A Perfect Storm.....

Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

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Staff member
is the best way to describe what happened here in North East Alabama over the past decade on Lake Guntersville. We saw it coming but there was no stopping it. Four factors had to come together and when they did the waterfowling landscape was forever altered.

Factor 1 is the DUCKs. With wintering populations of maybe 100,000 we are by no means duck rich. We have an adequate wintering population that with some effort you can be successful and enough variety to try many variations of waterfowling in a short stretch of the Tennessee River and it's tributaries. Flooded timber, you can do that. Layout diver hunting, you can do that too. Canvasbacks, some years they happen. Goldeneye, you might get lucky if you hunt the right spot. Wigeon, always a treat. Gadwall, Ringneck, Woodies are our mainstay and if they weather is right Mallards and Blacks can be found.

Factor 2 is ACCESS. With the major lakes, tributaries, and floodplain under TVA control there is significant public area. Boat launches are closely spaced and the landscape is open and diverse to the point getting lost is impossible. Simply put a guide is not needed. With a modest boat and map you can easily get around and explore the undeveloped areas where there are no restrictions against duck hunters. A freelancers dream from this standpoint.

Factor 3 is a WATERFOWLER NUMBERS. Waterfowlers in some areas of the country enjoy small populations while having wonderful waterfowl resources. Conversely we have relatively small waterfowl resources but a large human population. Specifically there is a very large population (Atlanta through NW GA, Nashville, Chatanooga, Birmingham, etc) within 3 hours. Until the last decade there was very little knowledge of the waterfowling opportunities in NE Alabama from these large population centers. The hunters living inside an hour radius were unaware of the potential for hunting pressure that existed just down the road and the hunters down the road didn't know what we were enjoying. Thus bringing us to the final critial factor 4.

Factor 4 is INFORMATION DISSEMINATION. Factors 1, 2, and 3 have been in place for many years. Long before I ever pitched a decoy. Factor 4 is the new kid on the block, the previously missing element, the factor crucial for the Perfect Storm. Who is Factor 4 you ask? It is the internet. More specifically websites that manage their content by geographical region. Southern Duck Hunter (defunct), the Refuge, ALducks, etc. It was these seemingly harmless formats, where waterfowlers from a common geographic area came together to discuss, argure, brag, share, etc., their experiences, that let the proverbial cat out of the bag. Unwittingly they conducted this dialog in an open format for the world to see. The guys in Factor 3 saw it and wanted to experience it first hand.

Factors 1-4 were all firmly in place by beginning of this decade and by the middle of the decade hunter numbers in NE Alabama on Lake Guntersville soared. The frustration of those who grew up before this era was quite evident. A lot of resentment and ill will ensued.

From my own perspective I care not where someone is from. Waterfowl are managed federally and I have no more right to a duck on Guntersville than a hunter from Atlanta does. I travel to hunt and want to be treated fairly wherever I go so I treat others accordingly. Having said that though I do find waterfowling less enjoyable than in years past and have a great dislike of state waterfowling forums and what they resulted in for me personally. The aggravation of dealing with other hunters is something I have never cared for. Solitude and seclusion are high on my list of attributes for what makes a great day waterfowling. Great days are hard to come by. Other hobbies and pursuits are now more attractive than ever.

In a Miltonesque Paradise Regained way there is one thing that gives great joy. A joy greater than anything I ever experienced hunting before Factors 1-4 collided and the masses descended. You know me well enough to recognize this joy as Thomas. I have three terriffic kids and am delighted one of them has chosen to be a waterfowler alongside me.

This past Saturday we loaded the Kayak and went to one of the prettiest waterfowling places I know. It is approximately 400 acres of flooded hardwoods. I know every inch having walked and paddled it countless times since the late 80s. There is no reason to scout it before the season. It's consistent. Nontheless I spent the day towing Thomas in the Kayak walking the entire timber stand over, from North to South, East to West. Telling Thomas everything I know about it and sharing past hunts. At the end of the day my legs were tired but spirit filled. He wants to go back and hunt it for himself. It's in this moment I realize that hunting is no longer just about me and my discontent for what it has become. Rather, it's about sharing everything I can with someone I love because what may seem frustrating to me isn't the least discouraging to them and they are filled with enthusiasm and wonder. Yes, we will be there opening day.
 
If your numbers are like ours, No.1 is not a factor this year, which should help with No. 3.

Our biologists flew here this morning: tons, I mean TONS of coots and probably the 2nd worst duck count on record (last year was the worst). Few gadwalls, some teal and a couple of mallards. Not one single diver in the count.
If I get the numbers for TN valley, I will PM them to you.

Good luck Friday, hope you & Thomas have a good time and shoot a few ducks too.
 
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Carl,

I could have written your post today. I just got back from a scouting mission - the lake I had thought about hunting in the morning has 2000 coot on it and 4, yep FOUR, Golden Eyes. Dismal!!
 
So do you and Thomas have your Old Oliver calls all tuned and polished? Looking forward to seeing a picture of your calls hanging with a few gadwalls.

Good luck, hope the weather starts to cooperate. I'm not even sure if many ducks have headed south... or if they were ever here to begin with. Crazy weather this fall.

Tim
 
Sounds like it was a banner year for coot production!

Looking at the weather and snow coverage (or lack thereof) maps, I think the ducks are still in Canada. If I was wearing a down jacket, I wouldnt want to be down here either!
 
That's my feeling also. A lot of guys in this state think the birds went through a month ago but that just doesn't ring true to me. I think they are hunkered down up north someplace - no snow, mild temps and plenty of grub will keep them in one place for long time.
 
I got to agree with Pete. We had a small push three weeks ago. Since then all local ducks. We had continuous south, south east winds. Some times no wind at all. Thanks giving day we should get some colder temperatures and some snow. I could pick up decoys bare handed, not something which is common the second week in Nov. It is fifteen to twenty degrees warmer than normal. When we get hard water you will get ducks.
 
Eric,
Thanks for you post. This is why I hunt. When I was young, I was the only one in my family that could tolerate and communicate with my grandfather. He was one ornery guy -- he found talking difficult, working at something all the time necessary, and did not tolerate fools of any kind. He literally lifted his whole family out of poverty during the depression, but found looking them in the eye difficult and avoided it if he could. Hunting, especially duck hunting, was the way I came to understand and know the man.

We hunted the flooded timber on Toleda Bend in the early 70's, 15 miles south of Logansport, bordering Texas and Louisiana. His father bought the land for $1, cleared it, and sold it for $2. I understood that math. I understood what work that must have entailed when he would knock down a greenhead at 30 yards and the flooded timber was so thick that, if that duck was not floating red legs up, we knew we would never retrieve him. Hunting was the key to understanding what drove my grandfather, what he valued, and what he could never say.

Now that lake is an inland sea. There is little timber standing to mark the sloughs, the Cypress brakes, or the acorn-stained backwater. When I take my son hunting, however, those places return, at least in my mind's eye. I show him how to keep the front of the boat headed straight, to cross the marsh by facing the double-ended skiff directly into a stiff head-wind, how not to bump the side of the boat and flush the roosting birds just 100 yards distant, and how to build a blind out of what we find when we reach our hunting spot. I don't give a damn whether we kill a duck or not. My grandfather would not tolerate the number of hunters we put up with, the topwaters who pile in and set up 50 yards down-wind of us, or the use of a rechargable, spinning wing device. When I see my son handle the boat, set the blocks, or offer an opinion of where to set up, that old man is still alive, and I can feel him smiling./cc
 
The ducks have not been through Minnesota. All local ducks and a few immigrants. I hunted the past 7 days and came away with very few birds. This doesn't bother me but the fact that I only saw such a smll number of ducks during this time tells me they have not come down. Weather the past 3 weeks have been in the 50's. Wind has been non existant. There is no snow nor ice anywhere near here all the way up into Canada.

This season I had the cold ewather hunting coat out 1 time (because it was snowing 1 day and I didn't want to get wet)and I have so far hunted 40+ outings. No long johns', no hat other than a baseball cap, no gloves, and never cold.

I was out today and hunting with a swamp buddy and most of the discussion was on the horrible weather we have had and how few ducks have been through the State. If you are a duck, why leave? Farmers have been unable to get into the field to harvst crops due to all the rain we had in October.

Anyway, I'm with you Eric on what huinting means and I too spend all my scouting time finding places where others will not hunt. I don't see the large number of birds they see but the ones I do see I c an usually get them to come into the dekes and get a good shot at them.

Mark w
 
Eri, Carl and Pete,

the ducks are difinately still North, Our last 3 weeks have been dismall here in Michigan We have a decent number of very educated ducks on the refuges and unhuntable areas (golf courses decorative backyatd ponds etc) My buddy is a local wildlife biologist and his peers across the line confirm Many ducks still in mapleleaf territory and our season ends in 11 days.
 
I agree...... the large number of eiders along the south coast of Nova Scotia was unusual for November. I've only hunted along the shore and haven't been tubbing in the offshore rafts of ducks. However, the few I shot were `southern folks'. I'm guessing that the offshore birds are also the southern eiders and not our northern borealis sub-species.
 
Eric. Pete, Mark, Wispete, etc.
Just coming back from Northern Wi deer hunting and traveling the entire state from North to South I can confirm the lack of a migration of ducks thru. Tons of geese sitting in lakes including Horicon Marsh but no sign of ducks anywhere. There is some snow coming in tomorrow and as we head North again for the weekend hopefully there will be some change. By the way the deer seem to be
lacking in numbers also.
wis boz
 
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#3 is interesting since, as Carl mentioned, it (demand) should be determined by #1 (supply). #1a could be that migration patterns for some species are nowhere near what they used to be (e.g. bluebills on the Miss.)

Couldn't agree more with #4 although it seems like folks wisely are playing it closer to the vest on the other boards where New Guy shows up and his first question is "Where should I go?" It got to the point on one of the Montana forums that guys posting pictures of daily bags would crop the background to avoid giving away locations.

I hope the birds are holding in Manitoba for a lot of you guys out east but that's clearly not the case on the western plains. When you see tundra swans passing thru in mid October it's a good bet the little ducks are ahead of them. Based on the reports I'm receiving, Montana still has the usual late November thru season's end assortment of mallards, goldeneyes, and honkers along with some straggling widgeon and pintails, but the big push of other birds is long over. The good news is they're rafted en masse on ponds and rivers down here in Colorado.
 
Interesting read, Eric. Got me thinking there is a factor that comes under #4 which I think has also been huge in altering the landscape: In the past decade we have seen exponential growth in the realization that there is an economic side to waterfowl hunting that can be tapped into. Unfortunately, when really big dollars are there for the taking, the "movers and shakers" could care less about the preservation of the things you hold dear and want to pass along to Thomas. There are plenty of waterfowl hunters who don't have a clue about this sort of thing because they have come to what they know about duck and goose hunting as "pupils" of the entreprenuers.

Aldo Leopold touched on this decades ago, saw it coming in his own time, and realized the subtle changes it would bring to the "culture" of waterfowling that often ttriggers some pretty spirited debate on this forum. He wrote:

"He (the gadgeteer sporting goods dealer) has draped the American outdoorsman with an infinity of contraptions, all offered as aids to self-reliance, hardihood, woodcraft, or marksmanship, but too often functioning as substitutes for them......The traffic in gadgets adds up to astronomical sums which are soberly published as representing 'the economic value of wildlife.' But what of cultural values?.... I use many factory-made gadgets myself. Yet there must be some limit beyond which money-bought aids to sport destroy the cultural value of sport......The sporting press no longer represents sport, it has turned billboard for the gadgeteer. Wldlife administrators are too busy producing something to shoot at to worry much about the cultural value of the shooting. Because everybody from Xenophon to Teddy Roosevelt said sport has value, it is assumed that this value must be indestructable."

 
#3 is interesting since, as Carl mentioned, it (demand) should be determined by #1 (supply). #1a could be that migration patterns for some species are nowhere near what they used to be (e.g. bluebills on the Miss.)

Couldn't agree more with #4 although it seems like folks wisely are playing it closer to the vest on the other boards where New Guy shows up and his first question is "Where should I go?" It got to the point on one of the Montana forums that guys posting pictures of daily bags would crop the background to avoid giving away locations.

I hope the birds are holding in Manitoba for a lot of you guys out east but that's clearly not the case on the western plains. When you see tundra swans passing thru in mid October it's a good bet the little ducks are ahead of them. Based on the reports I'm receiving, Montana still has the usual late November thru season's end assortment of mallards, goldeneyes, and honkers along with some straggling widgeon and pintails, but the big push of other birds is long over. The good news is they're rafted en masse on ponds and rivers down here in Colorado.
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Out here in NW Montana our hope and feel is that the big push hasn't started yet. Usually teal and pintail are long gone by this time of year, with nothing but big red leg mallards. Our numbers are down right now, we are still warm in the high thirties and forties, which means lots of open, casual water for what ducks we have to spread out. Over the last few days of hunting we shot two pintail, two green wing teal, five widgeon and six mallards.

Like I said I'm still holding out for that big push of mallards out of Canada, though I did notice some new birds arrived about two weeks ago.
John
 
Thanks for the reports guys. Seems to be widspread that the mild Fall has slowed migrations considerably. Could mean a slow season, could mean a huge blast of less wary ducks later in the season.

TimJ, I've turned close to 70 barells but am stopping for hunting season. I've got a call I'll use or let Thomas use it but still have a lot of work to make the batch of inserts for all the barells. February and March are good months to be out in the shop since baseball isn't in full swing and the grass isn't growing.

Craig, Neat story about your grandfather. Appreciate that. Thomas is still a few years off from handling the boat but I welcome that day. I want him to get as many hours with me as possible before he heads out on his own.

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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