2009 MN Duck Opener

Logan and I arrived at the cabin Friday evening and had the place to ourselves. We woke up Saturday morning to cloudy skies, spitting rain and winds from the northwest at 10-20 mph. We got down to the Mecca Slough shortly before 8 AM and where shocked to see only a handful of ducks on the pond.

We setup on the north end of the slough, placed 18 duck decoy and a couple geese decoy and waited for 9 AM to start our season. 9 AM came but the ducks didn’t. We ended up not firing a shot until 10 AM. Much different than the 20 minute hunt we had in 2008. Before calling it a day we had killed 3 ducks (Wood Duck, Blue Wing and the Trophy of all trophies a spoon bill) and only shot at those 3 ducks! Logan also got to smack the blue wing on the water while it was gimping around in the decoys. Logan put a nice clean head shot on the teal. It was kind of a disappointing start to the duck season. Below is a picture of Logan with the opening day kill.

Logan and I spent the rest of the day messing around the cabin. Most of that was spent shooting his rifle as he tunes up for his upcoming Missouri Youth Deer Hunt. Logan worked on shooting through a scope and was shooting 10 rings by the end of the afternoon. When the smoke cleared Logan had shot over a box and a half of .22 rounds. Below is a picture of the killer and his first deer!

Sunday morning was cloudy, cool (41 degrees) with a 10 mph wind out of the north. Logan and I set up in the northwest corner of the slough after watching the majority of the ducks fly that area on Saturday. That decision paid off as we had ducks bombing into the decoys first thing in the AM. The only problem was the ducks kept coming in low and it was hard to see them against the reeds and field. Shooting time was 6:54 AM and once the smoke had cleared Logan and where picking up decoys by 7:25. We ended up shooting 5 greenwing and a nice drake widgeon. It was nice to see the Mecca Slough still had some magic in it! Below is a picture of Logan and I with Sundays shoot.

Because of the quick hunt Logan and I where on the road by 9:00 AM. We will be back for another duck shoot on Sunday. Hopefully some new birds move in soon or the season could be a slow one. Reports have been poor for much of the state so I think Logan and I did well bagging 9 birds on the weekend. Below is a picture of Logan with the weekends total harvest.

Below is a picture of Jake and I cleaning ducks Sunday night. Next year Jake gets his first taste of the hunt!