Done for the Year

Carl

Carl

Well-known member
Staff member
A 20 mph+ & gusty wind kept me from getting out this morning and at 41 degrees with the wind still that strong, the boy really doesnt want to go out for an afternoon hunt.
So, stick a fork in us, we're done.
This year proved frustrating, started out looking good but things fizzled fast. We've all been joking about the lack of a migration but it sure didnt seem like a joke here. I'm not sure what happened to all the gadwalls, bluebills & ringers we normally see down here, but for the last 3 years, they just haven't been showing up.
Luckily, the days I did seem to get on the few birds we do have, I shot very well.
Only got out 9 times (I can remember back in the day when I hunted 25 days/season!) but averaged 3 birds/hunt. But many days, I killed every duck that I shot at. Good thing I was shooting good.

So now its time to straighten up the decoys & get them packed up, give the gun a good cleaning, hang up the waders & coats and start thinking about fishing.
 
I know what you mean Carl. The season for me here was much the same, filled with frustration with having such high hopes dashed with weather that not always cooperated with my availabilty to get out and go. My buddy, son and I were able to get a fair amount of scouting done for next year though. Looking forward to the fishing too, getting more of the "honey do" list done as well.

Best,
Jeff
 
The good thing is that the fishing starts getting good in a couple of weeks. If we can just get some reasonably warm days with calm winds, we'll be fishing by mid-February.
 
Carl, sorry to hear that your season went that way. Maybe next year, you'll get out 20 times and the ducks will be there in good numbers.
Al
 
Ah, I still had fun. And learned more about hunting the salty water down here. So I dont consider it a bad season. Just not what I hoped for.
Next year will be better. Youri should be shooting by then, so I will hopefully get to see him take his first duck.
Always the optomists, we duck hunters, arent we? :)
 
My wife is convinced that hunters and fishermen are the ultimate optimists. If you don't believe why bother leaving home?

What she doesn't know is that taking game is only a small part of the enjoyment. The rest of the equation is demonstrated in the pictures and stories shared on this website.
 
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Carl

Our season ended yesterday. Actually it ends today, as you know, but we stuck the proverbial fork in it yesterday afternoon. Thomas and I rode about 15 miles on the river and checked a lot of backwater as well. Saw maybe 5 ducks. Story of our season including the week long trip to Arkansas. On the way home we stopped at several boat ramps. Not a single hunter had success out of the three groups we talked to. Wind was blowing 15 from the North, 32 degrees, and spitting. PERFECT weather but no ducks. Perplexing. Friday I let Thomas skip school for a hunt. His grades are good and has only missed one day all year. The local small rivers are out of their banks so we went to one of our favorite places to hunt. A place in the late season that is always good for a few birds, frequently mallards and pintails. Saw less than 20 ducks all morning as far as the eye could reach. We hunted this same spot at the first the season with the earlier floods. No success then either. The birds just never showed up as far as I can tell. Boat tach says I put 48 hours on the motor this season. I can promise you most all of that was looking for birds, and doesn't include foot time. Don't even want to think about road time. Simply discouraging. Yesterday I told Thomas that our season wasn't a bad one, in that nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged or stolen. We also found a few new easier ways into old spots that makes life a little easier. Most importantly we spent some outstanding father-son time together. But let me say this, when you invest significant time, vacation, and money with very few gunning opportunities you have to question is it still worth it. Aren't their other pursuits that a father and his son can do that reap the same benefits without the frustration? I just have to vent and throw that out there. I can't see myself sticking with it if this is how it's going to be season after season. I'll become a one or two trip a year to another destination hunter. My river running days are numbered if this really is the future.

Baseball tryouts are today at five. Hopefully there will be a lot of baseball and workshop time between now and next season to help me forgot the worst season of my 28 so I can motivate myself for 29.
 
you have to question is it still worth it. Aren't their other pursuits that a father and his son can do that reap the same benefits without the frustration? I just have to vent and throw that out there. I can't see myself sticking with it if this is how it's going to be season after season.
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I hear you, gotta wonder when it is time to throw in the towel.
I am not there yet, I still have enough good days to keep at it. Plus with our grassbeds on the rebound after 4 years of getting battered by storms & droughts, I think it can only get better. How can it get worse?
Also, I've never even tried hunting woodies up in the Delta yet. With all the woodies that winter here and the 3 bird limit, plus we can hog hunt after the morning flight, that is an option I may explore next year.
I'm still optimistic it will turn around.
 
Eric, you have to "purge" yourself from the taint of a bad season.

I have a friend that when he goes a bow season and does not kill a deer ....he sells his bow and buys a new one.

Thus the purge! I am in the process of selling two of my duck boats, my beloved double, and most of my decoys.

I have already made a new 3 dozen decoys, with plans for many more, located a new double, and put money down on a new hull to make my next duck boat. Yes, you take a little beating money wise selling the boat, but the good news is, I can make money on the gun and decoys.

Just the sheer drive to find, acquire, and build new equipment will bring the enthusiasm back in no time.

I offer this purge idea as it might restore your luster for the pursuit of fowl.
 
Don't throw in the towel yet. It's been a bad season for everyone. Our Duck season just ended today and it was by far the worst season I can remember. I'm still hopeful that the late Canada Goose season can make up for the lack of ducks. Usually by now my freezer is packed full of birds. This year we have been consuming them almost as fast as we shoot them.
Think positive, next year can only get better.
 
Eric,
You are not he only duckhunter in these parts that I have heard sat they may "give up if this is how it is going to be" Some with as many years hunting the river as you have. I went for the last time Friday. The weather conditions those two days, coupled with thew high water and being the last week of the season should have been great for us. Instead they were as lackluster as the rest of the season.
I know by next year I will be fired up and ready to go, but it sure does beat you down to have a season like this. Shawn
 
I hope to purge myself of my current hull as well, this season reinforced that I need a different hull to hunt & fish the open water I've started frequenting. Just hope the household finances allow it.
I do intend to build some foam & burlap divers during the off season too, gotta build up my bluebill spread. Guess if I can get a couple dozen done, I could purge some of my old beat up plastics.
 
There will probably be some cheap decoys on Craigslist in Mobile & Huntsville during the off season!
 
About every 7 years....I go through that.

Hmmm I thought it was only us guys in the Upper midwest that had these problems....
 
Wow! I had probably the BEST SEASON of the last 5 years this year. Granted the last few seasons were stinkers what with losing Walker to cancer, a hunting partner and tearing up my back. I guess I'm just more of a half full glass guy. I don't mean to put anybody down but the one thing about waterfowling is the time between the seasons when we plan, buy and build. And maybe someday I will carve. I don't know of any other thing that I think of every day of the year. The excitement of another opener is like Christmans eve. Maybe I just have lower expectations so it is easier to exceed. Oh well maybe there will be less pressure next year and I will shoot better and Booker will work better and maybe a new boat and maybe ................ Good Luck all and keep the faith
 
Carl and Eric,
I'm curious. Is there a pattern developing that you have been noticing? How about the states just north of you? Where do your ducks normally come from? What do the waterfowl biologists from Alabama (state and federal) have to say about this situation? How many state and national wildlife refuges you do have in your state? Are the other "Gulf" states having the same problems?
Al
 
Al

To answer your questions.

Is there a pattern developing that you have been noticing? Yes, more hunters, more boat traffic, more shots fired, more pressure. When the seasons went liberal it increased. A few years later word spread outside our area and non-residents and residents south of us flocked in. DRAMATIC INCREASE in hunting pressure.

How about the states just north of you? Can't comment on that. Folks from that region will need to provide input.

Where do your ducks normally come from? We get both Mississippi and Atlantic flyway ducks. Band recoveries of ducks banded in Alabama are mostly recovered in the MS flyway. Band recoveries of ducks shot here in Alabama are a mix of Mississippi and Atlantic flyway ducks with perhaps more coming from the Atlantic flyway according to state biologist Keith McCutcheon (Ret.). Harvest surveys show the top ten species are Mallard, Gadwall, Wood duck, Ring neck, GW Teal, Merganser, Baldpate, Black Duck, Pintail, Shoveler. I personally find the list hard to believe (mallard ahead of gadwall by almost double, scaup not in the top ten, etc.) but that is what the survey showed. Would like to know more about the survey myself.

How many state and national wildlife refuges you do have in your state? Waterfowling in our state is largely at the extremes of the state. Hunting moslty occurs on the Tennessee river in the northern 1/4 of the state the Mobile delta in the extreme south. The North has Wheeler Federal Wildlife Refuge and two state refuges - North Sauty and Crow Creek. Waterfowl hunting is prohibited. I'll let Carl list the numerous refuges they have in the Delta :) In my opinion the refuges are the last safe haven for the ducks. If it were not for there would be fewer ducks wintering here each winter. Gunning pressure ensures the refuges are loaded throughout most of the season.

Are the other "Gulf" states having the same problems? Can't comment on that. Folks from that region will need to provide input.

These are simplistic answers to your questions. The entire system is complex and no one variable is the key. I've no doubt there are many factors that play into the wintering population of ducks we see and how accessible they are. This was a very wet year and according to the Area Biologist really spread the ducks out. I don't doubt him on that one bit. I also have no doubt that the nearly doubling of waterfowlers (based upon stamp sales) in the area since the early 90s, their increased mobility and gadgetry, and hours spent in the field has greatly impacted the quality of hunting, at least for me (the new one's dont' know any better). One study showed that the number of rounds fired in 1997 was 403,000 while in 2004 it had climbed to 1.16 million. That represents almost three times the gunning pressure not to mention the boating pressure exerted on the local lake with the heavy increase in hunter boat traffic due to slough scouting (run your boat in every slough just to see what comes out) and the oft used run-and-gun tactic (flush, set-up, and wait for return). Waterfowling today, near me, is so far removed from what I fell in love. It's like you married a hot little thing that drove you wild and then one day you wake up next to a 300 pound gal that can't keep the house straight and has inlaws that want to borrow money.

Eric
 
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It's like you married a hot little thing that drove you wild and then one day you wake up next to a 300 pound gal that can't keep the house straight and has inlaws that want to borrow money.

Eric
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Eric, that is why the road trips. N AL doesn't look like she did in high school, but they've got the equivalent of 18 yr old cheerleaders being raised in SD all the time. Downside is, you gotta chase them, and spend money on them, and get to know them, and there is no guarantee they won't blow up on you in a few years as well. so do you take the easy one at home, or chase the new stuff?
 
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