Declining duck hunting

[BSK]

Reading through the posts, it appears most of you duck hunters feel the hunting has really declined over the last four or more years. Do you believe that is because of 1) declining duck populations over-all, 2) changing flyway location, or 3) not enough cold weather to force ducks south, or a combination of the three? I haven't kept up with the duck research and I'm curious.

 

[Andy S.]

........or more refuges for the ducks to sit on without a worry in the world. Just a thought, as I am not a duck expert.

 

[Bgoodman30]

Weather, weather, weather.. Plenty of ducks around. There is still lots of corn available for ducks to feed in all night.. Last season was the first time I had run an ice eater since 17-18 season. This season we had one big freeze that lasted 3-4 days then it was 60 degrees again..

Those years when you're scrambling for ice eaters, fuel and how you're going to bust out a hole is when you're killing ducks..

 

[Bgoodman30]

........or more refuges for the ducks to sit on without a worry in the world. Just a thought, as I am not a duck expert.

I observe the refuge daily.. The refuges are successful in holding ducks in the area. When its cold and food gets low ducks are flying off it all day to find food or water.. If its mild like this season they don't need to feed other than at night... They fly in early sometimes before LST sit all day and leave late..

 

[DeerWhisperer]

Me Personally, I think it is a combination of all 3 but I think the weather has been the biggest factor. We had our worse season ever. We killed a total of 2 ducsk and 4 geese. We were hunting about 20 miles southwest of Jonesboro,AR. I have been hunting for over 20 years and the past 5 have far been the worst for me personally. Each year I keep thinking it cannot get worse but it does. I am honestly thinking about hanging it up. It is almost impossible to find a decent place to hunt without out driving hours away. When I was younger it was no issue driving 4-5 hours each way every weekend to hunt but with age, family and everthing increassing in cost the return is just not worth it anymore. Dont get me wrong, I absolutely love to waterfowl hunt, the sights and experiences I have had over the years have created memories I will never forget. We have a core group of guys that have hunted together for years, we all attend church together and time spent in the blind has been great. However, we are all thnking hard about giving it up after this year unless we can find a place closer. I absolutley love the sport but it is definitley not like it once was.

 

[Hymie3]

Refuges , and not been cold enough to freeze up or snow cover available Food sources in northern states. Ducks go nocturnal as well when the pressure gets bad. This year I witnessed a better migration due to severe weather in the northern states.

 

[TNGunsmoke]

Just my personal opinion based hunting on Ky Lake, the flyway has shifted to the west a good bit, and lack of weather north of us to push ducks on down. No till farming practices have left an abundance of food everywhere that isn't being covered up with snow and ice. Combine that with having spinning wing decoys every 200-250 yards up and down every river system, every day of the season and flooded field creates added pressure on the ducks and they learn quick.

 

[flyinpro]

........or more refuges for the ducks to sit on without a worry in the world. Just a thought, as I am not a duck expert.

I think this is the biggest factor for the public hunter. In Tennessee to many WMA’s with restrictions IF hunting is even allowed on them. People with money & bequeathed property owners have little trouble bagging a limit most days.

Also crimes being committed against out of town’ers and peoples vehicles won’t motivate to many of us.

 

[West_Tn]

Weather period.

 

[Cache]

Before the season I would have answered yes to all 3 questions. Now, I’d probably answer no.
Once the rivers across Arkansas flooded out the ducks moved in and never left.
Thousands upon thousands of acres of private ground flooded out and none of it was ever hunted.
December sucked for us but January made up for it.

 

[Hduke86]

It can be a combination of a few things. Weather, farming practices, flyway shift, refuges but one big thing people don’t think about is private land that is closed to hunting or private land that only hunts on morning a week that just holds ducks day in and day out. By the time they get this far south they have been blasted at and are weary and smart.

 

[Hduke86]

Before the season I would have answered yes to all 3 questions. Now, I’d probably answer no.
Once the rivers across Arkansas flooded out the ducks moved in and never left.
Thousands upon thousands of private ground flooded out and none of it was ever hunted.
December sucked for us but January made up for it.

Thinking the same about private ground that doesn’t get hunted

 

[Cache]

Thinking the same about private ground that doesn’t get hunted

Yup. The river we hunt had everything in our area flooded practically the whole month of January. Only 1 other blind within a mile of us. Nothing else was ever hunted.

 

[MickThompson]

I think it's all 3. Wasn't too long ago the feds basically lost a zero counting snow geese and their populations exploded. I think it's very possible duck numbers are being over estimated. Cold weather early put them on down the flyway but then they got "stale". Reality is duck hunting continues to be more popular and we are still at the end of the flyway. I'm not convinced that refuges are the problem, as the birds will always find the safe places to sit. They have a phD in not getting shot by the time they make it to TN.

 

[hoghunter65]

Back in the early 70's when we still had winter weather, Parksville lake would freeze over and ducks were everywhere, I've not seen as much as a coot in years.

 

[Bgoodman30]

Before the season I would have answered yes to all 3 questions. Now, I’d probably answer no.
Once the rivers across Arkansas flooded out the ducks moved in and never left.
Thousands upon thousands of private ground flooded out and none of it was ever hunted.
December sucked for us but January made up for it.

Yep water=ducks. Even with the big freeze most of TN got passed over because there wasn't as much backwater as AR. Some rivers got out but the MS sucked it right out.

 

[Bo Diddley]

Yes on all 3 , but I think the biggest factor in TN is the amount of duck hunters. A duck has very few place to go and rest anymore. There are field’s being flooded that never should have water on them. On most of the public land we have that floods, it gets crowded. A duck has very few places to go outside of refuges and private rest holes. Just my opinion.

 

[Displaced_Vol]

Mostly weather follows closely by massive landscape level changes in habitat. Sugar cane vs rice in LA, salt water intrusion in LA, rice harvest dates in AR now compared to even 10 years ago…stuff like that.
Duck stamp sales are declining but pressure is through the roof. Everybody willing to travel to shoot ducks and technology of all stripes has made us more deadly. Mud motors, spinners, OnX…etc
Too many refuges are not the issue. People that hunt the same blind spot for 60 days, 8 hours a day and wonder why the hell ducks go nocturnal & stick to refuges need to look in the mirror. The amount of refuge acreage pales in comparison to overall landscape level changes particularly in the southern MS flyway.
I don’t think the snow goose conservation season has helped with this either. Even though ducks aren’t shot, there are still gun shots, sometimes thousands, going off all around them as they try to migrate back north to nest. That’s September through March they are subjected to tons of human pressure.

I do think duck populations and numbers are down also. You see people all up and down the flyway complain about the lack of birds.

We have to decide, do we want quality hunts where ducks work to a call or do you want to maximize “opportunity” and be able to hunt as many days as legally allowed. I think we ought to go to 45 days and 4 ducks, no species specific limits. But then again what the hell do I know about any of this…

 

[Dodge Man]

Me Personally, I think it is a combination of all 3 but I think the weather has been the biggest factor. We had our worse season ever. We killed a total of 2 ducsk and 4 geese. We were hunting about 20 miles southwest of Jonesboro,AR. I have been hunting for over 20 years and the past 5 have far been the worst for me personally. Each year I keep thinking it cannot get worse but it does. I am honestly thinking about hanging it up. It is almost impossible to find a decent place to hunt without out driving hours away. When I was younger it was no issue driving 4-5 hours each way every weekend to hunt but with age, family and everthing increassing in cost the return is just not worth it anymore. Dont get me wrong, I absolutely love to waterfowl hunt, the sights and experiences I have had over the years have created memories I will never forget. We have a core group of guys that have hunted together for years, we all attend church together and time spent in the blind has been great. However, we are all thnking hard about giving it up after this year unless we can find a place closer. I absolutley love the sport but it is definitley not like it once was.

I would say it is a combination of all 3. But duck numbers are down substantially in the past few years. They are down for the long term advantage as well. I also think if you have multiple years in a row that are mild and the ducks don’t migrate. Then the juvenile ducks don’t learn to migrate. That compounds every year after that with there offspring that are not taught to migrate. It doesn’t take long until most ducks don’t migrate south no matter what weather it going on.

 

[Dodge Man]

Yes on all 3 , but I think the biggest factor in TN is the amount of duck hunters. A duck has very few place to go and rest anymore. There are field’s being flooded that never should have water on them. On most of the public land we have that floods, it gets crowded. A duck has very few places to go outside of refuges and private rest holes. Just my opinion.

When I started hunting in the 90s there was 10x more hunters and hunting pressure in the exact same area I hunt now. I remember seeing 50-100 boats hunting the same bottoms that you will see 5-20 boats in the same area today. But I am also seeing way less ducks. It seems like the past 5-7 years we see less ducks every year and also less hunters. On a week day you might see 2-5 boat trailers at the boat ramp and you we kill very few ducks most week days. On average our best days have been Saturday because of the most hunters are out getting the ducks up and moving. I would say there is a lack of hunting pressure over all to get the ducks moving.