Killed some mallards in Ga, redheads in NC, teal and mottleds in SC recently and traveled to La to kills some grays and cans and ringos. All in all mediocre. Which gave me time to think regarding the cause.
This may need to be in the Habitat and politics section, but here goes. I’ve recently been fortunate enough to hunt some nice places in NC,SC, northern Ga, and Lousiana. All private, all generational duck properties with experienced owners and managers. I have also been in conversation with friends on these trips who have shared information from Kansas,Oklahoma, and Canada. Among these last few weeks topics varying from their observations over the last ten years to shortstopping corn ponds, weather, massive Midwest flooding, rubberheads, Fed game wardens, tagging, mallards vs trashducks, aerial observation accuracy, coonasses, motorized duck decoys, baiting and much more were discussed.
The skinny of it is that we have been misled.The duck harvest vs hunter numbers do not lie, not to mention the detailed log books from most all of these places. So, the question is, what if anything can be done to improve duck numbers? Because the general consensus is that It would be bad for business if people really knew of a decline, and that inflated nesting success and survey numbers will continue the status quo of mediocre seasons in an attempt to sell as much prospective success and keep people buying leases and duck gear. Interested in thoughts and perspective.