Mixed bag hunt and seasonal variance question

[Gunslinger]

Had a decent hunt the other day, but still sub-par compared to last year. I've noticed a paucity of mallards and pintails this year compared to last. This time last year we were covered with both, but I've seen very few mallards and can count the pintails on one hand thus far. I'm not gonna pretend that I'm seasoned enough to realize if this type of fluctuation is common. We've got more food this year than last, but certainly fewer ducks. I'd guess close to 3/4 of ducks shot this year were gadwalls. I guess what I'm asking...Is this type of fluctuation common occurance and is anyone else experiencing it this year?

[Faithful Retrievers]

Those two on the bottom got some big bills. Good hunt.

[Gunslinger]

I ain't above shooting shovelers on a slow morning

[Chuckle12]

Seems to me the number of gadwalls relative to other species of ducks has been increasing over the last few years.

[TheDeltaSmoker]

Paucity is my new work for the day!

[Wingman]

Nothing but mallards and pintails on this side of the county. I'm talking thousands of pintails. Plenty more of them south of Hood Road....they like that area when Bobo floods.

Last year I had no water until about this time of the season, so I would say this year has been far better than last.

Nice strap of ducks, gunslinger. I haven't shot a widgeon all season.

[Jeff]

Damn nation when did you go off and get so sophisticated? Puacity?? I gotta to look that one up in the dictionary, kinda like we are in Scheetz's class again, except now you're using the big words. Enjoy a mixed bag, down here we often try to see how many different species we can kill, with mallards rarley being one of them.

[SWAG]

For sure an increase in the percentage of gadwalls vs. mallards for us from last season. Also have had more widgeon, at least one or two killed every hunt. I think it is some habitat differences and the fact that mallard numbers have been lower all across the state. We killed a few mallards real early in the season, and then almost all gadwall/widgeon hunts until yesterday.

[duramax]

Those are some nice widgeon on the top. My favorite duck. Love to watch them fly and they are beautiful ducks.

What are you talking about no mallards? I see a few on that strap! A couple of them have huge smiles on them!

[crow]

From when I started hunting in the early 60's to the mid 80's; we saw mallards, woodducks, teal almost excusively in the mid-south delta. Starting in the mid 80's to early 90's the gadwall population started growing. I don't remember seeing a shoveler until then either. We have many more pintails in the mid/south delta than we did back then,b ut we can't shoot as many...go figure! I think more mallards are staying farther north than they ever have before and the other populations have increased and filled the voids. Take every duck you have seen this year and think of it as a mallard or woodduck and you would have what it was like in the late 60's. I remember killing only one black and one pintail in all my hunts up untill the early 80's...and that was a good many duck hunts!

[HOOD]

seems to me there are a ton of widgeon this year , more cans also

[duramax]

I think this has just been a messed up year in general. No water unless you pump, 3rd weekend everything freezes for almost a week, then is warms up to crazy high temperatures, then there is tons of water, and to cap it off, the cold temperatures come just in time for the season to end!

Last year at our place we shot close to 1500 ducks and ONE shoveler. This year we might be around 500 total and we have, or could have shot, a couple truckloads worth of spoonies.

A goofy year to say the least.

[jdbuckshot]

still tons of mallards in south MO, & KS, just be patient, we are all frozen, and we are about to send them your way!

[TNMallardMasher]

still tons of mallards in south MO, & KS, just be patient, we are all frozen, and we are about to send them your way!

Patient??

We've only got seven days left...


Masher

[master guide]

ditto masher