Quote:
Originally Posted by Reefman
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.