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
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Its not like it aint cold enough.
