Long time Florida duck hunters, were we just spoiled?
I have had this conversation with a few people. All long timers.
If you were lucky enough to Duck hunt just about any wetland in Florida in the late 70s to about the 90's, consider yourself as one of the lucky few. And you know what I am talking about. Seminole. George. Tampa Bay. Kissimmee. St Johns. Merritt Island. Okeechobee. Biscayne. All of those places are now a shell of what they were then.
But was it all just the way it should be or was it an outlier, fueled by the growth of an aquarium weed?
Other than what my Dad has told me about his youth, I don't know what Florida duck hunting was like in 1940, 50, 60.. But my friends Dad and his friends, guys who grew up Duck hunting Western Tennessee, Southern Mississippi, frequently said it would take them a whole day of sitting in the blind up North to equal the success we had on Lake O in an hour. This was back in 1980.
The curve topped out about then IMO. Then, aided by the spray war on the weeds the curve has, hopefully, now bottomed out? Is there a middle road, a "normal" down the road? I don't see how the natural vegetation can grow back in my, or even my kids lifetime.
Maybe we are at the bottom of the curve and come back to a "halfway point"? IDK. I'm not really optimistic.
But I do believe now, looking back....that it wasn't they way it was meant to be. And we got a bit spoiled.
Replies
I remember migrating mallards back in the 1960's..
not much nowadays though bluebills and redheads showed up en mass this week.. as usual.
My dad used to hunt South Florida extensively from Okeechobee, South in 40s-70s and said it was significantly better then than what we had in the 70s-90s.... Just a small part of my perspective.
This year it has been full since October. Some whistlers raised a clutch and left as soon as the weather got cool. There was one pair of mottled ducks hanging around, one blue winged drake, and three hooded mergs. Certainly not enough for me to buy a duck stamp for!
Just my $.02
I'm of the thought that we just don't have as many ducks as we did 20 years ago - development and farming in the duck factory, various little worms & snails that kill ducks, and God knows what.
It isn't just FL - look at the guy from LA and his reports, Arkansas isn't what it used to be, etc...
Last year was the first year I did not shoot a duck since 1984. Up north we could count on 1 or 2 opportunities a day - hunt all day to shoot twice. Then came down to FL and had a lot of fun for a while.
This year I got 10-12 in 2 weekends but don't put forth a lot of effort anymore. Not worth the time & effort to fight everyone over the "hot spot". One spot had 16 rigs the last Saturday of the season - probably comfortably hunt 5 or 6.
Thanks for the comments.
My point is that if you hunted in the 70s to 90s, you hunted in an environment that was totally un-natural for Florida due to Hydrilla being everywhere. We were spoiled with 6 bird limits in an hour, heck even 30 minutes. Now the pendulum has swung in the total opposite direction with decades of spraying and we have had terrible years. Maybe "natural" is somewhere in the middle and some of us might be lucky to see it one day? Is this the case? Were we just spoiled by Hydrilla?
to the op. I only started duck hunting on the Kissimmee chain in 1997. It’s been a steady decline. Last 4 years were pitiful especially this year
Here in panhandle we have Lakes that used to be great for ringers. Food is still there but no ringers. Even this year with very little pressure no ringers. Haven't shot em good for 5+ years and we've had weather that should of stacked them up. They just don't come any more.
Birds have learned to stay as far north as weather permits. And once forced south, they have learned the pathes of least resistance. In other words paths that have least hunting pressure. They will often fly back north on warm ups to return to a previously found area of refuge to the north.
Also seems to be new feeding habits developing. We are seeing more nocturnal feeding in our lease fields in Arkansas. Now there seems to be much more night feeding even on new moons. This was not the case 10 years ago.
But we still seeing the sun come up with friends and family!
I believe the most disappointed hunters I know of are the ones that hunted back in the 80s/90s, and still continue to hunt the exact same way today. I don’t hunt where birds are; I hunt where I believe they will go based on pressure. And with the exception of the usual dip in success between The Christmas to New Years pressuring and the second week of January, I was killing single man limits through the end of the season.
Sure wish I could find a youth to take Saturday.....
How did yall scout in the 80s and 90s? I didnt duck hunt then but used to hear the booms, but maybe there were so many ducks it didn't matter.
Myself the beginning of the season was great shot 55% of my birds the first 8 days. January sucked for us but not bc of birds entirely, mostly crowded marsh conditions and skyblasting creates for tough chances to decoy ducks. I felt like the species mix in my area didnt change from November to January except the blue wings left and didnt seem to appear again which is odd bc its a duck i can usually expect to be harvested all year long.
To me we didnt get many new birds that weren't already here migrating on photoperiod. Saw the same flock of 60 ringers by my house mid October through the whole season and they disappeared last week. Plenty of big ducks were here prior to the opener. With pressure and not so many new ducks it gets difficult. Only takes them a week to figure it out it seems.
There are not nearly as many ducks around from Okeechobee south. The habitat is completely decimated from aquatic spraying or severely overgrown cattail/willow/woody plant monocultures. What little habitat that is left gets pummeled into oblivion by a ever DEcreasing hunting population. These are the facts.... I'm not talking about this from a 5.9/day bird perspective either. I'm talking big picture. To argue against this is sheer silliness.
Sure you can run around 5 different areas in two days and find one hole to shoot a few ducks on days 3 and 4 and repeat it every week, then say things are just fine in February, but that's not the way it ever was in my last 50 years of duck hunting. The glades arguably look better than ever in many places but when you can run 100 plus miles in a morning and only kick up 20 ringers, and do it a few more times, something is woefully wrong. To me, this isn't about the isolated hot spot giving up a few limits to a few guys. There should be clouds of ducks scattered around all over, and they shouldn't be getting shot out or run out after only a morning hunt or two of shooting/scouting.
I agree about the riding/scouting and getting them up. Not good.
My scouting is essentially OVER on the Sunday 13 days prior to season. After that, all I'm doing is manicuring holes with a hedge trimmer or machete, opening up holes in the grass for my jerk strings, and getting my gear ready.
Wherever you find a decent concentration of birds two weeks before the season, is where they will be when the season starts. If there are 50 two weeks before, there might be 250 on the day of, maybe more maybe less, but who cares? That's where they will all be. They won't change locations until the season starts, unless everyone runs them off on the Thursday and Friday prior to the opener---which is exactly what you're doing.
This past year I brought a buddy out on Lake O on the weekend of Nov 9. We just sat in an open bay. He saw thousands of birds; his mouth was agape. He'd never seen anything like it.
They next weekend there were maybe 35% of the same number, and the weekend of opening day I'd say there were 10%, maybe, after they'd been run over for two weeks. The Thursday-Friday pre-opener scouters are really the final nail in the coffin.
Not jumping on you; it's just a reality.
My buddy Jeff just sculled up 6 Honkers who were sitting on some shelf ice at the mouth of the Muskeegon....but the lake was open and held a bunch of birds. Unless those lakes freeze up....there is no reason for those birds to move.
Many things to do.
Knots to be unraveled
'fore the darkness falls on you
Many things to do.
Knots to be unraveled
'fore the darkness falls on you
The rise of the "mud rig" allowed people to "scout" by driving around and knocking birds off to all those retention ponds mentioned in another post. Go up in an airliner and look at what is below you...Florida is nothing but water.
And while some bemoan the habitat...birds will load up in lesser habitat that has RESTRICTED ACCESS.
Now me being a well known restrictionist....that it comes as no surprise that I support that.
It was in years gone by that you could get restricted access just by being willing to work harder than the next guy.....Hard walks....long paddles...pushpoling great distance..... But that is far less the case now.
Now you can still do well...but not with old tactics.....
Many things to do.
Knots to be unraveled
'fore the darkness falls on you