As we know all of the good private properties (non tamie)are now hunting very little. Many are now hunting less than 10% of the allotted waterfowl hunting days choosing to hunt 4 or 5 good weather days over a bunch of warm bluebird days.
Why? Because hunting on weather days allows you to get in and out of the area much quicker with less pressure on the birds.
If you run 5,000 ducks off on a howling windy day they will come back in small groups allowing for maximum whackage in the quickest time. You are not pressuring big flocks of birds at each shot.
If you run them off on a still day they will simply bunch up and circle up high coming down in much larger numbers. At each draw you are pressuring potentially hundreds of birds at a time.
In this day private managers are managing PRESSURE above even food and it is about all we in South Carolina have going for us as far as imprinted migratory ducks go.
It is also true that on public lands you will see increased opportunity on weather days from birds pushed off private lands or new birds riding the front. The ducks will work in and hunters will kill more ducks on the fronts.
As we speak on controlling pressure in the future we must keep in mind that weather is the lynchpin to not only good duck hunting but to good duck managment in this state. As the private properties voluntarily are able to control pressure we must find a solution for controlling pressure on public ground without giving up the ability to hunt those all important weather days...
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