Where are the ducks????

[DelDuck]

You boys up In NY and PA hoarding all the ducks still??? Or have they not made it down to you guys yet either. Went to Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge yesterday and we had a shot on 1 GW Teal and she proptly died. And Normally just about everyone on the Hook does very well this time of year, but seemed like only a couple of blinds did any kind of shooting.

Just woundering where the ducks are.

[skeet]

Just what I've been saying DD. They be lying about the number of ducks in the count. . Nobody has seemed to be seeing the amount of ducks they say are there:rolleyes:

[kt]

well we arent all to blame in PA, we have more mallards than i have seen in the past, but i dont think the ducks have really made the new york border yet, nothing interesting like divers, so i am sticking to geese till i see ducks
kt

[fabsroman]

I went deer hunting today and I saw more geese and goose movement than I saw last week while hunting them. Of course, the season is out right now for a week. However, I only saw two ducks today. Hopefully, things will get better once the season starts up again. The sad thing is that at this time last year I was seeing geese by the thousands and ducks by the hundreds. Somehow, I don't think I am going to get that lucky again this year.

[DelDuck]

Skeet, I was talking to the boys on the hook and they were telling me that there was 80 some odd birds shot the 2nd season and there is normally around 200-250 birds shot:confused: . Makes you wounder just what the heck is going on. But it has felt good to get back out on the marsh after 2 years of not really being able to go.

Oh I got my MD lisc. this year, so if anyone has an extra spot open hint hint :D

[fabsroman]

Del,

I probably hunt too far west for you, but you are welcome to come any time. Right now I don't have the birds patterned whatsoever, so it is a crap shoot, but I'll still extend the invite. Not a lot of ducks as I mentioned above, but there are a fair number of geese.

[Valigator]

I told you guys the ducks are here we are covered over with them...see my next post I gotta load pics...

[Valigator]

These are 8 greenwing teal
8 blue wing teal
2 ringnecks
Butler Island Altamaha managment area...Darien, Georgia...3 hunters

[Valigator]

Also check out Ayvala Plantation in Tallahassee Florida...this is a nice little hunt...$4500 two hunters...I believe a waiting list...use your search

[DelDuck]

Nah I'll pass on a $4500 hunt, but have you got any big ducks down there yet?

[TreeDoc]

Originally posted by Valigator
Also check out Ayvala Plantation in Tallahassee Florida...this is a nice little hunt...$4500 two hunters...I believe a waiting list...use your search

I certainly hope that includes the price of Lodging, Gourmet Food, Concubines, and such!

Sounds like a hunt for that "city boy" that just doesn't get out much! ;)

[Valigator]

I believe thats the lease for the season for two hunters....

[TreeDoc]

Ohhh..that makes a little more sense then! ;) That's more in the realm of ow things are with most duck clubs. I pay $2400 for my 2 seats in the rice at Sacramento Valley. I keep a travel trailer with water and electric hookups there as well and that is included. Now not more than 1/2 mile south of my club sits the Behring Ranch Club. $2.5 million will get you a blind there if you're lucky enough for one to come available. It also includes a house on the ranch!

My club is about average for fees. Some will pay a lot more depending on the facilities that come with it, club house, game rooms, picking facility, eating / cooking facility, etc.

[tjwatty]

As of today I have hunted about 25 days of the Illinois waterfowl season, at this point we have a total of 43 ducks. Of that 43 only 8 have been mallards, at this same blind site in 1998 we wre at 154 ducks, with 48 being mallards. In the 15+ years I've been doing this, this is the worst season ever. I shouldn't feel too bad, I talked to a 78 yr old hunter today who says it's the worst in 48 years. We've heard the ducks are already south, that they are in Minn. and Wisc. etc. etc. I personally have just resigned myself to this weekends blackpowder deer season and then getting ready for turkey season in April, then preparing for next year with a goose hunt scattered in here and there.
I hope the rest of you will leave a few for next years crop please.

[BPS10]

This is my first post, but I have been reading the threads on this sight for about 3 years now. This is not the first time I've seen this subject come up, and it's almost always the same thing, "The count must be wrong!" so I thought it was time I jumped in.

I've been duckn for about 10 years now and hunten for almost 20. Central IL is not known for having lots of duck, or at least it's not where I live, but with the decline in the number of upland game birds I had to find something to hunt other than white tails. Well, duck numbers were on the rise so ducks it was.

My father has a blind on a small lake near where we live and he was able to secure on for me, so a duckn we went. Long story short it's now what I live for every fall.

Has this year been slow, with out a doubt, but slower than past years. Some but not all. It's my opinion that the duck just are not here yet. Why, 3 reasons.

1. Spoke to some Game Wardens last weekend on the 4TH who said that a fellow warden had just returned from WI who said they were stacked up wuth ducks and geese.

2. My main hunten buddie is a trucker whose route takes him
through MO, IL, IN, WI, and MI. He tells me he is just now starting to see duck on the lakes, ponds, and pits he drives past in northern IL and WI.

3. Hunted ducks in South/Central IL over Thanksgiving in some backwater and almost all I shot or saw were teal.

Guys, it take two things to move these birds.One, cold, the type of cold that freezes thing up, and two snow, enough snow that the birds can't get to the feed. Neather of witch we have seen yet.

Mark my words it going to get bad, and when it does for about 3 day dar the doors because they will be here then be gone. I just hope it dearing season and I can hunt.

Well that's my 2cents, I'll get of my box.

[DelDuck]

Hey glad you got your 1st post out of the way ( and it was an interesting one) Hopefully we wont be able to shut you up.:D

I hope all the birds are still stacked up in Canada, caus there are just no birds around here. It just seems like every year it is the same deal "oh we have not had the weather yet" and when we get the weather it's "well they have already moved south".

[fabsroman]

BPS10,

I won't say welcome to the board since you have been reading it for 3 years now, but welcome to posting. I agree with you, the weather has been incredibly warm around here. Yesterday, it was 60 degrees and it is almost the middle of December. Last I checked, I wasn't living in Florida.

I saw a bunch of ducks in a pond recently, but I don't know if they are resident ducks or migrators because they weren't too far from a big pond that usually holds a bunch of resident ducks and geese over the summer.

[skeet]

Talked to a friend yesterday... He has a place not too far from where i live that he "hunts" ducks on.. Quite a nice place.. 34 ponds with millet and milo 250 acres of standing flooded corn and lots of other waterfowl areas on the Chester River here in Md. He usually hold in excess of 30-35,000 ducks on his acreage(3500acres). This year?? Not even 3,000....and the ducks call this place heaven...Where do ya think they are?? In some biologist's dreams??? I know they can bypass someplaces and change their habits...but I do know ducks...and they aren't going to stay away from an area like this if they are anywhere near the area...and they will come back to a place like this...been doing it for 25 yrs.. Are they going to change overnight?? Naw!! They just ain't the amount of ducks out there that the powers that be want ya to think.:mad:

[kt]

well we have all been complaining about it, well its 1230 here now thermo say 23 degrees, cant imagine 5am, gonna freeze my....ears off or something, but damn headed out for a quick goose shoot tonight, cause the semester is over and there were dux galore
kt so they are coming down
kt

[fabsroman]

I'll be going out on Wednesday. Wish me some luck because this season has sucked for me. Granted, I haven't put in the hours that I usually do, and that is probably why I need the luck.

[tjwatty]

With the temperatures forecast in the single digits for the next week,we pulled the last of our decoys yesterday. It turned out to be our best day, 3 guys and 10 ducks, 9 bluebills (scaup) and 1 gadwall. We have never seen the mallards that we have in the past but I heard that last Tues. and Wed. the other blinds had some mallards. Old boy who lives on the river said he thought they went down west of us. I have had reports of good counts in Western Missouri but I'm done on the Mississippi. Might get some goose hunting in out in the fields as long as we don't get a lot of the white crap.
This season has been my worst ever, a lot of hard work for 50 ducks, and only 8 mallards but I guess that's why it's called hunting.

[fabsroman]

This season has been my worst ever too, but I haven't done a lot of hard work. I guess if I had done the hard work I might be better off than 0 geese and 0 ducks.

These bad seasons are what make us really enjoy the good ones. I never thought I would have one this bad, but I guess it is always possible with hunting and fishing.

[BPS10]

Went out this past weekend Fri. and Sat.

Saw more birds than I've seen sence the first weekend, and most were mallards. Flocks were high in the sky and had little success in getting them to come down, but had a few. 3 mallards in the bag and several more that were in the spread and gone before we got a shot off thanks to flapping our gums and not paying attention.

Like T.J. said, lows in the single digits are called for this week in IL, but if the ice does not get to thick and I can get the boat in the lake and brake some of it out from in front of the blind I think that it holds alot of promise. Season goes out here on the 28th and I like to get some more duck befor it does.

We do have several local geese and we bagged 2 this past weekend, but have yet to see any that I thought were migrators, they decoy so much easer than locals,. I hope these cold fronts will bring them down too. I'd like to get in a few field hunts before they go out Jan 31st, assuming the DNR does not close the season early.

Sorry, to those who I offended with my first post, but my father has been doing this for more than 30 years and he shares my opinion.

[fabsroman]

BPS10,

I don't think anybody was upset or bent out of shape by your first post. In fact, I think a lot of us know that it takes really cold weather up north to get the ducks to mve south. If I were a duck, I wouldn't fly south just for the heck of it. The conditions would have to get pretty bad for me to leave anyplace I was living at. As long as there is open water and food available, I will agree that most ducks will stay where they are. However, the smaller ducks, as you mentioned in your post, end up leaving way before everything freezes up and the food gets covered up by snow.

[skeet]

Went out a goosin this AM. Got three singles to toll to the decoys(we each shot once) before the birds really started moving. Got the decoys set up by 7:30 and we were back to the house(visiting the farmer and his wife) before 9:00. Watched the geese piling into the pond on the farm till about 10:00 Probably had about 4000 in there by the time we left. Watched the guys next door ..uhh...er...ahhh shoot at geese till they finally limited. They had a crazy dog that kept running out into the field flaring the geese. Anyway...saw a few ducks ...finally...pair of pintails flew over out of range but we saw about 40 ducks theis am. and my friend with the duck hunting place told me this noon that they have about 5000 ducks staying in their ponds all of a sudden. Oh.. forgot to mention I shot one drake mallard that swung the edge of the decoys. Only duck that looked at our field setup. Might have to put out a few duck decoys Monday. Have a couple of people to take out to get a goose. Part of our deal for hunting the farm. Have to take out family and friends. Tough job ...but somebody has to do it. Guess I'll just have to suffer through it. Maybe the ducks be movin in. Hope so. We'll be shootin the pond Monday. probably shoot a few ducks too. BTW the woodies are almost all gone south.:(

[idaho_duckhunter]

i live in idahoand could take you out and show u thousands of ducks but getting them in shooting range thats different but usually get a limit each


chris

[fabsroman]

Idaho,

It really sounds like you have it tough over there. You have thousands of ducks and it is tough to get all of the thousands in range. However, each of you still leave with a limit every day.

Guess what, if my dad and I left with a limit every day I hunted this year I would consider this to be a very successful year even though I have only hunted waterfowl twice. I also wouldn't be complaining about the number of ducks I saw. Of course, I have seen more ducks in the waste water pond behind my place than I have seen during hunting. Then again, I haven't been in the field as much as I have been in the townhouse.

[DelDuck]

I think we might be getting some weather this wekend that will push some birds our way. Will just have to wait and see.

[fabsroman]

Yeah, the weather is supposed to be pretty good this weekend for waterfowling and I have to spend the entire weekend in pre-wedding classes. I think they are called pre-canna or something. All I know is that the fiance had me put it on my calendar.

[TreeDoc]

Bwahhahahahaha Fabs, you're toast, dude! :D