Waterfowl Reports and Migration- 2020

90 percent of the birds harvested this past weekend for us were Gadwalls and GWT. Mallards were all in flocks of a couple hundred and didn’t work to well.

Are you guys hunting big water? Or rivers?

Was out last weekend in central MN and a lot of the small water opened back up but saw very few ducks in general.

Medium sized ponds/lakes. Couple hundred acres tops. Some are only a few feet deep. The small stuff iced up for awhile but has since opened back up. It definitely slowed down again since they opened back up.

Here in south central WI I’ve seen less in general than usual. Had to Lenny of local birds in the early season. Once the local birds were shot up or took off, it’s been relatively dead skies since. I see a few isolated flicks of geese relating to metro ponds. Few mallards around, but relating to metro or private ponds.
I have not been back in the big marshes, and guys I’m talking to that have been are not doing well.
Haven’t seen any northern birds yet

Haven’t given a Mississippi River update in a couple weeks. Last weekend was good with a 2 man limit of divers (bills and ringers) in pretty short order. Heard of a handful of goldeneyes as well.

Today out in the backwaters was pretty painful to say the least. Saw only 1 group of divers and they were sky high. Did see a few small groups of mallards milling around, my group managed to bag 1, which I roasted whole for supper tonight.

I plan on hitting some bigger water tomorrow and hope to find some more divers. Will update after the hunt…

I’m still hoping to catch the northern flight after deer season closes. Decoys are still ready and have plenty of gas in the boat tank!

Well my diver hunt from last weekend turned into a goose hunt pretty quickly. Never before have I seen large groups of geese flocking towards 8 dozen long lines.

I know I shouldn’t, but I’m taking this weekend off. First weekend off since opener, I have lots to get done around the house. Hope some people get into them!