Spent a few hours out at Beaver Lake this morning.  Saw a few Teals.  Had a hen spend almost 15 minutes in our spread until about 2 minutes to shooting time.  Lost another one because I forgot to disengage my safety after unslinging my shotgun in a hurry.  Boy I can't wait until the regular season...

We were on a farm pond south of West Des Moines.  Had about a dozen sit in the decoys from a half hour before sunrise until about two minutes before shooting time.  They left - it was almost as if they could time - and new ones didn't show up for about an hour and a half.  Three of us ended up with five birds.

What kind of pressure does Beaver Lake get?

I wonder how many non-targets died this morning.  I miss being able to take woodies early season.

I had a pretty good time watching non-shootables working our decoys.

Got my limit out of my little boat this morning.  There were a ton a birds but most flew out of the marsh by shooting time.  Even with that, these birds weren't what I'd call challenging to shoot.  Time to fire up the grill.

I'm envious of your mud motor.

Since I'm consistently not as successful as guys like you, I'm glad the guys I hunt with don't like to eat ducks.

It works out well for all of us.

What area did you hit catfish?

I will tell you it is a popular public marsh in Story County but you will have to figure out the rest.

Edit: The motor is a Scavenger mud motor made in Iowa...  https://www.scavengerbackwater.com/cgi-bin/scavengershop2/commerce.cgi?page=Home.htm

There usually isn't too much pressure on Beaver.  There was only one other guy on the main lake and a few others on a silt pond just south of there.  When we got back to our cars some folks were there saying it was a night and day difference compared to last weekend.  I had to assume they were scouting or out for dove then since yesterday was the opener... I'm hoping the cooler temps later this week will push some more down.

Makes me wish I was back home going after them.

I would slay them on the dog training pond area at the Princeton wildlife area