Widgeon or Pintail?

[Zach Byron]

Hey I was just wandering if anyone from Minnesota knew were a guy could shoot some widgeon or Pinail before the very end of the season.

[wooduck26]

Well seeing that Wigeon are fairly early migrators you will have to get one of them somewhat early in the season.....go west...is all I can say. I have shot a handfull of Sprig, and Wigeon every year in MN .....LQP area, can have a few around......Dave

[Brett Beinke]

Pintail, whre do you not shoot them? We have had a pintail in our bag about every day we have been out right till the end of the pintail season. Widgeon, they tend to be around for a little while then migrate through. If you are not using pintail decoys you may not get them as much. Our pintail harvest rose dramatically since we added pintails to our spread. I'll run a diver line and a pintail line. The pintails ALWAYS work the pintail line and always seem to land or try to land with their own kind. Same with Widgeons except the widgeons will decoy well into pintail decoys if widgeon decoys are not set out. If you do set out widgeon decoys, they will land in those before anything else. What I have found is that most every duck species prefers to land with its own over just the mallard spread. The excetion is the mallards also really like to land in the goose decoys as well. Again, this is just an observation but I really believe that your decoys should match the birds in your area and if you do not have decoys out for a swpecific species, your chances of harvesting the species drops. This reminds me, Fred, you carving those buffies yet? It would be a great addition to the 05 product line!!!

[Zach Byron]

Brett where do you usually hunt in Minnesota? I hunt in the Mankato area kinda east about 25 miles. I have heard of only few people harvesting pins and widgeons throughout the season. So adding different species of decoys in my spread will help, I didn't really think that it could help that much, but I think that I am gonna purchase some of them new GHG widgeon and Pin decoys. Thanks for the help.

[Zach Byron]

Hey Brett, I was just curious are you by chance related to Paul Beinke? I have bought a lot of stuff from him this year and he was telling me that his brother was on the Avery Pro-Staff.

[Jeff-Widgnwhacker-Wallis]

Quackhead

If ya wanna shoot a few Widgeon, come on down to Arizona and I will show ya what Widgeon Whackin is all about. I run a course called WW101 These were all harvested over GHG Wigeon decoys!






WW

[Brett Beinke]

First off, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I have been working Game Fair all weekend and getting up early and coming home late doesn't leave a lot of room for computer time. If you can't shoot a pintail on swan lake...Last year it was loaded with them. Paul is my brother and ask him about pintails. We hunt mostly west and south and year after year we harvest a lot of pintail. We bag a bunch early right through the end of the season by Alexandria as well. In fact many a widgeon (northern spelling) has made it through the spread in early light due to already limited on pintail. If I don't know for fact, I aint shooting. It would sure helped if widgeion would whistle more often. Dang singles. Anyway we ALWAYS set out Pintail decoys and we often harvest Pintails. You can notice them flying by their lone necs and pointed wings and tail. I just wish the males would color out better. By the time they do our season is over on them.

[JEDJR]

Jeff, you do a job on those widgeon I have to give you that!! Is that the main bird in your area? I see that they make most if not all of your limits in your pics??

[Zach Byron]

Thanks for all of your help. I am sure I will use your advice, and Brett you may see me out on Swan this year, thanks alot. I have always wanted to shoot a nice widgeon and just a pintail, i don't care if it isn't in full plumage. Thanks so much though.

[pkdu]

Zach,
The best way to shoot either widgeons or pintails around Waseca is by scouting. Lots of the lakes and sloughs around here will hold a few of either of these birds, just not large quantities of either. A spotting scope and/or binoculars are a huge help in finding any huntable number of any species of ducks in this area. There are certain areas where they will congregate more so than others, but there are a decent number of places you can find them.

Phil