Recent Mediocrity and Observations

[Catdaddy]

Do you feel like you are part of the status quo of practice, or an outlier? Because I don't feel like it would fair to judge how the vast majority of impoundments operate based on your own personal choices.

Please note, I am not defending Rabbit's stance or where his argument is headed. But I also feel like it is unfair to say that MOST corn ponds provide any real benefit other than a place to fatten up before hitting the dinner table, a feed lot if you will.

I guess because I'm older and hunted through the glory years, I'm not mad at them any more. I don't have a lot of ducks but do enjoy watching them and hunting them occasionally. I would speculate that you would have to have a real good impoundment, located in a real good area to stand the pressure of being hunted more than once every 2 weeks.

The rabbits mad because wood duck numbers are down and he's trying someone to point his finger at somebody...……….but he didn't say a word when they moved the limit to 3 for no other reason than political pressure. Why with nesting habitat going down, would anyone want a higher wood duck limit when 2 has proven hood for over 50 years? The reason is he just wants to keep killing them like he did years ago when the numbers were up. By his own admission, he hunts a wood duck area that doesn't winter many other species.


Like I said earlier, you can't hide 80,000-125,000 wild mallards in the corn ponds around Santee.

[Palmetto Pride]

Cat nailed it ...pressure is a problem as even Mattamuskeet impoundments can’t hunt once every few weeks without pushing birds away or making them go nocturnal. There are many different reasons for all of this, but the bottom line is that all of the different factors contribute and most are seeing less ducks across the country (pacific flyway excluded).

[BOGSTER]

We have forced them to feed on man-made habitats, then we pressure them so much we force them to feed nocturnal.

What a greedy bunch we are.

[2thDoc]

Seems we have a lot of theories and a lot of opinions but little to no solutions....

I know. Isnt it fun?? This is what I like to talk about around a fire barrel. we've never left that barrel with the answer...

Do you feel like you are part of the status quo of practice, or an outlier? Because I don't feel like it would fair to judge how the vast majority of impoundments operate based on your own personal choices.

Please note, I am not defending Rabbit's stance or where his argument is headed. But I also feel like it is unfair to say that MOST corn ponds provide any real benefit other than a place to fatten up before hitting the dinner table, a feed lot if you will.

While I also caution people about anecdotal evidence, CD is spot on and I agree whole-heartedly. We practice the same plan...although my club members feel they are often "owed" a hunt because of the dollars involved. I dont adopt that stance.

[Bigtimber2]

So you have artificially created habitat that is affecting other hunters in your area by concentrating birds. Good job. The ducks that would normally be your neighbors creeks, swamps, and beaver ponds are now concentrated on your artificial habitat and your neighbors have been screwed.

Your POV is on the hunter, Cats POV is on the resource.




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[JABIII]

Found 'em...

[MolliesMaster]

I guess because I'm older and hunted through the glory years, I'm not mad at them any more. I don't have a lot of ducks but do enjoy watching them and hunting them occasionally. I would speculate that you would have to have a real good impoundment, located in a real good area to stand the pressure of being hunted more than once every 2 weeks.

The rabbits mad because wood duck numbers are down and he's trying someone to point his finger at somebody...……….but he didn't say a word when they moved the limit to 3 for no other reason than political pressure. Why with nesting habitat going down, would anyone want a higher wood duck limit when 2 has proven hood for over 50 years? The reason is he just wants to keep killing them like he did years ago when the numbers were up. By his own admission, he hunts a wood duck area that doesn't winter many other species.


Like I said earlier, you can't hide 80,000-125,000 wild mallards in the corn ponds around Santee.

You didn't answer my question. Do you feel like your practices mirror the vast majority of impoundments?

Rabbit's point was that they provide no habitat, especially after season. At which point you claimed not to drain your ponds until after March 15th.

I am asking you if you think it would be fair to say that you practice better management on your property than most other operations up and down the coast?



ETA: I believe it is common practice for the tame duck operations around the lake/state to have "shoots" twice a week. I think the general consensus here is that those types of operations draw in wild ducks from natural resources. So I think it would be fair to say that someone, somewhere has figured out how to hunt their ponds more than bi-monthly. My question is still the same. This last thought should provoke more thought on how you answer.

[dox08]

The temperature is the factor. 20 years ago hunting in upstate NY in late December the high temperatures would be 10-20 and lows in the single digits if not below zero. Its will be 57 on Saturday in upstate NY and almost 80 here in SC. Not good!

[MolliesMaster]

The temperature is the factor. 20 years ago hunting in upstate NY in late December the high temperatures would be 10-20 and lows in the single digits if not below zero. Its will be 57 on Saturday in upstate NY and almost 80 here in SC. Not good!

That sounds good until you look at the duck numbers in Florida.

[wob]

So you have artificially created habitat that is affecting other hunters in your area by concentrating birds. Good job. The ducks that would normally be your neighbors creeks, swamps, and beaver ponds are now concentrated on your artificial habitat and your neighbors have been screwed.

Call up the Public Service Authority and tell them to drain the lakes. That's artificially created habitat.

[darealdeal]

Call up the Public Service Authority and tell them to drain the lakes. That's artificially created habitat.

not really since they have killed off all the food sources haha

[Southernduck]

Found 'em...

Tony and his eye makeup are a big part of the issue...

[Rabbitman09]

We can argue about the causes and whatnot until the cows come home. We have groups like DU, Delta, Feds, and states. We have enough people getting paid to keep up on all this stuff that the answers should not be difficult for the right person to address. The problem is demanding change from lawmakers!

[Catdaddy]

You didn't answer my question. Do you feel like your practices mirror the vast majority of impoundments?

Rabbit's point was that they provide no habitat, especially after season. At which point you claimed not to drain your ponds until after March 15th.

I am asking you if you think it would be fair to say that you practice better management on your property than most other operations up and down the coast?



ETA: I believe it is common practice for the tame duck operations around the lake/state to have "shoots" twice a week. I think the general consensus here is that those types of operations draw in wild ducks from natural resources. So I think it would be fair to say that someone, somewhere has figured out how to hunt their ponds more than bi-monthly. My question is still the same. This last thought should provoke more thought on how you answer.

I think a lot more people leave the water on their ponds than most people think. A lot even feed them shelled corn for a few weeks. The ones with poor drainage may have to drain to dry out but the majority don't have too.

Rabbit is wrong on his point because they do provide habitat, however late in the season their need more protein which they get from swamps. If a pond owner shoots every 2 weeks, that's 13 days of food and rest for the ducks. Where on Santee public water can they get that?


From what little I know, people who have impoundments for wild ducks, do not hunt every week, much less multiple times per week. Ducks learn to avoid problem areas and they live along time. People that don't understand that don't have many ducks.


As far as the tamie ponds, I would speculate they are killing only stupid wild ducks, like ringnecks and tame ducks,...…...along with a new duck running in front of the storms.

[Fish]

Seems we have a lot of theories and a lot of opinions but little to no solutions....

There is/are no solutions. You've got a public resource at the mercy of a public that has very little restraint and almost unlimited want/demand to take of the resource combined with disposable income that allows the public to go wherever, build whatever, and do whatever is necessary to take of the resource. This equation leaves the resource very little quarter. Of course, the above comment is meaningless unless the duck population is actually diminished. And if it is, and continues to diminish, people will continue to go to further lengths to kill fewer birds until it just doesn't make sense anymore, and still, I don't think it will stop. Case in point, those peckerheads that line the banks at Willtown and the rest of the ACE Basin don't kill anything and they're back full force every Saturday.

[BOGSTER]

There are droves of people that never kill any ducks, but continue to go every weekend.

To some, a group of 4, killing 1 teal, 3 bufflehead, and 2 mergs warrants an “epic smack down” Facebook post.

[WNM]

There are droves of people that never kill any ducks, but continue to go every weekend.

To some, a group of 4, killing 1 teal, 3 bufflehead, and 2 mergs warrants an “epic smack down” Facebook post.

It's mind boggling. Instagram posts at least weekly about pre season boat prep, buying more decoys every year, getting up at 1 AM, etc. just to post a picture of a lone bufflehead or wood duck. The same people get on the South Carolina Duck Hunting Facebook page and hand out advice about "the grind" and being "sick for it." There is no break in the pressure when people like this don't stop until the season ends. I wish I knew of a feasible solution, but there isn't one.

[2thDoc]

Mollie-you are forgetting that ducks migrate back north. factor that in. providing habitat (for ducks) doesnt have to be a year round pursuit in sc. providing food, rest, and water in late february is quite a gift to a duck ready to migrate.

and i do not know of a single duck club that hunts more than once every two weeks with any success. even the tame duck ponds have trouble when the dock ducks learn the deal.

[Rabbitman09]

So the answer is fuck the guys hunting public water?

[BOGSTER]

Mollie-you are forgetting that ducks migrate back north. factor that in. providing habitat (for ducks) doesnt have to be a year round pursuit in sc. providing food, rest, and water in late february is quite a gift to a duck ready to migrate.

and i do not know of a single duck club that hunts more than once every two weeks with any success. even the tame duck ponds have trouble when the dock ducks learn the deal.

This year excluded, almost all of the pay clubs hunt twice a week and blister the ringnecks day in and day out.