A FIRST IN MY DUCK HUNTING HISTORY

[Paul26]

Following CinC-Pink's annual direction to de-redneck my yard immediately following the season, I did so yesterday.

The difference is that I stretched/repaired every long-line and stowed them in a ready-to-deploy manner, glue-gunned all the decoys that were taking on water, and generally squared away my entire kit so that next year I will ready to hunt the day I pull everything out of the crawlspace.

This is a first. My normal SOP is to put it all away, saying to myself I'll do it over the summer/early fall. I never do, and I end up being outside with a headlamp at 10PM the night prior to my first November hunt.

Rather proud of myself, thank you very much.

[Ducks27]

Nice ! ya I followed your normal SOP stuffed everything in the shed and said heck with it ill fool with it in the early fall, if your feeling rambunctious, give ya $20 bucks to straighten my crap out

[HydeMarsh]

Following CinC-Pink's annual direction to de-redneck my yard immediately following the season, I did so yesterday.

The difference is that I stretched/repaired every long-line and stowed them in a ready-to-deploy manner, glue-gunned all the decoys that were taking on water, and generally squared away my entire kit so that next year I will ready to hunt the day I pull everything out of the crawlspace.

This is a first. My normal SOP is to put it all away, saying to myself I'll do it over the summer/early fall. I never do, and I end up being outside with a headlamp at 10PM the night prior to my first November hunt.

Rather proud of myself, thank you very much.

I am impressed!!! hope your actions will change all of NC's duck karma for the next year. perhaps this one small act will cause the ducks to cycle out of the nocturnal pattern.

[KAhunter]

Following CinC-Pink's annual direction to de-redneck my yard immediately following the season, I did so yesterday.

The difference is that I stretched/repaired every long-line and stowed them in a ready-to-deploy manner, glue-gunned all the decoys that were taking on water, and generally squared away my entire kit so that next year I will ready to hunt the day I pull everything out of the crawlspace.

This is a first. My normal SOP is to put it all away, saying to myself I'll do it over the summer/early fall. I never do, and I end up being outside with a headlamp at 10PM the night prior to my first November hunt.

Rather proud of myself, thank you very much.

I am impressed!!! hope your actions will change all of NC's duck karma for the next year. perhaps this one small act will cause the ducks to cycle out of the nocturnal pattern.

When you build as many impoundments as possible in a given area it is going to change the patterns of the ducks. I think nocturnal patterns on those impoundments (well most anyways) are here to stay and may only get worse. Just gotta hope for the right weather

[Shurshot]

Gotta agree KA. Birds have been doing the night thing there for long as I can remember. I think it was Jamine Simmons that had a large commercial pond just west of the Fairfield caution light where we and envaribly many others would go sit and watch the hunters come out at the end of LST, only to eventually have 10k plus birds fall in behind them 20 minutes later. That was either back in the 80’s or early 90’s.

[HydeMarsh]

Shurshot, great observation. I have recently read a book by Robert Roark, "The Old man and the Boy". a simply awesome read, recommend it highly..

The book is about a boy and his grandfather hunting and fishing in eastern NC in the early part of the last century. In one chapter he talked about how the birds at Mattamuskeet would enter the feeding areas about 30 minutes after LST and leave about 20 minutes before LST one year. He discussed how frustrating this became. Seems like it is nothing new but part of a cycle we must endure. No impoundments then and little pressure. go figure.

[Paul26]

I meant to post this after my annual Hyde County impoundment hunt I am invited to each year for the last weekend.

My host has been hunting there since the 60's, and his house is full of historical material on hunting in the area. When he told me of the numbers of Canada Geese that migrated to the Lake then vs now, it stunned me. I cannot recall the numbers and will check before posting them....but it was stunning.

Anyway, I assumed it was from the incredible numbers of impoundments then vs now (based on what I see today and what I have read here). He said that this actually had very little to do with it, and threw out a number that is even more incredible.

He said there is 2,000% more cultivated farmland in Hyde County today then there was 50 years ago. The corn and beans we see today were all heavily vegetated as you see in the rare open area that is not present day farmland.

Hence, the Geese in the lake have reduced dramatically.

Nothing to do with nocturnal patterns, but an interesting viewpoint.

[ncbufflehead]

Hence, the Geese in the lake have reduced dramatically.

Nothing to do with nocturnal patterns, but an interesting viewpoint.

It's the same way on the sounds. The geese we see here are mostly resident population. My grandads lived to shoot geese from a lump blind and curtain boxes.

[KAhunter]

I meant to post this after my annual Hyde County impoundment hunt I am invited to each year for the last weekend.

My host has been hunting there since the 60's, and his house is full of historical material on hunting in the area. When he told me of the numbers of Canada Geese that migrated to the Lake then vs now, it stunned me. I cannot recall the numbers and will check before posting them....but it was stunning.

Anyway, I assumed it was from the incredible numbers of impoundments then vs now (based on what I see today and what I have read here). He said that this actually had very little to do with it, and threw out a number that is even more incredible.

He said there is 2,000% more cultivated farmland in Hyde County today then there was 50 years ago. The corn and beans we see today were all heavily vegetated as you see in the rare open area that is not present day farmland.

Hence, the Geese in the lake have reduced dramatically.

Nothing to do with nocturnal patterns, but an interesting viewpoint.

So more cultivated fields vs fallow fields mean less geese??? I would think it would be the other way around. I thought the geese just changed migrations and have short stopped in maryland and eastern shore and ducks and swan have replaced them.
There were more geese down this year than I have seen in a while, from currituck to hyde and in between. Could have busted them on a few different times if it wasnt for that pesky 1 per person per day thing.

[tarheelduckhead]

It’s not just local crop management causing problems. I recently visited the Horicon National Wilflife Refuge in Wisconsin. When I was there in October, 1981 Canada Geese were everywhere by the thousands. However the USFWS stopped planting fields for them as a food source during migrations, so they eventually bumped off their traditional migration path and went elsewhere. Our guide stated that they get about 1/4 what they did in the 70-80s. They stopped feeding them in them in 1971...so over 40+ years, the change is now realized. When we toured the marsh, I saw around 25 total but I assume they were residents not migratory returning to their natural breeding grounds. The guide stated they had about 20,000 nesting ducks in the marsh this month. I saw several nesting mallards and wood ducks.

My point is, that even though the ducks and geese seem to be less than before in NC, it’s not only associated with where you’re at, but all the changes in management from the breeding grounds to wintering grounds. We used to see flocks of mallards numbering up towards ~ 75 birds per flying through a Cape Fear River swamp on a routine basis back in the 70s and 80s. Sounds like that wouldn’t be the case today. I know in Virginia our flocks average less than 10 when it comes to mallards. Gadwall numbers are higher in numbers than any other puddler where we hunt in SEVA. I now have to go to North Dakota to see the big number flights that were routinely present back in NC in the 60-early 80s. And duck populations are at an all-time high in the USA...