Post Season

Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:07 am

Deltaman wrote:Doesn't seem to be much of a difference between what the state of MO is doing in comparison to the dude in ID...........some of the MO fields in the article were dry fields, yet they could hunt them legally?



Interpretation driven by influence.
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Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:39 am

DComeaux wrote:
Deltaman wrote:Doesn't seem to be much of a difference between what the state of MO is doing in comparison to the dude in ID...........some of the MO fields in the article were dry fields, yet they could hunt them legally?



Interpretation driven by influence.




From the article
"We found a place, apparently where a corn picker had turned around and spilled a lot of grain on the ground, and the ducks wouldn’t leave that feed area"

Yes, the fields have no water. :roll:
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:08 am

Does this make feeding park ducks a crime?
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Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:42 am

Duck Engr wrote:
SpinnerMan wrote:Does this make feeding park ducks a crime?


Don’t know if local park ducks fall under migratory game laws but I just had a mental picture of kids and old ladies handcuffed on a park bench while the game and fish investigates their crimes. Yikes.



:lol: :lol:
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:55 am

Duck Engr wrote:
SpinnerMan wrote:Does this make feeding park ducks a crime?


Don’t know if local park ducks fall under migratory game laws but I just had a mental picture of kids and old ladies handcuffed on a park bench while the game and fish investigates their crimes. Yikes.

Mallards are mallards. They most certainly fall under migratory game laws.
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Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Mon Jul 23, 2018 4:53 pm

I've given these, coyotes, and bobcats a pass over the last several years, and got to watch some interesting things from deer stands.

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Re: Post Season

Postby Deltaman » Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:49 am

What a cool video Dave!!!! I'm with you on the watching versus shooting when in a deer stand. While I relish shooting birds on the wing, and will occasionally pull the trigger on a deer to eat, sometimes it is more enjoyable just to watch, be it deer, turkeys, bobcats, foxes, etc.......
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so"
Mark Twain
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Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:42 pm

Deltaman wrote:What a cool video Dave!!!! I'm with you on the watching versus shooting when in a deer stand. While I relish shooting birds on the wing, and will occasionally pull the trigger on a deer to eat, sometimes it is more enjoyable just to watch, be it deer, turkeys, bobcats, foxes, etc.......


As I get older I get as much enjoyment from watching, unnoticed, as I do taking a deer. Don't get me wrong though, if the freezers in need I'll take one, but the ducks will now fill my sausage needs. The scaup are in trouble this year. :D
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Re: Post Season

Postby Rick » Tue Jul 24, 2018 1:59 pm

Way too much like a dog for me to think about shooting one.

Re:scaup, we dang sure shot and were glad to have 'em last November.
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Tue Jul 24, 2018 2:27 pm

Rick wrote:Way too much like a dog for me to think about shooting one.

They make really nice coats. To shoot one just to shoot one, I don't see the point. However, to trap and sell as I used to tag along with my Dad and did a bit myself :thumbsup: I wish I had the time to trap. I really enjoyed doing that, but it is a huge time commitment.

Anybody ever hold a live fox in their hand? I did when I was probably 10. My Dad caught a fox. He dispatched it, or so he thought. He handed it to me to hold up so the blood wouldn't get on the fur. Then it started sneezing :shock: I was very good. I didn't scared or drop it, just handed it back to my Dad :lol:
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Re: Post Season

Postby Rick » Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:13 pm

When my Aunt Molly got divorced, she had next to nothing and moved back into the family farm house, high on a hill in WVa. The drill there was to burn all burnable trash, bury the non burnable and toss organic stuff that wasn't turned into the garden well over the hill for the critters. One of the later that showed up was a red fox that she eventually lured into eating his scraps in the yard, just off the back porch.

Then in late winter, when his pelt was at its most valuable, she shot him. Given the givens, even my grandfather would have approved, and he forbid the killing of red foxes, because unlike grays (the killing of which he encouraged), they'd run for the dogs he and his buddies loved listening to, rather than treeing. I both trapped and called them to the gun (especially over snow on moonlit nights) elsewhere in my youth. But I did a lot of things then that I wouldn't now.
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Tue Jul 24, 2018 6:02 pm

I miss trapping. For me, it's just more in touch with the environment and the critters than hunting. I never did a lot of it, but was lucky and caught quite a variety of things. My nickname the owner of the outdoor shop I used to frequent was the Beaver Trapper. At that time, it had just become legal to trap beaver in PA. Literally no one in the area had ever caught one. I found two areas where some beavers had moved in an caught three of them. Simply unheard of at that time and place. You had to call a warden and get them to come and tag them before you could sell them. So I met the warden at the outdoor shop three times. After that, every time I stopped in, it was there the beaver trapper :lol:
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Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:02 pm

Anyone down here know of any farmers that do no till?
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Re: Post Season

Postby Ducaholic » Wed Jul 25, 2018 1:56 pm

DComeaux wrote:Anyone down here know of any farmers that do no till?



My farmer does no till on my place until I’m done dove hunting and I don’t see all the waste grain folks mention scattered about and his equipment is far from ultra modern.
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:12 pm

Ducaholic wrote:
DComeaux wrote:Anyone down here know of any farmers that do no till?



My farmer does no till on my place until I’m done dove hunting and I don’t see all the waste grain folks mention scattered about and his equipment is far from ultra modern.

What kind of grain?

It's only corn that I see a lot of the waste grain. I'm sure there is more in the soybean fields, but the beans don't stand up to the weather like the corn so it doesn't last. Plus it is not bright yellow and come on cobs.
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Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:14 pm

Ducaholic wrote:
DComeaux wrote:Anyone down here know of any farmers that do no till?



My farmer does no till on my place until I’m done dove hunting and I don’t see all the waste grain folks mention scattered about and his equipment is far from ultra modern.



Thanks. I haven't walked fields of no till operations and it makes it hard to debate the issue, other than I'd assume today's machines the are far more efficient then those of years past.
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Re: Post Season

Postby Ducaholic » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:24 pm

DComeaux wrote:
Ducaholic wrote:
DComeaux wrote:Anyone down here know of any farmers that do no till?



My farmer does no till on my place until I’m done dove hunting and I don’t see all the waste grain folks mention scattered about and his equipment is far from ultra modern.



Thanks. I haven't walked fields of no till operations and it makes it hard to debate the issue, other than I'd assume today's machines the are far more efficient then those of years past.



I think what's important to remember is there are millions of acres of no till so even if the waste grain estimates are not as abundant as what is being stated it's still a lot of area for waterfowl to feed unmolested until it snows. I think there are several factors to be considered is my point.
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Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:58 pm

Ducaholic wrote:
DComeaux wrote:
Ducaholic wrote:
DComeaux wrote:Anyone down here know of any farmers that do no till?



My farmer does no till on my place until I’m done dove hunting and I don’t see all the waste grain folks mention scattered about and his equipment is far from ultra modern.



Thanks. I haven't walked fields of no till operations and it makes it hard to debate the issue, other than I'd assume today's machines the are far more efficient then those of years past.



I think what's important to remember is there are millions of acres of no till so even if the waste grain estimates are not as abundant as what is being stated it's still a lot of area for waterfowl to feed unmolested until it snows. I think there are several factors to be considered is my point.


I agree.
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:08 pm

Ducaholic wrote:I think what's important to remember is there are millions of acres of no till so even if the waste grain estimates are not as abundant as what is being stated it's still a lot of area for waterfowl to feed unmolested until it snows.
We have large number of birds that spend all winter. They clearly are not starving, so there has to be something for them to eat all winter long. Even after it snows, that is not sufficient. The snow has to be deep enough to push them out. The hunting is normally best after we get a good snow cover. Go look at my 2016-2017 log and you'll see a lot of dead birds in the snow and not just Canadas and mallards but we even picked up 3 gadwalls in the frozen tundra. They are not going to stick around long with no food and clearly there is enough food available that even with inches of snow on the ground they can still find enough food to hold the birds.
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Re: Post Season

Postby DComeaux » Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:13 pm

Just let the birds come down, spinner, just let em go.
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:37 pm

DComeaux wrote:Just let the birds come down, spinner, just let em go.

You'll have to close all the power plants and other warm water discharges up here.

Unfortunately, for over a month I can do nothing but watch the ducks while I'm goose hunting. I'll try to wave them on this season and see if that helps you.
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Re: Post Season

Postby Ducaholic » Wed Jul 25, 2018 4:51 pm

Spinner I agree that there is a large segment of the waterfowl population that will never ever get past the Arkansas line regardless of what type of winter comes our way. I’d also add it’s a good thing they don’t.:)
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:31 pm

Ducaholic wrote:Spinner I agree that there is a large segment of the waterfowl population that will never ever get past the Arkansas line regardless of what type of winter comes our way. I’d also add it’s a good thing they don’t.:)

I think the other thing is that those that do aren't necessarily sticking around for long. The birds that show when it freezes hard and then disappear when it warms, they aren't heading south. I'd assume the birds that do head further south exhibit the same behavior. Louisiana is only around 200 miles or so from north to south. Mallards can move hundreds of miles in a day. It's nothing for them to fly 20 miles one way just for lunch. Hear today. Gone tomorrow. Some are happy north of the snow line. Others like to stay out of the ice. But whatever their preference, I suspect the move quite a bit with the weather. It's certainly what I see. I'm sure they have good data on this somewhere. You've probably seen the satellite tracking heat maps that indicate where the concentrations of birds are. The are not nice and well behaved but constantly in flux.

I think a bigger fraction of ducks that I am seeing late season are park ducks that are more resident birds than migratory birds like we see with Canada geese populations. However, these resident birds, if like the geese, attract and hold more of the migratory ones than was the case in the past for the same reasons we have more geese than in the past. I'm just guessing on this.

The other thing I know is that the birds that pass through earlier in the season. They very quickly learn where the hunting pressure is and where it is not and they stick to it.
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Re: Post Season

Postby Rick » Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:34 pm

In the Mid Ohio Valley, where I first got serious about waterfowling, we were apparently well off any major flyway and seldom saw other than pet/park mallards in any numbers until there was deep snow above and, perhaps, around us to push them into our river moderated area of generally lighter snows. So shooting mallards in mid November was a pleasant surprise when I moved down here in '83. (A not so pleasant one being the percentage of ducks that could resist the charms of what I thought surely the Valley's finest caller.)

But I never thought of this part of SWLA as having a whole lot of mallards until their boom in the late '90s and peaking in 2000-2001.
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Re: Post Season

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:07 pm

Rick wrote:So shooting mallards in mid November was a pleasant surprise when I moved down here in '83.

In a good year, and we don't get many. We get a lot of mallards pass through in November. We are not on the main routes, but we are not that far off. So when conditions are right quite a few pass through that are actually heading much further south. In a bad year, we don't see a damn thing until everything starts to get frozen hard. We haven't had a good November since 2011. 2011 was a crazy good year for us and every year since has been nearly a complete bust for November mallards.

December is always a question of the weather. Does it freeze hard enough so they concentrate on the cooling lakes and open segments of the river. There's a stretch of river not far from my house that is not open to hunting and rarely freezes that gets packed full of them. I like to stop by and walk out on the bridge and watch them some times.

I looked at my data and it was up and down prior to 2011. Then 2011 was well over double our best prior year and then it has been a complete bust since then. I've shot nearly the same number of mallards in November over the last 6 seasons as I did the first season hunting here when I really had no clue what I was doing. We are very over do for a good year. Our club had our blind drawings a little over a week ago. I got an early pick for rotations and I have the absolute best blind the week of Thanksgiving and a new blind we added that I think will be a killer blind the first week of December that will be easy to break ice since it is one of the few blinds with shallow water that you can wade. So I'm in good shape if we actually get mallards to pass through. Not to mention, I have one of the top wood duck blinds for the opening week. I'm as set as I can be, but now the weather and the birds just need to cooperate.
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Re: Post Season

Postby Rick » Thu Jul 26, 2018 4:29 am

About to head out to Grand Chenier. Tiger Island school section is the closest I know we'll be to your piece, but there's a new marsh or two that might bring us closer. Probably still north of the road, though.
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Re: Post Season

Postby Darren » Thu Jul 26, 2018 7:16 am

Rick wrote:About to head out to Grand Chenier. Tiger Island school section is the closest I know we'll be to your piece, but there's a new marsh or two that might bring us closer. Probably still north of the road, though.



Got more reports of "low" to "no" water in the marsh down that way yesterday, and also references to places airboats can't access as you've referenced; think it's north of the highway stuff. One even mentioned riding an ATV around in the dried up marsh
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