Saturday, September 26th marked another Minnesota Duck Opener and like most of 2020, it was as out of the ordinary as it could be. The only constant is that I was with my best buddy Terry Fuchs and his son Nick. Terry and I have been friends almost 40 years and the adventures we have had are plentiful; Mostly legal. We shouldn’t be surprised that this year’s duck opener would end up in the “weird” category because for a little while it looked like we would not be getting out at all. Potential work schedules and other conflicts created uncertainty, but it all worked out in the end as we left Hastings a little after 3pm on Friday, September 25th for another duck opener just outside of Atwater and Kandiyohi, east of Willmar. I let Terry and Nick know to be careful on what they say because as an “outdoors columnist” who was scheduled to write a column about the duck opener, their words may end up in print. As daylight was burning, we decided to head to the slough located on the back forty of the farm where my wife Mary grew up. This usually means a long jaunt through Danny and Betsy Halberg’s field which this year is corn. As we drove past the Hansen farm, we noticed the beans were picked and access to the slough through Joel’s field would be much easier. This started the scramble of texts and phone calls trying to track down a number to reach “Joey” which we eventually did, but not after Terry and Nick dragged the decoys and a few other things down to the slough. That is when things began to derail.

We normally sit on the far end of the slough where the dam is. The dam has a drainage culvert that runs through it to control the water level. In the spring, it was left open and with the lack of rainfall this year, the water level was lower than it has been in many years. So low that we were not able to get our duck boat into the water as, there was no water where we normally hunt. We knew that there would be another group on the other side of the slough come sunrise and we didn’t want to mess up their hunt by moving closer AND safety is always first. The scramble continued as now we had to devise a “Plan B.”

We headed over to my sister-in-law Kathy and her husband Ron’s place on Diamond Lake. They offered to have us stay the night saving the need to get a hotel room. Kathy fed us Sloppy Joe’s which was a bonus because she is a great cook. Kathy is retired and Ron is “slowing down” from his career as a farmer. They still own their farm which happens to have lakeshore on Schultz Lake. With Ron’s help, we developed Plan B and it seemed perfect. We would drive to their farm, go past the machine shed and down the trail through the woods back by where there was some corn cut for silage. After we parked the truck, we would grab our decoys and go about 75 yards through the woods to the lake. It would be perfect. Or so we thought… As we neared the lake, we saw lights on a boat to our left about 50-70 yards and then, another boat 75 yards or so to our right. Ron had not given permission to anyone to be on their land in this area. The issue being that these boats did not appear to be on shore. Without getting into legalities, the lake is pretty much land locked by private property owners and it is all but impossible to gain access without crossing on private property. We texted Kathy telling her the issue and that we were going to head back to the original spot and try to pass shoot on the back edge of the dam. We got back in the truck and headed over to the farm to salvage the opener as best we could. As we got close to the slough, Terry laughed and said, “You can’t get ‘em of you don’t try to get ‘em.” That was so profound, I had to write the quote down in my Notes application on my cellphone. In all fairness, I did warn them that what they say may be used.

We nestled into the cattails and high grass with hopes that we would get lucky enough to get a few shots at fast passing Woodies and Teal. Pass shooting is very difficult as most the time, the ducks have just been shot at by another group on the slough and are hightailing it out of there. Hitting a flying duck is a challenge in and of itself… putting a shot on one who’s on a “get the hell out of here” mission is extremely difficult but, it was all we had. As the first shots began to ring out, we realized a large increase of waterfowl at the slough. Terry said, “…way more ducks than last year.” The lack of water seemed to increase the habit for the ducks. The purpose of the dam and culvert is to serve the needs of the farmland that surrounds the slough. What is best for the farmland may not be best for the habitat for the wildlife and vice versa.

As the shooting slowed down, we decided to head back over to Ron’s farm to see if he was around. He had been there and left by the time we showed up. I called Kathy and she said that Ron had been over there and talked with the two people out on the lake. They claimed that they entered from road access (which is legal) and walked in water access as to not cross on private land. The second part of their story is impossible due to the depth of the water in that area. The boats were also seen pulled up to private land around lunch time and per the local Conservation Officer’s directions, Ron took the license plate numbers of the vehicles. For us, we went behind Ron and Kathy’s machine shed down by the lake, put out a few decoys and did some more hunting.

As we packed things up, we decided to stop in Atwater for a burger at “The Handle Bar.” Not only this the best place in Atwater to get a burger; it’s the only place… but the food was awesome!! Terry, Nick and I talked about the fun we had and the memories we had just made. Like when Nick offered me a package of “pellets” for an air rifle for my “youth model” shotgun. I shoot a 20-gauge while Terry and Nick shoot 12-gauge shotguns. Nick has always been a very confident young man (Senior in HS) and his dad’s quick wit certainly has been passed down to him. As much as Terry is more like a brother at times, Nick is more like a nephew. Even if we wouldn’t have gotten any ducks at all, which we did, the fun times and memories of this opener would still be there. As we drove home, we laughed some more, told a joke or two (none of which can be printed) and listened to old time country music off Nick’s playlist. It wasn’t about the ducks at all. It was about spending quality time with friends and “getting out to enjoy the great outdoors.”