Duck hunting question?

[hunterchub]

I have been trying to follow and understand some of the regulations on Duck Hunting Tennessee. I have never seen such messed up restrictions. why?? 1. hunting from registered blinds or temporary blinds only?, does that mean a guy cant just go out and jump shoot ducks along a river or swamp? 2. quit hunting at 3 pm., what the heck is this?? I understand that certain areas are drawn hunt areas but do they still restrict you to where you can hunt?

 

[Spoonbillmallard]

You are reading restrictions on WMA's I believe. Because it is perfectly legal to setup on the bank of the lake or river and shoot them as long as its not a part of a WMA, Refuge, or safe zone.

And only if the WMA you are hunting says that you can't hunt after 3pm then you can hunt until legal shooting hours is up. This 3pm cut off is only for select WMA's across the state. If you go out and hunt on the bank of Kentucky Lake then you are legal to shoot until shooting hours ends.

And if you hunt on the side of the river or lake then there are no restrictions to where you can hunt except; you cant be within 200 yards of any permanent blind.

Hope this helps man, Good Luck this season.

 

[hunterchub]

Thanks. Im referring mostly to Old Hickory WMA's. WHats the diffrence between a permanent blind and a temporary one?

 

[Spoonbillmallard]

Yea it goes the same for Old Hickory. You can't hunt within 200 yards of any permanent blind. I don't know if Old Hickory has the 3pm restriction or not but they may....not sure I don't hunt the Hick.

The difference is they have draw blinds out there which are easily identified. They are the only blinds that you will see when riding out there. The main difference is a permanent blind stays year round....and a temporary blind is either a boat blind or make-shift blind someone puts up. But on any temporary blind you have to remove it after each days hunt along with any decoys you throw out.

 

[hunterchub]

ok. the 200 yards rule is what I wondered. On another topic? I have been in the swamps everyday for a week now and have seen very few ducks. I assume later in season gets better??

 

[Spoonbillmallard]

Well we just haven't had any weather to push ducks down. Most of all the ducks you see now are wood ducks and the occasional resident mallards. But we need some big cold fronts that freeze the north to recieve more ducks.

And to fully answer your question yes later the better in duck hunting for most all cases. The colder it gets north the more ducks we get.

And on another note it all depends on what part of TN you are looking in. If you are east of Nashville then they don't recieve nowhere near the ducks that the areas west of Nashville get. Not to say that they don't get good pushes of ducks....they do at times but the majority of migrating ducks use the Mississippi Flyway that don't extend that far east. Eastern TN recieves the least amount of migratory bird activity.

 

[hunterchub]

Thanks. I guessed that was the case. I have some good access to some water in West Tennessee. I do a bunch of trapping and never put the time into Tennessee ducks. I miss duck hunting and want to get back into it.

 

[Spoonbillmallard]

Yea man West TN is where the ducks are at...would love to have a place out there myself. Been looking but its just like a deer lease just hard to find one worth the time and money.