# Opening weekend results--post up



## Qwack (May 25, 2002)

How did everyone do? It was a mixed bag of mallards, pintails, bluewings, greenwings, gaddies and geese for us. I think we all limited on laughs and fun--great to spend another opener with my dad and brother. Colder than most openers I can remember and a lot of teal and woodies must have headed south during the week because we didn't see nearly as many as we did last weekend. There was some frost on the windshield this morning and we all wished we had brought warmer clothes when the wind was howling on Saturday. Heard lots of shooting both mornings. All the hunters we talked to were happy. Only negative part of the weekend was seeing water levels down even further and seeing more dry potholes becoming plowed black dirt.


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

The action was fast and furious with 5 drake mallards,1 drake pintail,and 2 canadas by 8:30.Best part about the hunt was that I brought my 9 year old nephew with and he had a blast!


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## muskat (Mar 5, 2002)

I ended up having to work this weekend, but got out Saturday morning with my brother and another buddy. We got 11 mallards and 2 geese by 8:30(had to work at 9, was 40 minutes late), but should have limited out. Groups of 20-30 working the decoys all morning with a HORRIBLE display of shooting. It was a great time anyways--an A+ opener. :beer:


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## Austin Bachmeier (Feb 27, 2002)

Numerous ducks Saturday with the highlight being an old mature redhead that happened to be BANDED. Today, hunted with Dean Nelson, and we had a hell of a shoot, Limits of canadas, ducks and the highlight for me today - Mature Blue Phase Snow Goose. :beer: This weekend was awesome!!


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## Blake Hermel (Sep 10, 2002)

I went down to Mankato MN for our traditional opener, as its the only time its good all year until late season. My dad and I shot 20 ducks, brothers group shot 11 and scored another Band. Was a good shoot for MN. Boy it sure makes a guy appreciate all we have in NODAK after beggin for teal :lol:


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## madasnurb (Sep 22, 2003)

Went out this morning with a group of 3 others and shot 12 mallards, one teal, and a honker. Most of the shots were 30 yards plus. Had great time. One of the guys was a 10 year old kid that was new to the sport, had a problem with him keeping his face down and getting his gun up fast enough for him to take the first shot. Probably made him a new waterfowl hunter today, he didn't shut up all the way home.  :beer:


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## Austin Bachmeier (Feb 27, 2002)

Blake I swear to god man the banding rate had to have jumped like 300% over the summer or something. :beer: I ain't gonna be one to complain.


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## Blake Hermel (Sep 10, 2002)

Yea Austin, I would say we got the blessing this fall!!


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## quackattack (Sep 27, 2003)

We went just north of petersburg and got 4 blue geese. we didn't get any ducks because we didn't bring out duck boat this time so we just came with our guns and used the old method of hunting " the sneak" we did alright i guess. Hoping that in 2 weekends we will be ready to break out the dekes and the duck boat for it's maiden voyage this year. we saw tons of ducks and geese but since we didn't have a boat we couldn't shoot any ducks cause we had no way to retreive them. All in all i thought it was a great opener. except for when my nova jammed and i found out that it doesn't take 3 1/2 inch shells. it says on the barrel that it does but everytime i put one in it wouldn't fit. oh well still had fun! 
:beer:

matt


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## tsodak (Sep 7, 2002)

We had a good morning Sat. Nice and cool with a good breeze. Had a good field, with lots of birds in it. Left real early to get there, and got downwinded. They did set up a quarter mile off, but they hurt us. We were still happy Buddy had his son along, first time, and he got to shoot alot. hehehe. even got one greenhead. I ended up one canada short of a limit.

Here is the interesting thing though. We were 25 miles east of Jamestown, and we figured we could hear 16 groups of distinct shooters within earshot. I think 3/4 were hunting sloughs.There were a lot of ducks in this general area, and I will tell you one thing, there were a lot less in that area tonight.

Anyone who says they never saw another hunter and there was no pressure in the early season should count yourself lucky to be able to A live far enough away from a major sity to alleviate the pressure, or B have a wife who lets you drive 80 miles one way both to scout and hunt another area. Man, I cant wait till my boys get a little bit older.


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## Austin Bachmeier (Feb 27, 2002)

Make sure you weren't trying to shove a 10 Gauge 3 1/2" up there, it ain't gonna work. And I have known people to buy 10 Gauge Shells mistakenly...  go look. :wink:


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## win4win (Sep 8, 2003)

Some buddies flew into Fargo from TN this past Tuesday and asked me to come along with them on a trip into Manitoba. They had booked a guided trip for Honkers, Ducks and Grouse. Well....I knew what was coming but I went along anyway. As I suspected the "guides" turned out the be a joke.....more like con artists. I just hope my buddy was able to stop the wire transfer to the guides account. I tried to warn him but he learned the hard way. 

Anyway.....we ended up with a few birds. Way short of what we should have. Luckily these guys were pretty fair shots or we would could have ended up with next to nothing. The Grouse hunt was more like a 300 mile sight seeing tour. Saturday there were hardly any birds flying so I cant blame that on the guides....but it sucked that 4 of us laid in a field covered in straw with 8 pitiful decoys in front of us. :evil:

All in all I limited out on honkers the first 2 mornings and shot 3 ducks the first afternoon. We still managed to have fun despite what we had to deal with. I am sure they will return next year to hunt either ND or Manitoba but will be doing it on their own this time.

The good news.....weekend after next I'll be on my first ND hunt with the girlfriend's father and brother. They are seeing tons of birds right now and cant wait to get me out there! 

Be safe!!!

JJ


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## BRYAN_REMER (Sep 24, 2003)

Sat. morning was the best hunting I have had. Between the two of us we shot 8 mallards, 2 pins, and 2 wigeons before 7:30. But Sunday we only managed 5.

The only downside to Saturday's hunt was that my buddy's BPS jammed with an empty shell in the chamber. I had two shells out of 25 that dented the primer but didn't fire, and one this morning that fired after the second try. :evil: I was using 3" 3 shot Federals that were packaged for Herters and bought at Cabelas. The worst thing is that I have over 2 boxes left.

I am looking forward to next weekend but wondering how crowded it will be near Lakota? Does it get pretty crazy once the NR's come?


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

Hunted NW of Fargo about 70 miles on opener. Lots of mallards around midweek but seemed to have disappeared a little by weekend. Had a fairly good shoot on opener with a friend and our two sons. Nothing spectacular but good water hunt. Have to mention, with the sloughs being so dry and water way down, there's a lot of mud to walk through which really made the going tough at times. Here's a suggestion for you wader hunters. I was looking for walking sticks for the weekend....settled for old ski poles that I had laying around, covered them with camo duct tape...worked great for helping to keep balance in the sloughs.

Sunday field hunted 40-50 miles east of DL. Morning was clear, cold and no wind. Ducks didn't work the 80 or so bigfoots and 5 spinners very well but enough pintails and mallards came in to make it a great shoot. It's always a great day when you can have one son in a blind on one side of you and the other on the opposite side while enjoying a ND duck hunt. Surprising, though that a flock of 30 snows came in that we knocked 2 out of and a flock of 50 canadas that we got one from also. The Canada, which appeared to be fully plumaged was maybe a pound bigger than a large greenhead.

Anyway, thanks Zach, Dan and Matt for taking us along Sunday morning. It was a great time.


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## jbaincfl (Feb 5, 2003)

Great opener in MN. We shot our limit of 12 Woodies for the weekend and got 2 teal and a mallard for kickers. Sunday we added 4 giant Canadas and 5 Richardson's. Can't wait for our trip to ND this weekend. This is our groups 12th year coming out.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Lakota will be packed, have fun trying to find a field!! :lol: :lol: 
It will be really hard with 15 guys watching a field. uke:


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

30 ducks, 4 Canadas. I have hunted since 1980 and I have never seen so many wood ducks come into a field. I have seen the occasional but we had hunge flocks of them dive bombing us!!! Man what a great time. The geese didn't like us too much but the ducks were like mosquitos. One of the guys got a fairly mature pair of woodies, would have made a great mount but he already has a mounted male. The mallards we shot were tough to tell the drakes due to a lack of color. Only one real mature one. Any one out there get into better colored drakes???? :beer: :beer:


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## Perry Thorvig (Mar 6, 2002)

dj - I hope you can identify ducks a little better in three weeks!! Woodies in a field? Never heard of it. :beer:

Anyway, we hunted about 40 miles from Moorhead on the Minnesota side. Five of us got 15 mallards and five big Canadas over the weekend. There were very few teal and woodies around on our side of the border.

Water conditions were good. Weather was windy. There was ice in the canoe on Sunday morning.


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## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

Many sloughs in our area were dry. After a couple of hours Saturday morning hunting (no birds within range other than shovelers), took a drive on 46 to Fort Ransom from US 281. All temporary, seasonal wetlands were dry as well as many deeper sloughs that usually are bulrush. Very few duck flocks were seen, only one goose flock but surprise, a couple of snow geese mixed in. Looks like a poor season in Lamoure and Logan counties compared to previous years.


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## muskat (Mar 5, 2002)

We only shot two well colored drakes. It was really hard to tell on some of the other greenies.


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

Never shot woodies in a field? I grew up shooting them in fields. They really like soybeans for some reason too. Not like other ducks.

In any case the birds did not cooperate like I wanted them too. This is the second year in a row that I did not shoot a duck on opener. I could of shot some hen mallards in the dekes but didn't. I don't really get into jump shooting potholes so I didn't do that.

We scouted a field that had about 200 canadas and about 3000 ducks. Well morning came and all of the water around us got pounded senseless and the birds were all over the place. We ended up with 8 canadas and one greenhead on Saturday morning. Pressure in the area we hunted was unbelievable. There were hunters everywhere. The pressure really hurt as a Saturday night scouting trip showed up very little where on Friday there were birds everywhere.

There are going to be ducks around for non-resident opener but I don't think it is going to be as good as it has been in the past. Many of the areas have become pretty dry from what I have witnessed and from what friends have seen in areas I have not scouted.

Good luck to all coming up next weekend.


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

Perry....I can id the ducks, I just can't hit a bear in the a_ s with a base fiddle!!!!! What is the cost for the second case of shells to bring into Canada???     I will need them!!!!!


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## quackersmack (Sep 22, 2003)

Hunted in central MN this past weekend, and it was not very good. Our group did get some good shooting as some Wood Ducks, including a really nice banded drake. On Sunday, had 2 hunters show up 15 minutes before shooting, and set up within 75 yards of our decoys, and we got cut off all morning :x .

I am really looking forward to my trip to ND next week. Always a good time. The hunters we run into out there are always great, and the bartenders are quick to get you a refill! :beer:


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## cbass (Sep 9, 2003)

Four of us shot our limit of mallards and a pintail a pice both mornings that we went out. Not much color to many of the drakes that we shot so ended up waiting tell the sun came up to identify better. They still poured in. Managed to get four honks opening day and a single honker that snuck in behind us while we were sitting bs'n in the blinds. He landed about thirty yards behind us in the dekes never made a sound when he came in all we heard was his wings flappen.

Saw alot of snows in the area as well. Kind of odd for this early, if the weather cooperates could be a good year for them too.

Good luck to all this weekend.

lee


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## rickygdogg (Nov 6, 2002)

group of us shot 16 mallards on saturday, 30 on sunday, and today(monday) shot 51 mallards. Today we were done by 7:15am. real short hunt. Watch them for a while afterwards, there are alot of birds out there. Probably going out tomorrow. The ducks are just moving from one field and feeding in another not even 1/4 mile away.


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## Bartman (Apr 22, 2003)

Was in the DL area for opener. Saturday 3 of us shot 14 mallards, 3 pintails and a widgeon. We were done by 8am. Sunday 5 of us were in the same field and shot 24 mallards, 4 pintails, 2 wood ducks and 11 canadiens. Overall there were A LOT of ducks in our area. Several different feeding locations as well. Canadians were a little slim on saturday, but for some reason sunday there were a lot more that we saw. Hopefully some honks move down for next weekend.


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## Nick Roehl (Mar 7, 2002)

Saturday - was a slough set-up got a mix bag of ducks- greenwings, redheads, mallards, greys,pintails, and widgeon. With 3 canadians. Nothing like the sound of a greater canadian hitting the water.

Sunday- we set up goose decoys in the same bean field the slough was in. We ended up with our limit of 25 mallards, and 3 geese. 
Tim Phalen also payed us a visit while we were loading up. 

We also had some woodies buzzing us in the bean stubble, but geese were coming in behind them so we let them live.

Had a really good weekend with family and friends.


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## Acemallard (Sep 30, 2003)

Had a good weekend 5 of us went out on Sat we had to go to our back up plan because when we arrived to our 1st spot someone was already there but we still ended up with 20 mallards 1 gadwall and 9 teal. Sun only 2 of us hunted and we shot 10 mallards and 2 pintails. This weekend gonna try the feild hunting thing sounds fun. Also got checked by Tim on Sat.

Get down boys here they come
TAKE EM!


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

This morning before class goosebuster and I picked up a honker and 4 mallards. Not bad considering we left my house at a 6:45 and were back at my house and I had the birds cleaned by 8:00.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

It was fun GG. :beer: :withstupid:


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

Were you guys hunting on Bluemont lakes again?


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

Thats to far to drive for me. :lol:


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## Nate (Sep 11, 2003)

Saturday was not too bad, our group got a handfull of ducks. Sunday my Dad & I limited out on honkers, & got a few ducks. Shot my first wood duck. Never got one, nor have I been along when anyone has got one, so that was kind of neat. Had a great time. Lots of sloughs are dry in the DL area, though....


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

-GG- You guys are great! A couples of days after the Greenskins and you guys are back at it! I like it! Well if you need help calling just let me know! I'll bring my Foiles case!
P.s. Notice how no one has mentioned much about the Greenskins, I think we are all starting to sober up and come back to our senses!

MAN WHAT A WEEKEND! :beer: led to uke: which led to a [email protected] load of fun with the boys!

Mav...


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

Hey Mav,
I almost went this morning with Quack but I have a test on Thursday and thought I should study a little. I might sneak out on Friday. Depends on how much work I get done. :beer:


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Mav im heading out there tonight agian, so if you want to you can PM me. I'll probabaly be out at the spot at around 5:00 pm. Man I love pass shooting!!!


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## labsroc02 (Sep 24, 2003)

Hunted the Alice area yesterday and discovered most of the birds in the area have moved out. I never even saw a teal in the area, I suppose the cold weather has forced them to migrate. I plan on heading north to Kenmare it sounds like the guys up there are hammering the birds. Hopefully they leave some in the area. :wink: Good Luck to all hunters.


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

Goosebuster,
Make sure you stop by my house before you go. I will make sure that I am home by five.


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

~LABSROC02~ No birds out here! Man it was loaded during the early season.We took about 50 geeese out of that area and the ducks were nuts! There was alot of pressure out there so the birds might have shifted south aways. I'd try to go south and west. See if there are birds in the Marion area? We harvested some more out there? Lake Alice will hold birds late in the season. Also spring hunt for snows, talking to some of the farmers out there they said they had about 300,000 on the water durring the migration. They stayed for a couple of weeks!

Mav...


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## Brad Anderson (Apr 1, 2002)

I also heard that the cold weather is starting to drive a few in from canada. Hopefully they stick around awhile this year.


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