Duck numbers way down

[lake runner]

Originally Posted by pricecb

CCA and DU working on outlawing them for everyone except guides.

Airboats, the original surface drives!

[AubreyLaHaye458]

Nah. Like smalls said. It's all DU. All that many they spend up north keeps the ducks from coming down. Heated ponds and baited fields and the big giant net the have at the Arkansas state line.


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[Cmk07c]

Opening morning we shot 26, 23 being blue wings, rest green wings, greys were sketchy all weekend. That was with 5 guys. Sunday awoke to a solid 4 foot upswing from heavy storm/front that rolled in, compounded by rain. Was storm/hurricane like surge. Pirogue was floating around marina and dock was waist deep down. Just didn't feel safe trekking out for morning hunt. When we went back to pull boat out around 9 am on Sunday birds were everywhere. I'm talking never seen this many birds flying. Massive groups of big ducks as well as teal. Thinking they got blown up river a few miles from Venice. 2 buddies attempted mid day hunt after seeing this and only scratched a couple, said they just couldn't get setup good, continuously getting busted. I had to watch son during saints game so didn't join them.

Went this morning and water levels had dropped some, but not enough. 3 of us got 8 blue wings, but once again saw a good amount of birds just high flyers all headed north for most part. Good amount of greys too.

We typically kill more greys, past couple years we've been trending towards more blue wings. Not getting on the big ducks has got me itching still. Not a single smiley either. Strange weekend for sure, still feel it opened too early. Nothing like killing bluewings with summer colors. I'll take hunting mud and low winter tides over 10' deep water any day of the week. This weekend looks much more promising. Northerly winds, cooler and better tides. They're too spread out right now hitting every single land locked flooded "pool." Would of made a better opener in my opinion.

This is in pointe a la hache.


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[pintailalley]

Well why would the ducks come down when they don't have to there food up north is not frozen solid yet we haven't had enough could weather to push them south yet


Ben

[Feesherman]

Originally Posted by pintailalley

Well why would the ducks come down when they don't have to there food up north is not frozen solid yet we haven't had enough could weather to push them south yet


Ben

Only mallards are pushed by cold weather and ice. But, there are a whole bunch of ducks in Arkansas living the good life with no pressure. There season ain't even close to opening

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[cgoods17]

Originally Posted by Feesherman

Only mallards are pushed by cold weather and ice. But, there are a whole bunch of ducks in Arkansas living the good life with no pressure. There season ain't even close to opening

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mallards are not the only birds pushed by cold weather. bogus statement.

and i also dont understand how arkansas opens 3 weeks after us? ridiculous.... all because a few ducks hit the coast first..

[AubreyLaHaye458]

Originally Posted by cgoods17

mallards are not the only birds pushed by cold weather. bogus statement.



and i also dont understand how arkansas opens 3 weeks after us? ridiculous.... all because a few ducks hit the coast first..

And Texas has been open for like a week before us.


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[Cjleger337]

ok... what does "bounce the hen" mean? Been seeing it a lot and I am clueless

[B-Stealth]

I have a question for everyone who wants the season to start later.

How many birds did you kill the last 2 weeks of the second split for the last 3 years?

[cgoods17]

Originally Posted by B-Stealth

I have a question for everyone who wants the season to start later.

How many birds did you kill the last 2 weeks of the second split for the last 3 years?

the answer to that question would be the same whether you open season early or two weeks later... all that has to do with pressure, not that amount of birds in any given area.

[Top Dawg]

Originally Posted by cgoods17

the answer to that question would be the same whether you open season early or two weeks later... all that has to do with pressure, not that amount of birds in any given area.

Duh.

[Deadly D]

Originally Posted by B-Stealth

I have a question for everyone who wants the season to start later.

How many birds did you kill the last 2 weeks of the second split for the last 3 years?

I have logs for the last 18 yrs and on the average after Jan 5th things go downhill pretty quick. Now I hunt the same blind everyday the whole hunting season, with that said you average weekend hunter that hunts weekends will do good one day and pretty much nothing the next day cause the ducks had a safe resting spot till boom boom come along. The people that are wanting the coastal zone to be futher south yall get ready to do some complaining the next 5 yrs cause the ducks will go around the whole state and have a place to sit until the next zone opens and so forth

[huntin fool]

Best opener ever Saturday for me... Sunday Monday Tuesday different story lmao


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[Jrchip1]

For us old farts who hunted the Atch Delta in the 80's, when the limits dropped to 3 birds/day most everyone quit duck hunting. I sometimes had the whole Delta to myself. Miss those days. It ain't about how many

[B-Stealth]

Friends don't let friends "Bounce Da Hen"

[C-Bass2mouth]

Originally Posted by B-Stealth

Friends don't let friends "Bounce Da Hen"

In all seriousness, I bet if there was a thread started to post sound clips of yourself calling no one would post in fear of getting absolutely roasted lol. We could name it "Tell me what you think boys."

[Cjleger337]

Originally Posted by C-Bass2mouth

In all seriousness, I bet if there was a thread started to post sound clips of yourself calling no one would post in fear of getting absolutely roasted lol. We could name it "Tell me what you think boys."

Ill do it. I dont care what people think about my calling, all I know is that it works on ducks so I must be doing something right lol

[AlexOrtego]

i'll just say, if you ever just listened to ducks call on the water.... they sound like sh** that's for sure... conditions are a much bigger factor than calling most of the time IMO

[C-Bass2mouth]

Originally Posted by AlexOrtego

i'll just say, if you ever just listened to ducks call on the water.... they sound like sh** that's for sure... conditions are a much bigger factor than calling most of the time IMO

I've got 2 old boss hens, and 7 more mallards (3 hens, 4 drakes) that are this years birds that live in my pond (my beat lab) at my house. The old hens sound like a faulks being blown through your butt, and the younger ones sound more crisp, but they make all kinds of noises / cadences , and most are too nasaly to imitate closely.

They call differently for 2 scenarios when content:

1. Excited (flying, feeding, bathing, chasing each other, etc.)
2. Not-excited (everything else)

That's all. And I don't think they have their mind made up when they start calling, they kind of just roll with it. The times they call the most are when some of them are flying around and others are on the water and they talk back and forth. They ALWAYS call until the ducks talking back land. We just need to remember these are MALLARDS. Idk about everyone else but I rarely get to call at a mallard. If wood ducks fly over the pond hauling arse they won't even call. Had 2 mergs circle twice yesterday evening while I was watching them, not a peep.

[Bdub]

So how did everyone do this past weekend?? We had the shoulda coulda woulda's in my blind saturday morning....Shoulda made better shots, coulda had 3 limits, woulda had 9 but found 6 because I didnt bring my dog. Shot 9 found 6, 2 cripples and one lost bird that probably floated off due to wind. Sunday morning I had some younger shooters with me and we got our 3 limits.
From what I've heard it's been slow for the majority