Posted By:
Olson
Web Member
western Mn. 10-23-2011 19:23
Sunny & Clear, Morning Fog – 45-50 Degrees
We returned to our shack Friday in time to make some decoy sets for Sat. A.M.. Started out with low fog over lake which hindered a couple spots for the first hour or so. Action got better as morning progressed, with a decent number of new divers not yet wise to our spots.Did not kill limits but had good shooting, and it was girls weekend (once a year we bring all the wives and girlfriends). My wife is almost a regular but it was my 28 year old daughters first time at the “shack”. We had a few ringbills, some nice flocks of cans, redheads, GWT, buffleheads, and just a few nice ‘Bills. The strange thing was again we still had quite a few Woodies.Being a big fan of Woodies on the table it is a welcome change.We quit Saturday about 10:00 A.M. short of our limits but with plenty of excuses why. Saturday afternoon we decided to do some fishin and caught a mess of very large sunfish and crappies but thats for a different website!
Sunday morning was a complete bust. Still quite a few ducks around but wise to our spots. Perfect morning with a light rain , low skies, and a west wind which doesn’t work well with our points. We managed a handful of ducks with one awesome bull can, but the majority of birds were high and not interested in our sets. Seems to me the migration is still early, but I am encouraged by the mix of birds we had. Going to let it sit ’til Thursday and hope the natural migration continues as we need fresh birds. It does not appear that the weather is going to help, more nice weather is forecast as far out as their reports go.
Saturday was definetely better and we heard alot more shooting from other lakes in the area, Sunday we hardly heard any other shooting.Still though for us it was a good weekend for this ( fairly early ) time of year. We had 8 in our group with 6 shooters and they all got a decent amount of shooting.Thursday it will be back to our
3 – 4 regulars up there so it will be back to serious hunting, I just hope the ducks show up.Had 3 Goldeneyes work the outside of the dekes this morning as we were picking up, seems a bit early for that,but nothing suprises me anymore with when it comes to weather and ducks in this state.
I’ll post next Sunday when I get back.
Good shootin’ to all of you…
Posted By:
HonkerHotline
Web Member
Central Minnesota 10-23-2011 12:07
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 50-60 Degrees
Southern Boys….
Scouting report last night still contained many woodies which is abnornal for this time of year. Saw probably 300 of them on various rivers, ponds, etc. No sign of other ducks though. Zero mallards or divers were viewed.
My target however, was for Geese. Found 5 good fields and as Minnesota would have it was denied permission to all of them.
Can’t fault people for doing what they want with their land. They pay taxes, maintain, farm it, etc. However, it sure is frusterating when the land I am seeking to hunt are open corn fields with no houses, livestock, or tree’s for deer hunters nearby.
Ended up skipping this morning.
Long range forecase continues to warm.
I will try to stay positive for now, but am guessing we are going to be another 2+ weeks before we see good migration activity.
Posted By:
HonkerHotline
Web Member
Central Minnesota 10-22-2011 17:12
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Well Southern Boys……
It appears the last few frosty mornings have moved some of the local woodies south. Setup on a small river system this morning and where there were hundreds of woodies up till last week, this morning we only saw about 15. Paddled 2 miles south on the river and scared up another 20-30.
Ended the day with 4 BIG drake woodies and packed it in.
Seems a large influx of Canada Geese into the area, but duck numbers still very low for this time of year.
I keep checking the accuweather extended forecast and what looks to be promising temp wise towards the end of the month and into early November continues to rise.
68 degrees today while driving back home…. yuck!!!
On a good note 2 fields we can hunt for geese had the corn removed yesterday, so off for a scout here in 20 minutes.
I will post up my results.
Posted By:
Paul-Burton
Field Editor
Brainerd area 10-22-2011 11:31
– – –
The birds that came last week, GONE. Hunted big water today with a diver and mallard set, some competition near by. Saw a few small groups of ringers and a few mallards. Nothing wanted to cooperate, sat until 8:00 and then off to work. Hello, November, are you out there???
Did not hear much shooting in the area, another sign of few birds in this part of the state.
Posted By:
Erik L
Guest
ND 10-20-2011 19:09
– – –
I’m glad a few of you guys are getting birds… I just returned home after putting over 1000 miles on the truck traveling from the SD border through Jamestowm, Lakota, Devils Lake and Cando. I’ve been hunting Nd for 15 years and this was the worst I’ve ever seen it. For people who havent witnessed normal ND conditions there may appear to be alot of birds. The only thing I saw alot of was coots, I talked with several people inluding a mail carrier who confirmed there just isn’t many ducks around. Didn’t see one tornado of mallards or field with more than a couple hundred geese, although snows are showing up. If your planning a trip my advise is WAIT! The migration is off to a slow start & about 90% of the crops in the southern half of the state are still standing. If you really want to work hard there are a few birds to be had (brown pinny mallards & gadwalls) but if you want big fat greenheads give it at least a couple weeks, these birds right now are in summer mode and well educated. Another really important point is call ahead to make sure hotel rooms are available, with all the construction and oil boom it was VERY tough to find accomodations, most places were booked out 2 weeks. We used to kick back outside cleaning ducks and swapping stories with a few other hunters, now is packed with noisy semi’s and truck drivers. Also if your running a Diesel dont let her get too low.. I almost found out the hard way, there is a shortage along the freeways. Good luck
Posted By:
HonkerHotline
Web Member
Western, MN 10-20-2011 18:32
Sunny & Clear, Morning Fog – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Headed out West this morning for a good ole fassion diver hunt. Temps along most of the drive were 25 – 27 degrees with a lot of fog.
Setup between two shallow lakes (20 yards apart). Put out a smaller spread of 12 buffleheads, 12 ringbills, 4 cans, and 4 Redheads.
Everything appeared perfect and then…..
we did not fire a shot at that location.
Moved the setup to a smaller pond about a 1/2 mile away and decoyed a flock of 35 Redheads (about 15 minutes in)dropped our limit of 4 out of that flock and those were the last shots fired for the morning.
For MEA weekend, little to no shooting heard and hardly any ducks flying around. I speculate some of this may have been due to the dense fog, however the only species I saw while in the blind were Redheads.
After packing up we put on about 75 miles scouting various fields, potholes, and shallow lakes.
Below is what I observed:
– 30 ringbills
– 300+ Redheads in small bunches
– 15 – 20 teal
– 2 Gadwall
– 15 snow geese
– 300 Canadians
*We are definetly in a mid-season lull at this point in the three areas of the state I hunt. Zero flocks of Mallards were seen and very few geese also.
Still fun to be afield with my 14 month old lab.
While scouting did pick up a bonus Rooster in a small WPA. Watched him fly into a patch of grass 100 yards in and was able to get him.
Ole – what’s happening up North? Anyone else getting out there?
Looks like a cool front moving in towards the end of the Month. Looks like November is going to be another good one. I wonder why I even venture out in October anymore.
Best of luck to you all!
Posted By:
1gander
Guest
carlos avery 10-19-2011 19:29
Cloudy, High Winds – 40-45 Degrees
well what a difference a day makes today missed opportunitys n missed shots seen about a tenth of birds i seen yesterday.back to work in morning ughhhh
Posted By:
HonkerHotline
Web Member
St. Cloud Area 10-18-2011 19:03
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
Farmers are back in action with the corn harvest in full swing. Seems to be a good push of geese in the area.
Will be out Thursday.
I LOVE this time of year!
Posted By:
1gander
Guest
carlos avery 10-18-2011 18:15
Cloudy, High Winds – 40-45 Degrees
well today should had limit but lack sleep ruined my hunt seen several birds had more vocal birds today had hen gwt,hen mallard in decoys but m passing on all hens had many nice opportunity on low close shots but oh well will try again tomorrow
Posted By:
1gander
Guest
carlos avery 10-17-2011 22:48
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 50-60 Degrees
well finally was able to get out i oared to my spot kicked up about 100 mallards,gadwall,greenwings then ended up shooting hen widgeon,lost her and shot young drake woody,missed shots at some mallards,one thing i noticed ducks were for most part quiet had one hen mallard call to few other mallards they spooked from where she was n decoyed to me n missed not many birds around but better than being at work will b back at it again in morning
