2011 was off to an excellent start for us in MN, with opening day a week sooner than previous years and a start at 30mins to sunrise vs the normal 9am yielded some sweet action - but the season quickly dwindled off as weather became unfavorable for any sort of migration. Seems like we pushed the local birds out and never received anything from the north until after the season ended. Still gets you thinking though, what could you have done differently that might have delivered better results?

A problem I had was continuing to go to the same spot when there hadn't been any change in weather and no birds in sight. I guess I was hopeful that they might magically show up overnight. I have quite the list for this coming season, but here's what I think is most important:

• Scout, scout & scout some more. Dedicate some vacation days to hunting and take a day trip or two further west rather than trying to squeeze a hunt in before or after work.
• Obtain more decoys. Good looking decoys.
• Don't be opposed to trying a new spot or approach. When everyone else is doing the same thing, it pays to be different.

What are you going to change, or continue for the next season?

Here in the U.P. of Michigan we had the same problem that you had. Especially for duck season the early season was good but as it progressed there weren't any birds being pushed through here. I plan on scouting through the summer this year and trying to find better spots. I also hope to head west to Montana for a hunt with my nephew out there (Prairie Fowler) later in the season.

It was a tough season here in South Dakota aswell. We had record flooding in the spring last year with more birds deciding to call us home then I have ever seen. Going into June I was already planning my fall. But, after June the rains quit. slews that had 4 feet of water in them were down to single digit inches by the end of August. All the ducks and geese moved out and went to bigger ponds and lakes. Which made honker hunting a daily coin toss in August. Birds were flying up to 1-10 miles to the feeding grounds. Which would of been ok if it wasnt for new food becoming available daily due to new wheat fields being combined and the same for September with silage corn fields. I guess I dont blame them for stopping at closer spots to eat. Duck season was a little better, I have never hunted so many stock damns during a season as I did this last fall. All stock damns were still full when the slews dried up. So the ones that didnt like the big water....came running .

The migration was epic this year though. Never seen so many birds. We still had multiple thousands of greenheads and sprigs around until mid January. Only bad part was season ended December 6th. Looking forward to the snows coming back up in a few weeks!!

I did make my first trip to the river in January for duck and goose hunting this year. It ended up being a great learning experience. Not used to hunting flocks of 1000 honkers in a group at a time. Very hard to play traffic to that many at once...lol.

Think I'm gunna start this season with a reliable motor.  Blew my 1984 johnson up on opening day this year.  Nothing like a crappy day of hunting followed by having to get towed down the river.  Suck!  Also going to try and build onto my decoys.  Specifically goose floaters, divers, and some field motion decoys.  Joined a club for the first time too.  Pretty pumped!

I scount my fields out starting in August, I basically just drive around and make notes of where pea/lentil fields are.  During the season I will scout 4/5 weekdays then hunt the weekends with evening scouts for the next day.  Scouting is the most important factor, there should be no limit to the miles your willing to put on to find the birds.  I am also going to purchase an e-caller and around 500 sillo socks to up my setup for those snows in early season, maybe in april for the spring hunt if I get my $*!t together before then.  I also think I will purchase 2 dozen more Canadas (haven't yet decided on full bodys of those big shells) and maybe a dozen mallards but that one isn't high on my priority list.

 Where are you from? I am gonna sell all of my floater honkers if you would be at all interested. I need to take a second count but I think that I have 20. All but 6 are brand new and never seen a field. The 6 that are used have been used maybe 3 times. They are the GHG's with the flocked heads. Only reason I am selling them is I dont water hunt for them as much as I figured I would.