Well said Gerenemo. If we take our balls and go home in the long run the waterfowl we all love so much are the ones that suffer.

Here's my 2 cents. I hunted with a good friend in his speck blind Saturday and Sunday in Klondike. Saturday morning we saw a constant stream of groups of extremely high ducks coming from the north ahead of the front. Probably 75% of what we saw were mallards with the rest being pintails and a few gadwalls and teal. This was non stop all morning until we left the field around 10. I asked my friend if this flight was normal and he said it was the 2nd time he had seen this flight this season. There was also only 1 day during the duck season that I saw a major movement of ducks this year. I'm not saying it didn't happen but it didn't happen while I was in the blind.

Sunday the water north of us was full of green winged teal that had not been there Saturday. We saw some high ducks but we mostly saw ducks in the low to mid ranges but we saw a lot of ducks.

My point is that the ducks we saw were clearly migrating, aka flight, ducks moving ahead of the cold front. I know that some of the ducks people are seeing are ducks coming from refuges and unhunted areas after season closed. However, I don't believe this is true especially of the mallards everybody has been seeing.

If you believe the aerial survey numbers, and I do with a +/- factor, the numbers especially mallard numbers do not back up the thesis that these "new" ducks have been here all the time. That thesis also doesn't coincide with the "late spring = late migration" theory. Late migrators are just really starting to migrate to Louisiana in my opinion. These late migrators include mallards and lesser Canada geese both of which have shown up in good numbers since the close of the Coastal Zone on January 17.

Again just my 2 cents.
Robbie aka Big Hutch

Big Hutch, I wouldn't argue with you about the Mallards, they are the last ducks down. But to go out now and have your lease filled with grays, pins, spoonies, teal I think ,for the most part, they have been here a while. Pressure, pressure,pressure. They figure out ways to survive.

Dogface,

I agree with you about the grays, spoons, and teal since those are usually early migrators and not as hardy. I do have to say that there was noted absence of green wing teal in many areas this year.

Thanks.
Robbie aka Big Hutch

Yep, we killed some green wings during the 2nd split but it was spotty. Have some big groups one day then didn't see any for 3-4 days. Nothing you could count on.

Sir, Could not have said it better! Brought tears..Remember when duck hunting wasn't cool and on video! Well said and thank you!

Took a little trip to gueydan today and the specks, mallards and pintail were every frickin where right off the road!!

No pressure= lots of ducks

So I have a question. Why was it the last two weeks of the season everyone was smashing ducks? Was there just so many ducks down then that there was not enough room on the refuges, bays, lakes, and gulf? I too have seen how ducks raft to get away from the pressure so I agree with you there. But I don't think all the birds we are seeing now have been here all along just hiding out.


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This year was better than most for me / Pecan Island.

This.


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I concur


"Go ahead, share your opinion! I won't cry"

Well, not everyone was smashing ducks the last 2 weeks. Some guys said they had the worst hunting of the year the last week of the season, some had the best hunting of the year. And I'm not saying a lot of ducks didn't come down late with the very cold weather we have had but I am saying that during a normal season the ducks will find ways to survive and then "show up" after the season due to the lack of pressure. This is the coldest weather we have had in 10+ years so its not a typical year. I don't think the Feds will ever let our season go into Feb and I would like to see it run later in the coastal zone. I would like to see it open the weekend before thanksgiving and run till the end of Jan. Also, I think having 3 zones in a state this size is rediculous. Just my opinion.

I didn't read all the posts above so the following may have been mentioned.

Ten years back or so, the University of Arkansas fitted 80 mallards with satellite tracking devices and gave each bird a name. Logging onto their website gave a map of the US and Canada showing the real-time location of the bird's transmitter.

Our group watched the website daily in anticipation to see how the birds moved around or migrated, and WHEN THEY WOULD ARRIVE, for we knew they would. It gave hope, but I remember one winter, that the farthermost south any of them made was for a hen who stopped just north of Monroe along the Mississippi River. She lived out the season there, moving around a few miles, before heading back north in the spring.

It was an eye opener to see so many of them spending the winter along the drainage patterns ABOVE Arkansas and in the mid-west all season.

It's too bad they no longer run the program but you can read about it here.
http://cast.uark.edu/home/research/g...-tracking.html

There are just too many variables to adjust when talking "good season"........

this dialouge is great though........
I remember that tracking.....seems that year birds went back and fourth as well?? Is that correct?

Big birds would come down for the weather and move back north and then again south .....teal on the other hand seem to blow through......here today, Mexico tomorrow.....Mallards plot around.....

I think they were tagged in Arkansas for the most part in winter/spring, and they migrated north for the summer. Some went way up into Canada, and just didn't make it very far back for 'our season'. Watching where they moved each day, they sure seemed to be following waterways like highways, and didn't just bee-line across country. It would be great if they did all species of ducks.