Where are the ducks????

[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.

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.

[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!