2018 Waterfowl reports

Any body back out bird hunting? Seems like the geese are still thick but the ducks thinned out in the north branch area

We have kept records for over 40 years and we thought last year was the worst ever. Well we are in line to do even worse this year. I may not even take the shotgun to the farm this weekend Obviously that will never happen, I don’t leave home without it, but it hasn’t been out of the case in 3 weeks

The ducks for sure thinned out but a report from a friend near Walker said they are thick up there with divers right now. With my fingers crossed, I will be running diver lines out into the abyss this weekend.

This year has been another great year for me, with the exception of last weekend. We seem to be stuck in a lull in SEMN and are hoping for a good push this week/weekend.

Remember, cant shoot a duck if you aren’t hunting…

Does anyone know if some of the smaller duck ponds and sloughs are froze over yet?

Yes. There is skim ice on small bays and small lakes around Brainerd this morning.

Making ice in Bay City yesterday!
Had a little skim ice in places along the edges when we got out around 530. Sun came up and the ice started creeping in on the decoys. Ran boat through decoys 3 times by 930. Finally decided to give it up! The whole bay was locked up solid by 10.
Hopefully warms up a little or we get some wind. If not the season will end early in back waters!
We luckily got two mallards early.

I only made it out once this weekend (Saturday). We ended with 10 ducks for a short morning hunt. Half Goldeneye and half Mallard. Not a single mallard decoy in our spread of 7+ dozen, yet we still pounded em good. The Mergansers are in SEMN in FULL force. Backwater areas started icing up over the weekend, but some opened back up this morning.

Hunting pressure still remains low but I expect it to pick back up with A season closed and B opening this coming weekend down here. Hoping the cold weather keeps the northern hunters from coming down south for the rest of the season, but I’m not holding my breath. The bird numbers aren’t great, but that’s not why we hunt…The absolute hardest and best days of the year are upon us in the next 3 weeks.

I didnt hunt but was down near the mn river area and further south today Farmington area. The amount of birds I seen was unreal. Ducks and geese. It’s never like that in my area. River was loaded and farm fields were packed solid.