DComeaux wrote:I feel that the fowl are showing us things and it's being ignored.
I think those things are large scale land use changes, climate change (not catastrophic end of the world BS, but a generally warming climate probably enhanced by carbon emissions), and increased pressure (and distribution of pressure). The relative importance of those three is different in different places.
My primary spot for hunting in November has largely collapsed because of land use changes. It used to be the number one producing club in the state. This year we barely killed 100 ducks.
My late season spot exists almost exclusively because of land use change (i.e., the cooling lake) but has declined because of later arrival of winter weather. Pressure doesn't really matter.
Down where you are, it
sounds like all three play a role.
I don't think having a bunch of seasons helps either. I think everybody opening and closing at the same time is ideal. It would spread pressure a little, but also ducks wouldn't be able to move north or south a relatively small distance for them and have nothing but refuge. There are obviously some practical problems with this.
A guide I hunted with had an interesting (probably completely impractical) idea. We currently have 60 days to hunt ducks, but for most people, they are not happy about the dates. Instead, you get 45 days to hunt ducks. You decide what those days are before the season. So say the season is open everywhere from mid Sept through mid January. However, you pick three 15 day stretches where you can hunt. For me, I'd pick first two weeks of October, first two weeks in January, and probably two weeks after the second shotgun deer season in Illinois or maybe the entire last 30 days and give up on the middle season. It would reduce pressure and spread it out. I theoretically like the idea but completely impractical. I'd happily give up 15 days for that option.
What is the probability of a duck dying that goes no further south than central Illinois? He's hunted from mid Sept in Canada to mid December. 3 months in places with much lower hunting pressure. Now that same duck heads to the Gulf Coast. He's hunted from mid Sept in Canada to the end of January. 4.5 months in danger and passes through Arkansas and Louisiana where there are far more hunters per acre than up north. It would seem that hunter mortality would be at least 50% higher if not 100% higher or more. It wouldn't take a lot of generations to shift populations north. So to shift them back south, close you all's season and double ours
Less total ducks would be killed and those that hang north would be under greater pressure and those that move south would be under less.
I think duck populations are completely fine. I think the hunters are telling us two things. 1) Nobody's ever satisfied because the good old days always feel better. 2) We have a distribution problem, not a population problem and that affects some much more than others.
Right now, I'm kind of like you. My days hunting ducks are going way down. I think I only targeted ducks 10 days this year and I hunted 72 days. I used to target ducks 30+ days.