The golden years for ducks are gone....

There absolutely has been some sort of shift in the Mississippi flyway. I don't know what caused it, but it's pretty evident.

As much as I love to deer hunt these days I sure do miss blasting mallards every morning

Ducks behavior in Louisiana has definitely changed. Sadly rather quickly. The rice fields in SW La. used to be a haven. Not anymore. Also marsh activity has slowed to a crawl. Reports say there are plenty of ducks but they aren't here. I believe it is a combination of several factors and there are probably more than I am aware of.

the golden age here is dwindling... no doubt..


in addition to good habitat north due to changing farming/land use practices...

degraded habitat here is huge...

and NOBODY that was in the marshes 30-40 years ago can deny the sheer number of boats in "duck" country fishing or just running about is having an impact.

by degraded habitat - marsh loss/degradation - less acreage devoted to moist soil farming. less desireable aquatic vegetation - the list is long...


my fear is that ducks are being imprinted not to use certain areas now... like canada geese were a generation before us(us meaning old farts like me)... granted we have had a good year - but we have really had to go to extremes to do it. and we have greatly restricted how much we are hunting our blinds.... honestly though - the only reason I hunt is for watching dogs work and working with dogs.... if it came to it I'd go shoot black birds and crows. but to see almost no new birds despite the recent weather - is mind boggling..


also keep in mind that states like ND and SD have 5 and 6 times the number of non resident waterfowlers that they did 20 years ago.. motion dekes thinning out young ducks at much higher rates up north.....


and the phenomenon of ducks coming into ag fields at night and leaving before first light nobody knows if this was happening years ago... I know in january of 82.. jan 10 -14... when we had a record cold blast... I killed 10 ducks (sprigs, teal and widgeon) every day after school the week of that front - and I could have done it before school too.....I am not aware of any place in la that has ducks like that this week..... but I am in aware of places in TX and OK and MO that have it like that.... years ago they certainly did not..... january 11 it was 10 degrees at my house - it was was also the fastest 10 duck limit I ever had....

Look at the loss of rice acreage in coastal Texas and Louisiana. Specklebelly geese are now using Arkansas as the prime wintering grounds versus the coast of Texas and Louisiana 15+ years ago. Ducks have somewhat followed, although even Arkansas doesn't see the same amount of mallards as they did years ago. I think that no till farming up north, less rice acreage being available, and weather have caused the changes. The coastal marshes always will attract and hold a lot of ducks but their numbers seem down the last few seasons also. These days it takes a large snow to cover food for huge numbers of mallards to migrate south where 15 years ago that wasn't quite the case.

Pressure is also so high on these birds. They get shot at under a gazillion mojos starting in Canada in September. We need to lower the limit and I would be happy to see mojo's be outlawed. They don't work that well on water but for anyone who has hunted over one in a dry field (like up north) it's unreal.

Probably just not enough hunters to scare the birds up.

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And no-till farming practices in the midwest states keeps the food source on top of snow in those areas.

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I don't know about on top of the snow, but no-till has left more food available than under previous systems. And I do believe that is a major factor, especially in years where the midwest is not covered in snow and waterways are not frozen.

Increasing rice acreage in Arkansas does not help either. As long as there is food available north of Louisiana, mallards and the hardier ducks won't make the long trips like they used to.

The name of the game for ducks (and any wildlife for that matter) is survival. It's a lot easier to survive when you aren't exhausting energy and fat reserves by migrating further than is necessary.

Also take in account the fact that stretches of Mississippi and North Louisiana have dedicated a good percentage of ag land to CRP tree programs to better their deer hunting. And what land is still farmed, has been precision leveled to drain water, cleaned up low spots and turn rows. The result is far less flooded ag land in these areas.

they are definitely imprinting. We (the federal govt) made habitat and they adjusted. additionally this is being supplemented by huge private investment around these refuges as the yearly counts continue to grow. IE individuals buying large tracts and putting water on them creates even bigger habitat to the north.

heck I can remember riding down 190 from west of eunice to br and seeing scores of ducks from the side of the road...

and riding up 71 or 49.... say around 1999/2000.... and the numbers of birds visible from the road were staggering...

that is no longer that case..... not even close...


of course back in 1982 we also killed limits of wild quail - where I hunted in 82 - the same 600 acres probably hasn't killed 50 birds this year.....



and crawfish ponds are simply not ideal duck habitat...

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This is also the first time that I am hearing many people that I talk with and have hunted with over the years.. talk about giving it up.....ie.. or spending 10-15 days up north and then just occasionally hunting....

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I think i'm done with it, I don't have time to waste currently, and when i'm in the boat thinking about all the other stuff I could be productively doing, and not seeing crap to boot, kinda drives the point home.

Think i'll start sac a lait fishing or something. I hear those finicky bastards are even more of a challenge. But at least they can't be short-stopping in Missoura.