When I first got into the sport in the mid 80's we were 30 days and 3 ducks.........loved every dang minute of it.

Duck hunting has always been somewhat of an esoteric sport. Many many people consider it a rich man's sport.

There are more ducks, largely in part to the decades of help from DU and other non-profit groups...........and LARGELY because sportsman have contributed many a buck to make it happen........all the while consuming masive quantities of alcohol as well.

I think migration patterns have changed.........I think they always have changed.......

I think what hurts us now are air cooled engines and lazy duck hunters.
Guys beleive they can let their blinds look like crap, no cover, leave thier decoys out all year, run all over the habitat with a gazillion HP surface drive and still expect to kill ducks.

Duck Hunting is as stealthy as tracking a big buck......when done correctly.

I watch thousands and thousands of ducks pass over every year, high as a jetliner.
I am convinced they know we are down here..........
If there is no food, and too many "booms" would you stop?
It would be like stopping at a Popeye's fried chicken that is notoriously out of food AND is loaded with a group of thugs carrying guns.

There is plenty of info out there. Point blank the two top contributing states to DU are Texas # 1 and Louisiana # 2 . They can't ignore those facts. DU recognizes both states as major wintering grounds for waterfowl and pumps a lot more money into this state than you might think. Point blank move the seasons back we would be a lot better off. Other main problem is birds concentrate in certain marshes where there are rest areas. Not a blind every 5 ft that they get constantly shot at. Rest areas are key to killing birds.


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The places that I used to hunt as a kid was my uncle's property. It was a brackish marsh with lots of open water, widgeon grass and the ducks loved it. Now the big hunting clubs have taken over the adjacent marsh built levees where the salt water used to come in and now the whole marsh is fresh. cattails have taken over and there is very little open water and almost no ducks. The hunting clubs have ducks but we don't. The opposite of saltwater intrusion. The big oak trees with moss in them are gone too. They cut them down to build pens for race horses. Oh well, that's progress. It's no wonder my grandsons would rather play video games.

http://www.saltycajun.com/forum/sear...archid=2584714

And there is your reason we're not seeing as many ducks down south.... They never make it past Ville Platte!

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Never fails bring up any conservation group, a Limit or widgeon grass and ole dubya is in. Only thing we missing here is a weir.

I've hunted the same lease in GC for 30 years. We have the same # of blinds, less people hunting them, less days hunting...mostly on weekends now. Area around us is the refuge to the south and east with no one hunting north of us.
Everything the same as 30 years ago with less pressure today.
We see a 1/10th of the ducks we had back in the early 80's. Ponds stayed covered in ducks all season long. The ride to blinds in the morning was nothing but roaring wings taking off the ponds.
Simply, we don't have the # of ducks in S. LA as we once had. Why?
Warmer winters, very little snow in the mid west and central flyway during winter.
New found hunting areas that have opened up in the central states because of this warming. Because the traditional migration has changed with ducks not flying further south, imprinting of yearling and young ducks have no instinct to fly down here. Case in point is the Canadian goose. Hate to sound the pessimist but if you want to shoot ducks go way north. We will never see the migrations we once had in S. La. The great hunting areas will now become just good. The good just fair. As the handful of good blinds become less available the more it will cost. Look what a fair to good blind cost today compared to 5 years ago. Duck hunting as we have known it has changed and I just don't seeing it ever coming back to its grandeur we once enjoyed. I still go out and hunt ducks but more to enjoy being with my son and up-coming hunter grandson. Learned to have fun cookin at the camp, fixin boats and motors, cutting roseauxs for the blinds...and all the other stuff associated with duck hunting. Still, it saddens me when I see an empty sky at daybreak knowing what we once had.
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It goes further than that. The guys up north figured out what to do to keep their season going. Back in the day when it froze they just quit. Now the do everything within their power to keep their water open. Also they've learned how to manage their property to keep ducks. Flooded corn, moist soil units, and so on. They've essentially learned how to keep the ducks from migrating and frankly u can't blame em.

With the advent of warmer winters they sure have taken advantage of this situation as you well described.

A lot of good theories. The biggest thing is probably the changes in the landscape, like someone said. Shifts in agricultural practices such as where rice is grown have made a difference. I read on another forum where someone referenced the amount of land switching from rice to sugarcane and crawfish production. That makes a big difference because they are going to go to those rice fields.

I don't buy into the global warming or warmer winters argument that much. Not saying its not a good theory, just saying weather patterns are cyclical. Look at the intensity of some of the cold fronts we have had this year. I saw a comparison of the same date this year and last year--there was something like 60% snow cover across the nation as opposed to 30% or something like that on the same day last year. It's not so much the weather as where the birds are able to stop at.

I hear reports all the time of blinds limiting out every day. I know people that do. There are birds getting down here; its just a matter of where they are going now. That tells me its not so much the weather as it is changes in the landscape.

And to the comment of moving the season back vs. the data--waterfowl seasons are probably one of the few that is actually based in one way or another on data, unlike other species. As long as the harvest per hunter effort is staying relatively stable, they aren't going to change the season dates. There has to be some logic to it.

Smalls you back!


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could not agree more.......guy pounds them.......but was Ville Platte a place your grew up thinking "man, I need a duck blind there"?

migration patterns are a changing and big C is in the new pattern

Big C sets the patterns


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I hope he owns that place and doesn't lease it. If not, it's about to be bought out from under him.

I wish the season would open and close later for a few years to prove to yall that is not the problem

Then please explain what your theory is .

Geese are a different story. The big migration movements of ducks are late November and December do you disagree there?


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I agree. Later in nov and dec we get a bigger push of ducks. But there are plenty of ducks around opening weekend. So why open later? Ducks are usually here in a pretty good number early nov. Now if we opened at the same time and hunted later with more days, im down with that. Thats something we can all agree on

Your area and south of you from Klondike to the marshes is an exception. Y'all hold the largest concentrations of birds. When the first few pushes come through y'all have plenty. How many dead days do y'all see a couple weeks later though? Why not hold off two weeks you have 2x the birds the first week and 3-4x more than average by the end of the split?




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whit that being said, too keep me from looking all over the web. whats you reasoning on a split in the hunting season ?