Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

On my home last night I checked a few bodies of water. The south bay on Cass lake was froze but a majority of the lake was open and I saw huntable points and shorelines if you could figure out how to get on the lake. I am sure a guy could shoot some goldies out there. Bring a sledge hammer. The south end of Winnie was froze out about two miles but we could see open water way out in the middle. The south half of Ball Club was frozen. The river in Grand Rapids was mostly open. A small lake I grew up on was mostly open but I am guessing that is due to the geese that use it as a roost. I'm heading out to check my Golden Eye spots today. I'm guessing they will be open for a few shoots next week/weekend.

With the near zero temps and the low wind last night, I think most everything is froze over except the biggest lakes and traditional winter time open water areas on the rivers. A big wind is predicted for later today and into Monday so some lakes may reopen.

I have resigned to the fact that in the south zone we had a 30 day season.

If I hear one more proponent of "but we want to hunt late season Mallards" VS hunting open water days in Oct. I'll barf.

Save me some time scouting, what's froze and what's not. Need to be killing, not driving...

Miss river in Minneapolis is froze stiff. Miss river is St. Paul is not totally frozen but huge ice chunks floating down the river.
Thank god we have good old Steve Cordts and the boys looking out for us and saving us from a 9 day teal season. I mean why in the world would we want to actually extent our hunting opportunities. The DNR’s motto is Minnesota sets the standard for the rest of the nation. The standard which nobody follows!


We pretty much lost 33 days of hunting in the south zone this year if you include the teal season.

Remember as you piss and moan about losing days in your season because it froze up early that this is one of the coldest Novembers on record. If this was a normal year, most of you would still be out there hunting. What if they started the season early enough and eliminated the split so that season was closed already like you guys are saying you want? In a normal year you'd be wishing you could still hunt since your spots would probably be loaded with ducks like they usually are this time of year. And you would still be complaining.

If I was to compare how many years I've been froze out early with how many years it was just starting to get real good at the end of the season, froze out is highly uncommon. I've had many more years where late season hunting was just starting to get good or at times hadn't even gotten in full swing yet when the season closed. To complain about the dates in one of the coldest Novembers on record could bite you in the butt if the DNR was to listen to your complaints.

I almost forgot about a report. Water in the south zone that was wide open yesterday was frozen today according to reports I heard.

I'd rather shoot teal, redhead and gadwall than mallards. So eff the split.

your mom...

My distaste for the splits has nothing to do with this season. I would rather hunt when we have the most ducks, which is the month of October.

Trigger wrote:My distaste for the splits has nothing to do with this season.

You mean you don't like being closed during peak migration?



your mom...

Saw several flocks of mallards while in the deer stand yesterday. Probably do some scouting this weekend.

gimpfinger wrote:

Trigger wrote:My distaste for the splits has nothing to do with this season.

You mean you don't like being closed during peak migration?



your mom...

Dude... The peak doesn't even occur until after the season is closed. Everyone in Rochester knows that.