Ziggy Pop

He was a killer this morning. Something to build on!

I played it a couple of weeks ago when it opened up to the public and your review is dead on. WSD is a great track and I can only imagine the Coore/Crenshaw course will be as good or better.

We tee'd off at 9:00 and finished in a little over 4 hours and really took our time the last few holes.

I know they are considering carts in the future during the summer months similar to Streamsong where you can use a cart but must be accompanied by a forecaddie.

At $500, it's a luxury for sure, but I think in the near future it will be considered one of the best public courses in the country.

Jeffrey Dale, Winnfield Senior High

Man, I think about and read about all of these issues way too much. My conclusion is that there is no one issue/solution that will remedy things. Flooded corn, as a sportsman seems like an unfair advantage but it does benefit the flock post-duck season. If I were to rank the issues I would say they are:

1) Loss of habitat, especially in the breeding grounds but elsewhere too. We lost a lot of rice ground to other crops in LA and the Katy rice fields are almost gone too. All this shifted a lot of the Speck flock to Stuttgart area and definitely affected Mallard migration. In my mind, any habitat improvements, anywhere, are good for the ducks so join an organization that is doing that whether it be Delta or DU and give them money.

2) The current cycle of warm winters. Not much we can do there.

3) 30-yrs of 6 ducks and 60-days. I’m a weekend warrior so I want my days but I’d be willing to give up a couple of ducks a hunt until the population starts to rebound. I would push for the northern states and Canada to not start their seasons until Oct 1st though. Technology has improved to the point that there should be more “real-time” changes to limits annually.

4) All NWA/WMA should have rest areas BUT they should be rotated annually so ducks can’t pattern to the refuge.

5) I hunt LA and SW Ark and almost every club has areas set aside for resting ducks and not hunting them. A couple close by don’t allow members to shoot more than 20 ga in the holes in close proximity to the rest areas. Meanwhile the pressure is relentless on public ground. Not sure how to fix this but it needs to be discussed.

The bottom-line to me is we need more ducks in the population - however that can be done. In the late 90’s/early 2000’s the population was 2x as big as it is now.

Blast from the past! You from The Field?

Apparently Alston asked to redshirt but wanted to keep receiving his NIL money. Auburn basically said "no play, no pay".

I read about and study this stuff way more than I should. First and foremost, there are less ducks now than there have been in previous years. Most experts estimate there are 6M Mallards vs 10M around 2000. I used to see 3:1 drakes to hens. Now it is more like 10:1. I think there may be 1M hens out there now. Breeding grounds are terrible shape due to drought, land conversion to farming and development. Plus, warmer temps have shifted ducks further north with more and more hanging around MO. North LA has suffered and South LA even more. In the last 10 yrs or so, SW LA has lost 180,000 acres of rice. That big time impacts Specks, Pintails and Teal. There’s so many different factors you don’t really know where to start but I think I’d tell the northern states that they can’t start their season before 10/1 and I’d end the southern states at 1/15 till numbers start to improve. I’d also reduce Mallard hen limit to 1. What’s crazy is that we have more data than we ever have and react to it less and less. When I was a kid season lengths and bag limits changed all the time. Now we’ve run with 60/6 for 20 yrs. I don’t want to go back to 30/3 so I hope we’ll see some changes before things get there. Just the thoughts of an old redneck.

I think a team should get a two-year bowl eligibility ban if you bail on a bowl after accepting the bid.

We did a trip there for years and there are rooms for rent in the clubhouse and it was pretty nice. We also rented a house on the course a few times when the group got large. Nothing fancy but worked well. You get to keep your cart when you stay in the clubhouse and it’s an easy run over to the casino.

If he's a star at LA Tech, LSU will have a chance to recruit him again in 1 or 2 years thanks to the portal.