DuckSouth.com

With the 2011-12 season in the bag, rate your season...

November/December: 4

January: 9

Great at times, awful at times. Never stopped being fun.

3. Only went twice! Opener and Christmas Eve!

Straight down the middle. 5

The last day made all of the other mediocre ones worth it... three man limit of mallards coming in by twos and threes. Make one or two circles and fall in. Not many shots over thirty yards. Overall the season left a lot to be desired from a birds standpoint but, left nothing from a hanging out with friends making memories standpoint. Rating the season, birds- give'em a 6, friends and fun- give'em a 10 as always.

7. I've had better as far as straight numbers go, but I've also had much worse. I did a lot more scouting in my boat than I have in years past. If we didn't have ducks, I worked my asss off to make sure I was gonna kill some. I scratched out many limit hunts and only 1 O'fer for the year. The 9 days of the season we hammered on em everyday, from Brazil, MS to Redwood, MS. Made a lot of memories, sometimes that's more important than the kill numbers. Took my oldest boy with me several times. Watched my young dog go from average to great, the light turned on this year. He picked up close to 200 birds, hoping to break that with youth weekend and attempt to break 300 with goose season. He made a couple 200 yd blinds and one BIG 250+ mark that I never saw fall but knew he was on it. Overall, after thinking about the season, I've got a big smile on my face... can't really put a number on that.

As far as just numbers go it was the worse I can remember, every other aspect it was as good as it always is. Got to hunt with some old friends and made some new friends. Shared some good whiskey over some better dogs, and even got to eat well on several occasions. I guess all in all thats why they call it hunting, and not killing, the mallards just never really showed up at our place like they have in years pass. Oh yea, I did kill a banded Pintail Drake... That in itself made it worth it.. Been hunting since I was six and that is the first duck I have killed banded other than a mallard. Best hunt of the year ranks as one of the best of my lifetime too, The Bull Pen.... 12 guns, 3 dogs, and 72 birds.

2

...wasn't a skunk... although, it wasn't the year to give up pine goats in lieu of ducks! DOH!!
ended up not hunting as much as I had hoped, for one reason or another...

season up til this past weekend...not too good, at all. great times with great friends always though. but saturday and sunday saved it.
saturday got 7 limits of mallards, 33 overall
sunday got 15 mallards, 25 overall
the last weekend really made me forget all the tough mornins of ones and twos...

Worst season in a long time.

I got called off of making the trip more than once.

Hope it will be better in the future.

I will say a 6 and that is based on harvest #s and not ducks flying. We did OK as far as harvested #s compared to other years, but for sure was less ducks around than normal. Sort of hard to believe we killed what we did. Will say that our shooting was improved as we shot fewer shells and harvested a normal # of ducks. This may be because ducks did come in fewer numbers and smaller flocks. Interesting stuff. I have kept my son's numbers since he went on his first hunt with a real gun on 1/1/2005. I have his harvest numbers for each hunt and species harvested plus any little side note that might have made that particular hunt something different. This was his 8th full season of hunting. have it broken down to hunts/season, avg ducks/hunt, totals, etc., etc. Nice to go back at the end of the year and look back thru all the seasons and compare. Wish I knew how to attach a spreadsheet to post, one could see the little things that standout in keeping such records. He is 15 and this will be his last youth hunt. I hope he will keep on keeping his record data after moving on to college and such. I think he will treasure it one day. I can look back thru the hunts on paper and they will bring back a memory or two that I had totally forgotten about, and this is just in 8 years of him hunting. Had I kept something like this from when I was a child, it would be priceless for me.

No skunks this year but close. Killed a bunch early in Belzoni and had a good shoot to close out the year (both invites from members here on the board). Last hunt was mallards working down through the timber. Not far from the X and wearing them out but a nice hunt regardless. The dog had a nice blind retrieve to end the year. Glad to see she still knows what a whistle and cast mean after the "no training" we've done the last few months.

Wont rate it, just glad I am able to get out and do it. Looking forward to the warmer months and once that first cool breeze hits my neck come Sept I will be back in the garage stirring up dust getting things ready.

My group killed 75% of what we killed last year, so I will give it a 7.5. Mallard shooting cannot get any better than it was last year. Last year would have to be given a 10.

i gonna give it a 3, work played alot in it, i didn't get to go hardly atall. i did manage to get my 4 yr old out on one hunt (saturday) so that made my season, but birds flew poorly when i did get to go the reast of the season.