Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

We put a lot of miles on today. Two trucks drove from Watertown to Clark south to Huron then west and came back north to Ipswich and in between. Stopped for lunch and drove NW towards Ashley ND. Came back across ND on 11 then south to Aberdeen. Very few birds in the air. Found 2 roosts in Sd , one about 2k one about 10k. Found a field with about 2k birds in ND and located the roost they were coming off of. We are hunting the ND field in the AM. Hoping they go back to the same field in small bunches. Thousands of cranes down south around Huron.

Think the bulk of the migration has already blown through ND?

Seen more snows around here in fields last nite than I have all spring....

Didn't quite work like we hoped. 14 with 2 bands though. 9 Ross, 4 adult, 1 juvie. Ashley, ND. Heading east and a little north.

And I haven't been north very far in ND but judging by things down here I'd say bulk is long gone

And why I said late last week on Chuck's topic that I'd head to SE ND on Sat. Because I knew that I could always head N until I found them. On an average year, by April 10 I'd normally be N of hwy 2 by now. Just saying...

BTW, the snow map shows no snow in ND right now. 3 days ago the snow line was the US/CAN border, now it is 50+ miles into Canada.

If I was in ND right now, I'd be scouting the northern 1/3 of ND.

Good luck guys.

Found them...southern half of ND. There's big groups of birds scattered. We were not comfortable with the field options we had so skipping the morning and scouting more.

Heard theres huge swarms of adults way up north...near Kenmare.

Not sure i have it in me to drive all the way to Kenmare tomorrow, at all this weekend for that matter, but I will probably circle Devil's Lake in its entirety at some point. I'll probably take 15 to 281 tomorrow at noon and see what I see and to determine where I head on saturday morning.

Buddy got permission for a field in SD and says there are about 8-10K on it with over 50% being juvies.

And of course something came up last minute and I cant go...

Pretty sure most of the juvies are still in SD...we screwed up some I guess. All the birds we found yesterday 5 miles north of the SD border were gone today. Birds are really really scattered. We bumped north and found an area with a decent amount and are setting up again in the am. Hopefully there's some Ross and juvies in the mix. Decent migration from the south the last 2 afternoons for a couple hours. They come out of the woodwork in the afternoons. Pretty sparse though.

Drove from Crookston and looped around Devils Lake. Got on one sneak and ended up with 7. Birds were pretty sparse but found a few swarms but it was tough going.