Post-Season 2018

[Darren]

Looks good! I took a ride at our place yesterday to do a little bass fishing. Lots of good duck foods around and the threat of salvinia is low.
But like you say we are still a little ways out and a lot can happen. I always like how green everything is in the marsh during the summers and teal season

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Plain green t-shirt is about the most effective camo pattern there is for our coastal marshes in Sept

[Darren]

Another week of advancing drought:

Drought Monitor July 19, 2018.JPG

[DComeaux]

Looks like habitat flats is in the red.

[SpinnerMan]

Northern Missouri is getting rain right now. I think that's the system that is supposed to dump an inch on us tomorrow. I don't work tomorrow and I was planning to get out on the river again, but thunderstorms and an inch of rain don't make for a fun day on the river We could use some rain. Not quite that much, and couldn't they schedule it mid week.

I guess I can start working on my archery stand and duck blind assuming it doesn't storm all day. Only 44 days to early goose and 74 days to archery. It will go quick.

[Ducaholic]

Looks like habitat flats is in the red.

Just means he has to turn on the pumps.

[Darren]

Looks like habitat flats is in the red.

Maybe on this map, but not financially I'm sure at the rates they're getting

[Darren]

Looks like habitat flats is in the red.

Just means he has to turn on the pumps.

That's fine, and others with the means will do the same, but it's still grounds for celebrating on our end. Pumped water will be pressured water, and drought cuts out all the ability to for birds to spread out and loaf in peace with less incentive to move along

[Ericdc]

Wonder if Tony hopes for hurricanes to hit the Louisiana coast


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[Ducaholic]

Looks like habitat flats is in the red.

Just means he has to turn on the pumps.

That's fine, and others with the means will do the same, but it's still grounds for celebrating on our end. Pumped water will be pressured water, and drought cuts out all the ability to for birds to spread out and loaf in peace with less incentive to move along

Not arguing but I would think that's the norm more years than not. The key is a well timed cold front in late October or very early November to help move them along.

[DComeaux]

Wonder if Tony hopes for hurricanes to hit the Louisiana coast


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Why would he do that? Don't you think that's a bit extreme for someone to wish for the destruction of property and loss of life for a duck? I only made the comment that he was in a drought. You've been hanging out on ducksouth too long.

[DComeaux]

Looks like habitat flats is in the red.

Maybe on this map, but not financially I'm sure at the rates they're getting

I thought about that when I finished typing it.... He's full up for years.

[SpinnerMan]

but it's still grounds for celebrating on our end.

Why would he do that? Don't you think that's a bit extreme for someone to wish for the destruction of property and loss of life for a duck?

I think this is what he was referring to sarcastically and not your comment. Celebrating a drought is a bit extreme precisely because it hurts a lot of people's livelihoods. I know I cringed a little when I read that.

[DComeaux]

but it's still grounds for celebrating on our end.

Why would he do that? Don't you think that's a bit extreme for someone to wish for the destruction of property and loss of life for a duck?

I think this is what he was referring to sarcastically and not your comment. Celebrating a drought is a bit extreme precisely because it hurts a lot of people's livelihoods. I know I cringed a little when I read that.

I agree, and wish no farmer a drought. I grew up on a farm and know the struggles. With that said, he's not a farmer, and he'll do just fine if his bait isn't all that. I doubt his customers will cancel, and imprinting will bring them, regardless.

[Rick]

Being next to a major refuge is his real habitat secret.

[DComeaux]

Being next to a major refuge is his real habitat secret.

You don’t hear many folks talk about that, but that’s huge.

He is, and it's probably loaded with corn. It's his holding pen.

[Darren]

I'd never hope for something to impact farmers' lives but I can be applaud all I want that the ever-improving collection of habitat to our north is less likely to be in optimal condition, giving migrators less reason to hang around longer than otherwise. That's all it's about, folks, not wishing a farmer's crop dries out.............well, unless he's purely duck farming like DC tells us about.

[Ducaholic]

Being next to a major refuge is his real habitat secret.

Vandoemore made no bones about it in a recent interview recently on ducksouth. He's farming for ducks and his goal is to start holding the early migrants in October for as long as possible with moist soil units and then when the mallards arrive he does the same with combinations of food sources that include several grain varieties including corn.

But you right Rick he didn't pick his location by accident.

[Rick]

...with moist soil units...

Best ag land place I know is a section farmed for a weed rice farmers hate, indigo. They considered corn after seeing ducks use a neighbor's unhunted flooded corn, but decided indigo was easier and about as effective.

[Ducaholic]

...with moist soil units...

Best ag land place I know is a section farmed for a weed rice farmers hate, indigo. They considered corn after seeing ducks use a neighbor's unhunted flooded corn, but decided indigo was easier and about as effective.

[Darren]

This week's drought update as we prepare to flip the calendar to August. Interesting that N/NW MO is so dry but Nebraska is shown as normal. Just came back from a short trip there and it was awfully green across the corn and bean fields, even saw a fair many ducks in some swampy looking areas off the road (just south of Omaha area).

drought monitor july 26, 2018.JPG

[DComeaux]

POP the corn.

[SpinnerMan]

I wonder if this will push birds to the east.

I found this site which was interesting. You can compare two drought maps side by side.

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Maps/CompareTwoWeeks.aspx

The drought map at the end of October for our best year by far.



And the drought map right now.



I'm definitely wanting to see some similarities.

[Darren]

Spinner, so the premise is that they were lured east of usual flyway paths (toward you, I presume in Illinois?) because it was wetter? Your premise would seem to make sense, thanks a lot for the link! What year are you comparing to?

I went ahead and compared a known year of very good teal season for me (2011) and this year and it's definitely drier this year. 2008 was also a very good teal numbers year for Louisiana, think it's the highest in the last 10 years, and this year is far drier on flyway than that, so of course we are guaranteed piles of teal by that comparison alone

[SpinnerMan]

so the premise is that they were lured east of usual flyway paths (toward you, I presume in Illinois?) because it was wetter? Your premise would seem to make sense, thanks a lot for the link! What year are you comparing to?

I compared late October 2011 with the present. That year we just had cooperative mallards moving through week after week. We shot mallards from the first week of November all the way to the first week of December.

And yes, I'm in NE Illinois. I hunt two different clubs. The one is about 40 miles due west of the southern tip of Lake Michigan and I hunt there until we get froze out. Then I move about 30 miles due south and hunt near the Braidwood cooling lake until the end of January.

I think it is much more wishful thinking than anything, but isn't that what keeps us going?

[Darren]

so the premise is that they were lured east of usual flyway paths (toward you, I presume in Illinois?) because it was wetter? Your premise would seem to make sense, thanks a lot for the link! What year are you comparing to?

I compared late October 2011 with the present. That year we just had cooperative mallards moving through week after week. We shot mallards from the first week of November all the way to the first week of December.

And yes, I'm in NE Illinois. I hunt two different clubs. The one is about 40 miles due west of the southern tip of Lake Michigan and I hunt there until we get froze out. Then I move about 30 miles due south and hunt near the Braidwood cooling lake until the end of January.

I think it is much more wishful thinking than anything, but isn't that what keeps us going?

Absolutely! You just gotta go to know......have had awful hunts in great conditions, have had stellar shooting in deplorable (hot, muggy, no wind, for example) conditions.