2021 MN Waterfowl Reports

It was good for us. We set up on water expecting to shoot a bunch of honkers and maybe a few teal. Ended with 30 teal for the 5 of us and saw about 40 geese. Totally opposite of what we expected but definitely prefer the ducks over the geese.

404 ERROR wrote:

Initial reports from the book of faces show a grim reality to a teal season…wood ducks and early shooting. Don’t shoot the messenger, enough illegal shots were had this morning. And will continue for the next few days. Hope everyone here did well…

Can you share? Many suspected this, would just like to read reports first hand so not to start rumors.

Thanks.

We shot seven on a third option spot after the first two choices emptied out of ducks after the second rain we had. Amazing how fast those ducks moved. Literally overnight. I hope somebody called TIP on every violation that was witnessed.

404 ERROR wrote:

Initial reports from the book of faces show a grim reality to a teal season…wood ducks and early shooting. Don’t shoot the messenger, enough illegal shots were had this morning. And will continue for the next few days. Hope everyone here did well…

I suspect Its people trolling on the net. Pissed that there is a teal season and trying to give it a bad reputation to shut it down in the future. It gives all duck hunters a bad name.

Jensen wrote:

I suspect Its people trolling on the net. Pissed that there is a teal season and trying to give it a bad reputation to shut it down in the future. It gives all duck hunters a bad name.

I can’t say I approve of an early teal season, an early goose season, and an early youth season prior to the start of the general season, but who in their right mind would actually report themselves when accidentally shooting a non-teal? I wasn’t duck hunting yesterday but when I started fishing right around sunrise I saw ducks flying and other than the size, there’s no way to tell what kind they are. They definitely don’t have full plumage yet either. There’s literally no way to know or confirm how many non-teal have been harvested.

I agree feathers. No duck is going to have much color this time of year or on opener. If you are not 100 percent sure it’s a teal then dont shoot, that’s what a ethical duck hunter does.Had a few buzz our goose field but didn’t shoot. Lots of woodies and mallards joined the goose decoys.

The easiest way to ID teal vs other puddle ducks is the faster wing beat and sharp turns flying. You shouldn’t be in the marsh if you can’t ID the most common puddle ducks. We set up in a cut wheat field 2 miles off the roost. Teal hunters spooked them off before shooting and the geese no-showed our field. Had a couple groups commit. Can’t blame the teal hunters.

Being two years removed from being an ND resident,I can’t do MN waterfowl. Looks like fall fishing and pheasant hunting are the play this fall. Hope others had a good start to waterfowl season!

Saturday when it was overcast it was easy to identify everything. Sunday the sun was shining and I had to pass on pretty much everything. With the glare by the time I could decide what they were it was to late. Oh well it was still fun. Monday I got my six with 3 shots. Saturday it took me 16 shots to get 4.

I’m glad for those that enjoyed early season and had success. But everyone looks at the situation with their own personal viewpoint and I don’t like it.

IMO it will simply reduce my harvest come opener. Guess I will find out in two weeks.

gimruis wrote:

I wasn’t duck hunting yesterday but when I started fishing right around sunrise I saw ducks flying and other than the size, there’s no way to tell what kind they are. They definitely don’t have full plumage yet either. There’s literally no way to know or confirm how many non-teal have been harvested.

This is the biggest load of crap I have read in a long time!! First of all, blue winged teal have as much color now than they will until spring. If you can’t tell a duck by the profile and flight pattern put down the gun and grab some binos and learn to.

sticker wrote:

This is the biggest load of crap I have read in a long time!! First of all, blue winged teal have as much color now than they will until spring. If you can’t tell a duck by the profile and flight pattern put down the gun and grab some binos and learn to.

This is partially why I chose not to partake in an early teal season. Based on what others have also posted, it sounds like some also did not shoot at certain ducks because they could not identify them either. But thank you for the personal attack Sticker.

Saturday we limited out in 40 minutes while seeing 95% teal. Sunday it took until 945 with a more 50/50 mix. Good thing on Sunday we were able to get a couple bonus geese and it was fun watching mallards, gaddys, and pintails swimming in the decoys. 48 ducks down and not one mistake. We also never shot more than 20 yards out and sat on the north sides of the sloughs so we didn’t have the sun in our eyes.

lindyrig79 wrote:

I’m glad for those that enjoyed early season and had success. But everyone looks at the situation with their own personal viewpoint and I don’t like it.

IMO it will simply reduce my harvest come opener. Guess I will find out in two weeks.

X2

404 ERROR wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>lindyrig79 wrote:</div>
I’m glad for those that enjoyed early season and had success. But everyone looks at the situation with their own personal viewpoint and I don’t like it.

IMO it will simply reduce my harvest come opener. Guess I will find out in two weeks.

X2

I just don’t get this thought process. It seems pretty selfish.

I would suggest partaking in it next year.

Had a great weekend. Saturday someone near me shot at 7:20. I yelled at him. I then could hear his buddy explaining it’s sunrise, not 1/2 hour before. My buddy was done in 30 minutes and I was done in 50 minutes. We each hunted in our own boats. I passed on several shots not being sure if they were teal because of the lighting. He called me when he was going in and I had him on speaker phone. I shot my 5th duck while we were talking.
Sunday morning we both hunted and neither of us fired a shot. Most birds were gone. Picked up at 8:00 and went fishing.
I went out Sunday evening at 5:00 and had ducks coming by about every 20 minutes. Couldn’t ID them with the way the sun was. Planned to pick up at 7:40. Well at 7:25 a flock came from behind and I let them go and they swung around and came in. I got a true triple. 3 birds from one flock with one shot per bird. One straight out, one to the right and one to the left. Got back to the blind and 5 minutes later another flock came in low from the left that I didn’t see until they flared up and over the rushes at 15-20 yards. I saw they were teal and one snap shot later, 3 dead teal on the water. Never took a shot over 30 yards. Came home on Monday. A great time!!

Feathers wrote:

I hope they extend our teal season days to include at least another weekend next year. I like to kill ducks and the more hunting days the better!

Don’t think they’ll extend it into the following weekend because youth waterfowl weekend is open now and they can shoot any ducks. Mixing teal-only duck hunters with any-species ducks hunters would be a disaster.

Reading the Cuffs and Collars section of the Outdoor News, many CO officers reported violations over 80% of their interactions with early teal hunters. Sore eye for waterfowl hunters. ID-ing brown ducks isn’t always easy, but it’s also not asking for too much. Hope it doesn’t continue

Good youth day. I’m not sure who shot what as there was a lot of claims made, more than the number of birds killed. But I can guarantee they all were killed by the two young’ins. Very few ducks moving, but a fair amount of geese. Very little shooting also in Clearwater area.

24hr Marinaded goose breast kabobs on the BBQ, as good as a med rare tenderloin, IMO

ganderpike wrote:

Reading the Cuffs and Collars section of the Outdoor News, many CO officers reported violations over 80% of their interactions with early teal hunters.

I was told it was a rumor…

5 more sleeps, folks. I’m looking forward to opening morning more than ever. Covid took the wind from under my wings through essentially all of early season but I’m ready to rock now…

The lake we hunt by my dads has way less ducks on it then it did a few weeks ago.

JEREMY wrote:

The lake we hunt by my dads has way less ducks on it then it did a few weeks ago.

More will be there soon!

Beautiful morning.
DT

It sure was. Great photo.

Good hunting, and one of the coolest sky’s I’ve seen for a while

Nice job Jeff. Boy those mallards are significantly bigger than the wood ducks aren’t they.

24 ducks, 2 geese between dad and me for opening weekend. saturday was a mixed bag of widgeon, teal, gadwall, and a pintail. today was all teal. saw more bluewings this weekend than we did for teal season(we shot mostly greenwings then).

We had our worse season that I can remember. Descent shooting around us by nothing was flying in. More years than not, we get our limits, or should have…this year we shot 3 ducks…in two days…with 4 people.

Four of us had fourteen on Saturday. Pintails, woodies,bluewings, a shoveler and a hoodie (brother shot the last two). It was ok but saw very few ducks overall. Brother and I shot two woodies this morning. Even fewer ducks which is normal. Our bluewings that we had scouted left Thursday evening and Friday with the strong northwest wind we had. Figures.