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Why the special season on pintails? are the numbers that low? I dont see many pintails, they mainly stick to the fields. Just wanting some info if anyone knows

RH, I belive the pintail and canvasbacks #'s are very low this year. Alot probablly has to due with the poor prarie pothole habitat. SB can elaborate more on it.

I dont know about you peewee but it would be pretty hard for me to pass on a group of pintails flying into my dekes early in the season

As of lately I hadn't had to worry about it . Done switched to deer hunting for the rut, seeing alot of deer and very few ducks. The post about wood duck hunting has got my mind to thinking though. I have got 2 jam up wood duck holes on the camp 1 roosting area and 1 timber area (where they go in the morning). Neither has been hunted in years, just haven't worried about the wood ducks. I might givem a try. Hell I sit there and say, I can only kill 2 then my days over, but at the same time that more than my last 2 hunts in the fields. Just my try those old woodies.

It's bizarre, but I have decoyed 3 separate bull pintails into my cypress brake hole this season. All have been hovering at 15 yards, just daring to be shot! This is certainly not pintail habitat and I don't think it would happen on a bet if the pintail season was open. I have also seen more pintails on my field hunts this year than I ever remember seeing anywhere outside of Texas. I don't doubt that the overall numbers are down, but you could never tell it from my experiences so far this season.

I've seen and lit more pintails than ever this season. Last week i had about 1000 ducks on one of my leased fields and at least 800 were pintails. Will probably all be gone by the time we can bust them.

Hell vicksburg when its time to bust them you can't kill but one anyway that sux.

The pintail population is down . . .

"Pintails and scaup continue to be species of concern because their breeding population numbers have been well below average for the past 15-20 years. Pintail numbers decreased by 46% from last year. They are 68% below their long-term average and are at an all time low. Scaup numbers were 5% below last year and 44% below the long-term average."

Here is an interesting tidbit (below) on pintails from a USFWS entry in the Federal Register on March 19, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 53).

"We presently utilize an interim strategy to manage the harvest of
pintails. In the current strategy, the determination of appropriate bag
limits is based, in part, on the harvest predicted by a set of models
that were developed from historical data relating harvest to bag limit
and season length. However, since the interim strategy was implemented
in 1997, the predicted harvest has consistently been lower than the
estimated harvest from the U.S. and Canadian Federal harvest surveys.
We will work with the Flyway Councils to review the current method of
determining bag limits with the intent of making appropriate
adjustments to the strategy to better reflect the realized harvest of
pintails."

Thanks for the input bodean

Maybe y'all are seeing more Pintails because they haven't been shot at much at all along their migration and are not very wary because of this.

Just a thought, I may be wrong.

why are you worried about this anyway riverhumter??? you been tryimg to get on for the past few years with no success, why would this year be any different???/ hahahaha

torch wrote:why are you worried about this anyway riverhumter??? you been tryimg to get on for the past few years with no success, why would this year be any different???/ hahahaha

What do you mean by get on torch???

If you just can't stand it then go ahead and shoot you a sprig when season opens on them, but if you aint gonna mount it don't shoot it. Shoot you a gadwall or teal or woodie or just anything besides a pintail to eat. The numbers must be in real bad shape or they wouldn't have done the season the way they did this year. If we don't practice a little self control this year we won't be able to shoot them at all next year...and maybe for several years to come. If the opportunity presents itself I may shoot 1 this year, but that will be all. I am looking to get one mounted and that is the only reason I may shoot one. I am not in that big of a hurry to get one mounted though, so I may just wait.

Kill all the predator's in the nesting grounds. They has to be a balance. You can not set a buffet and not expect to eat. Kill everything that swims, walks, crawls, and flies that eat duck eggs. A serious effort from the powers that be or at least the one's I send money too. Screw all those feel good SOB's.

Let them start the Predators Unlimited. I guess PETA has control of that.

There ya go DD, it's called the NTA or National Trappers Association. Even if y'all don't lay any steel, you ought to support it.
Saw a wad of pintail about a week ago, but they weren't acting stupid. Flying high in the sky.

Wingman