The last 10 yrs we ant had a good duck season in the Basin, its just not the same. Back in the late 90's you could go with 6 guys and limit out by 9 in the morning all the other states on top of Louisiana is killing, but we know why! Thanks to DU holding water flooding corn and wheat fields, Us boyz in Louisiana we getting F**ked and yall know what im talking about. I think DU doing a good thing on hatching, but they need to get off of all the land. They got so much land that nobody can hunt it, but the big dogs from DU! They need to get off the reserves and let people hunt it to make the ducks move. I can understand the hatching grounds, leave that alone but the reserves that the have its just to much they holding the ducks there,they got water feed and it dont freeze because they move the water in the ponds not for the ducks to leave. thats why we not seeing the ducks like we use to. And yes I am a memeber of DU I just dont like all the reserves that they got. Im in it because of the hatching.

wha wha wha we dont kill any ducks in LA, everyone else is killing them and its DU's fault.

I'm not gettin into dis again.

I just don't have da energy.

DU needs to focus on waterfowl production not protection, we need to go up there and rub out them yotes,coons,and minks that are eatin the eggs.

i dont remember alot about duck hunting in the late 90's because i didnt hunt much then. but i do know there aint as many ducks these days!

im in north Louisiana and we do have ducks at certain times! alot of ducks! im gona try to track down a video i saw recently of ALOT of mallards!

start goose hunting theres plenty of them!! we got some good goose action!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4v8dwKbMA0[/youtube]


i honestly dont think we are short on ducks!

That is alot of ducks but I couldn't tell anything other than that. Could have been a bunch of ducks in a zoo too. Haha.

haha it could be! if so i wana know what zoo! i would like to set up right on that bank!!

holy shit thats alot of green headed ducks

that is alot of ducks, but i dont think its anywhere close to here. if that would have been me, i would have had a gun in hand, not a video camera

I been hunting reggio/ hopedale for 30 years running, last ten years has been a steady decline in # of birds / flocks spotted.

Opening day 15 years ago anywhere you looked you would see flock after flock sometimes too many to count in your range of vision at that time.
You might get 10 or 15 flocks over your pond.


Now you might see 10 or 15 flocks, thats not just your pond but in your entire field of vision.


I heard from a good source that that they may close the Mississippi fly way this year if they don't get a handle on this oil, I am starting to hope they do.



JD

If there is no pressure, and they see to it that they don't run out of feed, they will stay until freeze up.
There is talk of buying up and flooding grain farms to make refuges down the fly way. They won't stop them all, but can delay them for a month or two. Worse case Good harvest down the fly way , they get to Louisiana then go to raft up in the gulf 20 miles out were they can't be seen . How do you wash a 100,000k waterfowl. 100 k is just 10% of what winters here. They got to keep them as far North as long as they can if they really care about the resource. If they don't get this caped soon and we get a high tide from a hurricane the marsh and the migration is in serious trouble. No pressure and plenty of feed they will stay just below the freeze line. Don't think because you may Hunt up north , that you won't be effected by this.
Your ducks come down here to overwinter ,if they get in this crap they may not make it back!! No breeders no ducks next year.

Don't think I am not sick about this or mad as hell, I haven't missed a season in over 30 years, I hope if it needs to be done they got the balls to do the right thing.

JD
JD

If they close down the mississippi flyway then I will just hunt the central.

The source that said they will close the Mississippi Flyway is a joke. That is not source. If they close the Mississippi they will close all of the flyways. I hunt in Tennessee on the Mississippi flyway and our numbers are decreasing every year too. So the Duck are not maaking it here. Tell your source that their information is wrong about closing the Mississippi Flyway. This is my 2 cents.

I don't know how reliable a retired game warden with 20 years time is or how much in the know his son is (who happens to be a federal game warden and manger of a wildlife area ) but I think they know more than you gone duck.

On the news last night ,and on the web today there is a story of usfws watching oil sill to determine if changes in hunting regs needed to protect ducks.

Stories of USDA leasing land for refuges down the flyway also showed up.

This is gone to hurt!

JD

Around here in the bay area of California, we don't have nearly as many ducks flying as there are in the flyways.... Its slim pickins around here. But, if you do enough scouting, and your decoy spread is perfect, you should kill any bird that comes your way!! Give em a little dirty talk and they suck right in!!

I shoot limits and I never see flocks of mallard like you guys do in the south.... Consider yourself lucky.

Yeah thats hard. It sucks not being able to shoot at mallard all the time. I wish I had more teal to shoot at... We don't even see any blue wing.... only green wind and occasionally cinnamon. Keep scoutin and trying new spots I guess..... Any wood ducks in LA?? I've got a private blind and hour north of San Francisco with so many wooducks, its hard not to shoot a limit of em....

yea theres plenty of woodies over here.... so many that they will come land in the my pasture to eat the corn from under the deer feeder.... of course im sure other guys have this happen to them in these parts as well.

Ive heard it bro. I just wanted to hear it from someone. You guys are lucky over there, cuz here in the Pacific flyway, wooducks are scarce.... unless your in a spot like yours and mine.... But their fun birds to shoot at since they fly quick. Woodie wood!!

Your birds come down here when they either run out of feed, freeze up, or pushed down by hunting pressure!

When they make it down here they often raft up in the gulf and the bordering marshes by the millions.
If there is surface oil for them to land in and they do it 10 or 15 miles offshore They will die if not cleaned quickly. If they die they can't fly back to you to breed and make baby ducks for you to shoot next year.


By closing the fly way they can slow the migration (allowing more time for clean up) and even keep many ducks up north ( its called short stopping , and you boys up north have already proved that works). Closing it just in just Louisiana still puts them in harms way, clean up work will make them move even with out hunting pressure. The only way they can protect the birds is to keep them up north and away from here! Even with plenty of food hunting pressure will make them move out.



It sucks ,but if there is surface oil out here its the only safe thing for them to do!
I hope it does not need to happen, but if it is needed they they better do the right thing or we could lose it all!!!

JD

I have talked to many people that hunt in the SoLA and they are not getting the Mallard down there. Mallards, woodies, teal, and some scrap ducks is what we kill. I think if you read the Delta Waterfowl article it might serve you pretty well.

it is a pretty good article.

Hey JD, I've been killin ducks "up north" for a long time and closeing a flyway isn't going to change anything. Our ducks stay until it freezes solid regardless of hunting pressure. Thanks to the major clubs feed isn't a problem. Nothing is going to stop the natural instinct to migrate once the water turns hard. I believe the impact of the oil disaster is going to effect all of us in a bad way and our sons may have to deal with flyways being shut down.