re: The golden years for ducks are gone....

Never said you didn't have knowledge or experience. Just that you are a blow hard.

and if I was a blowhard I would brag about the fact I have taken 2 former LA governors on duck hunts and when I had their ears about hunting - rather than angling for a spot on the WLF comm... I lobbied hard for more youth, handicap and disabled veteran locations and dates on WMA's... even when the said lobbying for these spots and dates soon made an area I hit a few times a year - off limits except for handicap hunts.

My sole reason for lobbying for that was by no means to benefit me or anyone I knew as all of us and our kids had ample opportunity - it was simply to create more and better opportunities for kids and people that did not have them... SO if anyone you know enjoys a small game emphasis area or a youth or handicap hunt on a wma or the extra youth days we now have....


thank a blow hard...

quote:

---

Lol you are bragging about it now. If you weren't a blow hard you wouldn't have posted any of that stuff giving yourself a pat on the back.

If you are as heavy a hitter as you say you are, I will thank you for the small game emphasis areas. Had an excellent woodock hunt on one just the other day.

---

not by any means a heavy hitter just a friend of 2 governors knew I could have a positive impact on them in regards to WLF...

quote:

---

I'll put my knowledge and experience against your whiny arse any time bro.

---

We know. You remind us daily.

[quote]One particularly shitty season

This may only apply to me. My hunting hole started to decline after the 2001 season. Until 2010 I still hunted my spot but I hunted less. After 2010 it got so bad I didn’t even think I could kill a duck where I used to have good hunts. After a couple of years of standing and looking at blank sky I gave up on my once good hole. So for me, it wasn’t one bad season. It started with a dramatic decline in opportunities and ended with me thinking I would have just as good a chance killing a duck off my patio. The way I see it I was forced out by something that just wasn’t going to happen any more in my regular spot.

So, we bought into a lease in NE Louisiana in the early 2010s on a 1000 acre farm where you could see the levee of the Mississippi River. Rice and corn fields surrounded our blinds. That season 7 of us scratched out 63 ducks hunting out of two blinds. We then went the single guided hunt route. We went to Stuttgart on guided hunts. The first of those hunts in the mid2010s was amazing but the last two times I went 6 men killed less than 6 ducks. I drove 5 hours to central Texas on a guided goose hunt with 6 of my hunting buddies. In two days we killed 3 geese. Last year I went on a $750/day guided duck hunt in Kansas (thankfully I didn’t pay for it). In 3 days 5 of us killed 11 ducks and that’s hunting daylight to Dark two of those days.

In sum, my hunting hole from 25 years became barren and it has gotten to where I cant even pay to kill a duck. So, I’m semi-retired from duck hunting and not necessarily by choice.

You can’t put a finger on one specific reason for the decline of duck numbers in Louisiana, it’s a combination of all reasons listed in this thread. We sit around drinking beer, talking about the good days when easy limits and full skies happened often, but I think on my end it’s more of remembering the good days and forgetting about the bad ones we use to have.

Growing up we did kill more ducks than we do now but there were bad years mixed in also. Just like two years ago was terrible for us, but last year was one of our best years out of the last 10. This year is not great but we are killing a few ducks here and there and the geese have been good to us. There’s only 60 days to hunt ducks a year and I will sit in the blind as much as possible because out of those 60, if I’m there the 4 or 5 days a year when it all comes together and the ducks do it right, it’s worth it to me and I don’t want to be the, “should have been here yesterday”,guy. I believe everything goes through a cycle and that one day the ducks will show up in the numbers again for whatever reason.

quote:

---

As I said, we don't see the ducks flying over any more like we used to, there are none in the area compared to 20 years ago. It's a real pisser.

---

It's just a lot more fleeting...

we have some great hunts - but we have to hunt till noon/1 and some days they just don't come.....


just explained to someone that's why I guard my woodie holes so tightly - go hit 3 woods.. and chase woodcock....

quote:

---

then again.. the golden age of LSU football is also slipping and slipping and slipping.... long way from January 8 2012....

---

yeah, but I'm just old enough to remember Mike Archer, Curley and DiNardo. I'd say it's still on the rise from those yrs.

quote:

---

then again.. the golden age of LSU football is also slipping and slipping and slipping.... long way from January 8 2012....
yeah, but I'm just old enough to remember Mike Archer, Curley and DiNardo. I'd say it's still on the rise from those yrs.

---

that ain't part of the golden age... 2000 on has been the most successful run in school history..