Why the ducks didn't reach Louisiana.

[slimbullet]

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