Can of worms!

[Super Black Eagle]

gator must be "at work" tonight

[labman77]

Lastly. The legality of it. All the dove and duck hunters should know about "normal farming practices". If a farmer "happens" to spill some grain in the field you are hunting, that is not normal hunting practices. Do you think if game wardens were finding these farms where there is "grain all over the ground" and farmers were leaving it there, you don't think they would be going ticket crazy? And if they did get a ticket, you don't think they would be raising hell saying "DU paid me to!".

Look, I have always liked DU, but the weather is not THAT different than it was 20 years ago. We are still having Ice storms like one right now, there is still tons of snow in the dekotas, and illinois and even Missouri for that matter. But when the food is that abundant, they dont' have to leave the freeze line. They have been planting corn and grain up there for years and years, so why NOW all of a sudden, there is more food on the ground.

BULL IT'S STILL SHORTS AND T-SHIRT WEATHER RIGHT NOW, IT'S THE 10th OF DEC.

[duramax]

BULL IT'S STILL SHORTS AND T-SHIRT WEATHER RIGHT NOW, IT'S THE 10th OF DEC.

What are you talking about. 80 degree days are normal for December 8th and 9th.

[damnyankee]

Its 30 here right now and there is little to no snow on the ground. Rule of thumb we have always used was 6 inches on the ground for ducks to leave and 10 for geese(snow not corn)((canadian geese not snow geese))

Speaking of which we now have those damn things here, whose fault is that?? It's Delta Waterfowl trying to short stop snows here so you guys get all the ducks but they are using the wrong variety of corn and stopping all the ducks instead. Which makes DU happy but pisses you guys off.

So you see it's Delta Waterfowl's fault but they are convincing everyone DU is the enemy but much like the French DU refuses to fight and gets a black eye for being peace loving people .

I think were going to need a bigger boat......

[GordonGekko]

it is the curse of the Donkey I tell you.... bigwater is our only hope....

[duramax]

it is the curse of the Donkey I tell you.... bigwater is our only hope....

God help us!

[Blackduck]

gator must be "at work" tonight

Lord knows who is getting what drugs tonight. I'm glad I'm not at the U. Let me see was that Tylenol or chemo?

[SWAG]

Just cause someone with a title gets an article published or is quoted in some newsletter does not give it any more credence....careful what you read. People moan and people groan because that is what people do. I do it, you do it, everybody does it....but bottom line is changes have taken place. The finger can be pointed in a lot of different directions and nearly all of them have some credibility in their arguments. I grew up watching 1000's of ducks daily. Go to bed and hear quacking all dang night. Ducks in fields, ducks in sloughs, ducks in timber, ducks in the road ditches. Over all numbers mave have climbed, been reduced, stayed the same...I do not know. I have coon hunted all over the country and talked to alot of different sportsman. The guys to our immediete north (Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, western KY and TN) all have the same opinion that there are more ducks in their area thse days than there has ever been. They had ducks in the past, but it was always a passing thing....lots of ducks for 3-5 weeks and then they were on the move. Snow cover and freezing temps would move them faster, but in general ducks seemed to move on even on smaller eventful fronts. Now days they have ducks from early November through February. No till has had an impact. More constructed wetlands have had an impact. Warmer temps sure do not help. You finally wake up one day and realize that we will not have ducks nearly as often as we once did. Too many obstacles and too much pampering HAS changed the migration. Anyone who thinks that they do not have the ability to do so is IGNORANT and HYPOCRITICAL....otherwise they would have never tried helping the ducks in the first place. If they did not truly believe they could manipulate things for the betterment of waterfowl, then they would have never started. Sometimes a person, or organization, or agency just needs to say,"some things we have done have had effects we were not or could not see when we began". I still hear ducks at night. I live about 400 yds from a USFW refuge impoundment. Sometime in the last days of January it will fill up and I will have a couple of weeks of constant quacking. Gone are the days of watching ducks from my Dad's front door for weeks upon weeks. Compared to most, we have fair amounts of ducks, but not the sheer 1000s I watched the first 20 years of my life. My coonhunting friend in Missouri has them now.

[hemingway35]

Same song and dance, new year. This subject has been discussed ad nauseum in the past and so far hunters have blamed DU, DW, George Bush, Trent Lott, the weather channel, till practices, robo ducks, Sylvester Croom and of course Benny.

Here is the bottom line: Joe Blow Duck hunter spends $5k/ year for lease, dog training, 4 wheeler tune up, blind for boat, new shotgun, under armour, black cloud ammo, shock collar, beer, liquor, gas, and vienna sausage and expects to be able to pull in the drive through and order up 4 fat greenheads (1 banded please) a wooduck and teal to go before 8 am. This does not happen, hunter does not get bang for his buck so begins the blame game. Research has proven that it is many factors that contribute to this...DU KNOWS THIS, DW KNOWS THIS and probably even Sylvester Croom = weather, water, hunting pressure, till practices are ALL part of the big equation.

Solution: Give me 3 duck limit t/o the flyway and 45 days (DEC. 15- Jan 30 for us) skip a day at Christmas. Less pressure, less high dollar leases, less # of duck hunters, more ducks in the flyway b/c most will want a shot at GREEN vs killing two shovelers and a coot, more ducks to work b/c GAdwalls will be in abundance. However, this will NEVER happen b/c there is too much $$$ in it. As for DU and DW, I support them both but believe me they are not riding in on the white horse anytime soon to support hunters.

[pntailhntr]

finally, some people that make sense and understand the problem. I don't have to have a limit of greenheads everytime out. As long as I have ducks to call and ducks for my dog to get, I'm happy as I could ever be.

3 Ducks, 45 days is fine with me. But like you said, that knocks out the doctors and lawyers and money men who won't get off their booty for 3 ducks. So that turns into no money for DU. LIke it was said, they won't be riding in on a white horse anytime soon for the common duck hunter!!!

[qckmstr]

become an ooser.. they won't migrate south.. we can migrate north.. for those who don't know the way... buy a tom tom... screw DU and DW.. ones an organization that pads pockets and the other is a bunch of raffle rigging crooks .. lets go back to the old saying "shoot the hens and smash the eggs" when we run out of ducks we'll shoot other stuff !!!!!

[mudsucker]

To a blind man, it’s not hard to see where I’m coming from really. Sure sure, the cranes are found pecking the dimples of millrats, but hard to see??? Nay, NAY I say!

Sabbaticals are a strange vegetable, often times, the sabbee looses his way, but finds himself. Such was the case w/ me. Ooo, I suppose I should have accounted for magellanistic discourse sure to find itself abroad, but alas, it’s my own fault. Any nematode worth his own skin understands that if you travel to the far eastern lands, and go too far east, you end up near west…………and, that’s just where I found myself whilst in the company of a great shaman.

The shaman, for his part, was a good sot. Never once while in his council did he pester me while showering, always one for the powder afterwards and baked hog jowls. Friends, I tell you, I was content. But, that didn’t last. Shortly after my arrival, I could tell something was amiss w/ the shaman, what w/ the drooling and bleeding of the eyes.

When questioned, all the shaman would say, or could say, I can’t really say which, was DU…………..DU……………….DUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

Friends, I don’t know much, I’m just a humble servant in this story we all call life, but I do know to never go agin’ a shaman w/ a powerful disposition.

Fry the shoals, bake the leaves and bless my bark, good day sirs, gator

You drankin' at work agin or dipping into the "good" stash of RX!

[Copiah Creek]

If ya'll want to see what DU does for us get on the levie at panther swamp , and look at the flooded corn fields that we are not allowed to hunt , and watch thousands of ducks in it . Now you are allowed to hunt the other side where a few ducks visit .

[pntailhntr]

preach on brothers!!!

[duramax]

If ya'll want to see what DU does for us get on the levie at panther swamp , and look at the flooded corn fields that we are not allowed to hunt , and watch thousands of ducks in it . Now you are allowed to hunt the other side where a few ducks visit .

DU doesn't own panther swamp, or have any control of who hunts it. Quit blaming DU when it is the State that creates the laws and owns the land. Just because DU made the levees, doesn't mean they own the land. I guess DU should stop any project that isn't where it can be hunted.