Time to talk about ducks

[Elcid_Fowler]

I've had an odd season but I always do since I changed up the way I hunt. The oddest hunt ended up with an 8-toed greenehead, two ringnecks, a wigeon and a white-winged scoter from 200 miles inland. I really didn't go into that one expecting to kill a white-wing.

I don't share the "one off" birds I kill around here as there is enough competition already. But I've checked the Scoter off the list in the piedmont 2 years running. I have no clue what they do to get this far inland but I've killed probably the only two less your 3rd in the past 2 years! There have been a few other random as well but I'm not sharing those publically....

[LabLuvR]

Snow in middle Louisiana last night my buddy said he didn’t see one duck this morning! And he’s in a jam up spot.

[LCO]

This isn't so much about SC. This is about everywhere East of the Pacific Flyway. The rest of the country seems to be headed down the same path as SC did 20 years ago.

Will a few places still kill ducks? Sure. I am trying to get an overall picture of what is going on.

Not so much the WHY. Nobody can answer that. Theories from snow cover to Canada hunting all get blown away time after time. The only constant is that the duck hunting is getting worse not better in the overall scheme...

Oh okay I gotcha, I've got multiple acquaintances spread across the Mississippi flyway they've all had no issues killing ducks and in quite consistent fashion . I believe its all subjective though I think to really see if things have changed you'd need to look at harvest reports and dig into the science side of things.

[Hogg]

My duck season has been about as good as the Gamecocks football season.

[Harry_McAdams]

Havent had much significant weather here in Montana this season yet either. Yesterday marked the start of the late season split up here. 10's of thousands of honkers, and lessers around in the central but the ducks are pretty few and far between.

The ducks were hot and heavy for a few weeks mid-Oct.

[Harry_McAdams]

@Elcid_Fowler believe it or not, I killed 2 surf scoters on big water in the mtns out west end of september.

[mudminnow]

I’ve hunted 5 times this year. Skunked once, decent hunts twice (including a banded drake mallard from Kentucky), and two limits.
The spots I hunt that are managed have not held the number of ducks as they used to. The natural vegetation spots are holding more than ever (last 20 years).

I have not been seeing as many migratory birds on local ponds during my lunchtime surveys.

[nitro5x6's]

My duck hunting stuff will likely be for sale in another year or two. The juice ain't worth the squeeze. My guys I hunt with in AR haven't killed diddly squat in the Timber. A Few Gadwall has been the highlight.

So far for 2021 , I have two trips scheduled. One for WA Sea ducks and an inshore run for Mallards and Goldeneyes. AZ for whatever falls into the blocks combined with a quail trip for Mearns, Gambels and Scaled quail.

[cajunwannabe]

4 hurricanes pretty much smoked my coastal habitat in S. La. My sons and I made a 6 day trip prior to Thanksgiving and we limited 5 of 6 days. Too much pressure, complete loss of SAV and it's dropped off dramatically. My last trip was before Christmas and I killed but when we resort to shooting Ringnecks and Dos Gris, it's gotten really bad.

Here in SC I have hunted 1 time and killed the SC "limit" of 3 woodies. I'll probably tap out on a high note.

When I have cousins in Michigan taking their boat out to beach and bonfire on one of the islands on Lake Erie, January 9th, 2021.......I don't believe there is any way I will ever see ducks come down South in great numbers in my lifetime unless I go further West.

Regarding snow in La and MS this past weekend, those "fronts" are coming West to East.....it's warmer up North and the ducks don't need to come South. Just yesterday I watched a video of me running my mud boat in the Gulf marsh breaking ice during the last huge "Polar Vortex"....hard to imagine what one of those is now. That was probably 10 years ago now.

[Duck Tape]

I have spent a fortune managing and chasing ducks.

The reasons ducks are such a wary prey is they adapt their behavior based on food and disturbance.

Hunters have developed better methods to harvest. Those methods are spreading northwards and shortstop until weather forces migration.

[mudflat]

How about your slice of the pie JAB, what's your numbers look like?

[JABIII]

Retired on a mountain watching it snow while thinking of much warmer climes...

[Coastal Woodie]

I'm not a serious duck hunter, I normally kill 40 to 50 birds a year but this is the worst year I've ever had. I'm totaling 9 birds for the season so far

[Ring King]

It's all about the money! Everywhere across the country people are pouring money into properties to attract and hold ducks for the season so that they can charge memberships and guide fees to those willing to pay to kill them. The places up North get the ducks first which stalls out their migration. Unless some crazy out of the norm weather pushes those birds off of those big properties then the places doing the same down South won't ever get their shot at holding them. Public land hunters have slit their own throats with pressure, mud motors, and the fad that has become duck hunting. Any birds that try to land on public grounds are hunted every minute of legal shooting light which is just too much for the birds comfort. Even at night you've got groups that camp out trying to hold a spot to hunt for the weekend which disturbs the birds even further.

It's no different out here on the West Coast. We have more birds but most places that are truly public hold pretty much nothing. The pics you guys see of my hunts out here are from state lands that are only open to hunting on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays. There's no camping allowed out there and you're not supposed to be on the property before 2:30am. This isn't Refuge hunting like a lot of folks do out here. This is tidal salt marsh hunting that connected to the bay and eventually the ocean by a series of sloughs that are navigable water ways. The birds are simply allowed some time to rest between hunt days. It does require a lot of effort and work to good birds out there which keeps some of the riff raff away. When we hunted Saturday there were about 8 groups including us in the particular area that we were in. I could only see three groups that were within eyesight of us. The closest one was about 500 yards away. My son and I make comments on the time that if that place were in SC there would be 50 boats around us (literally) and the birds would quickly learn to go elsewhere. We still have birds out there that leave at first light and loaf on the big bays during the day. You can see them by the thousands rafted up offshore with binoculars. There are only a few old timers left here that go out and scull the birds in the open water. When I see one of them I usually stop and watch until their done. It's quite a sight. The old man (+80 years old) that I met out here years ago has since passed on. He was an absolute killer!!!! He could actually single out a specific drake from a flock, work the bird to the outside where it was on its own and then kill it with his little 28 gauge! He didn't shoot a big bore because there was too much collateral damage done to other birds when sculling them up.

I have a feeling that in some of you younger guys lifetimes that you may actually see the end of duck hunting as we know it unfortunately!

[WNM]

...Too many kids can get ahold of their parent’s credit cards and make their trucks and SUV’s do the Carolina Squat, buy mud boats, Jon boats, etc and go out and rip through the habitats of waterfowl, with no knowledge of really what they’re doing, what duck hunting is about, how to read a duck, nothing. They high five and post pictures of a few dead ducks, get 100 or so likes on Instagram, and go out every chance they get. Meanwhile the ducks figure out quickly, feed at night, rest during the day. Coastal ducks will go sit on the ocean, flying out of the marshes well before first light. That or they take up refuge in refuges or HOA’s where they are safe. Maybe some duck numbers have dwindled some, yes. Scaup in particular have been up and down for years now....

This is my experience as well. It is amazing the numbers of kids that look too young to drive that consistently beat me to boat ramps only to pass shoot tree top wood ducks and rarely kill any. I have seen one pair of flatbill EastCoast Waterfowl wearing, squatted truck with Instagram handle on the back glass driving, 95 pounds soaking wet children 4 times at a ramp before one posted his first wood duck to the SC Duck Hunting Facebook page. How can a duck ever find refuge when people will go 10 hunts without killing a duck, jump every beaver dam in the county with $30K mud rigs, and wake up at 3 AM the next day ready to do it again?

[Ring King]

I guess I could add my numbers here like everyone else has! LOL

8 hunts (started hunting the week before Christmas)

Total Ducks: 53

Wigeon 19
Pintail 2
Spoonie 2
Canvasback 7
Gadwall 1
GWT 22

[JABIII]

You can remember reading on here 15 years ago as we began to realize that the end was nigh, people saying "They will all quit and it will get good again". Well, they didn't and it didn't.

I think that many are still not seeing the big picture. I am here right now telling you that they are not stacked the fuck up in some mythical place "up north" waiting on the snows to cover up some food. They ain't there at all...

[LC17]

You can remember reading on here 15 years ago as we began to realize that the end was nigh, people saying "They will all quit and it will get good again". Well, they didn't and it didn't.

I think that many are still not seeing the big picture. I am here right now telling you that they are not stacked the fuck up in some mythical place "up north" waiting on the snows to cover up some food. They ain't there at all...

So, change in farming practices where they breed is the culprit? Maybe change in climate?

[huntinghagen#12]

You can remember reading on here 15 years ago as we began to realize that the end was nigh, people saying "They will all quit and it will get good again". Well, they didn't and it didn't.

I think that many are still not seeing the big picture. I am here right now telling you that they are not stacked the fuck up in some mythical place "up north" waiting on the snows to cover up some food. They ain't there at all...

What's your guess? Are they spread out up and down the flyways with no major concentrations, have they been hunted too much with a significant decline in population, or some other theory?

[tman]

Has been slow for us in South Florida. Unusually high water has flooded some of the STA's and the Everglades are 1.5' higher than usual for this time of year. Water is backed up from 75 all the way into Big Cypress. Airboats have been prohibited in the glades >>> Outboard only. Certain WMA's are closed entirely due to high water. Between the high water and lack of access, my harvest numbers have swung from traditionally targeting puddle ducks, to settling for ringnecks. All being well, this will be my last season living in FL, but will definitely be coming back to hunt the STA's on a few weekend trips.

My numbers are about 80% of where they were at last year, this time to date.