Duck season ideas

[Nab]

So are we just gonna sit back and say the Feds know best and let it be or be proactive in making things better - shorter season and lower limits to begin with - some in Arkansas are even starting to think about the seasons and limits being to liberal.

[Sportin' Woodies]

Good question nab. How ya been?

[MolliesMaster]

Nice. Solid decade.

[cajunwannabe]

<font size="-1" face="verdana,arial,helv">Yes, I believe wholeheartedly that banning mud motors on public waters from November through February would do wonders for reducing disturbances on wintering waterfowl which would, in turn, increase the wintering population of all waterfowl in South Carolina.

In the early ‘90s (1992 I think), I bought a Go-Devil directly from Warren Coco, when there were ducks-a-plenty on the Cooper River and on Lake Moultrie and few hunters. Almost immediately, I started killing noticeably more than my share of ducks. I am not so pretentious to think that I helped start the mud motor fad, but I was in fact, a couple of years ahead of the fat part of the Go-Devil bell curve.

I quickly learned that I could drive directly into the big raft of wigeon in Ricehope and be set-up and ready to hunt before the birds could circle once. I could power through hydrilla and hunt back coves on Lake Moultrie where no one else could even go. On Saturday’s I was the first one to reach the center of the Hatchery where the big ducks were. For a year or two, I was killing a pintail almost every Saturday mostly because I had one of the few mud motors around.

After reaching an easy 3-bird limit, I would ride around the rest of the morning running birds out of every nook and cranny on whatever body of water I happened to be hunting. Thinking back, I realize that one person with one mud motor could disturb every bird on half of Lake Moultrie with less than a gallon-and-a-half of gas. Multiply that times hundreds of mud motors and we’ve got a serious problem.

For the record, I stopped hunting with the Go-Devil in 1996 after watching someone else hunt the ducks in Ricehope using “my” mud motor method. Somehow, when I was doing it, it didn’t seem so bad. Watching someone else stir up clouds of ducks with little effort disgusted me.

I am back to scouting with the heel of my boots, a good pair of binoculars and a water-cooled Evinrude. I can only check two holes in a morning rather than 10 per hour, but I’m much happier and, I believe, a better hunter.


Sorry to be so long winded, but, yes, I believe mud motors are a bad thing.

Funny thing is here we are, 10 years later and spinning wing decoys are banned on public water in Arkansas, one of the premier duck killing states, and not here. Other states are utilizing mud motor restrictions, h.p. restrictions, prop size restrictions and afternoon bans as well as paddle in only areas.......meanwhile, here in SC we continue down the path to nowhere. Interesting to reread this old thread. Some folks opinions have probably changed since their post 10 years ago.

I'm glad y'all revived this thread.

Great timing right before our season starts. I'd love to know what folks opinions are now since the increased popularity of the surface drive mud motor.

Glad to see some love shown and a shout out to ol Nab too.

[Sportin' Woodies]

To this day, nab still holds the record for most watchable episode of dateline.