But we will never stop corn farming. But there is a chance of stopping planting for other purposes than food for people.


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If numbers aren't supporting it, why would more killing be necessary?


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I agree on going back to 2 zones.. State is not big enough to have 3 zones. Stupidest thing I have ever seen. Another thing is these birds are getting hammered from Canada all the way down. The birds can't handle the pressure they will find a safe place to be..... My experience the last 2 seasons is one day you go and shoot 5 to 6 limits easy with birds moving all morning, then go back the next day and not see 20 ducks fly around. You just have to hunt the fronts and pray they show up......

If the season would be open now numbers would support it


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

Would numbers support opening the season now? Do numbers say we have way to many ducks and need to thin more than we are?


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They weren't in this area then bc of the baby fronts. Hatch numbers were good. They here now which makes it relevant to kill em now


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

Best I've seen is people blaming rice farmers :rotfl:

we're not trying to make a living here or anything.

Are you saying the ducks are just showing up now? If so I disagree. Same thing happens every year when the season ends. During the season the birds find a way to survive and avoide the areas that have heavy pressure. They raft up in big water or go to the preserves and become mostly nocturnal. After the season when all the noise from boats, 4 wheelers guns, etc stops they return to the fields and marsh. I don't think they are migrating down this late in the year. I would like to see the season the Sat before thanksgiving and have 1 zone at most 2. Having 3 zones in a state this size doesn't make sense.

You slaughtered limits all season though. Your lease had nearly 700 in the first split

Just playing devils advocate

Nobody will ever be happy. Based on the season extension theory, way more birds would be killed. The , limits would drop and everyone would be at arms over limit changes. Then in 15 years we will start having hard fronts in November and weak ones in January-February, and the next generation will be blaming face paint and Mojo Drones for messing up bird hunting.

Some years you got birds, some years you don't. Crops change, weather changes, water changes.



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Hell yea we blame y'all! Loosing up those combines a lil bit. Those ducks need a lil more waste grain. And while your at it. Open up that hooper when you pass by our blinds.


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Feds won't allow into February. That's for the best though. So many negative effects you can have on the breeding season.

Like Jude said earlier... Open one week later and and only one week split. Hell Missouri south zone opens last week of November and has no splits.


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If we would open 1 week later and keep the 2 week split we could hunt till the last weekend in Jan.

Why the ducks didn't reach Louisiana.
 

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Sorry my math was off there.

Why the ducks didn't reach Louisiana
 

I understand our numbers were low this year, but it is a funny thing because in my area ( between Theall and Forked Island ) the ducks were there. However, there was approximately 2sq mi of second crop stubble and with the open fields to the N and W of us the birds set up shop and held there most of the season. I saw a congregation of mallards and pintail several weeks ago that was unbelievable. The amount of pintails in that area was unreal this year with mallard numbers considerable as well. I think the ducks just simply change patterns from year to year, congregating higher in different areas that they are instinctively used to going to, its the luck of the draw from year to year...we will never have them figured out.

Keep sending y'all's money to DU and they'll save the ducks. May not come here. But there will be ducks. 30 and 3 or bust.

I was waiting for that.


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I knew it was coming. Never fails every duck thread someone will bring it up.


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Duck hunting is a huge fad right now. Bigger than ever. 30 and 3 or bust. Dumpin money to du and they laughin as they renovatin their private land.

Satellite imagery would probably be the most accurate way to assess waterfowl populations. Ecological applications of satellite images are on the rise.

Nobody is blaming rice farmers. Just stating facts that growing Clearfield rice varieties allows farmers to use herbicide mixes that effectively eliminate red rice and other moist soil plants in the fields. That technology wasn't available operationally 20 years ago. The resulting waterfowl habitat from the Clearfield regime is of much less quality than the habitat created by traditional rice farming.

On the flip side, many would argue that using Clearfield varieties allows many farmers to still still able to plant rice in areas where the cost of competition control or the amount of red rice made growing rice unprofitable.

Robbie aka Big Hutch

Saltwater intrusion

Another thing about the Clearfield rice is the lack of water it takes to grow it.


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Y'all are spot on.:)

Like most of us, i have came up with my own conclusion as well. I have been hunting the same spot for 20 years in the spring bayou wma, a small hole in flooded timber. The majority of the ducks i see\kill are 80% mallards, 10% woodies, 5% greys, and 5% teal. Very rarely anything else. When i first started hunting, there was a large area of the wma that was closed off and designated for waterfowl refuge. Ever since they allowed hunting in all areas of the wma, I find the area does not hold nearly as many birds. However this year and for the last few years, my ring was dry until we finally got a little rain after the opening weekend. It gave us just enough water to hunt, but not enough to hold any birds. If you look at almost every "rain producing front" from opening day on, all or most of the rain pasted north of Louisiana, not giving us much of the flooding rains. I contribute most of the irregular number due to lack of water around the area. I did have a hand full of good days, even seeing large numbers of mallards flying high. I couldn't rap my head as to way one day i would see many many ducks and the very next day i could count them on one hand, which again supports my theory that lack of water and abundance of hunters just keeps them roaming, and the ducks finally final that safe place and are sitting. One another note, since after Christmas, the ducks were very shy. I had many flocks of mallards circle a few times and just leave. I think we need a drought up north and a very wet fall and early winter here to see the numbers return. Just my $0.02

Yall just need to do what i have done for the last few years. hunt the first split and smash the ducks, then deer hunt the second split except for the cold fronts. works like a charm.

a couple years of 30 and 3 would do wonders for the ducks. it will never happen though, too much money involved.

so we would get 30 and 3, while the rest of the country still has there same days and limits or would everybody everywhere go to 30 and 3?

Limits are flyway wide.

We have more ducks than ever..........
Where they go and how long they stay in another story.

Then you have too many guys that out and buy a Benelli, a dog, name it Benelli, a mud boat, some shiney new camo and are convinced beyond measure that they are a duck hunter.

Then when they do not kill anything ***** about "no ducks" "DU short stopping" "no food for the ducks" "too many hunters" (I agree with this one" and whatever belly ache they have.

This has been the same damn conversation for 35 years.
So many people talk about the "good times" and were not even born then.
Legends are made by telling the story over and over for generations.

want to KILL more ducks?
take away mojos
take away mud motors
limit CALLING to only those that can
no afternoon hunts

U mean barrel stickers and black beanies aren't cool?

of course they are............

but does it help you kill ducks? LOL

I am not busting anyone's chops that do this, hell I stick them in my gun room and they look cool there, and likely just as effective at killing ducks.

Mr. Reynolds is highly regarded in his field. While I do not always see his side of a story ON MY PARTICULAR PIECE OF HUNTING LAND, I have to respect his education and experience to a larger picture.

It would be like me telling Southern151 how to weld a pit together or fix my car.

Does anyone know of an actual % increase in the number of duck hunters over the past few seasons? Duck stamps purchased or something? And by duck hunters I mean turds with barrell stickers..

Some of those last few statements are gonna be hard to do. I use mojos majority of the time because they do help in certain situations. I use mud motors because that's pretty much the only way to get to some of the blinds I hunt unless you want to come push pole me several miles and drop me off at the blind. And I'm not gonna stop hunting in the afternoon based on some people's beliefs. Sometimes that's the only time I can go or I'll hunt in the morning then go back in the afternoon bc sitting in a blind is something that I love to do.

Remember that the only difference between cool and fool is one letter ... :)!! A good friend told me that one time. That's also he case between hero and zero ...

You make great points........
These are rehtorical for sure.......

I have pushed poled many many times for over an hour to get to a hole......and the birds would fly out and return winthin minutes, they absolutely do not do that when spooked by a mud motor.......

for every teal that comes into a mojo...........a mallard does not.......

the "new" way of hunting as pressured the birds beyond thier limits.
But I understand your views..........
Many guys have never hunted any other way.

Push poling into a spot, where birds are getting up in front of you and you can't see them in the dark, and your dog is frustrated because he can smell them and hear them but can't see them yet, is MY idea of a perfect hunt.

When I see younger guys sitting around after a hunt, I rarely hear talk about the actual hunt. I hear lot's of conversation about the boats, the guns, the mojos.........but rarely the actual hunt.

again not busting anyone's balls here, just my opinion.
closing in on 50 may have me seeing things a different way.

I personally killed 78 birds this year, my lowest numbers year in quite a few years.

I had a great year! I was out there, with a third season dog, a breed no ones knows about, a 18 year old over and under that people say I should not have in the blind, no mojo just old school kicken the water and jerk string, a pirouge with a paddle and pole, beef jerky and a thermos........

Could not have been better season.
All birds cleaned and eaten.

Great post, I am right behind you in age and agree that today it's more about your gear than the actual hunt. Technology has made it easier for those without skillz to access previously unaccessable areas and educate the birds. Birds are more educated than they have ever been in the past 50 yrs. There's plenty of birds out there but they have adapted to the world of motion decoys, mud motors and meat stick stickers on barrels. Ten years ago gadwalls would gladly come in and you could kill all but one and then he/she would come back to die. We killed all of the dumb birds and what we have left are the non-Darwin ducks. That instictive survival gene gets passed to the young and now gadwalls' are as difficult to kill as the mysterious Mallard. The "Full Strap" mentality will eventually be the demise of waterfowl hunting (disclaimer;I too have been guilty of this). Sunrises,whistling wings, great shots and outstanding retrieves should be what we remember.

Agreed!! Too much pressure, too much sky busting, too much noise from mud motors,etc = ducks that are smart and hard to hunt(kill). They find safe places to rest and become mostly nocturnal. Big south wind and heavy cloud cover help move them around and seem to be the best hunting days for most.

Why the ducks didn't reach Louisiana.
 

Let's not forget the sport of wing shooting versus killing for food! I'll bet there are more duck hunters who do not eat ducks than do. Just shooting for the thrill of the kill. You can get just as much enjoyment from shooting skeet.


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absolutely!

Postin pics on Facebook of broken clays isn't near as manly as a full strap of teal that died over a mojo.

Shut the season down for 3 years to allow recruitment of ducks that do migrate down to S. La. The offspring will genetically imprint to return each year to winter. If we keep killing those few who do make it down here we will se a diminishing number of ducks returning (we're witnessing this now). With more abundant wintering habitat north of us there is no reason for these ducks to migrate here.
Shut it down for a few years, bait the everloving hell out of your ponds for those years that are closed. then get ready for the best opening duck hunting ever!

interesting theory!

I think we should be able to hunt local honkers on golf courses.......would help supplement the need for pics on facebook.......

Reminds me of the old joke about the meeting to discuss season dates, the coonazz gets up and ask for the season to be extended a month. Moderator ask him what are we going to call that month.

Probably would work, never will happen.

Take the money we'll save on local duck hunting and spend it on trips to Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Shoot the hell out of their ducks and hopefully move them to the safer La. waters. Heck, have the local duck clubs set up bus hunting trips up north every weekend. Imagine the fun a bunch of Cajuns could have on a bus trip....:D

In other news.

WASHINGTON – Jan. 29, 2014 – The House of Representatives today passed the 2014 Farm Bill with a bipartisan vote of 251-166.

The 2014 Farm Bill includes the conservation and sporting community’s top priorities of re-coupling conservation compliance to crop insurance and a Sodsaver program affecting top duck producing states of Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“This is a big win for conservation and for working farmers and ranchers. The conservation programs authorized and funded through the farm bill are the backbone of Ducks Unlimited conservation work on private lands, and they have just been strengthened by the inclusion of our top priorities,” said DU CEO Dale Hall. “It has been a long road of compromise to get to this point, and DU congratulates Chairman Lucas and Ranking Member Peterson on the major accomplishment of passing the 2014 Farm Bill.”

More than 70 percent of the nation’s original native grasslands and 50 percent of wetlands have already been lost. Conservation provisions included in the 2014 Farm Bill are designed to encourage the conservation of our nation’s remaining wetlands and grasslands, which help keep our waters clean, prevent soil erosion and provide vital habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.

“We also appreciate the leadership of Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi in shepherding this farm bill that is so important to all citizens to a strong bipartisan vote on House passage. We look forward to expedited consideration by the Senate and bipartisan passage there,” said Hall.

Attachment 62787


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It's all politics......

I can't complain... Was definitely in my top 3 of seasons this year... Last time I seen pintail like we had was 3 or 4 years ago.

That's for sure. We could always bank on our pintail flight


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

I would like to hear your opinion on this.


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1. They attached the increase in welfare and food stamps to this "farm bill" which is funny.

2. That's more money for the government and DU to pay for land to not be hunted.