I hunt just about all of mississippi and have been everywhere from the salt marshes where i live up to the flooded timber of shipland management area and then up to the flooded rice and corn fields of Tunica where my family has land and i have yet to find the ducks that are here by the millions this time any other year. We have one field with over 200 bushels of race in it and only five ducks on it, we have 0 ducks in the marsh and only wood ducks in the timber. So my question is where are they??? Its not like it aint cold enough.

The depressing part of it all is that we have been told for the past 3 years that duck numbers are up over the preceeding season and most above the long term averages now. So I'm with you, where are all the ducks? Its been warm, its been cold and its been really cold with freezing record temps up north for some time now. My guess is they will show up in large numbers here in about 2 weeks............

yep, guarantee ya in february when the seasons been closed for about a week, they'll show up. always do and always have.

they need to start out season in december and run it through february. i think what migration is left, is showin up later.

yea and i know it sounds stupid but you can blamb alot of this on ducks unlimited that 22,000 acre land thing they got up north with the heated ponds and shat the ducks never need to come down anymore at least not until late in the season when its all over with i have never seen it this bad i always kill at least buffle heads and ring neck and hooded magansers and coots but even those have stopped showing up this has been my worst season since i started about 10 or so years ago and im only 15 and it gets alittle worse every year

You think its bad up north try coming down here and even shooting a duck, its to the point that you have to bait to get ducks cuss everyother person is and what few ducks there are have been shot at countless times and it just takes one out of place thing and they spook every time, we have only had two hunts where we really broke even in birds and the game wardens are more worried about the baited ponds and trying to bust you they have ruined a few hunts this year

i agree completly the ammo cost go up every year the stamp and liscens cost go up and now there are no birds it makes you wonder what you are actually doing sitting out there freezing, like phil robertson would say " what a man will do for a duck"

The reason that i hunt is becuse of my friends, my dad got me into duck hunting when i was three years old and i have been doing it ever since, for me there is nothing like taking a friend who have never been duck hunting into a good marsh pond and wathcing the teal and black mallards circle and buzz you thats what makes me come back every year and put so much money into it i dont know what i would do if i had to stop

I have been hunting Hopedale/Reggioi area for 25+ years. I not sure how long may be closer to 30. 10 years ago you could look up in the sky on opening morning and see flock after flock moving through, you would see 6 or 8 flocks at a time any where you look.

We got our limit every time, it may have only been 3 but we would always get them, and see plenty of ducks.

3 years ago I sat on opening morning in short sleeves and did not fire a shot and saw no birds. I have only shot 15 ducks all season, that was in 7 hunts. Two hunts we did not fire a shot. I have buddies across the canal who are doing better but not much. (I was broke down opening weekend and gone for Christmas the only times any one saw ducks.)

I think we have been hit from several directions at once.

The weather patterns have changed , and cold weather comes through much later.

The farmers no longer plow the harvest waste under leaving feed all the way down. This year many crops got left out due to flooding.

There is some short stopping going on, there some large areas of land that are managed for waterfowl with pumps in place to keep the water open .

They found out up north that duck hunting is fun and there is money to be made. There are many more birds being killed up north than ever before.

There are way to many mud motors in the marsh, when I got my first long tail 25 years ago I was the only hunter in the marsh using one. Every body and their brother has a SD that will run 30 mph. The birds have no safe harbor,they are pounded in the morning, in the evening and chased out during the day by hunters looking for birds on property they don't have the right to hunt. The week before the season it a traffic jam because of sight seeing.


We are not sending enough old birds back north with a strong imprint to fly south . If the ducks lose the imprint to fly south and there is a serve winter the ducks will take a hard hit. Its no longer enough to have grass in your pond. I have plenty of feed and so does a lot of the marsh in the south east la , and there is plenty of feed in the southwest la. We had cold weather to bring the birds down, but they are not here. They are most like scattered thin all they way down the flyway. They come down with the fronts move on or move in only at night. I just spoke to two top end outfitters in south west la, their bag is half of last year. This is my worse season ever, with the best conditions I seen in 6 or 7 years.

THE DUCKHUNTING THAT I GREW UP WITH IN THE DEEP SOUTH IS A THING OF THE PAST!!!!!

There is too much we can't control. They harvest more ducks up north than ever before. We can't stop the short stopping, or make them plow the crop waste.

We can take some of the pressure of the birds by out lawing evening hunts, and by hunting only 4 days a week. Closing the season nationally for 3 or 4 years would help, but thats not going to happen, too much money involed and the funding is need to continue what management there is. We are screwed!!!! I hope I am wrong!

JD

They're all in my freezer.

Man i hear you all. i am in Central AR and hunt all over the state. I scout constantly by either actually looking and riding, internet, and word of mouth. We hunt everyday possible. We have the best gear we can have. Study the migration, hunt fields, sloughs, timber and wherever else we can find em and we havent even broken 100 this year yet. Somethings got to give. It sickens me to look at all my gear and consider the time we put into it for such a small return on out investment.

You can buy all the gear you want but that doesn't mean ur supposed to kill ducks. It's the duck hunter behind said gear that matters. Not starting a fight, just making a statement, don't take it the wrong way.

I know where all the ducks are!!! And we gonna kill em this weekend!

im glad the shafer knows where they are cuss i sure the hell dont and its not like i have not been looking to date this season i have killed 8 mallards 12 black mallards and 12 teal and a few buffle heads and dogreys here and there and that may sound like a ok season but thats not even half of what we saw 6 years ago

now thats an idea!

They're here now, atleast in my neck of the woods, been that way for a while.

I saw more ducks this weekend than I ever have in my life. And I'm going back to get me some more.

This season has been horrible for me until last weekend. And I promise...Im making up for it!!!

Hell, I was seeing more birds last april than I did at any time during last season.

I have seen a few birds in the last week. Nothing to get impressed about though. I went the last 3 seasons without a scratch day but I have scratched several times this year.

Lots and lots of ducks in Old Mexico. We have alot birds over here in Texas but they are spread out. My lease is in Port Author Texas near the coast and so far I have hunted 16 times with 162 ducks and 22 geese currently gone from the population. We have about 1500 acres of fresh water marsh that is holding a couple thousand ducks and geese. Buddy of mine called today to tell me that a couple of our old beaver ponds are stacked up with greenies right now. Gonna wait until Saturday with the hard North wind and go whack-em. We will save the other one for the last day of the season. The Bay where I live is holding a large concentration of ducks as well you just need the weather to get em. Friday thru Sunday would be a good time to be out there with the wind blowing 15-25 mph. I do agree though I have been at it since I was 6 and the last time I remember consistant hunting years ended in the mid 90s.

I've just been informed that all our ducks have left....seriously.

Im one more with that deal. Look Iam only 28 but i remember just about everytime i went out up until about 4-5years ago it wasnt nothing to shot a 5 person limit in one blind, now you lucky to shot 4-5 ducks. For the longest time down here in southeast louisiana people i took with me would be freaking out on how many ducks were coming in at one time. It was almost to easy. Look im just a electrican so im not gonna even try to say that i know y but this SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! My opinion where i hunt is the number of mud motors. i cant say anything cause i have one but thats the problem. I bet if for 1-2 years if we started piroging it we would shot birds again. They have no where to sit. All of u know back in them days u could see 1000's of ducks back in some shallow shit but just didnt want to paddle though the mud. Just think about it???? At least the people around me.

I agree 100% on the mud motors deal...the only time that we kill ducks on the lake part of our lake is the day we get new ducks in or a few days after...after that they just plain get run off by all the people riding around cuz they dont have a place to rest without gettin jumped every 30 minutes or so....so when theres not any new ducks in we go after em in the woods or in pockets of water that you have to walk to to scout or hunt.

yea its the same way over here in south mississippi, i have not had a hunt this year where i limited out in any form of ducks the air boats start up at dawn and run till dark and then some, its pointless instead of slowly sneaking into the ponds and scouting at a long range they run right threw the middle of the ducks to get them to jump up or something being the owner of a mudboat i still wish they would ban them from running at certain times of day and i love the idea of making duck season like shrimping season when they show up you hunt when they are gone you dont hunt

Right mississippi i would like that kind of season to, but i just dont think thats its cause there not here its just there not where the boats are. See where i hunt the further u run out away from the boat launches and where running with mud motors seems to far the ducks r by the 1000's. they r just so preasured that they dont have time to do anything, so they kep going. Thats y it seems like after the season closes that they show up, NO there are not having 20 mud motors a day run and scare them up. And im not saying that them crooked DU dont have a little blame but 90% this the motors so what do u do.

R GIN TENA



We got birds hang all ove rus all year round these part of the woods. Sorry you fellas dont hav emore tiem to find the best spots.

I can tell ya i have driven over 15K mile just for birds this hunting season.......and that my frient is bull crap!!! will never do it again..........

All the ducks are in TX

stay out!!!!

MANCHAC!!!! All the ducks are in Manchac!!!

Tunica County, a friend went to do some gambling Sunday and said the ducks was sitting in the ditches and fields along hwy 61.