Put no motor restrictions like they did on the Delta and make people really hunt.

Duck population in Henderson Lake, La.

We used to see huge concentrations of mallards in the flooded timber/cypress swamps. You could jump shoot mallards in a pirogue easily. Not anymore. The mallards altered their habits like any animal would to an easier lifestyle. There are more crawfish ponds and rice fields now around the Atchafalaya basin than ever before, by far. The birds just hang out there. What we see in Henderson and Indian Bayou WMA today are just stragglers on a quick stop from one field to the next. I think controlled baiting is the answer. Give them a reason to come around and stay. I guarantee if a hundred sacks of corn were spread over the north flats everyone would be a happy hunter. You can bait deer so what the hell is the difference with respect to ducks....are they sacred like the Hindu cow or something. Ducks are really stupid when it comes to good food.

I dont think there are as many ducks as there used to be anywhere. 10 years ago seemed like it was a lot easier to find em.

I hunted it in the early 80's. I hunted out of 20 foot manchack skiff a open hull with no passenger seats so I could put my decked over twoman pirouge flat on the floor. I it made just for the wax, 6" square tunnel 18" wide full lenght raceing pad, 65 hp tiller johnson. 53 MPh with full load. It would runn so shallow that you could see the impression of the boat in the soft mud and the ditch the prop made. You did not stop, power through and hope you did not hit hard sand. I had 3 pieces of 2" pvc pipe in the boat. If I ran aground and did not float, I would roll the boat out until it did in about 10"or a foot of water ,then I was gone. I shot my first green head there. The ducks and geese would make so much noise during the night it was hard to sleep. I never saw a goose during legal shooting hours.

JD

You guys be careful in the Wax this weekend and good luck!


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I been hunting the New Orleans area for 40 years. Mostly the reggio,hopedale area. When i started Very few would spend the money on a Go-Devil long tail the only mudmotor avaible back then. It was outboards or true mudboats. I think I was the first to use a go-devil in the reggio area. The duck population took a down turn,we had a point system then a 3 duck limit. After opening weekend
of deer season You might see 5 trucks in the reggio launch hunting. pressure went up when the limit moved up to six a little but hunting was still good

.Then the higher speed surface drives became avaible. The longtails were a duckhunting tool of limited range, the SD change all of that. The ducks could no long hide! 6 guys with SD would put more pressure on the ducks than 25 guys with longtails. The so called scouting of areas you have no right to hunt is pushing the ducks out. Ducks would feed at night and avoid the marsh during the day. It did not just happen in Reggio, I am sure it was going on where ever ducks are found in #'s.

The coastal loss is impacting the hunting some. What was the nail in the coffin of duckhunting in South Louisiana was when Farmers were steered to No till farming . Crops are harvested up and down the flyway leaving more feed , than you could afford to put if you were baiting. There is duck hunting pressure down the fly way like never before because there are huntable # where there were none before. They found out that duckhunting was fun and worse yet there was money to be made. About 14 years ago I stopped seeing the vast #s of ducks like I use to. We have great feed now, this morning I may have seen 150 ducks, 15 years ago I might have seen a thousand, even when the # were down we found easy 3 bird limits. The fly way has changed, Ducks don't put up with the harassment and move on. Fewer birds come down by habit, if feed is available they stay until it is gone, frozen are the are pushed out. Fewer birds come down because the are being shot in #'s never seen before in places not known for duckhunting.


I am afraid my grandchildren will never see the kind of hunting I have in the south.

JD

^ great post.

Yep. Same story different area. Overwhelming pressure is what's wrong with La duck hunting. There is somebody behind every clump of grass on almost every piece of suitable duck habitat in the state. When the birds do show up foks do everything they can to push them out as fast as possible. Its no wonder the birds find other places to go (don't just look north). If we want to do something about hunt quality we need to regulate the pressure. Things like cutting hunting at a certain time of day, putting in "off the water" times, reducing or rotating the days that a spot can be hunted, motor restrictions(HP or type) , daily quotas (gasp!), reduced limits for certain areas, or the easiest of them all- shells limits.

Shell limits would do more to fix our problems then all the other stuff and its likely the easiest to implement and would draw the least criticisms. There is nothing worse than seeing a place holding 10,000+ birds get burned out in a day by retards that carry 2-3+ boxes of shells with them and shoot at everything inside 80 yards all morning long. Excessive shooting is by far the fastest way to ruin a spot. Birds will put up with a whole lot of motor traffic but any bird that's near by when shots ring out is pretty much a bird gone for everybody. My opinion would be a 20 shell max but even limiting it to one box of 25 could likely make a huge difference in the heavily pressured areas.

Unrealistic and dumb. People don't follow the rules now so do you think that they would with online registration? How would you enforce this, Mr Attorney? Is shell limits going to stop people from sky blasting or educating ducks? I don't know why I waste by breath with your posts.

I am a firm believer that DU is full of crap. They mean well don't get me wrong but they have to justify the memberships by modifying the duck estimates. I am glad to see the projects that went on around by me but I think 90% of the money and funding should go into the prairie pot hole region and the nesting grounds in Canada. Screw the pacific flyway, they have enough birds. The hell with the Atlantic, those east coasters are satisfied with shooting sea ducks. Central has all the snows they can shoot. My best years were in the late 80's when the big money marshes by me were flying crop dusters making it rain corn. Every year it is the same thing for me. I do great opening day and it sucks until now when birds are confined to whatever open water is left. For example a guy posted a pic of a ton of birds in a lake in Oklahoma. I THOUGHT OKLAHOMA WAS A FRICKIN DUST BOWL STATE!!!!!!!! These pictures drive me crazy and I will say it again ARKANSAS SHOOTS MORE BIRDS OPENING DAY THAN OHIO DOES ALL YEAR. I feel better now...........until I see another pic of 10,000 mallards in a pond by you lucky SOB's

Agree with the Canada nesting ground part....


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DGuidry's priorities are fouled up - he's a liberal, it's inevitable. The simple fact that he hunts is a contradiction in terms alone which is difficult to fathom in itself. Gun Rights, Hunting Regs, etc...etc...


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When I first moved to Lafayette I was told about the wax. I started hunting it with a 50 merc. Back then I read the sportsman on line and quit because of whining like this. Assholes have always been there they just own surface drives now.

Now a box of shells limit might work according to a guy I work with who hunt bayou meto who hunted there for years before the restrictions. On the wma's along the coast the tide usually weeds down the idiots.

But y'all are a bunch of idiots if you think more restrictions will make everything better. The facts are this year has Ben slow last year hunting same areas I was stacking them up. Your dealing with nature so suck it up and enjoy it.

^^^^^^


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That's just it you dumb fuck. In 8 years it has went to shit.