Post Season

[Ericdc]

My thought---the rich get richer and poor get poorer

If the elite are the ones doing this legalized baiting---they manage by not riding the hole and hunting it sproradically while hunting other legally baited holes on the other days

the elite have money---they have land or lease big land with multiple blinds in these "patches"---so yes they manage pressure by rotation

but what about the hard working blue collar guy that has only 1 blind to hunt---IF he is lucky---With limited vacation days and most only having the weekend---I am not about to NOT hunt certain days or cut off by a certain time---

I want the most liberal season I can get AS LONG AS THE FLYWAY POPULATION IS IN GOOD SHAPE---why shorten the amount of days IF the numbers are strong as they say they are---then we sit down here with fewer days to hunt already fewer ducks

I am all for a level playing field---I get that---but that is not gonna happen---money wins

So I want the most opportunity I can get as long as the population is in good shape---I cant do anything about what is already done---but I don't want to loose days on top of that

Yea I hunt 20-25 days of the 60. My spot is not good enough for me to go many more days than I do. Besides weekends, and the weather has to be real good for me to go Sunday’s, I pick the best looking days to hunt according to the weather and hunt as late and hard as I can or need to.

If there’s a flight, I want to be there.


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[DComeaux]

Was looking for something entirely different when I came across this blast from DComeaux's past, his Gueydan camp:

CIMG1860.jpg

Blake's throne...LOL!

[DComeaux]

I don't want to bait, I don't want a change in limits, as John said, as along as the population is strong, I WANT THE MIGRATION BACK!

John, I will not give in because I don't have the money some do.... F&*%$ That! I will continue to push and be a thorn in the side of those that can make a change. The more that get involved the better. Seems like most just sit around and get Shit on.... I'm fricken sick of it!

[aunt betty]

They call it the sport of kings for a reason. We're lucky that we get to play so lets just be happy with that for now.
Poor hunting will thin out the ranks to where the die-hards will have some good days again.
Might even find some bargains on rigs and spreads. (ew that sounds sexy)

[DComeaux]

I don't want to bait, I don't want a change in limits, as John said, as along as the population is strong, I WANT THE MIGRATION BACK!

John, I will not give in because I don't have the money some do.... F&*%$ That! I will continue to push and be a thorn in the side of those that can make a change. The more that get involved the better. Seems like most just sit around and get **** on.... I'm fricken sick of it!

I think it is a good cause--I just don't have any means to do anything

I am for a level playing field---I think a man should harvest based on his or her skill,but that's me

If you read the migration study I posted, that was assembled by a nonpartisan group with the help of Delta waterfowl, they mention, or suggest doing winter surveys like they (UFWS) does in Canada and all of the breeding grounds in the spring. That would tell us exactly what's going on, or at least where the birds are held up and what type of habitat they're using. If this is done, I, and I'm sure many would accept the findings either way. All of this back and forth is just speculation, and most is the unwillingness to give up legal baiting. We need facts, that's where we are.

[DComeaux]

They call it the sport of kings for a reason. We're lucky that we get to play so lets just be happy with that for now.
Poor hunting will thin out the ranks to where the die-hards will have some good days again.
Might even find some bargains on rigs and spreads. (ew that sounds sexy)

It's time to dethrone................

[SpinnerMan]

I don't want to bait, I don't want a change in limits, as John said, as along as the population is strong, I WANT THE MIGRATION BACK!

But the seasons and limits have changed and change all the time.

I think the last change to the long seasons and high limits you have now is exactly why you lost the migration. You killed 'em off. You think it is baiting. I think it is the army of hunters you all have down there.

https://deltawaterfowl.org/u-s-duck-hunter-numbers-waterfowl-harvest-increased-in-2016-2017/

The Mississippi Flyway’s 434,200 waterfowlers shot 4.97 million ducks and 1.18 million geese, by far the largest harvest of any flyway. Minnesota had the most active waterfowlers, with 65,900. No state in the flyway shot more ducks than Arkansas, whose hunters took a whopping 1.14 million birds, including 620,654 mallards.

That is a pile of mallards killed just to your north. Year in and out, that adds up. I'd be curious what fraction of them are killed over flooded corn. My guess is a relatively small fraction. A third of all mallards killed in the entire flyway are killed in Arkansas.

The ups and downs in Louisiana are quite amazing.

https://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/pdf/surveys-and-data/DataBooks/MississippiFlywayDatabook.pdf
p.20.

Your numbers are just insanely highly variable. Are you sure there is even a trend and we are talking about nothing more than you had some great years and now you've had a few down years.

MissipppiDucks.jpg

The y-axis is relative to the average for the state over this period so it shows relative variability.

What year is the migration that you want back. Obviously it would be the ones at the top, but the ones at the bottom are no more normal. It just looks like being at the end of the flyway, you have the biggest swings year over year. This makes sense since we are all effected by swings in total population, but up north all the ducks pass through. Down south in mild years they all don't get there and many don't stay as soon as they can move back north.

At least for the last nearly 2 decades, there seems to be no trend just big ups and big downs and you are at the bottom of a down like you have been before.

[DComeaux]

I'm leaning more to hunter observations rather than transect line counts, and partially gathered info these days. I know there's a scientific system in place for all of these graphs and numbers, but we know what we are seeing, or in this case, not seeing. Most of the years things matched, observations vs data, but In the last few years, not so much. Somethings skewed.
It's as if the birds are just piled in spots where no hunter see's them, and they don't move. Maybe they leave after the survey's. It's a bit frustrating, and some may have taken it a bit too far with the accusations, but it would be nice to have a multi state aerial study done during the winter by the feds.

[Ericdc]

Arkansas holds them because of the huge amounts of rice stubble acreage that isn’t disced and precision leveled and flooded bottoms.

Their numbers probably dipped last year, which we don’t have the numbers yet, due to dryness.

We do not offer that kind of habitat for mallards.

There’s nothing that’s going to bring the mallards past Arkansas in huge numbers and keep them here in LA as long as they are growing rice like they are.


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[aunt betty]

You have the data set now use the differential equations math and derive an equation for when the best days and times for hunting this fall will be. Don't forget the "where" part.
And...will the black river flood ?

[Ericdc]

They do a federal midwinter survey every year in January


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[Ericdc]

Using this link, won’t work on cell phone, but will on a regular computer browser you can query the surveyed population of every species in Louisiana for a given year going back to 1955.

https://migbirdapps.fws.gov/


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[Rick]

Ducks, smucks. AC went out at my place today. Now, that is a real concern.

[DComeaux]

Arkansas holds them because of the huge amounts of rice stubble acreage that isn’t disced and precision leveled and flooded bottoms.

Their numbers probably dipped last year, which we don’t have the numbers yet, due to dryness.

We do not offer that kind of habitat for mallards.

There’s nothing that’s going to bring the mallards past Arkansas in huge numbers and keep them here in LA as long as they are growing rice like they are.


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Eric, I posted a study that was asked for by the hunters, and done for Arkansas. This study was to find out what happened to their mallard migration. They don't have the birds they once had, either. That study suggested further investigation as well. Each state does their own survey. I'd like to see a federal survey as they do in the breeding grounds. Combine it all in one.

Like this
https://www.fws.gov/birds/surveys-and-d ... urveys.php

[aunt betty]

Ouch. We're only running one little window unit in our bedroom. Until it gets summertime we get by with that because of the concrete floor and the house is insulated super well. We're putting the big boy in this week. Supposed to top 90 for the second time.

Central air cost to install was ten times what the two little window units. We already had them from our mobile home so...

[Ericdc]

Aside from what would seem like an irregular spike, they’re doing pretty good?

We had that same spike in LA too.


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[Ericdc]

Ducks, smucks. AC went out at my place today. Now, that is a real concern.

Prayers


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[aunt betty]

I killed a lot of ducks in 1999. You know...for the end of the world Y2k thing.

[SpinnerMan]

I thought what we were seeing was the reason, but looking at the numbers it looks a lot like the good old days syndrome. We remember the best and forget the worst and then assume things were so much better back in the good old days. Except having to walk up hill both ways in the snow to get to school.

[aunt betty]

Ok let's talk about the "good old days" when the speed limit was 55 and it took me 6 hours to get to Oakwood Bottoms in Illinois.
Yeah those were the days.

[DComeaux]

Ducks, smucks. AC went out at my place today. Now, that is a real concern.

That really sucks!

[Rick]

Ducks, smucks. AC went out at my place today. Now, that is a real concern.

Prayers

Cavalry is coming...

[DComeaux]

Is it time to go hunting yet? Can't wait to see what this winter brings with it.

[Rick]

Ducks, smucks. AC went out at my place today. Now, that is a real concern.

Prayers

Cavalry is coming...

Wire broke at connection to low pressure sensor. All better now. Life is good.

[DComeaux]

Ducks, smucks. AC went out at my place today. Now, that is a real concern.

Prayers

Cavalry is coming...

Wire broke at connection to low pressure sensor. All better now. Life is good.

Wow, that was easy.

[Rick]

We had that same spike in LA too.

Wasn't too long ago someone was blaming spinners, which appeared around that time, for the loss of our mallards after that spike.

[DComeaux]

Aside from what would seem like an irregular spike, they’re doing pretty good?

We had that same spike in LA too.


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I guess we'll just roll on as is for another twenty years and see what happens. I'll dust off my golf clubs in the meantime. Would be nice if it turned around on it's own.