2011 Minnesota Duck Opener Report

Simply put, it was a great opener.

This year we started out with a stop at Sal's Bar in St. Joe, where we were happy to see that Dale was still tending bar.  24 years later, not much has changed:

  
We woke plenty early and were excited to see all of the birds in the area.  It didn't appear that we had lost too many since when I was up for early goose season.

The appointed opening time arrived, and so did that initial first-light teal, and we were soon on the board.  The bag was further augmented by more teal, mallards, a goose, and a lone ringneck.  The following day played out the same way, with us also harvesting a wood duck.

Overall, it was a great opener.  The numbers of mallards in particular were fun to see.  It's been years since we had such a great opening weekend.

It will be interesting to see how this next weekend will unfold as legal shooting has been shut down in Minnesota this whole week.  I hope it helps keep birds in the area, and it will be interesting to find out on Saturday morning.

Thanks much to my buddy Joe for the blind companionship.  

Thanks as well to the Yellow Dog, as she worked her tail off retrieving all of those birds.  Not sure what we would have done without her.