Northwest Minnesota duck hunters will need to plan for low water levels

Sep. 16—Barring a sudden and significant influx of precipitation, dry conditions will challenge duck hunters — at least those who hunt over water — in far northwest Minnesota, when the state's regular waterfowl season opens Saturday, Sept. 23.

At Thief Lake Wildlife Management Area near Middle River, Minnesota — one of northwest Minnesota's most popular waterfowl hunting destinations — Thief Lake is 6 inches below target level, staff from the Department of Natural Resources reported in the WMA's fall newsletter. That isn't terrible, said Kyle Arola, manager of Thief Lake WMA, but boat access at Maanum's Landing, Henning's Landing and the campground on the south side of the lake could be very difficult.

"The good news is that if you can make it out on the lake, the hunting should be fantastic, and the bulrushes are thick this year," the newsletter indicated. "If you have a canoe or kayak, consider using it for hunting this fall."

Hunters who pursue diver ducks such as scaup and ringnecks generally have a tougher time during low water years. On the upside, those conditions tend to improve hunting prospects for puddle ducks such as mallards, pintails and blue-winged teal. Duck production at Thief Lake WMA was good this year, the newsletter indicated.

Farther north, water levels in Pools 2 and 3 at Roseau River WMA near the Manitoba border are down 1 1/2 to 2 feet, said Randy Prachar, manager of Roseau River WMA. Both pools have an abundance of wild rice, he said, which could further complicate access.

"It's going to be tough for hunters to get around," Prachar said. "When they call in, we make no bones about it. If you've got a mud motor, use it and make extra time to get out to a hunting location."

On the Roseau River itself, hunters are going to be relegated to walking along some stretches of the river, Prachar said. Oxbows are inaccessible by boat, he said, and Roseau Lake a few miles to the east is completely dry.

The exception to the low water trend is Pool 1 West, where water levels are about normal, Prachar says.

"That one should be OK for getting around," he said.

Roseau River WMA is holding some blue-winged teal and a "fair number" of wood ducks, Prachar said. Hunters who participated in the early teal season did fairly well, he said.

"Our local production was good — not great — for ducks, and it was fair at best for geese," Prachar said. "With the local production being decent but without a lot of birds moving in yet, we could stand to have some more ducks move in."

There are some Canada geese and sandhill cranes in the area, Prachar said, but the influx of new birds from the north is minor compared with most years in mid-September.

"I don't know what to say about geese," Prachar said. "If they move in here before season, some of our early goose hunting in recent years — both the early season and the first handful of days of the regular season — we've had some really good goose hunting.

"But then those birds, when the next front comes, they pull out, and then we've had these long stagnant periods, too. I hope we don't have that again this year, but with our falls being so mild, that's probably where we're headed again."

Thanks to wood ducks especially, Prachar says he's been surprised at how good early season hunting has been in recent years, despite "virtually no" mallards on the WMA.

"Somebody will come back with four to six birds in the bag and they might have one mallard — they got the one that came by," Prachar said. "And so it's a lot of these other species — blue-winged teal and the wood ducks in particular — that people have been doing well on early in the season here.

"I kind of see it setting up similarly this year, from what I see for bird composition out there. We've got some good ringneck numbers in places, too, but we're still waiting on them, mainly."

For those hunting over water, Prachar has this advice:

"I would tell them to call ahead and tell us where they normally hunt, and then we'll be able to tell them about the conditions," he said. "I do think we've got some decent early hunting. It's not scads of birds, though. It's really scattered, and that's the way the openers have been recently."

Minnesota's duck season continues through Tuesday, Nov. 21, in the North Zone. In the Central and South zones, season closes Sunday, Oct. 1, but then reopens Saturday, Oct. 7, and continues through Sunday, Nov. 26.

The daily bag limit is six, with the following species restrictions: four mallards of which only two can be hens, three wood ducks, two redheads, two canvasbacks, two black ducks and one pintail. Hunters can shoot one scaup through Thursday, Oct. 12; after Oct. 12, hunters can take two scaup daily through the remainder of the season. The possession limit for all migratory birds is three times the daily limit.

For information on goose regulations and season dates, check out the

2023 Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting Regulations

booklet.