Duck Season 2024-2025

[Ducaholic]

That's not normal ag practices lol

[DComeaux]

That's not normal ag practices lol

Interpretation. It could be in the right situation.

[Ducaholic]

That's not normal ag practices lol

Interpretation. It could be in the right situation.

Unless you don't want to make money as a farmer you don't allow your combine to drop that many full corn cobs in a pile.

[SpinnerMan]

Unless you don't want to make money as a farmer you don't allow your combine to drop that many full corn cobs in a pile.

I think that was purely done for the camera. The guy that set it up went around and gathered up some ears and threw them in front of the camera like that so he'd get better video.

However, there is a lot more corn on the ground than most people think. There are hundreds maybe even thousands of ears of corn per acre that end up on the ground. This is because there are 30 or 40,000 corn plants per acre. Each can have up two full ears. Even at just a 1% loss, that's about 500 tom maybe 1,000 ears of corn per acre. That's around 1 ear about ever 3 yards for a 1% loss. 2-4% loss seems to be normal. If you walk around a picked corn field, and I do that all the time, there is no shortage of ears of corn on the ground. Corn also lasts on the ground. Soy beans will have a whole lot of soybeans on the ground as well, but as soon as it gets wet, they disintegrate. Corn doesn't.

In that video, I just think the guy went around and grab some shucked them and tossed them in front of the camera. I don't think the whole field is like this, but there's still going to be a hell of a lot of corn in the field until the birds eat it all. A lot of birds can work a field for awhile before they clean out all the waste grain. And there are a hell of a lot of fields.

A guy took a video from our clubhouse a couple weeks ago. There are a lot more ducks in that dry field feeding than you see in this video. That's normal to see this time of year in the fields around the cooling lake. That's why I wish our duck season ran until the end of January.

[Ducaholic]

I own an ag field that I lease to a farmer. He does not leave anything close to 500 ears on the ground per acre. I actually gather it to feed the squirrels that roam my yard.

The video is likely staged and it's at Swan Lake so more is likely left purposely as part of the farmer/refuge agreement.

[SpinnerMan]

I own an ag field that I lease to a farmer. He does not leave anything close to 500 ears on the ground per acre. The video is likely staged and it's at Swan Lake so more is likely left purposely as part of the agreement.

Not sure how you would run the equipment to intentionally leave more, but maybe. But that many waterfowl is not unusual to see in a field up here. Thousands or even 10's of thousands of ducks or geese in a feed field is not unusual. In fact it is normal.

1 whole ear, and that excludes the loose kernels, ever 3 paces (500 ears per acre) seems about right from my experience. It's also consistent with the 2-4% loss rate you can find in the various ag science sites. There's a lot of whole ears of corn on the ground as well as loose kernels. It's why you can see thousands of ducks or geese feeding in these fields. We don't have anything else in those fields for the ducks and geese to be eating. We don't have any new plant growth after the fields are picked. It's just the corn that is not harvested. The only way thousands of waterfowl are feeding in a single field for days at a time is that there is a whole lot of waste grain in that field. It just would not attract that many birds and hold them for that long if there wasn't plenty to eat.

https://www.louisianasportsman.com/hunting/waterfowl-duck-hunting/ducks/ending-louisianas-duck-detour/

And while Louisiana agriculture is decreasing, the Midwest’s agricultural production is increasing, primarily due to the rise in popularity of ethanol. The corn-producing acreage in the United States has increased by millions of acres over the past 20 years, a scale so large that waste grain can be found on the ground as late as spring.

“Species like snow geese are actually feeding on corn during their spring migration,” Reynolds said.

[Ducaholic]

I believe you. All I'm saying is my farmer is not leaving that much waste corn in my field.

[SpinnerMan]

I believe you. All I'm saying is my farmer is not leaving that much waste corn in my field.

I think the yields are quite a bit lower in the south, but still pretty high. I doubt the percentage left in the field is that different. The harvest techniques are all the same. Maybe it doesn't dry out as quick and that reduces losses or something, but I really doubt it would be that much different. Maybe the warmer weather causes it to breakdown quicker. Maybe the combined result is less in the fields and that's why folks down south don't realize how much corn is available in the fields up north all winter long if they don't get buried in snow to make it inaccessible.

What really surprises me is how much snow they can feed through. They must have a good sense of smell because they are still eating the corn through more snow than I would think they could ever find enough food. But they manage. It's quite amazing too me. My favorite thing to do is to hunt ducks and geese in snow covered fields.

[Darren]

Report from the marsh lease today was much slower, still managed 2 GW teal, 1 stud BW teal, and a scaup/dos gris to close it out. Hope he turned the lights out behind him.

[Darren]

That's where all my grays were:

https://www.kwtx.com/2025/02/03/texas-g ... ily-limit/

Capture`.JPG

[SpinnerMan]

That's where all my grays were:

https://www.kwtx.com/2025/02/03/texas-g ... ily-limit/

Capture`.JPG

Those guys went all in. One had no license, lead shot, 3x limits, ...

I hope they had fun because they won't be getting a license again for a very long time.

Although, that didn't stop them before

[DComeaux]

That's where all my grays were:

https://www.kwtx.com/2025/02/03/texas-g ... ily-limit/

Capture`.JPG

That really pisses me off. I wish they would have names. LDWF provides the names in their reports.

[Darren]

That really pisses me off. I wish they would have names. LDWF provides the names in their reports.

Simply abuse of the resource.

[Darren]

As always, consider the source, but I do think they did a good job documenting what was widely known as fact regarding weather observations and their departure from average across the fall/winter we just had.

#1 Suspect from my observations as it played out

Capture.JPG

Early-season mild temperatures across the Prairie Pothole Region slowed the southward movement of birds, leading to a staggered migration. One of the biggest takeaways was the unprecedented warmth, as the 3-month period October–December was the warmest in 130 years. This extended warmth kept wetlands open far longer than usual, delaying migration and allowing birds to hold in mid-latitude regions instead of pushing south. Waterfowl season across the Great Lakes region was marked by inconsistent bird numbers and challenging conditions. An unusually warm fall delayed migrations, leading to slow early-season hunting in many areas.

https://www.ducks.org/conservation/wate ... oIPkfCO_5w

[Duck Engr]

Cool, thanks for sharing!

[Ducaholic]

As always, consider the source, but I do think they did a good job documenting what was widely known as fact regarding weather observations and their departure from average across the fall/winter we just had.

#1 Suspect from my observations as it played out

Capture.JPG

Early-season mild temperatures across the Prairie Pothole Region slowed the southward movement of birds, leading to a staggered migration. One of the biggest takeaways was the unprecedented warmth, as the 3-month period October–December was the warmest in 130 years. This extended warmth kept wetlands open far longer than usual, delaying migration and allowing birds to hold in mid-latitude regions instead of pushing south. Waterfowl season across the Great Lakes region was marked by inconsistent bird numbers and challenging conditions. An unusually warm fall delayed migrations, leading to slow early-season hunting in many areas.

https://www.ducks.org/conservation/wate ... oIPkfCO_5w

Despite the obvious warmer than normal weather I thought we got timely fronts early on and in Mid-December that produced good hunts for my group. That's why I view having as many days to hunt in December as the key to a successful season for my situation. Closing for 12 days in the middle of December makes zero sense to me. At one time the East Zone had ample habitat to hold birds. We don't any longer and if you don't shoot birds on the way through you might not shoot them at all.

[Darren]

And as a reminder, I'd posted this I think earlier (during season as it was unfortunately playing out).

Nov 7th 1.jpg

Hence coastal opener's "Teal Season 2.0" references so many made.

We don't shoot many blue wings on our lease in September but there were just so many on hand for the November opener in nearby (and better) habitat, that the shooting ran enough out to give us some late morning action where we know they have no interest in being otherwise. Sat on a DNS till 8am, yea that was fun. Cannot keep opening the marsh on Nov 7, 8 or 9 ballpark.

[DComeaux]

And as a reminder, I'd posted this I think earlier (during season as it was unfortunately playing out).

Nov 7th 1.jpg

Hence coastal opener's "Teal Season 2.0" references so many made.

We don't shoot many blue wings on our lease in September but there were just so many on hand for the November opener in nearby (and better) habitat, that the shooting ran enough out to give us some late morning action where we know they have no interest in being otherwise. Sat on a DNS till 8am, yea that was fun. Cannot keep opening the marsh on Nov 7, 8 or 9 ballpark.

I don't mind the later opening date in November, but as Ducaholic mentioned I don't want to miss any time in December. We could open and run straight thru whatever closing date we'd get at the current 60 day time limit. I really wouldn't mind seeing a 45 or 30 day season again. I seem to remember fondly the season opening the weekend before Thanksgiving and closing mid to early January. It was either 45 or 30 days or both. In those day's I was able, and would most years, hunt every day for the entire first split, and I'd ease up a good bit on the second split.
This long drawn out crap and the two splits we recently had is nonsense. I hope we never see that again. It was only used in this 60 day framework to push the closing date to the end of January, which is ridiculous.

[Rick]

I remain of the mind that it's best for longer term success not to meet all of our new ducks with gunfire and to give them a meaningful December split to learn to like it here before doing our best to run them out.

[DComeaux]

I remain of the mind that it's best for longer term success not to meet all of our new ducks with gunfire and to give them a meaningful December split to learn to like it here before doing our best to run them out.

I could go with that if we'd close in early to mid-January.

[Ducaholic]

No doubt the migration is delayed and about 1/2 of what it used to be. The season dates are going to be pushed back a week and I think with good reasoning.

Both Mississippi and Arkansas hunt more days in December than we do. Miss. hunts the entire month of December and Arkansas hunts a week more than we do. We need to follow that lead in some form or fashion. That's the key to the entire state killing more ducks IMO. Using an old formula that worked when the state regularly wintered 3+ million ducks is outdated. If you don't adapt you fall behind and that's what we are doing.

I also don't think we gain anything from hunting until the end of January, but you can't convince the powers that be otherwise. We will undoubtedly continue to do so and give up a better week of hunting in December to do so.