Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

gimpfinger wrote:

tyler wrote:seems like most hunters in general are mallard snobs

Way I see it, why wait on mallards when there are so many other ducks to kill. Some better tasting even.

your mom...

And the mallards are here and gone within the traditional 60 days straight season... Except for the SE river area.

It seems like there are almost always tons of mallards around when the duck season closes here in the central zone. In 2012, I remember having to watch wave after wave of mallards, pintails, and black ducks go over our goose spread as we waited for geese to leave the roost. Thousands of ducks. Last year was an exception, but typically there are still plenty to be hunted all the way 'til the end in the central zone.

Trigger wrote:

Nershi wrote:I find it kind of interesting that they put a waterfowl migration chart on page 24 of the waterfowl regs book that shows that most birds migrate in early October-right during your split. I don't necessarily agree with everything in the chart but I am guessing the guys who make the laws do. They must think guys in the south are all mallard snobs.

What don't you agree with on it?

I do not think Ringers peak in early October. I know guys who hunt a well known ringer lake in Northern MN on opener and there limits usually consist of mainly ringers but it is the start of the migration not the peak. If you scout that lake a week or two before the opener there are not much for ringers. If you look at the duck counts on the Rice Lake Refuge the peak numbers are not usually the first week of October. I would say it starts around the last week of September and peaks around the middle of October. Our best ringer shoots are usually the last weekend of October or first weekend of November when we have found where the birds are staging getting ready to boggie out. That is about the tail of the migration. I think woodies and GWT on their chart are a touch on the early side as well. That is just my opinion though. I would be interesting to see what data they used to make the chart.

saw some colored mallards this morning. must be new birds...

Lots of mallards spend the winter here now so you will always see them after the season closes

tola18 wrote:It seems like there are almost always tons of mallards around when the duck season closes here in the central zone. In 2012, I remember having to watch wave after wave of mallards, pintails, and black ducks go over our goose spread as we waited for geese to leave the roost. Thousands of ducks. Last year was an exception, but typically there are still plenty to be hunted all the way 'til the end in the central zone.

Theres ducks here 365 days a year. Should we keep the season open all year?

Trigger wrote:

tola18 wrote:It seems like there are almost always tons of mallards around when the duck season closes here in the central zone. In 2012, I remember having to watch wave after wave of mallards, pintails, and black ducks go over our goose spread as we waited for geese to leave the roost. Thousands of ducks. Last year was an exception, but typically there are still plenty to be hunted all the way 'til the end in the central zone.

Theres ducks here 365 days a year. Should we keep the season open all year?

Sure? I'll buy more ammo.

But what I was actually referring to in that post is that others are upset that the season should not have a split. Simply because the ducks are already gone by the end of the season anyway. I was simply stating what I have experienced in the past 5 years or so, which is that there are lots of ducks in the area even after the season, just not in that 2 foot deep cattail hole that they've hunted every weeekend for the past 10 years.

There are not ducks around here all year long, but there typically are huntable amounts throughout the season if you look in the right places. Regardless of how the seasons are constructed, the pessimists will find something to b!tch about.