A Perfect Storm.....

Eric,

Your last few lines describe to a tee my very thoughts and the reason why my own participation has drastically cut back over the years. I will never post any pictures or even comment on how my season is going. Just to avoid the vary thing you are discussing.

Hope your season is good.

Later.

Eric.
 
Your last few lines describe to a tee my very thoughts and the reason why my own participation has drastically cut back over the years. I will never post any pictures or even comment on how my season is going. Just to avoid the vary thing you are discussing.
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Eric , I really believe any participation contributes to the problem. More activity results in more info even if you never give any indication to your own success. Like I said in my original post we had a number of factors and that the critical one was information getting out to nearby populations. I recognize this isn't the case everywhere but for me I just refuse to participate in the format that creates so much aggravation, intentional or not.

Eric
 


Eric , I really believe any participation contributes to the problem. More activity results in more info even if you never give any indication to your own success.
Eric
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Would you consider this post or ones on this site regarding boats, or decoys contributing? For the most part I tend to limit my participation to specific topics that often are not related to hunting or birds directly, or even indirectly, but yet where do you draw the line? Just curious since then in a way, this very page is part of the problem by your definition is it not? I would say some things are, but there are several aspects that are not. Like the "beaver" thread. I don't see how that affects duck hunting in any one specific location. LOL

Have a good thanksgiving, hopefully you and Thomas have a great hunt.
 
Don't forget, as much as the interent can be used to disseminate information about good locales for hunting, it can be used equally as well for deception. Take highly zoomed in images of a place where you have hunted and tell the interent that you were in "X" spot when you were actually in "Y" spot. Who would know?

Or, tell the internet that you are shooting nothing in "X" spot when in actuality you are hammering the ducks. Then you can go on about how you are hammering the ducks in "Y" when there are no ducks to be found at "Y".

Personally, I have spots that I freely discuss as they are public hunting lands and if anything I post helps someone have a good time there, so be it. I am also very selfish in that many of the spots I hunt I am very vague on. It took much effort to find and learn about these spots and I'm not going to readily give those places up. Many will support 1-2 hunting groups and after that the hunting spot that was good goes bad. Had that happen to a couple of spots in the last year.

Then there are the private land owner permission sites. I will not even huint as to where these are. A couple of places it took years of kindness to gain the trust of these individuals to gain access to their land. No way will I betray the trust these individuals have given me to hunt their land. Some places I can bring along another hunter, some only my son and dad can go with me and some I can only enter the land on my own.

If you believe everything you read and learn on the internet, have I got a bridge to sell. It is right next to the world's best hunting grounds where bags of whatever wildlife you seek will be filled. Guaranteed.

Mark W
 
Would you consider this post or ones on this site regarding boats, or decoys contributing? For the most part I tend to limit my participation to specific topics that often are not related to hunting or birds directly, or even indirectly, but yet where do you draw the line? Just curious since then in a way, this very page is part of the problem by your definition is it not? I would say some things are, but there are several aspects that are not. Like the "beaver" thread. I don't see how that affects duck hunting in any one specific location. LOL
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Eric, good question.

Again, I suspect most regions are unaffected by state forums and what I'm saying doesn't even apply. My observations are strictly local to me, not nationwide. I am convinced the crowding and pressure we have here is directly related to information freely discussed in open formats.

But to answer your question, no, I don't see this site or any site that is AREA NONSPECIFIC as contributing to the problem. This site, like others, concentrates on aspects of duckhunting such as boats, decoys, population management, etc. etc. Its participants are from all regions with very diverse backgrounds and interests. Here you'd really have to examine participants closely to figure out where they hunt and then they'd probably be on the other side of the country. Go over to a state forum and you have a CONCENTRATION of folks on the same waters discussing waterfowling in THAT SPECIFC AREA, complete with kill shots and season tallies in some cases. Anyone even thinking about that region could find a high concentration of information and folks more than happy to tell them more. Once they found it they'll tune in reguarly and learn more and more and tell their buddies or get them to road trip too, i.e. recruitment. Anywhere that has ducks probably has a forum with guys chatting back and forth about where they hunt and what they kill. On the other hand someone interested in hunting a location of interest isn't going to come to duckboats for exposure. It might be here but not in any great concentration or duration. They are here for other reasons and exposure to any particular place, theirs or otherwise, is incidental.

Now if I go out on opening day and everyone is in a sneakbox hunting over cork decoys I'll eat my words. Not likely :)
 
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Dj & Bob, one of the things that kills me is on the local state forums guys will use code names for places and pixelate images that show landmarks. That doesn't help anything. I don't think guys read the state forums to ID a specific local, rather they see that the area in general offers opportunities and that gets them intersted in trying it out. Road trips soon follow. Guys are fooling themselves if they think hiding the X spot online while openly discussing the general area protects it. Very naive.
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Agreed. However, a couple of friends of mine came across a low-life who had in his truck images he had printed from forum posts and, knowing the general area, he drove around trying to match photo to landscape, i.e. looking for the X. Not an effective technique in homogeneous terrain but apparently effective enough where prominent rock features and landmarks exist. Pretty sad.

By the way, Eric D, the fact that a "Paradise Regained" reference appeared in this thread reaffirms my confidence that this site is not a contributor to the downfall of waterfowling. Too many syllables and too much intelligent discussion here for a thievin' state forum (l)user. ;^)
 
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Eric,

I think you are dead on about the "local" forums. However, I think we live in a strange place. While hunters numbers are dropping everywhere, around here the number of duck hunters has exploded. I don't know if it is the local pressure or what but the lake has changed in the past 20 years. Spots that had mallards in good numbers now only hold coots and Gads. The population at Wheeler has changed also. Places that would only have 1 or two trailers at the ramp now have 20. There is alot of water around us but like everywhere, only a few hot spots.

I refuse to hunt some areas because I don't want to deal with the local HS kids. It is these same kids (and some grown ups "who have not") who are on the local forums. AL Ducks is more like LakeG Ducks so it is even more local than most.
 
Scott

I'm glad you weighed in. Seeing as how you live a few miles from me and hunt the same waters its affirming knowing you share similar thoughts. Like I said earlier the number of hunters exploded on the lake because the larger metro areas became aware it was there. The mallard decrease and gadwall increase is another issue entirely that goes all the way to the breeding grounds and wintering habitat I believe.

 
I agree that hunter traffic is becoming a problem. I have ran into some hunters who believe that duck hunting is like dove hunting....meaning you need lots of hunters in the marsh to keep them moving. I will admit at times it is helpful to have a few other hunters around that can keep the birds moving, but most of the time I just see tons of skybusting that is sure to push the birds out of the area. Boats pulling up gear and flying across the water to where they saw ducks land and setting up their gear again. It reminds me of a fisherman chasing swirls. I like hunting what my wife calls "idiot" season when the boat makes that crunchy noise as it goes through the ice and the decoys have to be knocked together to get the ice off the backs. When the back wheels of your truck slide on the boat ramp where the ramp has started to ice and it makes your butt pucker for a moment as you slide towards the icy dark water. When you have to break the ice sheets in front of the blind and slide them under the ice to make a landing hole. When it's so cold that your face doesn't move when you talk. I usually don't see many hunters at that point. I do enjoy taking my sons in the arly part of the season too and pointing out the skybusters, the guys that waterswat, call badly and such. I am not an expert, but I've done this long enough to know when people are doing it wrong and these are the moments I can pass on to my boys as things "not" to do. When I see guys hunker down and call like hell, stand a deliver a barrage of shot towards a .............cormorant because they haven't learned to identify the birds yet. I get tired of going to the public areas and finding that some a-hole has snagged six blinds (five for his buddies that didn't show up on time). These are areas that I have hunted enough to know that there's nobody at that blind, not at this hour. I have even seen guys sign out the blinds the day before only to not show up because they over slept or are hung over. It kills me that people act like this......especially in the "duck desert" of SW Missouri where the hunting of waterfowl is pretty pathetic. As bad as it gets and as gruff as I become, my kids still think it has always been this way and they are glad to be a part of it. dc
 




By the way, Eric D, the fact that a "Paradise Regained" reference appeared in this thread reaffirms my confidence that this site is not a contributor to the downfall of waterfowling. Too many syllables and too much intelligent discussion here for a thievin' state forum (l)user. ;^)
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I would agree with much of that statement....
 
Yup to #4 and #3 being added up and putting a serious hurting on the local refuge 30 minutes north of Anchorage.

It was the same time line as well. For decades 50 or 60 local guys sporadically using the refuge. Another 20 or so using a marsh on state land several miles up river.

Advance to five years ago and more guys are hunting the refuge, more guys are fishing the rivers near highways, more guys are road hunting for moose, more guys ..... more guys....

Everyone wants to come to Alaska and get some. Then they show up and find that it is nothing like back home. Only three roads that go anywhere and every where the roads go people are already living there. They either adapt to a completely new game or whine to no end.

I think the fact that you can't drive around and deer hunt up here is what has pushed a lot of new guys into duck hunting. New guys see how big a moose is and learn that without about $10,000 in equipment they are not going to get into a moose hunting area. They still want to hunt so they start looking for ducks. With only three swamps on the road with in 40 minutes of town they fill them up.

Several times a year new folks find the local outdoors forum and start asking the same question(s) that have been asked a thousand times by the previous new guys. "Where can I hunt ducks within a short drive of Anchorage?" Not an original question, but every new guy thinks they are the first. Some days it pisses me off and I have some sport with them. Other days I just tell them to use the search function and they will soon know everything we know. Or are willing to post about.

Every season I meet new guys on the ramp, some have been here for years and it is the first time our paths have crossed. Mostly the new guys are actually new. New to Alaska, new to the swamp, and a surprising number are new to duck hunting.

The refuge was hammered this year. Old timers were getting pushed out by new guys and posting their complaints. The marsh is getting hunted every day of the week and the birds are leaving. There is more off road habitat then on road so when the birds leave they are gone until new birds show up. The limited parking is overflowing on the weekends so bad that if you are not first you can't launch a boat. If you are first you can't get your boat out.

Thankfully I don't hunt the refuge, but the area I do hunt was hit by a mild drought and had water so low I could not use my big boat, and even struggled with my little boat. There is no doubt that these conditions drove guys to the refuge and made things worse than ever before.
 
Eric,

there are still mallards around but you will not find them on the lake anymore. I think they are smart enough to get away from the run and gun high school kids.
 
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