Anderson: Whether ducks were many or few, Minnesota opener produced memories

Saturday morning, when the state's waterfowl season opened anew, lightning streaked across a stormy sky, a Bear retrieved a blue-winged teal and duck gumbo was delivered to an ailing wingshooter in a Brainerd hospital.

These were a few of the memories made on a day when perhaps 50,000 Minnesotans pulled on waders, paddled onto lakes large and small and splashed decoys onto glassy waters, hoping at first light to see flights of blue-winged teal, wood ducks and perhaps mallards.

Bear, a black Labrador, might have had the best morning of all.

Owned by Catelyn Schneider and her husband Justin of Melby, a burg of about 40 residents in Douglas County, 11-year-old Bear wasn't supposed to see this opener, because of various infirmities.

"But Bear made it and retrieved all of our ducks!'' Catelyn said. "Three of us were hunting a pond on public land. We got three wood ducks, a blue-winged teal and a Canada goose.''

Hunting northeast of Catelyn, near Crosslake, John Arms had thought he'd watch the sun rise Saturday morning with his uncle and traditional opening-day partner, Mike Arms of Crosslake, a retired priest and avid waterfowler.

"But Mike called me Friday as I was driving north from Minneapolis to say he was having chest pains and was driving to the Brainerd hospital,'' John said. "He said not to worry, but to be sure to pick up Gus, his yellow Labrador, and take him with me on the opener. That was the important part, he said, to get Gus to the opener.''

Grateful for the opportunity, Gus returned the favor and retrieved John's ducks Saturday morning. In short order, John mixed the tasty fowl into his signature gumbo and delivered it to his hospitalized uncle, who was diagnosed not with heart problems, but a touch of pneumonia.

Elsewhere across Minnesota on Saturday morning, ducks were plentiful, scarce or somewhere in between, depending on the location.

In the north metro near Wyoming, Jared Wiklund and Logan Hinners were treated to a lightning show on the opener. But their normally productive wood duck hole yielded only a couple of birds Saturday morning.

The news was better south of the metro in Scott County, where Tom Schroers and two buddies each shot six-duck limits. "We saw teal, mallards, even gadwall,'' Schroers said.

Farther south, in Waseca County, Doug Schleif's group of five felled 19 ducks, mostly bluewings. Farther south still, in Watonwan County, Fred Froehlich and three other scattergunners saw few ducks and bagged only three, along with a Canada goose. Also in the south, hunters on Swan Lake — including Brian Hoffman and Roger Quiram — reported pretty good action, bagging four teal and a pair of mallards.

In parts of Kandiyohi County, meanwhile, lightning and early morning rain delayed the opener. On Friday evening, Bruce Bjornberg, his sister Becky Fritz and her husband Daryl had enjoyed their traditional Big Duck Eve cookout at Bjornberg's duck camp.

"But early Saturday morning we had lightning, thunder and rain,'' he said. "We didn't get into our blinds until 8:15.''

Bjornberg's biggest disappointment was yet to come, however.

"My sister had baked chocolate chip cookies,'' he said. "But I forgot the milk at home.''

Happier times beset waterfowlers in Sibley County, where Sophie Arhart hunted with her boyfriend, Jake Prunty, and Jake's 1-year-old yellow Labrador, Elway.

"The first two ducks that came in were a hen and a drake wood duck, and I shot the drake,'' Arhart said. "Then Elway made the retrieve, her first.''

Southwest of where Sophie, Jake and Elway hunted, near Worthington, Steve Leach managed four teal and a wood duck Saturday morning. In the far west, in Big Stone County, Brian Naas, Ed Vollmer and Naas's black Lab, Truckee, took limits of mostly teal. Hunting in the same general region, Win Mitchell and his son John felled near limits, again mostly of teal.

In northern Minnesota, the big story this fall has been the poor condition of wild rice because of frequent rains.

"It's one of the worst rice years I can remember,'' said Tim Bremicker, a retired Department of Natural Resources wildlife section chief who hunts in Cass County. "This is our 60th opener hunting the same spot, and on Saturday we didn't see a teal. We ended the morning with three mallards.''

Teal also were absent near Grand Rapids, where Brady Collins and four friends hunted.

"The rain and high water really has the rice in poor condition,'' said Collins, of Benson. "So we hunted ponds that are surrounded by oaks and have a lot of acorns on the ground.'' Wood ducks love acorns, and the group shot limits of the homegrown birds as a result.

Near Ashby, on storied Lake Christina, teal were perhaps similarly fewer in number this opener. But wood ducks were present, as were mallards and redheads, among other ducks. "Modestly successful'' is how Dan Gahlon of the former 3M camp on Christina described the season's first day.

Finally, a couple of buddies of mine, Bill Marchel of Brainerd and Will Smith of Willmar, experienced robust openers Saturday.

Hunting northeast of Brainerd, Bill and his brother Leo tallied a combined limit of six wood ducks, five bluewings and a mallard, while Will and his sons Matthew and Harrison felled 12 blue wings, a mallard and three wood ducks.

For most of the past 40 openers, Will and I have hunted the spot in Renville County where he and his sons gathered Saturday. But in recent decades Will and I have rarely shot more than a few birds there on a season's first day.

"You should have been here,'' Will said when he phoned Saturday with his opener report.

"Yes,'' I said. "I should have been.''