Time to talk about ducks

[JABIII]

"Worst season I have ever had". A common refrain from the best traveling and in-state duck hunters that I know to ask, and I asked a bunch of them yesterday.

Y'all seeing/hearing something different?

Are ducks quietly going the way of the wild quail?

[Remy]

I'm surely not the most traveled or best duck hunter, but I've about quit going the past couple years and I've got access to some pretty good private places in SC. Just not worth getting up at 4am anymore with the shortage of ducks in SC. I've even canceled plans to travel OOS the last 3 years as the hunting isn't great either. I hope it gets better, but I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'll just kill doves and deer and be happy about it.

[BOGSTER]

It’s going to get worse every year until we get back to the drawing board on how we feed and hunt waterfowl.

[SCswampCAT]

Most people I know have wacked em pretty good this year.

[JABIII]

Try to be a little more specific, if possible, thanks...

[Catdaddy]

You can throw out the theory of....30% got killed in Canada by the greedy traveling hunter.

Maybe lack of pressure kept them up north or their counts were way off.

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[SCswampCAT]

A few friends of mine that send me pictures on the regular have been from Mississippi to Texas and none have gone many days without shooting. One buddy was working in Kansas, when he got done with the job he decided he'd stay in Kansas and OK until he got tired of shooting ducks. He piled them up for a month. Another friend just got back from a Texas then Arkansas tour and they shot the piss out of them too.

[Duckkiller]

You can throw out the theory of....30% got killed in Canada by the greedy traveling hunter.

Maybe lack of pressure kept them up north or their counts were way off.

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I keep thinking or telling myself that lack of pressure up north held em longer. Where is the freeze line now? Seems it’s farther north every year.

[theoldblackdog]

What I am hearing and seeing is east of Texas is pretty much the same for everyone. Some people have record days and some are skunked. It's the same in SC. Some guys are absolutely killing them one day then the next they got nothing. Makes no sense, I haven't heard much from anybody where they have just stacked them up every day. Even had a buddy go with a guide in the OBX and that was hit or miss.

[CofC Waterfowler]

I know a place far south where one can stack red heads and pintails in extremely large numbers and the margaritas are always cold, just make sure you have cartel cash just in case.

[bitesize]

It’s going to get worse every year until we get back to the drawing board on how we feed and hunt waterfowl.

Could you elaborate?

[LabLuvR]

We haven’t had any significant weather in the Dakotas. Most people I know are having a very shitty year. My buddies in Arkansas and Louisiana are crying that’s how bad it is.

[JABIII]

Thanks you Swampcat...

[huntinghagen#12]

I was having a great year until around Christmas. Averaging around 14 ducks per day. It dropped off a lot after Christmas, maybe 2 or 3 good hunts since then.

[SCHUNTINFANATIC]

Not much happening in this little hole.......

[jwilliams]

talked with William S Berg the other day. He said he was "stackin the green"

[Duck Nitz]

talked with William S Berg the other day. He said he was "stackin the green"

I thought he was cuttin tha green...semantics.

[Moose843]

Depends on what you're looking for. Woodies are abundant in the 2 places we hunt. Could be tamies off the plantation, but they are strays, we didn't plant them there. Haven't seen much of anything else.

[beanhunter]

Try to be a little more specific, if possible, thanks...

Aside from not going to Canada (which is where my majority come from) I am at 222 ducks and geese for the season so far. This is not me singular. This is either me by myself hunting or friends that accompany me. Westward I have done well this year. Bird numbers have been down some for the most part in a lot of areas that have historically held more. Lack of water is a real thing. Areas that have held water or are pumped are dry. Some places have had water control structures that need attention and thus leaving good moist soil units unattended by birds. I have hunted a lot this year and put off another shoulder surgery to finish the season out. Wood ducks in certain places in sc I hunt have been more plentiful than past years. I see that as there is more pressure close by and I let places rest. No bands yet this year but I did bag a white winged drake about two weeks ago. The numbers are inflated and deflated in many areas regarding bird counts. The validity of exact counts is in the eye of the beholder ....

[BOGSTER]

Could you elaborate?

We’ve screwed up tremendously.

Training a highly migratory bird, designed to move large distances in search of food, into sitting in one location feeding them an unnatural gmo grain.
Disrupting, or in many cases, halting their natural cycle.

We’ve developed tools that puts man in any area they can get to.

We’ve set aside tens of millions of unhuntable acres to dump feed for them, so they won’t have to migrate.


You tell me.

Was the hunting better overall when we let wild ducks be wild, and hunted them in their natural areas, or is it better now?