Kris Brantner
Member
Reged: 04/07/04
Posts: 820
Post Bucks: $2.36
Loc: Pepin, Wisconsin
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cant really see the spoonie, but i tell you what i have nothing against them at all. alot of people wont even eat them. me? i cant tell the difference when mixed with a few mallards in the frying pan. and i believe a drake spoonie is one of the coolest looking ducks around.
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chriss
Member
Reged: 01/09/04
Posts: 1576
Post Bucks: $2.52
Loc: Montrose Mn
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Wright CO Report:
Spotted numerous rafts of divers holding on big water. I could see buffels and golden eyes for sure. One flock was 100 birds easy.
The Mallards are holding with the swans. Where ever I saw swans there were mallards with them. If you can find smaller water still open that's where they are.
Get the Guns boys. The central MN flight is starting to roll. 
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johnksully
Member
Reged: 07/07/06
Posts: 82
Post Bucks: $1.02
Loc: Lakeville, MN
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I hunted the souith metro this morning. Holy smokes are there geese in the area. There has definatly been new birds moving into the area. We finally saw some decent numbers of ducks this morning also. We need some freezing weather. It was extremely sloppy in the plowed corn field today  .
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Kris Brantner
Member
Reged: 04/07/04
Posts: 820
Post Bucks: $2.36
Loc: Pepin, Wisconsin
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ive noticed a pile of ducks in the ponds that were just frozen a few days ago. once they thawed again they were full! should be a good day for me tomarrow! got about 500 mallards where im going
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Kris Brantner
Member
Reged: 04/07/04
Posts: 820
Post Bucks: $2.36
Loc: Pepin, Wisconsin
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heres a few pictures from the last week or two. theres a hunt missing on there that i didnt have my camera. that was an 18 bird 3 man limit of mallards and teal. im still waiting for my buddy to send me the pics. that giant mallard must have gotten loose from the farm i think! it flew into the decoys and i swore to god it was a lesser at first. its got to weigh at least 6-7 lbs. ive never seen anything like that!
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Kris Brantner
Member
Reged: 04/07/04
Posts: 820
Post Bucks: $2.36
Loc: Pepin, Wisconsin
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hey moss, dont feel so bad anymore, i shot a spoonie this weekend too 
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Jake
Member
Reged: 06/27/02
Posts: 1830
Post Bucks: $1.16
Loc: SE MN
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Kris....that big mallard is SWEET! There used to be one that size that would show up at Silver Lake in Rochester later in the year. It was the same size as some of the geese. We called him Egor. Definitely a park duck, but he wasn't there early in the year, so he was migrating from somewhere. 
Anyway, back to reports.....as much as I want to believe there is going to be another good push to come for us in the Southern portion of MN, I think it may be empty hope.
A lot of stuff iced over last night again, although it was plenty breakable. Thursday night thru Friday night look to be about the end of reasonably sized huntable water. A couple of the main refuges around are froze out already.
We'll hunt till the bitter end, but not expecting any late season dream hunts as have been the case in years past. Frustrating way to wined down a very mediocre season
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Is it March yet?
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MossBoss
Member
Reged: 06/08/01
Posts: 2095
Post Bucks: $3.86
Loc: La Crosse, WI
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Spoonies rule dude!!!! 
Nice take of ducks there. That monster mallard is awesome! Are you going to mount him? We saw a big one last week (not that big, but noticably bigger), just couldn't get him to come in.
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Kris Brantner
Member
Reged: 04/07/04
Posts: 820
Post Bucks: $2.36
Loc: Pepin, Wisconsin
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you bet im. im not sure what size form to buy for it tho. i will probably have to buy a snow goose form for it  or wrap my own. jake, we have been doing pretty good most of the year even as of this week. there are also literally THOUSANDS of divers, mostly goldeneyes up by me now. going to try to whack some of them this weekend.
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tracking bass
Member
Reged: 08/14/03
Posts: 2156
Post Bucks: $2.06
Loc: Blaine, mn
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This morning, we broke 1" to 1 1/2" ice to get out this morning, we took 1 green head, 2 spooners, and lost 3, I am guessing greenies. we had to break alot of ice to chase them down and they got away on the ice before we could get there. we did see alot of geese flying as well as swans, trumeters and tundra's. so be sure you know what you are shooting at before thinking it is geese. today was probably my last hunt for the year, put the decs away along with the boats.
shane 
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there is nothing more thrilling that seeing a kid smile after catching a fish!
www.freewebs.com/tracking_bass/
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mbenson
Member
Reged: 03/26/02
Posts: 837
Post Bucks: $2.84
Loc: Minocqua, Wisconsin
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Jake:
You're killing me!!! Planning on being down to the annual pre-Thanksgiving hunt where we tried to freeze ourselves two years ago!!! Are you planning on hunting that far south during your upcoming hunts??? We are hunting the deer opener and will be down there Sunday night.
Mark
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MossBoss
Member
Reged: 06/08/01
Posts: 2095
Post Bucks: $3.86
Loc: La Crosse, WI
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Quote:
Jake:
You're killing me!!! Planning on being down to the annual pre-Thanksgiving hunt where we tried to freeze ourselves two years ago!!! Are you planning on hunting that far south during your upcoming hunts??? We are hunting the deer opener and will be down there Sunday night.
Mark
It's been so windy there is still alot more open water today than I thought there would be. If it gets calm tonight or tomorrow night, there could be alot of ice quick, but if the 10 day forecast holds some open water will remain. Just a question of if the birds will.
Is Greg coming with you?
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Jake
Member
Reged: 06/27/02
Posts: 1830
Post Bucks: $1.16
Loc: SE MN
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The ice has definitely been on a roller coaster ride on the river. Yesterday alot of stuff opened back up with the wind, but it got down to 10 deg last night....this morning  .
I haven't heard much yet, but doubt if much water was able to make it through the night (main channel had some small chunks this morning). Tonight it's gonna be cold again.
We had a good week of hunting. Thanksgiving week we'll be trying some "Different areas" though.
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Is it March yet?
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AmWatson
Member
Reged: 03/21/03
Posts: 4815
Post Bucks: $4.90
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Lake Onalaska was 80% ice covered at 11:00 a.m. today. There are a few open areas, but not many. I am guessing anything with current will be alright for awhile yet, but shallow protected bays are going to be iffy. It was 6 degrees here in Holmen this morning and supposed to be the same tonight. The good thing is it will warm back up to the mid 30's for the weekend
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Fur count 2008
Rats-0
Coon-Not accomplished enough to catch thousands of coon.
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mbenson
Member
Reged: 03/26/02
Posts: 837
Post Bucks: $2.84
Loc: Minocqua, Wisconsin
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Moss:
Greg is coming with me Sunday night. He's hoping to get his deer on Sat., then do some scouting on Sunday. If he does not get his deer, we will probably pick a spot based on the last two years hunts and then scout following the Monday a.m. hunt.
Wats:
You still got traps in the water and have you been seeing any areas with birds???
I have been speaking to a friend who go to school in P-ville and he says it looks like the start of the main migration has been happening in the last week. They have had good shoots since late last week. He is coming back down Sunday night as well, so we will have a scout in the extreme south.
Having ice on the water helps concentrate them, so it is not all bad. My southern boy said he had 3 degrees down there this a.m. and the WI River was frozen bank to bank in Portage on his way up. Also heard today that there are still birds way up north (Canada) that are still staging and haven't left. My brother just got back from ND and they still had not seen the major migration up there before they had left two weeks ago. The two guys that help me Greg and John were seeing flock of mallards today, so there are plenty of birds to come down. Let's hope the ice doesn't overtake us for another two weeks.
Mark
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drakesdemise
Member
Reged: 03/24/04
Posts: 564
Post Bucks: $2.60
Loc: Residing in St. Paul, MN doing...
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Boy, you guys sure seem optomistic down in SW Wisconsin...
I have been pretty absent from the forum, because my hunts (and bird sightings) have been poor to fair.
I thought that I was one of the only guys that was down on his luck, but I'm hearing otherwise now.
Our migration chit-chat on this forum seems way down from years past.
We have seen a number of pushes through MN, but my timing was typically bad 
I started getting my "major migration" calls on Monday November 17th, from northern MN.
Large rafts of divers were being sighted on lakes that are usually nothing more than transition lakes during the major migration. By this I mean that they raft up in areas that can not possibly be hunted leagally in MN and they are usually only there for one night.
Then on Tuesday November 18th it happened 
From my office and business travels in the NW metro on up to the St. Cloud area all heck broke loose. The geese (of all sizes) showed up about 4:00 p.m. in the bumble bee swarms that we discussed about a month ago.
I literally watched thousands of honkers and ducks from my office window. They were visible in every direction and on the entire horizon.
By Thursday November 20th the ducks were completely gone and goose numbers appeared to be back down to normal resident numbers.
The guys that I communicate with that live up north, did actually pull together some quality duck/diver shoots this year. But, each time they revisited the site of a good shoot on the following day, thing were basically gone 
I still plan to hit one of my river spots up north over the holiday weekend that normally pays off well after the lakes have frozen.
Unfortunately, my gut tells me that other than geese our MN hunt for at least the northern 2/3 of the state is over...
You guys that have the ability to scout and properly respond are probably going to be the guys that give the rest of us something to hang onto until next year 
I'm interested in hearing from folks, what type of duck season they had?
Were the majority of you typically a day late and a dollar short like me or did you capitalize on some of the nice (but quick) pushes that we did see?
Good luck to you guys that are still givin' 'er heck!
Please continue to let the rest of us know how your season wraps up
Good luck
 cheers
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Lars
Member
Reged: 09/04/01
Posts: 170
Post Bucks: $1.22
Loc: Rochester, MN
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Last Wed. and Thursday were the days! I wish I was out there but a few of my buddies were and it was great for the 2 friggin' days. I was out on Friday and POOF gone. After the ducks all over for 2 days, the friday was filled with empty skies. I still like the Dec. 2 stop time but the weather came too quickly. We went from hunting in comfortable light clothes to breaking ice in about 4 days.
Hunted in the Faribault area over the weekend and there was a guy icefishing.
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the GREEN one is the BEST one!!!
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Jake
Member
Reged: 06/27/02
Posts: 1830
Post Bucks: $1.16
Loc: SE MN
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Lars hit it on the head 
The last couple weeks have been feast or famine....you'd smack em one day, and the next they would just be gone, or refuse to even look at you . We were able to string together some darn good hunts though....the kind that the law makes you stop well before you want to
There are still some birds holding on to what open water is left, but I have a feeling you'll have to hit the right day (and time) to get them to really want to die.
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Is it March yet?
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Kris Brantner
Member
Reged: 04/07/04
Posts: 820
Post Bucks: $2.36
Loc: Pepin, Wisconsin
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nice jake. all i could manage this weekend was a couple limits of goldeneyes. cant find the mallards anymore
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MossBoss
Member
Reged: 06/08/01
Posts: 2095
Post Bucks: $3.86
Loc: La Crosse, WI
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Quote:
nice jake. all i could manage this weekend was a couple limits of goldeneyes. cant find the mallards anymore
I've never shot a goldeneye.
Need a partner? 
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