Mike,
I try to make the best of every trip and I don't measure my success or the fun I had by the number of birds killed. I got over that years ago. However, I do like to see some birds. The last few seasons have been dissapointing. I get out a lot and I am part of a reliable group of like minded waterfowlers who observe and report to each other. While there have been scattered reports of concentrations of migrating birds here and there, we have just not seen the big push of ducks from the north that provides good hunting. I ran all over the eastern part of the state and my hunting success was hit and miss. Particularly for divers. Lakes that use to attract large numbers of bluebills never seem to hold scaup anymore. Some guys say that they are overflying us, others say they are "up north" and will come down with the next front. Well, the guys south of us are still waiting for birds and we sure didn't see them. This area just west of us has always been a traditional migration corridor. Others say the migration corridor is moving further west to the high plains. I don't know what's up. I shot a lot more puddle ducks and geese than divers this year, but it wasn't all that many ducks total. I had some great float hunts for woodies early in the season. Now that we are locked up we will field hunt mallards and Canadas that roost on the ice and stay as long as the picked corn is not covered with snow. They are some hardy sumbitches. I may also drive down to Nebraska with my boat and look around at some of the open water in the northern third of the state. So, I had a few memorable days when it all came together but we had a lot of hunts that came up short. That said, I sure enjoy all the work and ritual of motoring on the water and setting up my boat and decoys. And I would rather take two ducks that I stone cold fooled laying out in my sneak boat than "whack and stack" an easy limit with a robo duck.
