Duck Season...Anyone???

[RFeyoMN]

It's pretty much a wrap here in the upper midwest. Severe cold will likely have most of the water within 6-700 miles of me frozen. And i'm out of vacation til January.
Even with the very dry conditions, we ended up having another stellar season beginning September 1st with our teal season. Hunting conditions were more variable this year than most, from dealing with high temps and very low water and mud, to blizzards and rivers flowing ice...adapting was crucial.
Overall the season was a great one. Planning another 8 or 10 days next month for one last run at it.
Here's a few pics from the last few months.

[RFeyoMN]

[RFeyoMN]

[RFeyoMN]

[RFeyoMN]

This spot resulted in a 3 man limit in about 10 minutes!

[jejb]

Nice! I always wanted to get into duck hunting more when I lived in SE MN, but I can't stand the taste of duck, wild or domestic. I must have had it 20 different ways, always terrible. If I won't eat it, I wasn't going to hunt it. But it's all good, pheasant hunting filled that void very nicely.

I crossed the Arkansas River in Ft. Smith, AR yesterday morning at about sunrise. 1000's of birds (mostly geese) flying down river.

[AdamB]

Great pics of an awesome season!

[acesover]

Pretty liberal limits. No way you can kill that many ducks down here. And no wonder duck leases cost what they do.

[Robby Moser]

[QUOTE=jejb;12793210]Nice! I always wanted to get into duck hunting more when I lived in SE MN, but I can't stand the taste of duck, wild or domestic. I must have had it 20 different ways, always terrible. If I won't eat it, I wasn't going to hunt it. But it's all good, pheasant hunting filled that void very nicely.

A friend of mine that used to duck hunt would marinate his in zesty Italian salad dressing,and then grill it. He would bring a gallon ziploc bag of it to work and say "help me eat some of this". It was FANTASTIC.

[Drahts]

I grew up on the Chesapeake but now live in Eastern Kentucky. Duck hunting here is very limited in that we don't get a lot of ducks. W.Ky gets the birds much better but it's almost 8 hrs for me and that's a no now. I go to Manitoba every fall and get my fill of waterfowl in a week. See 10000x more birds in a week than I will see in an entire season in E.Ky. And I'm ok with that. Our early woodie season is usually descent here but that's bout it unless up north gets a huge freeze earlier than normal. Saw the heydays on the Chesapeake but even it is less than stellar anymore.

[dukhntr]

Solid! Nice work! We are about to get real cold again, so it outta be good for the next few days hopefully.

[hatcreek]

Bunch of great days (and photos) there... congrats.

How do you like that Havoc? Really seeing a lot of them around here the past couple of years.

[RFeyoMN]

This was my 4th season with the boat. Only issue i've had was the switch panel getting messed up. It's understandable as it's exposed to water and road salt, a very minor issue. Aside from that, it's been solid. It doesn't excel at one particular task, but does many well. Hard to find one boat to do it all. This one is close, and i've ran it through a lot of s**t!

[boneil]

I grew up on the Chesapeake but now live in Eastern Kentucky. Duck hunting here is very limited in that we don't get a lot of ducks. W.Ky gets the birds much better but it's almost 8 hrs for me and that's a no now. I go to Manitoba every fall and get my fill of waterfowl in a week. See 10000x more birds in a week than I will see in an entire season in E.Ky. And I'm ok with that. Our early woodie season is usually descent here but that's bout it unless up north gets a huge freeze earlier than normal. Saw the heydays on the Chesapeake but even it is less than stellar anymore.

Today's Chesapeake is an empty shell of what it used to be. But I still go out in the cold to try.

[Fireball]

Today's Chesapeake is an empty shell of what it used to be. But I still go out in the cold to try.

Same here along the Niagara River and our Iroquois National Refuge........sometimes I wonder why I spend all the money for licenses and Duck Stamps.

Thank God we saved the duck population by doing away with lead shot 40 years and now only shoot VERY EXPENSIVE steel that that wounds more ducks then kills them. . . . .

[RFeyoMN]

I, for one, am glad I don't have to hunt anywhere in the Atlantic flyway!! Well...Maine might not be so bad.

[A Wood]

Wow looks like a great season... Ya the eastern flyway is brutal now. Mallards are way down. Maine or the Cape is the only place worth hunting imo.

[Ring King]

Great job. As I scrolled down through the pics I was surprised to see more gadwall than anything. Would have thought you guys shot mostly mallards up there. Then I got to the pics where the weather had obviously gotten colder and the greenhead piles started showing up. I kill a pile of birds every year but haven't shot big numbers of mallards since I left Alaska back in 2009. Most of what I shoot these days here in California are wigeon, teal, pintails, and canvasbacks generally in that order. I've got another 1.5 years here and then I'm moving back East somewhere.

[Ring King]

Pretty liberal limits. No way you can kill that many ducks down here. And no wonder duck leases cost what they do.

You're missing out on some great local hunting if you really feel that way! You are right in the middle of some great public hunting there around Melbourne. My son just finished a hunt down there two weeks ago where he and some friends absolutely burned them up. He shot a leucistic blue winged teal and the pic of him holding is has gone viral on social media the last couple of weeks. He'll be back down there from South Carolina again in about two weeks for one last try to get his black belly whistling duck and fulvous tree duck before the season is over.

[RFeyoMN]

You're missing out on some great local hunting if you really feel that way! You are right in the middle of some great public hunting there around Melbourne. My son just finished a hunt down there two weeks ago where he and some friends absolutely burned them up. He shot a leucistic blue winged teal and the pic of him holding is has gone viral on social media the last couple of weeks. He'll be back down there from South Carolina again in about two weeks for one last try to get his black belly whistling duck and fulvous tree duck before the season is over.

I'd really like to be heading out your way right now!! My hunting partner can't do a 2 week trip...so we settled on Arkansas again. Leaving Friday for a week.