question for some of you "older" 30+ year old duck

[RebelYelp]

ok,

i'm sittin here thinkin to myself about all the stuff as far as rain in the praries, the weather, the 17inches we've had here in mccomb the past week and a half, and everything in between that could have anything to do with ducks. I'm still a fairly young buck and just vaguely remember EVERYTHING about hunting from when i was little, but i dont' remember ever hearing people worrying about the weather as much, how to make their ''honey hole'', is it gonna be cold ? is it gonna be hot ? did the dakota's get enough rain etc etc etc etc. Just curious if y'all used to worry about it all too or if its' a fairly new occurance lol. From best i can remember me and my uncles just went duck hunting. Didn't pay attention to everything else, if it was 70 we were otu there if it was 10 we were. granted i was a real youngster then and they may have been doin the work days without me

Jake

[Don Miller]

It's not so much worry as it is concern. With the information age, it relatively easy to keep up with what is going on with the Prairie Pot Hole Region and how it might effect the upcoming season. A duck hunter can sit on his hands and take a wait and see attitude or be pro active and be involved with consevation organizations such as Delta Waterfowl or Ducks Unlimited. I don't think there will be many here that will quit duck hunting because a bad production year leads to a 45 or 30 day season. The best thing to do is get involved and learn about some of hurdles we face as waterfowlers. You can start by joining Delta Waterfowl and Duck Unlimited if you are not alread a member.

[crow]

My first duck season was in 1966, and I can assure you the concerns were the same. However, the perspective was very different. No one worried about duck season until early teal season. Then, only a few people started fretting that early. No one was too concerned about planting plots for the ducks. The fields were all in agriculture then and you knew where the beans were planted and thats where you hunted the fields. You knew the farmers who had low spots and swags in the field that held ducks when it had water. There were almost no structures to hold water, it was dependent on rainfall and low spots in fields. The closest we came to manipulating water was to stop up a culvert under a field road to hold overflow from a catfish pond and flood the corner of a field. The best years (for hunters) were those where the rains came early and farmers couldn't get the beans out of the fields. We had good hunting in the fields all season then. In drier years, everyone went to the woods and sloughs to hunt permanent water and beaver ponds. In dry years, I hunted Turkey Point (now Hillside), Panther Creek Swamp (now Panther Swamp NWR), and Delta National. In wet years I hunted Twist Plantation (now Panther Swamp), some farms up the Yazoo River in Humphreys Co. and Delta Natl. Practically any farmer would let you duck hunt back then. No one really prepared for duck season at all. We just reacted to whatever the weather did and hunted accordingly. There was almost no competition except at Delta Natl. Sure was simpler, but I promise it still felt just as intense!

[sportsman450]

I started hunting ducks in 1968. Back then all my crew was really concerned about was the amount of water in the delta. If we had water, we had ducks. While the hunting was affected by cold weather, both here and up north, the ducks ALWAYS came sooner or later, so we just kept going until they did.

[Delta Duck]

Hea I want to hear from all yall old folks, 30 and over!

[La. Legend]

Well I qualify but barely. Weather has always had an impact on ducks but it's only become a major player in the past 10 years or so. Ducks survive on instincts. Their instincts tell the fly South when the weather begins to turn cool to hunt water and food. For years if they wanted to find food that meant having to come to Ar, Ms, and La. but thats all changed. Take a trip up the ol Memphis Hwy from Greenville and tell me what you see on both sides of the road for as far as you can see? Well it sure aint cotton anymore. These same changes in the ag belt exist all the way to the Canadian border. Wall to wall duck food. Add to that no till farming and unharvested food plots in the NWR's and there's not much reason for a duck to come this far South anymore. The one exception are juvenile birds. They have not been imprinted with all these good grocerie spots and only know to take off South when it turns cool. These are the birds we shot during the early season until weather in the Northern Ms. Flyway forced the mature birds into our neck of the woods later in the season. Now we would probably still be getting these juveniles if it weren't for them spinning wing basturds. Seventy percent of the juvies get hammered over spinners before they ever get to us and those that survive show up knowing how the game is played. We see decoy and call shy birds on the opeining day that we use to not see until later in the season. Now here's what scares me about this whole weather thing. Because of the abundance of food it's gonna take a major snow cover thru out most of the Ms. Flayway from about the Arkansas/ Missouri and the Tenn/Ms border North . Not only is it gonna need to be deep but it's gonna have to hang around for awhile to push the birds off all that food. They'll find open water and hang around for a week or so waiting on the thaw if the food source is good. While I suppose this is possible it's not very probable or at least I've never seen this type of weather in my 44 years of hunting. If you've ever seen wall to wall birds in every direction and at every altitude consider yourself fortunate. Ther are a lot of young hunters who will never get to witness what we use to take for granted. The glory days of duck hunting in our part of the world may be nothing more than a sweet memory.

[SCOOTER]

My first season was in 75, we would head to sardis to hunt the backwaters, 2 hour drive, 2 mile hike in the the HONEY HOLE, set up all the decoys then wait- 100 point black duck would fall, then we would go home. We could have cared less even where the dakotas we at, much less if the pot hole region had rain, we just loved the hunt.

[sportsman450]

Legend-That's probably the best evaluation of the situation I've read since I joined the internet.

[blazer5]

My first hunt was back in 1974. We waded the timber in bayou deview. If I remember right there were 6 of us, all between the ages of 10 and 12 along with our fathers. I believe I killed a teal and that ended my day shooting because of the points system.

[blazer5]

I also dont remember any conversation of whether or not the ducks would be there or not. Our neighbor had hunted the woods of Weiner Ar. most of his life. he had a good idea of where the ducks would be, and it wasnt far from where we parked the car. There wasnt any talk of May pond counts.

[Sasha and Abby]

Legend... Don't get a big head, but you DID hit the nail on that one. You and I are the same age, and I mirror your concerns and observations since the change in agriculture took place.

[injun_23]

Well I'm over 30 years doin' this great stuff and I will describe a typical year when and where I started. We got 5-6 weekends and no Sunday hunting. The limit was 3-4 ducks. The ducks were mostly hunted around here on one of the three "City Lakes"....the water supply for Greensboro, N C., out of permenant blinds that required a small boat and outboard. You called the morning before the hunt at 8:00 AM and the first one answered got first pick and so on. Out of the 40 or so blinds maybe 12 would get A shot at something, usually bluebills, ringnecks, etc.......mallards and blacks usually came from only about 6 of the blinds and 5 or 6 ducks of ANY kind was considered a good hunt. We hunted all day that Saturday and usually the ones lucky enough to hunt on the Tuesdays and Thursdays stayed in the blind all day as well. Count your blessings and find a way to enjoy whatever you get this year 'cause it's better there in a bad season that it is some places in a good year. the INJ

[SoftCall]

Legend-That's probably the best evaluation of the situation I've read since I joined the internet.

AH HAH!!! Sporty, are you admitting that given these agricultural practice changes weather is the most important factor to the southern ms flyway duck hunter these days????

Anyway - I remember that the ditches didn't used to be so deep and that every year, the low spot in the field held water. You could drop a culvert in and dam it up with some plywood, but for the most part...the holes that held water regardless is where the ducks were. Not only have ag practices changed (like LA Legend says), but there are more "pimp" holes out there that never held water back in the 70's. The abundance of honey hole projects out there have dispersed the concentrations of birds over the years.

[sportsman450]

AH HAH!!! Sporty, are you admitting that given these agricultural practice changes weather is the most important factor to the southern ms flyway duck hunter these days????

Unfortunately what I believe is this:

Not only is it gonna need to be deep but it's gonna have to hang around for awhile to push the birds off all that food. They'll find open water and hang around for a week or so waiting on the thaw if the food source is good. While I suppose this is possible it's not very probable or at least I've never seen this type of weather in my 44 years of hunting. If you've ever seen wall to wall birds in every direction and at every altitude consider yourself fortunate. Ther are a lot of young hunters who will never get to witness what we use to take for granted. The glory days of duck hunting in our part of the world may be nothing more than a sweet memory.

Because of the factors you and Legend talked about, the needed weather simply doesn't exist. The real problems are too much food up north, too many refuges, too much hunting pressure, and probably too few young ducks (spinners?).

If I've ever hoped I was wrong about something, this is it, but it makes sense to me, amd I don't see much coming along to change it.

[laduck]

How about an answer from someone over 50! Never heard of the weather channel or the world wide web when I was coming up. Some years we had lots of ducks and some years were not as good. However, it was always a lot more good than bad, not like today. Still, I think that I will chase them as long as I can. Might be good for another 15 + I hope.