Where are the ducks?
 

Scouted Sabine today, it looked like a ghost town, going to be a lonely duck season here in the heel of the boot of southwest louisiana.:pissed:

Wow! ThANKS FOR POSTING THIS REPORT! I JUST LOST MY HUNTING SPOT OF 8 YEARS HERE IN LACASSINE TO THE LANDOWNERS RELATIVES WHO DECIDED THEY WANT TO HUNT THE LAND. I WAS JUST ABOUT TO GO BACK TO THE MARSH HUNTING. GUESS MY YEAR IS OVER. GOOD LUCK FINDING THE BIRDS.

They ain't in Lacassine either. The day the North wind blew hard and it was cold it was good hunting, and that was the only good day out there. Ain't looking good out there at all

Only saw about 100 (mostly teal) at my lease South of Kaplan. Very few geese in the area to.

Reverse psychology. I have been wanting to try Sabine and might do it now. May do a little blast and cast on big lake if those weirs are closed If weirs are open just catch those skinny fish

Weirs always closed during duck season

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This season sucks. Point blank. Averaging 7-9 birds a day.
Finally had a good growth of vegetation in the marsh, and we get hit with high water and hot weather. I dread going back to work this split. Rather stay fishing everyday than hunting


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They kicked you off in the middle of the season... man that's sorry. Hopefully it wasn't a lease.... Gotta love it when the landowner's relatives all of a sudden decide they want to be duck hunters. They probably seen a few dead ducks on Facebook and thought they'd give it a whirl.

Maybe Hillary can stop this global warning, roll u a snowball & get u sum ducks. What u think?

Michelle Obama can do it for all I care. Maybe even put some added flavor to the snow ball for me.


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I'm calling Bull**** to Sabine and Lacassine not holding birds, if you can't kill birds there your doing something wrong.

We have a good front coming and the water has dropped we will have new birds and the old birds will have settled down a bit. I'm pumped about opening weekend.....and hoping on some good weather for the rest of the split.

Look on the bright side, you get paid to hunt

Google U.S. snowcover and select current date. The answer to 'lack of ducks' question will be readily apparent.

It's DU's fault.

Dude how can you say it's DU's fault, it's verily clear the Oyster Fisherman have ruined duck season.

Its going to be cold for 2 days then back up in the 70s. Thats not a "good front". Unless we have a serious climate change above us it wont be a great year. It is what it is

Agreed......

Obviously it's because of da weirs

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You do have a valid point there. I'm going to blame this season on T-Tops. Seems like a reasonable excuse


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I blame DU for closing the weirs and CCA for the lack of ducks!


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Talked to my smartest friend Clophi, he says these warmer temps don't have nothin to do with greenhouse gases & factories, coal plants , cars , and cows fartin. He said we got more cars but less cows. Gotta be that damn steel shot - all them bb's reflecting that heat back up. Dude done swapped back to lead, just to do his part, and he got credentials - 2 semesters at LSU-E in leisure learning & goin to be an astronaut!

Winner

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Just looked @ long range forecast and your right, it sucks. Well atleast we get to bust them for one weekend.

Attachment 99112
Here's your duck count..


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More Canvasbacks than Baldpate, man that's crazy.

Bring on the grays, I've shot enough teal this year.

I really wouldn't be upset if they pushed the second split opener back a few weeks.

http://images.intellicast.com/WxImag...hic/scover.gif



http://i.imwx.com/images/maps/curren...mp_600x405.jpg

'Every picture tells a story' and this is the story of ducks still having plenty of exposed food up through Missouri. Had a friend up near Stuttgart at their lease about 10 days back and they did not even waste a morning on duck hunting. Going to take a few freezes in north Arkansas and above to get serious ducks down to us.

I'm all in favor of delaying the beginning of even the first split for 2 weeks if we get that added on the back end.

We can move the split around but I think if we keep this weather pattern for a few years then were going to see a serious decline in ducks.

Many ducks won't know we exist because they were not pushed down by weather, or guided by their fellow fowl.

I think we have a generous number of ducks when you factor in the lack of winter. Our ducks were never force down but we still have 40,000 mallards. Those birds didn't wait for weather to push them south they were historically conditioned to migrate south. I just don't know how many years that will happen if we see warm winters for a few consecutive winters.

What's y'all thoughts?

so this year could quite possibly be the worst year to ever bump the season up a week early. not only did we get tons of water but with the warm and mild winter, we will never see a good push of birds until the weather changes.


i can see it now. this year closes in mid jan and we finally get some strong cold fronts and have a decent push of birds and voila!


me personally, i think this year is a wash anyway. with this el nino crap this season does not stand a chance.

On december 8, there was a WMA in north central kansas that did a bird count, this WMA was roughly 6-8k acres... not really that big.

out of the 20,000 ducks on this place, 18,000 were mallards
out of the 100,000 geese on this place, 26,000 were specks and 59,000 were snow and blues. this is just one little piece of the pie... just think of the birds on private farms.


i am getting pictures from a friends dad who has land up in kansas on a daily basis, one in south central and one in central, stroking birds.. it is unreal. and these guys are hunting little bitty cow ponds and creeks.

A buddy of mine is a guide up here in Oklahoma and he's been slaughtering the birds! I'll post up a few pics here shortly.

Just left the lodge... Take a drive down to creole. It actually looks like duck season. Plenty of birds but the real question is how long will they hold?


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Isn't El Niño just a one year deal? Yeah, this year sucks. Worst season I have ever had. But I don't think this season proves anything about whether or not the date change screwed us up.


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Is there still a lot of water everywhere, like the cow pasture N of ShaSha's?

Good good good

From Larry Renyolds

"The 2.64 million ducks estimated on this survey is over twice the November survey total of 1.21 million, is 18% lower than last December’s total of 3.20 million, and is slightly higher than the most recent 5-year (2.40 million) and long-term (2.55 million) averages. Despite relatively mild weather in the Mississippi Flyway, a significant migration occurred between the November and December surveys. The biggest change from November was the big influx of ring-necked ducks, especially in SE LA, but estimates for all migratory species increased from November except blue-winged teal and pintails. However, the mallard estimate of 51,000 is the lowest on record for December, and all dabbling ducks except shovelers are below long-term December averages while scaup, ringed-necked ducks, and canvasbacks are well above long-term averages.
Unlike November, when duck numbers were skewed toward SW Louisiana, large increases in gadwalls and ring-necked ducks in SE Louisiana generated a more even distribution between the 2 surveyed regions. Ducks were distributed across transect lines in SW Louisiana, and few large concentrations were noted. Only at Lacassine NWR and on the open water of White Lake were big concentrations seen. Ducks of all species, but dominated by gadwalls, ring-necked ducks, green-winged teal and shovelers, were rafted up in huge numbers on the western side of White Lake, but are not included in the statistically-expanded estimate. It is unclear if they were new migrants, or birds using the open water as refuge from hunting that had not yet redistributed to nearby wetlands in the 2 days after the season closed. In SE Louisiana, a large concentration of gadwalls was seen on Delta Farms south of Lake Salvador, and very large numbers of ring-necked ducks were counted in the marshes of upper Terrebonne Parish. Those 2 locations drove the big increase in the total duck estimate in SE Louisiana because fewer ducks were seen in the marshes east of Venice compared to the November survey.
Habitat conditions in coastal Louisiana continue to be above average. A small loss of flooded agricultural habitat in the agricultural regions was noted as some draining and drying has occurred since the November survey, but overall there is abundant habitat. Water levels in SW marshes are lower than in November in most areas but remain higher than optimum for foraging waterfowl. However, good submerged aquatic (SAV) growth could still be seen in many locations with substantial seed-producing habitat in higher marsh still shallowly-flooded. In SE Louisiana, water levels appeared lower in many locations, and good to excellent SAV was noted.
At Catahoula Lake, water levels were above management targets and rising due to precipitation and rising river levels. Diving ducks increased from 10,000 in November to 80,000 on this survey, but dabbling ducks declined from 13,000 in November when water levels were even higher, to just 3,000 on this survey. These counts are very similar to last December when 8,000 dabblers and 74,000 divers were counted, and the December 2013 survey, when 5,000 dabblers and 71,000 divers were counted.
In NE Louisiana, the traditional cruise survey of selected habitats standardized in 2005 was conducted in November and December. In November, 240,000 ducks but only 37,000 (62% white-fronted geese) were counted with major concentrations of ducks seen in the flooded agricultural fields south of Grand Cote NWR, east of Oua****a WMA, between Bonita and Mer Rouge, and south of Vidalia in Concordia Parish. Gadwall (85,000), pintail (53,000), green-winged teal (40,000) and shovelers (36,000) were the most abundant species. This NE November survey count is the second highest since 2005, well above the 139,000 counted last year, and much higher than the 10-year November average of 135,000. However, the 36,000 geese were the fewest on record for this survey. Habitat conditions were very good across the survey area with far above average amount of flooding in the agricultural regions and water in nearly all backwater and forested wetland habitats.
In December, the survey crew counted 363,00 ducks and 199,000 geese (89% snow geese) on the same selected habitats, which was a 50% increase in ducks and over 6 times the number of geese seen in November despite relative mild weather in the Mississippi Flyway. Gadwalls (134,000), green-winged teal (77,000), mallards (65,000) and pintails (47,000) were the most abundant species, and this total number of ducks is the highest recorded in December since 2005. However, four December surveys in NE LA have been missed or incomplete due to weather, aircraft problems, lack of observers, or other difficulties since 2005, so comparisons with high, low, or average counts are suspect. Highest concentrations of ducks were again seen in the ag fields south of Grand Cote NWR, between Bonita and Mer Rouge and south of Vidalia in Concordia Parish. Large numbers of geese were also noted near Grand Cote and Bonita/Mer Rouge, but also between the Oua****a River and Bayou Lafourche south of Bosco. Contrary to the November survey, snow geese made up the overwhelming majority of geese on this survey. Habitat conditions remain above average, but observers noted a noticeable decline in the amount of shallow flooding in some agricultural areas.
December aerial surveys in NW Louisiana and for scaup on Lakes Pontchartrain, Borgne, and Maurepas are being flown today and won’t be reported here.
In November, we counted 6,000 ducks on the northwest Louisiana survey, primarily on the locks, lakes, oxbows, and fields along the Red River and upper Toledo Bend reservoir. This is slightly higher than the 5,200 counted in November 2013, less than the 7,900 counted last November, and less than the average of 7,100 since 2005. As in other parts of the state, there was above average flooding in agricultural habitats and pastures and higher water levels in most areas compared to recent years. Observers also noted lower amounts of invasive aquatics on Lakes Bistineau and Wallace than in recent years. Gadwalls and ring-necked ducks were the most abundant species, making up 65% of total duck count. The largest concentrations of ducks were seen between Locks 4 and 5 of the Red River, on the Yates Unit of Red River NWR, and on managed moist-soil impoundments near Loggy Bayou."

This is just the last few days worth from my buddy in Oklahoma. He's been slaughtering them up here. He also guides in Canada and they killed a little over 2,000 birds in September.
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Just got back from brushing blinds and all I have to say is this weekend is going to be something special!!!


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just a heads up,

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but since you have selected no not allow members to send you messages. no one can respond to help you since replies to posts in the for sale section are not allowed by this website and all responses must be done through messages.

anyway, with no other way to respond to your request, i'll post it here

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if that is not an option then maybe something here can be of help to you: https://www.google.com/search?q=ALUM...oe=&gws_rd=ssl