Duck hunting's future....

[ultrastealth]

go to a 30 day season and you just thought it was crowded now !!

Yep. It would look like opening weekend every single weekend if that happens. As it stands now, it's crowded on the opening of both splits, after that, a lot of people deer hunt or fish. A shorter season won't have the effect that some here think it will.

[ebhegele]

LOL! You A-hole!! Could save alot of ducks with all those untrained mutts running around and spookin birds. I think over half of the dogs are named da**it in the hunting scene. All I ever hear are guys hollering come here Da**it after shooting. LOL!

I have a new 1 year old at the house and the running joke is that her first words will be "DA**IT GRACIE!!!!"

despite that picture I just painted, shes a great duck dog

[tadmaryperry]

Then drop the limits. 30/3. Like mentioned. If all of these hunters want a future in this then nobody will complain about shorter season and smaller limits. We need to do everything we can to sustain this resource. The technology (ice eaters) and crop manipulation has as much effect on the migration as hunting pressure. A lot is going to have to change in order to change the arc we are on…

[DUKFVR]

Yep. It would look like opening weekend every single weekend if that happens. As it stands now, it's crowded on the opening of both splits, after that, a lot of people deer hunt or fish. A shorter season won't have the effect that some here think it will.

I would be willing to bet in just might. Alot of people aren't going to pay those guide prices to shoot or possibly shoot 3 ducks. Especially after a a season like this one where just kill A duck was tough. Just depends how the public goes this time if it drops. When it happened before the hunter numbers fell out pretty good. Lots of guide services had to redo business, with alot shifting to goose hunting or combo hunts. No geese to do that now. Alot of guides went belly up. We'll just have to see. I can already see the effects of this slow season. Lots of wanna be duck hunter hung it up early. No glory pics for FB or whatever. Its still crowded on public ,but you can tell the difference. Ramps a little more empty.

[ram04]

Do ya'll not think the weather warming has anything to do with it? Every year gets warmer and warmer. Not arguing the cause but it's a fact, why would a bird fly down here where there is food and thawed water up north? To add on top of it, there is a fraction of the food in our area and immense hunting pressure, I think it's pretty obvious. Heck, we hunted north Texas (my first time up there) a couple of weeks ago and were hunting the same concentration of birds that apparently has been there for two weeks with no new birds. Reason? Warm weather and no reason for southern migration.

[Nash Thornton]

Definitely a weird year, it was 90 degrees a couple days before christmas in Texas during a duck hunting trip. Making it very difficult to plan trips nowadays.

[TD2000]

Those old farmers around Pineville. Eleck, and below are still charging 5 grand a blind to shoot smiling mallards

The south has been getting screwed on duck hunting ever since the north figured out a way to put the brakes on them.

I grew up hunting flooded timber and rice fields. It was nothing to get a mixed bag of teal, mallards, pintail, and wood ducks in the same hunt.

**** shame what duck hunting has eroded to in the south.

Tough to get those ducks to leave the flooded grain fields up north

[Quackerbox]

The "good old days" of duck hunting are gone. The crowds are thick....birds are thin....etc..etc... As much as we may hate it, an abbreviated season, or drastically reduced limits, may be what it takes to cull out some of the hunters. Finding good leases (just like deer leases) is nearly impossible unless you have a connection.

Whatever the season length..whatever the limits...me and my dog will be there Good luck!!

I live for duck hunting. Plan everything around it & I hope they go to 3/30. I don't believe the counts when they do come out for the most part. Birds are needing a break. Too many want to be guide services putting way too pressure on them A few years of 3/30's & we can help out that problem. I remember the 3/30s years back in the past, cleaned out the wanna be's big time. Some of the best hunts then. Pressure was way down,birds hung around & worked better. Sure it will sting some to have less days, but I willing to give the birds the benefit of the doubt,err on their side. Just have to stay on the fish more!!

The hunting is changing here, No matter what happens, the birds are changing migrations & shifting flyways. It is gonna be mixed, slow/good seasons in the future down here. With problably more slow seasons coming up. No matter what I will chase them till I can't 1 duck or 6, I wil still look forward to every morning getting up to hit the marsh.

All of this.

Too many hunters with a bunch that have no clue. I had a guy tell me this weekend how hard it was to tell the difference between a pintail hen and a mallard hen in flight!????

Then he said they shot a gadwall and couldnt find it. Right after he sends me a picture of his kid holding a freaking gadwall and wants to know what it is?

At the end of the hunt they have a redhead hen and a bluebill in the pile and doesnt know that those are either.

The same thing has happened on this site as well. The days of hunters rolling with duck hunters who actually know what theyre doing are over. Now you get some dude that watches a few episodes of a TV show buys a 1500 shotgun and some sitka gear and now hes a pro. Yet he cant tell the difference tween a teal and a woodduck till its laying at his feet

[Leemo]

All of this.

Too many hunters with a bunch that have no clue. I had a guy tell me this weekend how hard it was to tell the difference between a pintail hen and a mallard hen in flight!????

Then he said they shot a gadwall and couldnt find it. Right after he sends me a picture of his kid holding a freaking gadwall and wants to know what it is?

At the end of the hunt they have a redhead hen and a bluebill in the pile and doesnt know that those are either.

The same thing has happened on this site as well. The days of hunters rolling with duck hunters who actually know what theyre doing are over. Now you get some dude that watches a few episodes of a TV show buys a 1500 shotgun and some sitka gear and now hes a pro. Yet he cant tell the difference tween a teal and a woodduck till its laying at his feet

Interesting post on here
I know one thing for sure , I don’t see the ducks in huge flocks anymore on East Matagorda Bay like I did years ago, I don’t duck hunt anymore, so I don’t know what has happened to the population......but I do enjoy seeing and watching them

[rut-ro]

Interesting post on here
I know one thing for sure , I don’t see the ducks in huge flocks anymore on East Matagorda Bay like I did years ago, I don’t duck hunt anymore, so I don’t know what has happened to the population......but I do enjoy seeing and watching them

Not a duck hunter by any means. I hunted Matagorda Island for deer hunt in 2020 and saw what I thought was a bunch of ducks. cant tell you about this past year as I did not make it to the coast.

[SaintBlaise]

The biggest issue facing where we hunt in SW La is crawfish. The crawfish farmers set up automatic cannons to scare off the geese, and they work. Too bad there is not an Ibis season.

[Ishi&Elvis]

Flex where in central Texas are you talking about? I live in Burnet county and have not seen any ducks on our ponds the whole season. They have water in them and green stuff. I think I have seen one flock of sandhill cranes passing over, and no geese at all.

[diamond10x]

They should limit the duck hunting to only people who like it more than so and so and are super good at it... this thread is starting to read similar to the one about raising elk tag prices in other states, but not quite as bad yet.

I’m not a serious duck hunter but do hunt public with a buddy every once in a while who hunts 3-4 days a week. I’ve noticed less hunters out this year but the biggest thing has been weather. For the entire season there has been 2 or 3 freezes and I haven’t seen anyone mention that. In my humble Inexperienced opinion, the birds just haven’t been pushed down here like normal years. Fishing, I haven’t seen the amount of birds that I normally would, heck the fishing has been sub par because the weather. What about the drought that went on in a lot of the prime nesting areas? What about all the silly subdivisions built in a lot of the places people used to hunt? There’s a number of factors it seems and it seems it’s just a down year. Wildlife populations ebb and flow just like the weather patterns. I don’t think it’s such a drastically bad time that good duck hunting is gong away, it’s just one of those years that ain’t too good.

[Smart]

All of this.

Too many hunters with a bunch that have no clue. I had a guy tell me this weekend how hard it was to tell the difference between a pintail hen and a mallard hen in flight!????

Then he said they shot a gadwall and couldnt find it. Right after he sends me a picture of his kid holding a freaking gadwall and wants to know what it is?

At the end of the hunt they have a redhead hen and a bluebill in the pile and doesnt know that those are either.

The same thing has happened on this site as well. The days of hunters rolling with duck hunters who actually know what theyre doing are over. Now you get some dude that watches a few episodes of a TV show buys a 1500 shotgun and some sitka gear and now hes a pro. Yet he cant tell the difference tween a teal and a woodduck till its laying at his feet

Yup...I don't hunt 'em anymore of course but I see the hero shots on FB and Instagram with the wrong bird listed. Lotta hen pintail/gadwall mixups with the beard and barrel sticker crowd... Those 3 duck 30 days seasons with no cans, 1 pintail, or 1 mallard hen will sure make you learn what they look like in flight....that and not as many people out in the water/woods will get you checked by the GW more so you had to be careful.

[Kingfisher789]

Yea the hunting has changed but some are still getting after them. A fellow showed me a picture of his first wood duck that he caught up to in a creek at Grainger. It was a “good” hunt.