# MN duck kills ?



## BIG BEN (Jan 4, 2004)

How many did you kill ? I hunted every day and shot 13 ducks.Mn duck hunters are planing a march to the capital some time this winter. :roll:


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## Gunner (Oct 30, 2002)

Got out 3 days had 1 opportunity and missed. What a pathetic season.


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## BIG BEN (Jan 4, 2004)

I'm doing everything i can to get ducks into my ponds. On the biggest of my 18 ponds i planted wild celery wich really got the buffelheads and bluebills in but they left two weeks before opener. For dabblers i plant
millet, duck weed, corn, and in the spring i throw acorns out for the woodies. But you can't get the ducks to eat what you plant when thears no ducks. The only way to kill a good amount is to jumpshoot. Thear are a few western hotspots that have been great. My friends hunt with a guide around donnelly and filled out 4 times. They had great shooting on teal and mallards, and later in the season the buffelhead shooting is good to. I'm just glad i get to expierience great shooting in canada and Oklahoma.
Realistically i think if we start restoring wetlands and habitat it's going to be 3-5 years until we may again have decent shooting. This year it was so hot the northern flight of mallards never here ( last year we shot 43 ducks in 5 days. I just hope next year is better . :-?


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

i hunt around alexandria, i didnt talk to anyone that did well in the area. a few guys talked about killing bunches of geese early season, we did ok on geese in the early season. spent opener around donely, two of us shot 9 on second morning, that was the best we did all year. got out probably 20 times, shot fewer ducks than that on my own. worst season i've had around here. only good shoot i got all year was out in nodak. i think about the only way to see ducks around here anymore is to tell all the farmers they have to fill in the ponds they have drained. good luck with that, way of life vs. recreation is a fight that is going to be tough to win.


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## greenhead (Jun 1, 2004)

That is very true about the farmers draining the ponds.


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## BIG BEN (Jan 4, 2004)

Who would've thought in the land of ten thousand lakes we'd be talking about habitat for ducks.  In oklahoma where we hunt they will find a spring in the ground and dig it out and add a culvert and they have a pond. It was awesome because he would make every pond a little different, He even made his own flooded timber, and river. All of the ponds run like a river though they run through the culvert and back in the other side. He adds cattails and other things needed.


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

it would be nice if thats how people felt about water around here. but in this area it seems to be if people cant build a nice lake home on it, its just in the way. and if its too big to drain they farm within feet of the edges of it. and i can understand that the farmers need every inch of land they can get to make a living, i've grown up on a farm and my dad still is a farmer, i understand it compleatly, thats what makes it so frustrating. like i said, its tough to convince someone to sacrafice income in exchange for a few more ducks. especially if they arnt hunters themselves.


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## wooduck26 (Mar 21, 2002)

...we shot well over 300 for our group......usually 2-3 guys a weekend, Dave


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## mallardwacker (Dec 6, 2004)

I agree with you diver, I'm all for habitat, but when it comes to farmers its tough, my father also farms and he talks every fall about where he needs tile and what he can do to increase profit. If you mention to him or my grandfather about habitat for ducks and geese they say that the government programs are enough and arnt concerned. Dont get them wrong, we have probably 300 acres of CRP which is great for deer and pheasants but when it comes to duck ponds they are considered a pain in the a** in my area. Its hard to teach an old dog new tricks! I wish there was more we could do.


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

The important thing is that you recognize it mallardwhacker. Things are not going to change with the current group farming today. Maybe somewhere down the road we can change the view of farmers but it's going to have to start with new farmers.


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## BIG BEN (Jan 4, 2004)

I guess when you think about it i'd rather have farmers planting every inch , instead of a housing development thear .


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## Quackkills9 (Oct 25, 2004)

went out maybe 8-10 times and didnt get many, saw alot feeding in the rice paddies in mid oct, but did really well on geese during the early season around Grygla/Gatzke. hope next year will be better


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

BB, i agree with you there. the housing developments that just randomly move in make my skin crawl. some big shot real estate guy sneaks in and buys 40 acres from some guy that passed aways kids that live in the city and said they would preserve the land but they dont really care and sell it. next thing you know there is 21 homes built on the side of the lake. the big shot made a million and the ducks lost any cover or breeding habitat that they could have had there.


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

wooduck26 said:


> ...we shot well over 300 for our group......usually 2-3 guys a weekend, Dave


Were all those ducks shot in MN? I don't doubt your group shot that many ducks I just have a tough time believing they were all shot in MN. You're probably counting some Dakota or Canada ducks in there.

I shot 32 in MN which I think wasn't too bad by the way it sounds. I was able to make it out 14 times. I even had two days where I limited but also a few where I was skunked. Lots of days with 2-3 ducks.


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## BIG BEN (Jan 4, 2004)

David k . Edblad of cambridge writes " Why would a duck want to migrate throught minnesota when it can migrate through north or south dakota ? The reason is North and South Dakota have oceans of conservation reserve program. Minnesota will never have that. Instead we have drain tiles. North and South Dakota don't. Wake up duck hunters : this will never be a great hunting state. There is no habitat left in Minnesota-- just walmarts and housing developments. So is you want great duck hunting in Minnesota split up your 80 acre farm, break it down into 1 acre lots and build lots of houses on it so you can afford to duck hunt in North Dakota. Give me an early september opener and I will shoot a limit of Minnesota raised ducks. If minnesota doesn't shoot them our friends in Arkansas and Louisiana will. So minnesota duck hunters stop your whining. " 
Wow that would happen if every duck hunter was like this guy. Luckily all the habitat isn't gone and alot can be done to keep what ducks the state does have. So i'm going to do everything i can. I suggest evry concerned duck hunter in the state does the same. Like to plant cattail bulbs where thear are none, put wood duck houses out on ponds , you can even build you're own mallard nests by taking 4 rebar poles making holes in a tin box, welding the rebar into the box place cattails in tin box and they will find and use it. Or plant stuff like wild rice, millet, duckweed,wild celery, or put freshwater shrimp in ponds for divers.


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## leadshot (Aug 2, 2004)

I grew up in MN and remember when I was 12 years old on my first hunt and can remember the next 5 after that. There were ducks everywhere. Seems like since I was 17, the duck hunting went down hill and never returned. I'm 37 now and living in ND because of the over crowding and the decrease in places to hunt because of development . MN (I hate to say) will never have the ducks like it used too. Not even if ND dries up. They will just move farther west. People of ND need to by any or all means, protect what we have now or it will be another MN here. Ive only been a resident in ND for 1 1/2 years and I'm appreciating everything this great State has to offer. I can remember just a few years ago when we used to sit in the duck blind saying, " It wont be long and the northern ducks will be down". We said that for years and years and it never happened. What few northern ducks did come by, they were a mile high and had no intentions of stopping.

So good Luck Minnesota. Your going to have to do something fast (Like bulldoze the whole State and start over).

Just my :2cents:


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## bear05 (Nov 4, 2004)

Leadshot- i can tell that you were one of those people who did little for the state and talked a lot against the state. Nice Post uke:

_______________________________________

GIT ER' DUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNN


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## leadshot (Aug 2, 2004)

Bear
The only thing i didn't do correctly while I lived in MN was fight against all the city idiots moving North where I lived. They proceeded to move up North and change what I loved about the place.
The Brainerd Lakes area is the next Twin Cities. Let me guess....your from the cities huh? 
Live with what you have now cause it's not getting any better. Have fun!!!


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

leadshot said:


> So good Luck Minnesota. Your going to have to do something fast (Like bulldoze the whole State and start over).


 :lol: count me in!


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## Mud15 (Sep 24, 2004)

Last year was my fisrt year ducking hunting i admit i missed alot of ducks... But i saw a ton more. This year i killed probably 20-30 ducks... I missed alot to But there was just hardly nothing around. My friend has a farm out in western MN almost by SD and We did ok out there But it suxs i hope next season is better...


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## BIG BEN (Jan 4, 2004)

If minnesota wasn't 3rd in the country in hunters we would have better shooting. It's common sense, too many hunters means the ducks have scant places to sit and rest this means the ducks are migrating shortly after the season starts. Plus every hunter around here shoots the roost ducks aren't around for more than 3 days. Plus more hunters shoot more ducks.


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

Can I get an AMEN from everyone!!!!!!!

Exactly what many here are trying to keep from happening in North Dakota.

Bob


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## wooduck26 (Mar 21, 2002)

Anas Strepera said:


> wooduck26 said:
> 
> 
> > ...we shot well over 300 for our group......usually 2-3 guys a weekend, Dave
> ...


As for MN DUCKS.....I would GUESS...300 were in MN....the total count did include ND, and Canada......we were over half way to 400 when ALL ducks were counted......Dave


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## woodie1 (Dec 6, 2004)

About the only way to prove anything is to post up some pictures cause i think that everyone in MN is calling BS on this one untill they see some pictures cause if you shot 300 in MN this year then i would hope you would have taken some pictures cause you shot half the states harvest this year :roll:


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

I really have a hard time believing you guys shot that many in MN if it was only 2-3 guys a weekend. For starters lets say you were able to limit out everytime you went. Since you said 2-3 guys we'll say out of the two weekend days you had 2 limits one day and 3 the other. So 12 one day and 18 the other, giving you 30 ducks total for each weekend you hunted MN. The season is 60 days, meaning you have 8 or 9 weekends. If you did shoot 30 each weekend (which some highly doubt) even if you hunted 9 weekends you still only shot 270 ducks. Since you went to ND and Canada I doubt you hunted every weekend in MN, further lessening the credibility of 300 ducks shot in MN.

Are you counting cripples in your numbers? I know guys like that. A mallard flies over and they all skybust at it winging it beyond retrieve, and then they all count it towards the ducks they shot that season. Not me. To me it's bird in hand. I won't count it unless I know I shot it. If you can't check them for bands then they don't count.


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## qwakwhaker883 (Jan 19, 2005)

This year was by far the worst ive had in MN. Went out 10+ times, shot 7 ducks and 1 merganser (by accident of course :wink: ). Last couple years were nothing to brag about, but this year really sucked.


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## Grounder (Jun 23, 2004)

I have been hunting Mn for all my life and even though this year sucked I managed to shoot 15 ducks. This wouldn't of happened but early in the year I found a bunch of willows that were holding hundreds of woodies and they feed in a flooded bean field just a mile away and it was all on public. But they were all woodies so I wood shoot two and call it a day cause thats all there was. I would shoot two woodies and wait for a teal or a mallard but only woodies flew. But then frost came and that spot went cold and ducks were hard to come buy and we slamed the honkers.


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## Bigdog (Aug 13, 2003)

Looking back through my hunting log this was one the worst if not the worst year for me in MN. I shot no more than 30 in MN for the year.


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## ej4prmc (Dec 3, 2004)

When will MN pull all the drain tile in the state? Until you do there will be NO DUCKS. When I lived in MN I use to hunt public land ie: WATER, if the ducks cann't rest, they won't hang around. With that being said, MN duck hunters need to change their methods of hunting ducks.


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## mwkeller (Feb 2, 2005)

We shot well over 300 birds as a group this year - in MN. There are birds to be had, you just need to work harder and spend more time scouting than ever. We shot over 150 ducks off of one lake and over 90 geese on another lake. Opening day bagged over 50 birds for the group. We hunted a field that had over 10,000 ducks and geese and shot nearly every species of duck this year, including blacks, wigeon, pintails, and cans. Personally, I would rather hunt MN in the fall than anywhere else.


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

mw, how close do a dakota are u huntin?


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## birddog131 (Oct 28, 2004)

mw- you have a few points I really like then you say you had...and I quote:

"We hunted a field that had over 10,000 ducks and geese and shot nearly every species of duck this year, including blacks, wigeon, pintails, and cans. Personally, I would rather hunt MN in the fall than anywhere else."

I really love to Hunt MN for ducks, and do VERY well: I would like to know where you hunt? I have hunted this state for years and have been in on 10's of thousands of ducks, I have never even heard of a Blackduck killed here and pintails are very minimal (I have shot only a handful) I too would rather hunt MN than anywhere else, however I find myself "having" to hunt ND to find the numbers that I really am impressed with.

I agree with you that hunters can find ducks.....I had a very "average" season with a few hundred ducks killed, we hammered the puddle ducks early, because we scouted and we got into a few divers late in the season but it was a slow season due to the weather. I agree that farming practices aren't condusive to duck habitat and that at this point the farmers are tiling and draining their fields because an acre of drained field can now collect $'s from Gov. programs and nothing for having those same acres in Duck Habitat. The change needs to be with compensation to farmers.....They want money, therefore they drain everything and wait for their check's....I know that the ducks pass through, MN simply needs to find a way to get $'s into farmers pockets (because it seems that is all that is important to many) and pay them to not drain the habitat.

I can find great huting houses for sale in ND for 12,000 bucks, try to find that in MN...won't happen! We compensate way too much, therefore driving the habitat out and the farming insurance up! We will not find a happy medium until someone finds a solution.....I agree with you that the ducks are here, a guy can shoot a bunch and I dont' feel too sorry for critics, HOWEVER some serious change is needed, eh?


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## mwkeller (Feb 2, 2005)

I agree also that change is needed but the question is constantly being asked, and I think you see it on a Minnesota forum more than any other forum out there, is how? Everyone has such great ideas but who really is going to pay farmers to not drain their lands, who is gonna stop wal-mart from building on our wetlands. Duck hunting alone is already such a spendy sport. I would love to buy a huge chunk of land and fill it with everything a duck needs but I can't.
I have trouble understanding that everyone had such a poor season. Birds were plentiful and the weather was perfect, it didn't freeze til the last week and therefore I was able to hunt the season through and even the late goose season (I don't get that much this far north). If you're not seeing birds then you're obviously in the wrong spot. I strongly believe that scouting and finding birds is about 95% of the game, if not more. If I put in an entire day of scouting so I can have a phenomenal hunt the next day, then it was worth it. Get away from other hunters. If you're in an area where there are other hunters, it's pretty likey that these birds have been shot at. A bird that's been shot at before has basically gone to Harvard and back...he's well educated. This summer I will spend a lot of time in my hunting area - finding new ponds, talking to farmers - people don't think of duck hunting like deer hunting, but they're related a lot. You don't just go set your stand anywhere, you have to find that perfect spot. Duck huntin is the same game. LOTS of time has to be put into scouting.


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## prairie hunter (Mar 13, 2002)

Ever drive from Litchfield - Buffalo - Albertville 

The amount of building in that area is unbelievable. Sad part is they are buidling along wetlands and public hunting areas too.

Where do all these people work? Drive that long into the city 

On the eastside - I have lost two very good goose hunting spots in the Woodbury and Stillwater MN areas to housing projects. Went from shooting birds "in my back yard" to none in a heartbeat.


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

i know of a couple of guys that live in alexandria and drive to st.paul to work every day. dont know what in the world would make them want to do that, but they do.


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## duck991 (Feb 17, 2005)

If you want to shoot ducks in minnesota don't just go to the same pond,swamp,slough get off your butt and scout i shoot plenty of ducks a year but i put in alot of hours in the truck and on the boat.I agree duck numbers are down but you can still enjoy a decent hunt if you work a little before hand.


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## birddog131 (Oct 28, 2004)

duck is right: There are plenty of ducks to be shot: I normally stay out of these kind of debates, however this year in MN I killed a lot of ducks: No, the huge numbers weren't there but I had good shooting 90% of the time I went out: I had to walk a little further and drive a little more to find where the ducks were but with a little work, I had some good shoots:'
Opening morning we shot 17 woodies and drake mallards: Missed some as well: To me this is just fine: The rest of the season was pretty similar:


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## turning green (Nov 22, 2004)

I live and hunt in NW Iowa but i go to school in minnesota. i ended up baggin around 20 ducks this year in iowa but that was a stroke of luck i think. there really wasnt a whole lot of action in iowa either. I'm not really sure what to think about the last few years of lower than par duck hunting but i hope something happens to make it better and i hope it happens SOON!!!!!

good luck and if you come up with some great idea, let me know!!!!


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