Where are they?

[Rob R.]

From 1974-75 we hunted the backwaters of the Mississippi across from Memphis and Shelby County. I remember it being mostly wood ducks. From 76-79 I hunted with my best friend. Mostly hunting the flooded timber along the White river in Arkansas, Mud Lake in Mississippi and several areas along the Mississippi river levee. Any place that had decent water holes we would hunt.
I think it was 79 or 80 that we started seeing a large drop in duck numbers especially Mallards. I think the poor numbers were blamed on several consecutive years of poor hatches but I don't remember what caused the poor hatches. I could be wrong but I think a Suzy was 100 points. If you accidentally killed one you were done for the day as the point system was in effect then. That's when I picked up the rifle and gave up on the ducks.
We were just kids trying to hunt ducks wherever we could. If we could find some decent water holes we usually found ducks.

 

[Displaced_Vol]

Yeah I don't know but I just don't buy that theory. I think they are adapting to pressure and possibly even learning about season dates. I think the mallards will come again but it looks like it will have to be extremes like prolonged cold+ snow or big Mississippi backwaters.

The biggest concentrations of ducks I have seen didn't come because it was cold they came because of the water.

Very well may have nothing to do with it, but once I heard them talk about the physical shapes of ducks starting to change and how it changes the way they behave it caught my attention. And I think there is a lot of site fidelity in these different pockets of birds so it may be more of an issue for the cohort of ducks that mostly next as "X" location and mostly winter at "Y" location. Either way I am glad there are people looking into it.

I totally agree with you about the water, at least at most of the spots I haunt now. I'd take natural water over weather every day of the week if I had to pick between the two.

 

[Bgoodman30]

Very well may have nothing to do with it, but once I heard them talk about the physical shapes of ducks starting to change and how it changes the way they behave it caught my attention. And I think there is a lot of site fidelity in these different pockets of birds so it may be more of an issue for the cohort of ducks that mostly next as "X" location and mostly winter at "Y" location. Either way I am glad there are people looking into it.

I totally agree with you about the water, at least at most of the spots I haunt now. I'd take natural water over weather every day of the week if I had to pick between the two.

Yeah water can spread them out in the short term but usually come to. Some of my best seasons had high water. Remember many times having to restring decoys because the water was so high. That seems like a distant memory now and hasn't happened for at least 4 years. Maybe that is a big part of the problem. 4 years is a long time to a duck..

 

[Wooden Arrow]

I don't get you duck guys. It's fun to arrange the spread and watch the dog, but besides that, I'd rather walk 100 miles turkey hunting just for 1 gobble.

i hunt both, but haven't gone duck hunting for several years. even the local wood duck population is way down now. used to see loads of them drifting the river for smallmouth, nada now. turkey numbers not what they were 5 or 6 years ago either. last gobbler i heard was killed by someone that got in between us while i was calling...