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sportsman450 wrote:anything that might help the situation.

Just so I'm clear about this, what is your assessment of "the situation"?

SSHHHHHHH! H20fowl No one wants to hear or pay attention to that around here .
Why would anyone care if ducks can't hatch cause the PPR is ate up with skunks and other duck and duck egg eating VARMINTS. Let's cut out the hunter and the sport. You know we only ERADICATED the wolf on the prairies who kept the little pests in check and now its seems as if the piper wants his due.

Sportsman, were you ever in support of the season extension to January 31? Or were you satisfied with the season ending in the middle of the month as it always had prior to Trent Lott's intervention?

iron grip wrote:SSHHHHHHH! H20fowl No one wants to hear or pay attention to that around here .
Why would anyone care if ducks can't hatch cause the PPR is ate up with skunks and other duck and duck egg eating VARMINTS. Let's cut out the hunter and the sport. You know we only ERADICATED the wolf on the prairies who kept the little pests in check and now its seems as if the piper wants his due.

Hey, don't forget something. The wolf is not the only reason the breeding grounds are so "eat up" with varmits. There has been a considerable loss of nesting habitat in Canada over the last 50 years. It's forcing those little buggers into a smaller area where the pickins is good. If we could just restore all of the breeding grounds, we could make the varmits job a lot harder to do.

In the mean time, don't let anyone tell you predator control won't work, just go do it.

Wish I could have gotten in on this post sooner. I think we are NUTS for giving up on our own account a 60 day season. The way I have read the article, and what I understand from Steel 3's the big reason they are even considering a 50 day season is because there is such a public opinion that there are too few ducks. No biological data to back that up at this point, jut the fact that a bunch of people like us that like to constantly talk ducks think it should be done.
Think about that,thre is no biological reason for this considered move to a 50 day season but since someone like me an optometrist thinks there aren't enough ducks they are considreing doing it. That would be the absolute most stupid reason to change the season frameworks. Now I completely agree that right now we aren't seeing the ducks that we used to. In fact I just finished the worst season I have had since I started hunting ducks and geese in 1980. However when the duck numbers can sustain it, I think we should be able to have a 60 day season. It has always been my understanding that hunting to a certain extent helps wild animal populations. I.E. I have read an article at some point where there was a study done on deer and the concentration of deer was much greater in an area that had hunting pressure v.s. an area that didn't. There fore don't think we should just say less hunting is the awnser. Hunting may play into the equation some, but.... mother nature is the true control of the whole thing. Without water up north to create birds, then freezing weather w/ snow cover up north all the way down the flyway at the same time we aren't going to get ducks in great numbers like we are used to seeing.
A few questions. How many shorter season proponents were saying this in 1999,2000, and 2001 when we had record harvests of ducks in almost every state in the flyway? I would bet not too many! How about how many people were saying this in 1985 until the drought in 1988 that we should cut the season? Again, I bet not many.
Another example, how many people here blame the pintail population problem on over hunting??? Looking at my records in my log, I had 17 days in 1985 where I killed my limit of 10 pintail drakes. A staggering number compared to todays standard. Now do I think the reason that I did that in 1985 is the reason we have no pintails now? Absolutely not! Everything we read says it's a habitat problem, not a hunting pressure problem. In fact if the reason for the decline was totaly due to hunting pressure wouldn't one be led to believe that since the three duck days of 1988 until now where we could only kill one duck cause the pintail population to explode?? I sure haven't seen that.
Again I agree something needs to be done to help the duck numbers right now, however my stance is that when the numbers come back up, we should be allowed liberal days and limits, that being 60 days or heck longer is the biologists say it is okay to hunt longer. I say we go by sound biological evidence, not just what some stupid optometrist or what ever elese everyone else on here says. I like bigwater can't believe so many people want to just flat out give up 10 days of the duck season.[/b]

Sporty 450 wrote:

Too few ducks, and too much pressure

Let's see if I now have a better picture of your situation.
" Too few ducks" - well you haven't been in a few years so, not much to credit your assesment there.

"Too much pressure" = Someone beating you to your favorite hole the last few times you went didn't they?

So if my assesment is on the money you too are "greedy" and wanting the "wannabe" hunters to lose interest and let you have "your" hole back.

Didn't someone on here say right before the season ended that Missouri was holding millions of birds? Why not just go up there for a few days and kill your six or nine and be done for the year?

450 - so throw out the donation that folks make to DU (& DW) and that will solve it? How many folks are going to stop donating to DU in leu of accepting a shorter season?

NONE - that's my point. Blaming DU for people's buy in to a shorter season is like blaming the rooster for the sun not shining 24X7.

The $25 donation has nothing to do with acceptance of a longer or shorter season. Help do what you can to support conservation programs from a financial perspective regardless of an opinion about season length.

Everyone seems to have a problem with either D.U or D.W
and im no diffrent. But I feel like they both help our sport alot.

If only they would get out of the pissing contest there in and join forces I think they could do alot more.

greed my booty... gentlemen do any of you have a freakin clue how many days afield the average duck hunter spends ????? the last numbers i saw and this is based on a 60 day season was something close to like ...

well i'm not sure either but it wasn't much something around 15 days.... now thats an average.... some more some less....

you wanna talk bout greed.. chiiit let me talk bout the deer hunters..

i mean hell they get to hunt from oct 1 till well next year thet get to hunt the middle of feb.. hell they are gonna get to legally bait...

and a large majority of our state wma's cater to deer hunters more than anybody else...

man skrew all this greed crap....
i know i aint greedy.. hell ax don miller, or o/u or iron grip. or cajun squlear.. they all attest that i aint no game hog......

If only they would get out of the pissing contest there in and join forces I think they could do alot more.

AMEN to that H20.

iron grip wrote:Sporty 450 wrote:

Too few ducks, and too much pressure

Let's see if I now have a better picture of your situation.
" Too few ducks" - well you haven't been in a few years so, not much to credit your assesment there.

You couldn't be more wrong here grip. Despite the fact that I haven't been able to hunt, I've spent a great deal of time in the delta, and I stay in close contact with the people I hunt with. I have a very good picture of the number of ducks in the delta.

"

iron grip wrote:[Too much pressure" = Someone beating you to your favorite hole the last few times you went didn't they?

So if my assesment is on the money you too are "greedy" and wanting the "wannabe" hunters to lose interest and let you have "your" hole back.

Not hardly jr, I hunted the most popular hole in one of the nameless NWRs for three years. In over 70 hunts, I was only beaten to the place twice, so I'm not real worried about punks beating me to MY hole.

Your post is laughable!!!

Wildfowler wrote:Sportsman, were you ever in support of the season extension to January 31? Or were you satisfied with the season ending in the middle of the month as it always had prior to Trent Lott's intervention?

Yes I was in support of the extension, but in hindsight, I think it was a mistake. More for what was given on the front end up north than for the late season here.

SoftCall wrote:450 - so throw out the donation that folks make to DU (& DW) and that will solve it? How many folks are going to stop donating to DU in leu of accepting a shorter season?

NONE - that's my point. Blaming DU for people's buy in to a shorter season is like blaming the rooster for the sun not shining 24X7.

The $25 donation has nothing to do with acceptance of a longer or shorter season. Help do what you can to support conservation programs from a financial perspective regardless of an opinion about season length.

I never blamed DU for anything. What I said was that giving to DU/DW was easy, and painless while giving up days in the field is a whole lot harder. Not once did I say anything about not donating to DU.

FROM THE TRENT LOTT POST:

Po Monkey Lounger



Joined: 18 Jun 2001
Posts: 709
Location: Tupelo, MS
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:37 pm Post subject:

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I don't think the later closing date for the southern states, and the earlier opening date for the northern states have hurt the duck populations. However, when combined with other factors (more duck hunters, more food in the northern states in the MS flyway, warm weather trends, robo duck, etc.), I think it has contributed to a redistribution of the total harvest. The states in the northern part of the MS flyway are harvesting more ducks, while the harvest numbers in the southern states are declining. I would guess that the total harvest numbers are about the same for the MS flyway.

Under these circumstances, it will be very difficult to effectuate flyway-wide changes to reverse these harvest distribution trends that now favor the northern states. Will they voluntarily give up the early start date that they originally fought so hard against when it meant the southern states would close later and ostensibly would harvest more of "their" ducks? Will they voluntarily give up the spinning wing decoys that are helping their hunters harvest record numbers of ducks ----the same spinning wing decoy they at first frowned upon so much and set out to ban? (Where is that effort to provide the scientific basis to ban the robos now?) Will they voluntarily agree to a less than 60 day season, if the science does not dictate such a reduction? Will the northern states stop providing food for ducks in refuges? Will the farmers in the mid-flyway states give up no-till farming practices that increase the amount of food available for waterfowl? The answer is most likely NO to all of the above. The southern states, following AR's lead, could all enact restrictions greater than required by the USF&WS, but to really effect the duck migration and duck numbers such restrictions would have to be enacted in the entire flyway to make any real impact. And as much as we would like to control the weather, mother nature will never let us.

There was a lot of flak coming from the northern states about Trent's bulldog tactics to get the later season closing date for MS and other southern states. But, I don't hear anyone north of TN complaining about it now. And, I seem to recall, that most on this board were in favor of a later closing date.

I still like the later closing date due to what I perceive as permanent climate changes ---- later winter weather. I wish we could close in mid-February. Saw more ducks during February in the MS Delta than in any other month. This has been pretty much true for the past several years.
_________________
Somebody shoot that thang!!!!

Last edited by Po Monkey Lounger on Sun Feb 20, 2005 6:53 pm; edited 1 time in total

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Cotten



Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 119

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:18 pm Post subject:

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Po Monkey, if I'm reading your post correctly you're saying the duck population is fine but the Yankees are killing them before they get here (a redistribution of the total harvest).

I hope the numbers show the need for a shorter season/lower harvest because if you're right then the days of black skies are gone forever. And it would be selfish to hope for a 30 day season just so more of the ducks could survive the Yankees and make it down here (IMHO).

Let's see that nameless place over there gave a few me nice oppurtunities, and Davis grocery man, the south delta is hardly the place to judge the fall flight. Myself and my partners have the state covered as far as reports and get the big picture a lot better it seems. Nope I'm not saying this state was covered up with ducks this year, but we didn't have the weather for it either. Like I said before look at Missouri. There are too many uncontrollable factors for us to say a reduction in days is the one cure all. Hell you'd be helping the economic demise of the Davis Grocery if you did get your way and the season was shortened.
The only thing that is laughable is your know all position on this subject when you haven't been in the field in how many years? I mean your one of the reasons the average is so low (from Bigwater's post) per hunter. You and your views and the weekend warrior guys who are somehow connected to the law makers (please don't deny that) are the only reason we're having this conversation. Cause you don't see ducks while riding around in your truck and the weekenders that hunt the same spots weekend in and out say there's "no ducks".