HELP !! shead some light on topic plz...
 

Could it be overall population is up vs South LA population down? Don't know - just throwing out a real possibility.

i think most of the efforts are to retain populations and perfect areas for them way to our north. hey i could be wrong but its just hard to say that when you see pictures of the insane amount of birds that no longer come down here. why leave when the ponds up there are perfect?

Just my 2 cents. Migration patterns have changed. Landcape (ag practices) have changed. Hunting Pressure is not what it used to be which causes the birds to adapt and change. There are alot of factors at play. Dont be the ignorant one trying to pull conservation groups into this....What have you done to help the situation???

Seasons are too early! I've said it before and told larry reynolds face to face my exact reasons why I thought so. He continues to pull his data card of kills per effort.

You have to think about this. So many things have changed in the past 15-20 years. Just the farming practices have changed enough to screw it all up. There used to always be bottoms of fields that held water and canals with tree lines in every field. Now everything is flat. Canals and treelines have been taken out and everything lazer leveled. They've even started planting rice on dry ground. Also the number of hunters has increased dramatically. In the past there was always acres of water where the ducks could go and noone would bother them. Now you can't find a hundred acres of huntable ground without a duck blind in it.


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very true, rice isnt farmed near like it used to be and many of those huge areas are now nothing but sugar cane. i didnt hunt for 10 years, that was my conservation attempt. ive also donated money and bought items which support conservation over the years.

Exactly what I'm saying. Many more factors at play also.

I dont duck hunt but its just like anything else! Times have changed. Things are done differently now. Plus our population of ppl has doubled in sw louisiana since then. Within the next 5-10 years with the economic growth to our area we will double if not triple in population..... by then you wont be killing any birds!

I think the main problem here is the information given is way to vague or actually non existent. most of all these "facts" are just hear-say and passed from one beer to another... perhaps what needs to happen is DU needs to release more detailed information on this subject ( cause they for sure have it with all the research they do) so everyone will know the whole truth.

This will never happen!

thats why i dont like donating money.

I'm in Connecticut right now and when I tell you the amount of mallards and Canadians up here is insane. Hundreds of em in every lake and pond, and pass a little bitty 3 acre field with 200 Canadians walking around in it. There is absolutely no pressure on em. So why leave to head down south and get shot at. Oh and to boot, about 1/3 of all ths birds are banded. There's a ton of birds up here and there's no need for the to leave. Now that may change now because the snow is getting thick up here so they may have to start leaving to find food but realize that just started Saturday. So now in mid December the birds are finally gonna need to migrate a lil to find food

Opinion
 

This is my opinion from an "older" duck addict. Do some of ya'll know that Arkansas has twice the acreage in rice that La. does. I've been to Ark. in late January for farm equipment auctions. The ducks have it made. Flooded fields and timber resembling our Atchafalaya basin. If I was a duck the only reason to leave is ice or pressure. Duck hunting is no longer a "blue collar" sport. If you don't have the "big bucks" or land in the family you're screwed. Some Ark. farmers told me the "big wheels" come from Tennessee and others places to hunt. At the time, which was around '99 or 2,000, blinds were going for as high as $10.000. It pays the farmers to ring their cropland with levees and pump water. Rice hasn't been to profitable lately. Hell, the other day I was watching em burn mallards in Missouri in a "flooded" corn field. As far as I know corn doesn't required that much water(LOL). Duck hunting is now a rich man's sport. That doesn't help "blue collar" people like me. People like me hunted when duck hunting "wasn't cool". We did it cause we loved the sport. That's my story and I'm sicking to it :).

well you hit the nail on the head. same as deer now. if you have family land youre good, or you have the money to pay someone a crazy amount to sit in on their property and shoot something that is probably 1,000x's cheaper to buy from the store than pay for a lease of any kind.

Everything was "greater"when we were younger, the older I get the more realistic I get. Maybe it has a little to do with people just not realizing that? Maybe old timers don't hunt as much as they used to and constantly look in the sky at day break?

Anyone go back to a place you went when you were young, only to be disappointed and wonder how something so simple could be built up to the level of amazing ness in your little mind? That live oak at grandmas we used to play in turned out to be just another live oak when I got older.

Theory

Life in a paragraph

I often agree with that theory myself. My best example is your favorite restaurant as a kid you go back as an adult and the food is crap and you can't figure out how you ever loved the stuff

I think the biggest part is instant media! LOL

You also have to realize, these birds have been shot at for about 2 months before they get down here. Starting in Canada and working south.

I also believe the ag practices have alot to do, combines are more efficient, no waste. Can you remember when the geese and ducks would pile in a field after a cut********

On another take, i believe the weather pattern has plenty too, as animals, they will go where food, shelter & sex are. If it is there, why leave.

I went to Oklahoma and Arkansas on hunts and the guides said it has to stay frozen for about 10 days for them to leave and head south. They will go only as far as they have to.

Not enough rice farmers. Years ago every farmer planted rice, now its sugar cane....the birds have learned where the food is, and where its not