Cold snap expected this week likely to enhance duck hunt in Minnesota

Bemidji, Minn. — A push of unseasonably cold weather – complete with robust northwest winds and possibly accumulating snow for parts of northern Minnesota and set to arrive this week – not only will jump-start the fall waterfowl migration, it will send it into overdrive, state officials say. 

An Arctic weather system was expected to send temperatures plummeting throughout Minnesota late Thursday, with high temperatures on Friday at or below freezing and lows near 20 degrees for the northern third of the state – a pattern that’s forecast to last for several days. 

State officials expect a fast freeze-up in northern Minnesota, with ducks and geese moving ahead of the storm and accumulating ice. 

“My message to hunters is this: Get out and hunt as much as you can this week,” Steve Cordts, Minnesota DNR waterfowl staff specialist in Bemidji, said on Monday. “If you live and hunt in the northern third of the state, it’s going to freeze sooner rather than later, with only big water like Leech Lake, (Winnibigoshish), and others to hunt. Once the northwest winds starting blowing and it gets cold, your options get limited almost by the hour.” 

Cordts said the year’s first major cold front will push fresh ducks and geese into other parts of the state, which, he said, could make for some of the best hunting of the year. 

“We had a very good opener and opening week of the season or so throughout the state, then things got stale a little bit with the warm temperatures,” Cordts said. “This cold front will push a lot of ducks and geese down, and I expect hunting to be good. For waterfowlers, this is the time of year to get out and hunt, whether it’s field hunting for mallards or big water for divers.” 

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State officials said the low temperatures may even freeze smaller, shallower wetlands outside of the northern third of the state. If so, that will require hunters to change strategy. Hunting larger lakes, river systems, and agricultural fields will come into play. 

“You obviously have to be flexible this time of year when the weather changes,” said Curt Vacek, DNR area wildlife supervisor in the Appleton area of western Minnesota. “Scouting is as important as ever. You might find a nice hemi-marsh that’s sucking in birds all day. But those areas can freeze up pretty fast, and you have to be able to pivot to fields or larger water.”

Minnesota waterfowlers planning trips to North Dakota or South Dakota, take heed: You had better do so sooner rather than later. Low temperatures could freeze up potholes and larger wetlands, leaving only agricultural fields and larger lakes to hunt. By Friday, the forecast for portions of eastern North Dakota was for highs near or just above freezing and lows around 15 degrees for the next several days. 

“Our smaller water is going to freeze, but our larger bodies of water will stay open for a while,” said Don Soderlund, wildlife officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge northeast of Aberdeen, N.D. “But the weather is definitely going to change, and that’s going to affect duck hunters who come out here. They need to factor in the weather in the gear they bring. If you plan on coming out later in the week and hunting smaller water, you may be out of luck.”  

On Monday, Soderlund said hunting in northeastern South Dakota has been good all year, and should only get better as the Arctic weather system pushes birds down. The build-up of mallards, divers, and snow geese will likely be impressive. 

“We’re full of gadwalls right now, but in three days, I doubt you’ll see one,” he said. 

Mike Mathwig, of Eden Prairie, is a veteran waterfowler who travels throughout the U.S. and Canadian prairies to hunt each year. On Monday, he said he and his hunting friends are moving up a trip to North Dakota to mid-week. 

“We looked at the weather forecast and we decided to move up our trip by four days,” Mathwig said. “It’s exciting, actually. Waterfowlers talk about seeing this great ‘grand passage’ of waterfowl in the fall, and this year we could see a huge migration of birds this week. To me, it’s very, very exciting.”

While a major freeze-up in the northern third of Minnesota before Halloween likely will dramatically alter the duck season there, the cold weather and northern winds, state officials say, will improve hunting along the Upper Mississippi River to the Iowa border. The river, which includes the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, a 261-mile stretch of roughly 240,000 acres that’s one of the nation’s largest blocks of flood plain, is a migration thoroughfare for one species in particular: mallards. 

State officials say while mallards and other ducks frequently use the river’s expansive backwaters throughout the season, mallards from the prairie breeding grounds are notoriously the last species to migrate south. But when they do, the push of birds throughout the Mississippi River watershed can be spectacular. At the peak of their migration, diver hunters can find roughly 300,000 canvasbacks rafting up and resting on Pool 9 alone. 

“The season has been pretty decent so far, but we could use a push of northern birds, and it looks like we’re going to get some over the next few days,” said Glenn Vinton, owner of Backwater Custom Tackle in Winona, adding that recent warm autumn weather has kept more people chasing walleyes and sauger than ducks. “The northern push brings out a lot of duck hunters because it can be the best hunting of the year.” 

Vinton offers a word of caution for waterfowlers: The big river, he says, can be unforgiving. Keep close tabs on weather conditions and make sure boat and safety equipment are in working order. 

“Safety should be your first and last consideration when you’re hunting a river this big,” he said. “Always wear a life jacket and make sure your boat motor is in working order. If you’re new to the area and plan on hunting a backwater area that’s unfamiliar, just slow down and wait until first light to go out. It will be a lot easier that way. And safer, too.”