December 2020 Migration Update
December update from Delta Waterfowl. The last chance to find out where the action is for ducks in your flyway. Wishing you all well out there.
Sponsored by Kent Cartridge.
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
Related Posts
14 Comments
Leave A Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
There is no way another 60-day; 6-Duck season was justified in AR this season. The only people seeing success are those who farm for ducks with pumped water and thus the reason no one will speak up. I’ve been watching this closely since 1996. The last three seasons have been terrible in AR. I travel 60K miles a year in the state with my job. You just don’t see the numbers of Ducks that you used to see here. Everyone knows something is off but no one will tell the emperor he has no clothes on. Last year I did not kill a Duck, I deferred to my son and his friends so they might see a semblance of what I have been blessed to experience. That was a first in 24 years. This year, I have been able to scratch out a few after searching for three years to find public areas not inundated with pressure. Those fortunate enough to hunt private ground should be able to do so as long as the framework dictates. The traditional Arkansas Public hunting grounds desperately need a few 30-day or 40-day seasons with reduced limits but the business of Duck hunting now is more important than the future of Ducks for our progeny; sad.
Completely agree. I’m from Louisiana. Live in Tennessee and own duck property in the far north east of Arkansas. Ducks do not black the sky as they once did. Our kids will never see this again. I propose a reduced limit for all of Arkansas and Louisiana. I believe the Missouri boys are now seeing the same thing. Why does Canada have such liberal limits and most of them look like hens. Why does Alaska get to shoot 8 pintails per day and in some units 10.
You are 100% right!
I sure hope delta and DU are seeing this.
Agree 100%!!! 60 days and 6 bird limits are simply big dollars for big business. Lobbyist aim to keep the huge dollars coming in to all of the waterfowl driven businesses that have cropped up in the last decade. Think about it!
2020 is the worst season I’ve had in 41 years of fowling and you can see the precipitous drop in bird numbers on the Great Lakes over the past 5-6 years.
Make it a 45 day season with a mandated split , but we also need a 3 bird per day limit. ONE Hen Mallard…Max. It’s not about the kill, it is the overall experience!
I totally agree I hunt in Cameron parish, Louisiana and run a company hunting club on 1,000 acres. We just hunt the weekends, if a blind kills 3 birds we are lucky, most blinds kill nothing. Before the great marketing campaigns the limits were raised and lowered by overall duck hatch and breeding pair count, now it is limit is 6 and decided by long term average. As a hunter and for the future of our sport the limit must be dropped. A 3 duck limit makes sense. We will hunt anyway, still buy the clothing, the mechanical ducks, the decoys and still enjoy our sport. But the powers that be must realize if there are no ducks then marketing will not matter! Time to act now until all the breeding stock disappears. Modern Farm practices on the prairie pothole region, short stopping with the flooding of grain and corn, and ice clearing and other practices have hurt our sport. My fathers generation saw the last Canadian goose migration, I hope I will not see the last duck migration into Louisiana.
I’m sure that it stinks for you guys down south. But we have had years, YEARS ON END of watching birds fly over us only to see the loaded straps in Arkansas and La. Now, with changing weather, they’re stopping further north. Do you really think we care about the southern duck experience??
The USFWS doesn’t care if they stop in La. or Iowa, only that the population is steady or increasing.
Well stated Gentlemen:
Thank God our Dads and Grandads sacrificed for us with shorter seasons and the point system. Now it is time for us to step up and do the same for our Children and Grandchildren.
There is a dead cat on the line when U. S. hunters are COVID-restricted from hunting in Canada yet the Mallard Duck numbers are still poor to mediocre at best on the South end of the Mississippi Flyway. There are many things beyond our grasp but we can control the pressure with what Ducks do come down here.
I remember easily seeing 10,000 Mallards on the drive from Little Rock to Stuttgart. I haven’t witnessed that sight in years. Our sons got to see it. My Grandchildren won’t see it if we don’t act now.
One more thing, I do not hate surface drive or long tail mud motors but they demand common sense and respect for God’s great outdoors. You don’t bull doze your way through a Duck’s living room in the green timber to beat everyone to the spot. For generations, we eased into the woods, hid the boat and waded/slipped a good distance into the hole. The heavy cover too thick to boat into afforded by flooded timber served as informal sanctuaries within hunt-able areas giving Duck’s a chance to get away from it all. Now they have been severely disturbed due to all of the “prop-driven fire plows” careening through the woods before sunrise. As a result, Ducks have become nocturnal. Again, control the variables within reach.
Jeff G.:
Many of us on the South end of the Mississippi Flyway are asking the Fed’s to stop the practice of a one size fits all framework for each Flyway. What applies in your area of the MS Flyway no longer applies here. We are not asking for your season to be shorter or your limits to be reduced. We are asking for a region-specific management approach down here. We have fewer Ducks for a myriad of reasons out of our control. As I stated earlier, we can make changes to the variables within our grasp. We need to ease up on the hunting pressure on the South end of the Mississippi Flyway.
How do we get a new form passed. Is there anyone with connections
Same out here in Idaho! The Snake River has been poor at best the last 2 years. Weather is one factor, but pressure is another. We are literally being over run with out of state hunters! Ducks never have a chance to rest as hunting pressure is 7 days a week now. Used to be during the week was very slow as far as hunters go. Duck hunting as we knew it is gone , unless you are wealthy enough to “buy” your ducks on private ground, Sad.
delta waterfowl and ducks unlimited are killing duck hunting let them migrate quit stopping birds with all the refugee bullshit
Jack. Been driving down the rd and before I seen ur post I was thinking the same thing. I’m sick and tired of this. Delta is about recruiting new hunters. Cool. But it’s hard to keep hunters when they spend a few grand and kill a handful of ducks and freez there … off. Duh. Get of ur butt. Get off the computer. I don’t care if we have to put cannons in the refuges. Make them bast@ move. Make them migrate. It’s not the corn. It’s the refuge. A house fly will figure out where to land without getting swatted. U don’t think a duck will. Duh you book worm. I want to shoot dicks like my forefathers. Like my granddaddy. Like my father. If I want to watch ducks I’ll go watch em. I spend money to KILL. Not to spend time with friends. If I wanted that I’d go camping. I mean I’m so tired of it I’m about to hunt the refugees they can give me the fine. I bet the money spent on a lease is cheaper than ur fine!!!! U want to send me to jail. Come get some. Hope your willing to get shot over a duck. From now o
When they ask for your hip info. Cut it In half. Then cut that in 3rds. I don’t even know why they ask for hip. They don’t listen to us botch already. If delta and du don’t do something after this yr. we have to band together. This is ridiculous. I understand both du and delta had good intentions. But they have to swallow that and listen to us. Believe me. The refuge is on my list. They can put me on the watch list. They are already on mine.
This is the best blog so far keep up