Jim's Waterfowl Page

Waterfowl in Minnesota!

This page is about hunting waterfowl - that is, ducks and geese.

Skip the chit-chat Jim, I want to see your pictures....

The waterfowl season usually opens the first weekend of October. Weather is generally fair, although rain and or snow is not unheard of. I only occasionally hunt ducks - mainly due to lack of water access. I live in SE Minnesota, in what our DNR classifies as a water poor region - meaning - there aren't many lakes or wetlands.

My duck hunting is generally limited to jump shooting on area creeks and small rivers. I put on chest waders, and wade the streams. This type of shooting generally produces Wood Ducks, with an occasional Mallard.

It also has it's hazards - specificly - holes in the stream bottoms - made by that master of natural construction - the beaver. In 1998, I managed to get soaked (hitting a hole) on all three of my jump shooting trips.

I have recently begun to hunt geese - Canada's at this time. I hunt the early season (in September for our growing population of resident birds), and the "late" season (in December) for the huge flock which builds in the Rochester area - in excess of 30,000 birds. My late season hunting to date has been confined to pass shooting out of the few remaining public blinds in the Rochester area - dwindling due to urban sprawl.

I hunt with a Mossberg 835 12 ga., and use steel BB's in Federal 3" or 3.5" magnum loads. My chokes are IC & Mod. I have tryed T shot as well, using the 3.5" magnum shells, but the pattern is quite thin due to the limited number of shot in the shell.

A Conversation between two duck hunters*

"WAZAT?"
"MR DUKS."
"MR NOT DUKS!"
"OSAR! CM WANGS?"
"LIB! MR DUKS!"

*Click for a translation

Pictures of myself, family members, and friends - by year

2001

The first weekend (Labor Day) of hunting has come and gone. I was able to participate in the Early Canada Goose opener bright and early Saturday morning, the 1st. There were 4 of hunting, myself, brother-in-laws Brian and Loren, and Brian's son, Andy. The first two flocks that came to our decoys didn't like what they saw, but then there were two flocks that did like sight we presented.

4 birds fell from the first flock (Brian went 3 birds for 3 shots), along with one taken by Loren. On the next flock, Loren and I each took a bird. All of this happened by 8.00. Due to a family wedding, we had to pack up early. As Brian and Loren went to get their trucks, Andy and I spotted 8 birds. Since we both had been picking up decoys - our concealment was less than ideal. Our calling was sufficent to convince two of the birds to come our way. Andy and I both shot, a bird fell. Andy said "nice shooting", to which I responded "That's your bird!". "Really?" - Andy's voice went up at least 3 octaves - and Andy lept up as if on coil springs to retreive his goose.

This is the goose Andy dropped - he made quite a shot, as the closest they came in was about 35-40 yds, and he dropped this bird as they were turning away.

On Sunday morning, we were back out. We found that the geese got plenty of education on Saturday, and were much more skittish. Three birds landed outside our spread. I was among the shooters, and was able to drop two of the birds.

1999

I was only able to get out during the early goose season this year - work and family commitments chewed up the regular season. The geese were very skittish - they were in mid-to-late season form on the morning of the opener (Sept. 4 - early goose season). It didn't get any better either. I was able to take two geese, on two shots, one on the first weekend, and one on the third weekend. No pictures available.

1998

This was my first year of goose hunting. I was able to get out the first and second weekends. We had lots of birds come in, but I found that I have difficulty lying on the ground, then sitting up and shooting. I was sucessful though, and took my first goose.

I went out several times during the regular waterfowl season, looking for ducks. On the weekend prior to the waterfowl opener, I had identified 3 spots on two streams which held wood ducks. On the Thursday before the water fowl opener, we had a cold front blow in, which really dropped the temperature. Wood ducks being warm weather birds, didn't stick around - they went south.

On one of my trips, (looking for a "stray" mallard or two), I had the unique experience of watching a turkey fly over the stream I was on at the range of 20 yards. After he flew over, he sat down on a ridge and began to gobble, for nearly 15 minutes.

The pictures which follow were taken in September of 1998.

I took this picture on Saturday evening of the opening weekend of early goose season. We were set up in a winter wheat field. My father-in-law, Bernie had spread cow manure earlier in the week, so the the air was quite fragrant.

I was with my brother-in-law, Brian. We called in a flock of about a dozen birds just before the end of leagal shooting light, but I mis-timed the "take 'em" (I could see them, Brian couldn't) and as a result we got none of the birds. These are some of our decoys, a mixture of magnum field shells and Outlaws.

This is my nephew Andy and his dad, Brian. This picture was taken Sunday night of the first weekend of the early season.

We were using a drainage ditch (background) for cover, and a pair of birds flew over us from behind. Andy spotted them, and took this bird, his first. One of the other members of our group got the other bird. Nice shooting Andy!

This is myself on Sunday of the 2nd weekend of the early season with the bird I mentioned previously.

This was a lucky shot, as I shot under the bird, but the pattern spread enough that a single "T" shot pentrated the the "stomach" cavity and traveled in to the lung cavity.

On this same hunt, we (myself and brother-in-laws Brian and Loren) got 5 more birds, for a total of six (lying at my feet).

Notice the red sumac behind me? A sure sign of fall in these parts...

More pictures will be coming...

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