooperating.
3 1/2 months to go.
Definately a late hatch this year.
That is some fine table fare right there.
nice fish
slow a hell in here. Sure alot of these lately
Good Field Shoot!
I haven’t shot a fat bull sprig like that in 3 seasons. Thanks for sharing the pic.
That is a nice pile of birds
Thanks. It was a fun morning. Love the days when they work just right!!!!!
Nice pile. Bonus sprigs!
I think I know where Dipper Dave wrapped up his MN season
That’s a stack of whistlers. By the time we started to see them in WI the season was out. My oldest son did manage to get his first Goldeneye this year though. It’s still on the youngest’s bucket list.
Nice Goldies!
all we saw were Mallards, goldeneyes, and geese. thats it.
How come the entire picture does not show when we post on here?
Should be fixed now. Added an auto-resize to the code.
The spread from the last day of duck season 2012
Nice. The first year I hunted in Arkansas the guides had never busted ice before. Had to show them the break off big chunks and slide em under trick. One of the few things us yankees can do. 🙂
Nice!
MN last weekend this year.. Had an awesome season, just wish I coulda got out of work a little more
Ice scene from the blind 2012!
Well that didn’t load quite the way I wanted.
Looks great now. Awesome pic.
Nice! Looks great! -2 Degrees that morning.
Happy New Year to all fellow Waterfowlers throughout the state. I am counting down the days till Trap and Sporting Clays league starts and next hunting season!
Welcome to the new report system HH. Looking forward to your off season reports. How was your past season? In your opinion has an earlier opener been better or worse for MN duck hunters?
Thank-you. It will take a bit to get used too, but there is so much more that can be done on this site. I really like the picture upload capability.
In my opinion, 2012 was the best hunting season in MN since the mid 90’s. It seemed nearly every time I was planning to go afield, a cold front would push a few fresh birds into my areas and made for some incredible decoying.
On the old MN members forum, we had good discussions about this topic. Overall, I commend the DNR and their efforts to change season structure to benefit waterfowlers. It is nice to have policy makers in this department that are actually Waterfowlers and not Walleye fisherman. The difference is noticed by me and nearly every waterfowler I talk with.
The only opportunity that I would encourage them to look at is they do limit some of our late season opportunities by closing the North Zone so early. I realize that most hunters pack it in after the first two weekends and the remaining folks that enjoy breaking ice are a rare breed. However, I would encourage the DNR to have a statewide shutdown of the season for an entire week as to give us one more week on the end… or merge the Central and Southern Zones together and create a Far North Zone that runs from East Grand Forks to Duluth on Highway #2 as perhaps it is best this area of the state runs right through.
I say this because North Central MN South of Bemidji to Brainerd has some of the best hunting opportunities around Thanksgiving and the current structure closes before that migration can occur for many of our hunters.
Again, these are just some comments, but I applaud the DNR’s efforts in ridding us of the 12pm then 9am opener start. Opener in MN was awesome this year and set the tone for the entire season.
Your summary reflects pretty much what we’re hearing from MN hunters that call us. They all seemed to have great seasons this year.
Season splits aren’t a bad thing at all. WI seems to do it right — they open for a week. Then close for a week to get that extra week on the back end of the season. It’s not a bad pattern as the second week of the season here in IL is always dead — you shoot out the locals and the early migrants quickly on opening week and then there is a lull. A break during that lull is a great trade for an extra week in December.
I totally agree. As Mick Jagger says “You can’t always get what you want”, but again these new policies are very refreshing compared to the rediculous ones of the past 20 years.