DU blames moderate winter for too few ducks

[mallardchaser]

Thank you, Coonman..

[jroc]

I hear that as soon as DU gets "all" the habitat fixed up they are going to unvail their magic cold winter machine...............where's my check book I need to send them a check.............I know just like the Saints saying they are going to the Super Bowl, DU will eventually be right!!!!

SO all those ducks in Texas and OK didn't hear about the not so cold weather in the great white north?

[Chuckle12]

For all of those who say the flyway has changed, I pose a question. These ducks are supposedly spreading out and going to Oklahoma, right? If the winters get cold enough in Missouri and Illinois to freeze the large bodies of H2O and enough snow covers the ground (like it used to), then will all of the ducks that have been wintering there due to mild winters go to Oklahoma? And what happens if, say by some snowballs chance in hell, that it just happens to stay below freezing and snow profusley in Oklahoma (although we know it never has done this in OK )? Will the ducks begin to winter in Dallas? Or maybe Houston? Maybe we can lease out Texas Stadium, fill it up with water and hunt it.

A cold winter, like we used to have, will freeze every body of water down to North Arkansas, and half of Oklahoma. Snow used to pile up on fields and cover every inch of food that the mid-west had to offer. If we had a repeat of this type of winter next year, would it be a pathetic year for duck hunting? I think not.

Also, how can you attest to the fact that some duck clubs in MS and LA have had a great year? I guess these are "local ducks" piled up on their land. The ducks use this property because they are not subject to the extreme hunting pressure they experience on most WMA's. These duck clubs use a cyclic method of hunting different areas. They hunt different spots on different years, reducing the amount of "felt" pressure from hunters.

I hunt more than 90% public land and I have had a great year. You know what WMA I hunt? The Mississippi River. I agree that the ducks have changed the way they use this area. They stay away from the easily accessible WMA's. If I hunted the same holes on the same old tired, worn-out WMA's and "proven" lease land that I hunted the last 8 yrs my season would have sucked too.

[hillhunter]

I can agree with that chuckle12. We've had some awsome hunts on the river the past couple of years. Lots of wilderness out there and really not that many hunters on the big river compared to the size. Breaks and oxbow lakes are a different story.

I think it is the weather too though. My farm pond hasn't frozen completely solid in atleast three years.....It used to do it every year. I know because i had to go bust the ice so the cows could drink. It just aint been cold enough in my opinion.

I buy the huntin pressure theory, but only for local ducks. If they stay in an area long enough they will figure out where the safe havens are and what a spinner looks like. I think if you get a good flush of fresh ducks in htey will not be as familiar with the area thus being easier to kill.

I just don't believe the migration theory. When the hunters nearly killed them to extinction in the early 1900's, they didn't change then, why would they change now. Did evolution all of a sudden produce a smarter species in the last three years? I doubt it. Maybe we should just chalk it up to what it is, a sorry a** season. If you do beleive that they changed in migration then don't renew your duck lease and sell all your huntin gear cause it tookem a thousand years to change and if it tookem to that long to change the first time then it might even take longer the second time.

In the mean time i'm gonna pray "Please God give us perfect duck huntin weather for this week and next year, give us no skyblasters and hunters with no morals, give us all the ducks we can shoot and melt our barrels, then when someone complains, again, and they will no matter how good it is, then let them get struck by lightning. Amen"

[Bustin' Ducks]

CHuckle12..Have you ever been to OKlahoma...It snows/freezes quit regular in the winters... it snowed a couple different times there wellover 3-4 inches each time...A while back the snowfall accumulated was over 8-10 inches in one storm...Yes a lot of the rivers and lakes were locked up..All farm ponds were locked up UNLESS there were Ducks/Geese staying on the water....I was in OKlahoma 2 weeks ago..left here on a Sunday got there it was 26 degrees..the next morning it was 14 and snowing..the following morning it was 3 degrees and dropped to a couple degrees below zero!! Not windchill..actual temp's...and I'm here to tell ya..there is more ducks/geese there right now as we speak than there are here in MS and I would venture to say for all the season...Numerous fields had ducks/Geese/Sandhill Cranes feeding in them due to a lot of the smaller ponds being locked up....my .02

[Bullet]

And I bet that in the next couple of days the temps moderated and didnt stay cold enough to push the ducks out didnt they bustin ducks . I for one dont buy the shifting flyway bull$h!t either. Monday I hunted with Dr. Polles and a very well respected biologist by the name of Richard Wells and I asked them both about all the questions we have heard and they both said that the main reason was the mild winters.

Yea there have been extremely cold temps up north this year but 3 or 4 days later the temp is back to 50 or 60 degrees. The large concentrations of ducks we all want to see here will just not leave when that happens. Im glad to see that some other people believe the flyway hasnt changed. I thought Chopper and I were the only people.

For all those that dont believe the duck counts were accurate, I have one question: Do you believe in God?

You cant see God but we still believe he is with us. Its called faith and just because we cant see all the ducks that they say are here doesnt mean that they dont exist.

Like Ive said before, good seasons come and go as do the bad ones. Just have faith and the good seasons will return.

[duck]

It's got to be global warming, greenhouse effect, the depletion of the ozone layer. No cold weather! I don't buy the flyway shift. We just need the kind of weather they had in New England to hit the Midwest down to nothern Ark. Probly happen about Jan. 26.

[Chuckle12]

Bustin' Ducks, I have family in OK and used to go there quite regularly. I have actually been hunting there quite a bit.

So, you are telling me that ducks are sticking around in near zero temps and digging through snow to feed because of hunting pressure in the southern states of the MS flyway? I notice that highs are in the 50's for the most part of this week and lows rarley dip below 32. Granted there are some cold spells that put lows into the teens, but the lows are not sustained. I guess this is what is keeping all those rivers and lakes locked up .

[Bustin' Ducks]

Bullet..You can't possibly compare God to some idiot's duck count...I hear ya 'bout the good and bad seasons..and believe we as the other southern states have suffered in duck #'s AND Ducky weather for a couple years...I don't doubt your fellow hunting buddies resume is one worth reading...and whole heartedly believe he is a very educated man...however, things change...

Not saying that they Flyway did shift "Officially"..but something happened...How many surveys have these fellows completed in the past 5 years with documented evidence that everything is still the same is it has been for the past 60 years!!!!

And to get ol' Goosebruce going...Who was it that said Lead will bad for the ducks!! hmmm they used it for how many years before the early 90's??? And I'm betting that survey was done by someone who was told...NOTHINGS NEW..that lead is A ok..we've used for for over 60 years!! Same ol' same ol'... maybe so..maybe not..shiznit changes..who knows..I dont...but something s up..

[Bustin' Ducks]

No..No..I'm not saying that is Ok..is full of snow all winter long..But we get our fair share..And as 2 weeks ago like I mentioned...Everything was locked up..And If you've been to OKlahoma..Then you know for yourself how the weather can change in a just a few hours....No It's not the little Siberia...No they are covered up in snow..but they had there fair share with in this hunting season.......

[JimWalker]

7 years ago , t-shirts, sweating like hogs, building a blind late October.
25 mallards put in so close we could spit on them. Several more followed.

There is more to it than cold weather up north. Why do ducks fly this far well before they really need to? I have no idea, but I do know that they used to do it in stong numbers. Later but not too much, you could see ducks coming in behind fronts that were not covering anything up north with snow, they were simply riding the wind behind them.

A great many of the ducks we used to get here were not being pushed by snow and ice. Now we seem to think that is the only thing that forces them to move. (Or thats the excuse anyway)

Things have changed. I dont know what it is or why it is happening, but to sit here and say that snow and ice are all we need is not being realistic.

I have seen ducks landing in dry fields in November by the hundreds, but it sure hasn't been lately.

[Bustin' Ducks]

THANK YOU!!!!!!

[Chuckle12]

Your welcome.

hehehehe!


I'm not saying it is all dependent on snow and ice. As I said earlier, I have had a great year, despite the mild weather. But, I hunted places that I have not hunted before and found ducks in areas that used to be duckless. Ducks are not here in great numbers because there is not alot of cold weather to push them down in large numbers, but there are more ducks here than hunters think because they are using areas where we are not used to finding them.

[Bustin' Ducks]

FINALLY..I agree w/ ya...(somewhat) he he he

[damnyankee]

Here are a few "observations" from a Yankee in Illinois:
-Growing up when Dad traded in a JD combine we also got new JD snowmobiles--We rode from Thanksgiving until March. We haven't had enough snow the last 10 years to ride for more than a few days at time
-We would ice fish from Thanksgiving until March. The last several years you have to check the paper to see where and how the ice conditions are. One day you can fish the next you can't.
-The family went religiously to South Il. to Goose hunt for a family vacation every year. Now there isn't a goose to be found in South. Il.
-The goose quoto in N. Il never got filled, then they went to a call in system, can anyone say Chicago PETA??? Think about it every member calling in everyday to report 2 geese killed, it doesn't take long to fill a quoto. There are more Canadian geese in N. IL now than any other time in history. But we've killed enough?? Golf courses are starting to pay people to come hunt and kill the geese.(again no snow to cover the greens)
-We used to go sleding every weekend, why buy a sled? There isn't any snow.
-This year alone I watched a 2 acre lake freeze and thaw completely at least a dozen times, and everytime there are ducks and geese on it.
-Some old timers here swear to me the major push of ducks has not moved through Central Il. yet. I don't know if this is true or not but I gotta believe these guys know what there talking about more than anyone else.
-The last 4 years have supposedly been the coldest around here in some time, however the days have never been sustained. In other words we may have 4 days a sub-zero but they are followed up by 8 days above normal.

Guys in the end here's my Yankee opinion.
It ain't the cold as much as it is the snow. It can get cold and things can freeze but there are now more than enough cooling ponds to support ducks and geese as long as they can get to the food. You don't need sub zero you need 6-8 inches of snow in Nov. that stays around till Feb.(of course the piles of corn we dump here don't help either)

But heck I',m game I'm heading to AR tomorrow to try one last time at them ducks and to even try my luck at some snows. So if you see a truck with Il plates leaking corn out the back give me a wave.

damnyankee