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Where are they?

megalomaniac said:
I'm not a duck hunter, but got an invite to hunt the central MS delta this weekend. Hunted 3x, we didn't pull the trigger a single time. Hardly heard any shots. There just aren't ducks in the MS delta right now.
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It's prime duck hunting conditions. The days we dream of and reports are pretty dismal. Some scattered success. Duck hunting is becoming a past time… Sad state
 
Bgoodman30 said:
It's prime duck hunting conditions. The days we dream of and reports are pretty dismal. Some scattered success. Duck hunting is becoming a past time… Sad state
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Guys I was a guest of have zero sense.... paid $6000 for 200 ac flooded rice this year. Haven't killed a single duck off it.

The other 2 hunts were on their main club... 1600 acres just southwest of Greenwood against the hills across from Matthew's Brake. 5 holes chock full of flooded millet and milo. Not a single duck on them.

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.
 
megalomaniac said:
Guys I was a guest of have zero sense.... paid $6000 for 200 ac flooded rice this year. Haven't killed a single duck off it.

The other 2 hunts were on their main club... 1600 acres just southwest of Greenwood against the hills across from Matthew's Brake. 5 holes chock full of flooded millet and milo. Not a single duck on them.

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.
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Can't even watch the dog work on anything besides biscuits when it's like that
 
megalomaniac said:
Guys I was a guest of have zero sense.... paid $6000 for 200 ac flooded rice this year. Haven't killed a single duck off it.

The other 2 hunts were on their main club... 1600 acres just southwest of Greenwood against the hills across from Matthew's Brake. 5 holes chock full of flooded millet and milo. Not a single duck on them.

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.
Click to expand...
I'm not a duck hunter either. Been invited and hunt a couple times around the house when we get them on farm ponds. But what my buddies spend on duck hunting to not fire a shot is absolutely crazy to me. But all say the same thing when they do it and do it right it's a sight to see. I haven't ever been on a good hunt so wouldn't know.

I will say this as a deer and huge turkey guy. It seems to me that ducks and duck hunting is getting dangerously close to a point of no return.

Can anything be done? If so what? Seems like to many people not enough good spots? What does it look like on 5 or 10 years? Has to be frustrating to the guys that have been doing it for years. I know for me what happened to turkeys in the last 10 years the flares went up and for the most part hunters came together way before wildlife agencies. Is that what needs to happen?
 
megalomaniac said:
Guys I was a guest of have zero sense.... paid $6000 for 200 ac flooded rice this year. Haven't killed a single duck off it.

The other 2 hunts were on their main club... 1600 acres just southwest of Greenwood against the hills across from Matthew's Brake. 5 holes chock full of flooded millet and milo. Not a single duck on them.

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.
Click to expand...
Listening to my dog whine when there are no retrieves to be had is insult to injury. I can't even get mad about it anymore. I feel for him…
 
megalomaniac said:
Guys I was a guest of have zero sense.... paid $6000 for 200 ac flooded rice this year. Haven't killed a single duck off it.

The other 2 hunts were on their main club... 1600 acres just southwest of Greenwood against the hills across from Matthew's Brake. 5 holes chock full of flooded millet and milo. Not a single duck on them.

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.
Click to expand...
A farm by our old place sold for almost 3million and it may shoot 50-100 ducks on a good year IF it gets water.. You're right zero sense.. It seems like folks keep throwing money at it even though success has dropped way off…
 
Bgoodman30 said:
I don't buy this as even being a small part of the reason in the MS flyway.
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I honestly "hope" it is part of the problem. I do not know that's it's the biggest problem but the way I look at it is-
if releasing game farm mallards is affecting (effecting? I never know) the migratory instinct & overall physiology of a wild mallard duck, that is a problem that is "easier" to fix than the vast majority of the problems us mid & southern latitude hunters face.
Bringing back potholes in the prairies & hoping the weather changes are much steeper hills to climb IMO.
 
Displaced_Vol said:
I honestly "hope" it is part of the problem. I do not know that's it's the biggest problem but the way I look at it is-
if releasing game farm mallards is affecting (effecting? I never know) the migratory instinct & overall physiology of a wild mallard duck, that is a problem that is "easier" to fix than the vast majority of the problems us mid & southern latitude hunters face.
Bringing back potholes in the prairies & hoping the weather changes are much steeper hills to climb IMO.
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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.
 
Im no biologist but did not domesticated mallards originate from wild mallards? I would think those engrained migratory traits would be somewhere in the DNA chain of both wild and domestic ducks (yes I know a domestic mallard very likely wont migrate) . The theory does interest me though. At this point any explanation of what's going on interests me. Cause I have no earthly idea anymore. Right now, my gut tells me it's climate (water and warmer winters) PLUS the 1% farms (big money, DU, Delta) hoarding. Who knows?
 
WilcoKen said:
Im no biologist but did not domesticated mallards originate from wild mallards? I would think those engrained migratory traits would be somewhere in the DNA chain of both wild and domestic ducks (yes I know a domestic mallard very likely wont migrate) . The theory does interest me though. At this point any explanation of what's going on interests me. Cause I have no earthly idea anymore. Right now, my gut tells me it's climate (water and warmer winters) PLUS the 1% farms (big money, DU, Delta) hoarding. Who knows?
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My bird dogs descended from wolves but I can't make a wolf from a bird dog. As we domesticate and selectively breed animals, wild traits are no longer needed or wanted and accidentally get bred out.

Kinda like pen raised quail vs wild quail- there's a lot in that DNA that tells a quail how to not get eaten, where to hide, how to find food, etc. that's lost when they're domesticated. And don't forget about giant Canada geese- once they were thought extinct but brought back from farm stock, but in the process lost the drive or knowledge to migrate.
 

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