2020 Permit Draw

shurshot

Ten Pointer
Correct Wanchese, it was 5k initially, then raised. But Feds set seasons on harvest models and as popular as swans has been over the years, no surprise they reduced the # of permits.

To each his own but I’ve shot enough swans where I could care less if I ever shot another one. Quit applying long time ago.
 

Roanoke

Eight Pointer
We try not to hunt impoundments on clear and calm sunny days. If you burn it up when it is clear and calm ducks simply get out of dodge. Another tool to help reduce pressure, it to use a 20g instead of 12g and and only take kill shots.
 

snakeskinner

Twelve Pointer
I don't know why I put in for them. It's usually a waste of money cause the hunts are no good. Only remember having one good hunt out of about 10 that I have drawn for. Most of the time there are no ducks or I show up as early as I can to get my spot only to have squatters roll in around day break.
 

jopel

Four Pointer
Contributor
Would be nice if the wrc put some effort into the public impoundments.. heres one of the falls impoundments completely overgrown (permit area) the other half had maybe a half acre of standing water in a 60-70 acre impoundment. Its sad
 

Attachments

  • 20201101_110358.jpg
    20201101_110358.jpg
    221 KB · Views: 58

nettereo16

Six Pointer
While I do wish they did better management, they did a controlled burn a year or two ago on the south section of that impoundment you posted. They need to get busy with the pumping
 

Clark

Ten Pointer
I don't know why I put in for them. It's usually a waste of money cause the hunts are no good. Only remember having one good hunt out of about 10 that I have drawn for. Most of the time there are no ducks or I show up as early as I can to get my spot only to have squatters roll in around day break.
If you get aone good hunt out of 10 permits you are doing GREAT!
 

bryguy

Old Mossy Horns
Started hunting ducks when the point system was still around. Started hunting down east before everybody did. Family owned land that butted up to the Pamlico river around Aurora. Hunted goose creek, mattamuskeet and Morgan futch early. Mid 90s to about 2006 or so, those hunts were amazing. Then ole Mike Marsh wrote all his stories about the great duck hunting down there, duck commander became popular and it all went to hell in a hand basket after that. Honestly NCWRC permit hunts are the absolute most overrated and crowded thing there is. It amazes me people are still putting in for them given how crappy the hunts are. It just boggles my mind the number of folks that apply.
So many things that are wrong in NC waterfowl wise. Honestly nothing is going to change short of an absolute collapse of the duck population. To much money and to many ‘influential’ folks for anything to be done to change the status quo in NC duck hunting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
Started hunting ducks when the point system was still around.


those were the days,,,10 point teal and 90 (then 100) point hen mallards,,,,it started in 1970 as an experimental limit in NJ and FL,,,expanded from there - expect points were variable bewteen flyways, not sure on that

didn't matter where I hunted (Northern WI) as it was mostly migratory teal around the house and once in a long while I'd get an invite to hunt around horicon marsh,,,

fun days
 

bryguy

Old Mossy Horns
those were the days,,,10 point teal and 90 (then 100) point hen mallards,,,,it started in 1970 as an experimental limit in NJ and FL,,,expanded from there - expect points were variable bewteen flyways, not sure on that

didn't matter where I hunted (Northern WI) as it was mostly migratory teal around the house and once in a long while I'd get an invite to hunt around horicon marsh,,,

fun days

Funny thing is(maybe it is nostalgia) it seems like there were way more birds around here then versus now with the supposed record number of ducks. I can remember when Buckhorn reservoir here in Wilson was flooded and the crazy numbers of ducks that were there during the winters. Luckily I have those memories and memories of hunting the skeet and the pamlico river and seeing a ton of birds. Like I said maybe it is nostalgia on my part, but even though there were fewer ducks overall, it seemed like locally there were more birds.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
Largely most of the permits suck but if you get lucky with the right permit on the right day you can have a pretty good hunt. I like them for the change of scenery. I'm not a huge fan of the blinds but I get why they put them in.
 

bigdrumnc

Ten Pointer
Funny thing is(maybe it is nostalgia) it seems like there were way more birds around here then versus now with the supposed record number of ducks. I can remember when Buckhorn reservoir here in Wilson was flooded and the crazy numbers of ducks that were there during the winters. Luckily I have those memories and memories of hunting the skeet and the pamlico river and seeing a ton of birds. Like I said maybe it is nostalgia on my part, but even though there were fewer ducks overall, it seemed like locally there were more birds.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
There are an exponential amount of new impoundments in Camden, currituck, Hyde , Tyrrell, pamlico, Beaufort , and Washington counties. Add the refuges to the mix. Love or hate the private impoundments......they hold a lot of ducks.
 

bryguy

Old Mossy Horns
There are an exponential amount of new impoundments in Camden, currituck, Hyde , Tyrrell, pamlico, Beaufort , and Washington counties. Add the refuges to the mix. Love or hate the private impoundments......they hold a lot of ducks.

No doubt at all that there are a ton of ducks being held on private impoundments and on the refuges. Back in the late 70s and early 80s all those things didn’t exist and honestly that is probably why there were more ducks accessible to the general public. I was lucky enough to have memories the hunts I got to participate in. Those memories are some of my fondest of my hunting career. Nothing like sitting on a bucket on the edge of the pamlico river with an old hump back browning and a couple of boxes of high brass #6. Watching bluebills trade up and down the river. Waiting and watching the time slide by till it was sunrise and those few quick shots and you were done for the day. So many memories.......
Honestly some of the places NCWRC has impoundments in are really good spots, but they just don’t have th birds coming in during shooting time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Helium

Old Mossy Horns
From my experience I’d say the # of ducks didn’t change BUT the pressure and location moved/changed their feeding and roosting.

Was privileged to hunt a 5 acre private lake/pond in Iredell county for years. Just 2 of us hunting. Limits were common. Saw as many as 200 ducks one morning. Killed all kinds of species .

My buddy (older gentleman) who had permission and took me often... said he had hunted Pamlico etc but had always killed more on the pond at Iredell
 

coachcornbread

Ten Pointer
No doubt at all that there are a ton of ducks being held on private impoundments and on the refuges. Back in the late 70s and early 80s all those things didn’t exist and honestly that is probably why there were more ducks accessible to the general public. I was lucky enough to have memories the hunts I got to participate in. Those memories are some of my fondest of my hunting career. Nothing like sitting on a bucket on the edge of the pamlico river with an old hump back browning and a couple of boxes of high brass #6. Watching bluebills trade up and down the river. Waiting and watching the time slide by till it was sunrise and those few quick shots and you were done for the day. So many memories.......
Honestly some of the places NCWRC has impoundments in are really good spots, but they just don’t have th birds coming in during shooting time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I wonder at what point the rise in private impoundments and loss of grass in the sounds intersected and started the shift? I’ve only lived in NC for 12 years so I couldn’t tell you when it happened, but a guy I work with tells me all kinds of stories about fishing in currituck when the grass was super thick in the 70’s and 80’s.
 

bryguy

Old Mossy Horns
I wonder at what point the rise in private impoundments and loss of grass in the sounds intersected and started the shift? I’ve only lived in NC for 12 years so I couldn’t tell you when it happened, but a guy I work with tells me all kinds of stories about fishing in currituck when the grass was super thick in the 70’s and 80’s.

Currituck was a world renowned bass fishery and was a waterfowl Mecca for a long time. Same with mattamuskette. I would guess it was probably in the 2003 time frame that the dramatic shift occurred. That is when I saw a huge increase in pressure down east. Once duck hinting got to be the ‘cool’ thing to do, that is when folks started building impoundments. Bout the only thing that may ever change it would be a major hurricane blowing through and destroying a bunch of impoundments. Those private impoundments are not going to go away short of that or something sort of major economic collapse where folks don’t have the money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

todobien

Eight Pointer
I couldn't find this paper in a quick search but it is pretty good re: relationship of grass and waterfowl (uses coots since they are truer grass eaters than many other waterfowl species). Wicker, A.M., Endres, K.M., 1995. Relationship between waterfowl and American coot abundance with submersed macrophytic vegetation in Currituck Sound, North Carolina. Estuaries, 18 (2), 428-431
 

bigdrumnc

Ten Pointer
Currituck was a world renowned bass fishery and was a waterfowl Mecca for a long time. Same with mattamuskette. I would guess it was probably in the 2003 time frame that the dramatic shift occurred. That is when I saw a huge increase in pressure down east. Once duck hinting got to be the ‘cool’ thing to do, that is when folks started building impoundments. Bout the only thing that may ever change it would be a major hurricane blowing through and destroying a bunch of impoundments. Those private impoundments are not going to go away short of that or something sort of major economic collapse where folks don’t have the money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I wouldn’t bet on the impoundments going anywhere. I would hate that for the local folks in Hyde co. Other than knocking down the corn a Russian rat will do more damage to a impoundment than a hurricane. Now I would bet on a hurricane in my kids life time that will open back up a inlet in currituck sound and make the obx an even more world class inshore fishery 👍👍👍👍
 

Gus

Six Pointer
Currituck in 70/80s the milfoil was so thick in areas you literally could not go 30 yds without stoppin to clear off yo prop- unless you built a wire basket to cover the prop, which all the locals did. That'd get you a couple hundred yds.
Bout the only bass bait anybody used was a weedless johnson spoon with a pork rind trailer- only thing wouldn't get all hung up until the weedless worms came along. You'd cast the spoon and it'd sit there on top on the grass, walk it along on the grass till it fell through a hole...bam you were hooked up, near bout every time. Bout half your retrieves you never hit a hole in the grass mat big enough for your spoon to drop through. Had to use heavy line/gear cuz you was pulling up several lbs of grass wit every fish. They got big in there too- 200-300 citations yearly with probly more'n twice that never weighed.
Don't get me started on the ducks....
 

Greenhorn

Six Pointer
I've had a few public draws that were really good. You can say impoundments hold ducks, and they do, but I believe they are hurting public hunters. I hunt a private impoundment several times a year and it's amazing the numbers they have. It has got to be taking away from the regular Joe. I don't see how it couldn't.
 
Top