Its getting Worse.

Hevi 13. Anson

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Traveled to my lease East of 95 for the first time in January not expecting much but the one thing my girls enjoy doing is watching the thousands of divers flying in the late evening. Well we saw 0 ducks flying the usual high route across the field, it's getting bad.
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
Dobber, Do you remember if it was similar last year? We've had 2 poor seasons in a row. Our duck club usually does pretty well for what it is, but last 2 years have been off by more than 50%.
 

Bluecord

Six Pointer
I agree I think next year I will plan on hunting much farther north, just to try to get into them. I’ve been in the Lake Norman area since 2013 and this is the lowest numbers I’ve seen here ever. Just been a mild winter again on this side of the country and they are not being evicted bc of it lol.
 

Justin

Old Mossy Horns
What part of Canada are you in Dobber? There’s a lot of hard water in the lower 48, and has been since Thanksgiving. Funny how weather varies like it does.
 

JJWise

Twelve Pointer
I’ve seen a lot more ducks this year than the last few but I also have a lot more time to hunt and scout. That being said I haven’t really seen a good push of new birds in about a few weeks, the ones I’m hunting now seem pretty stale
 

Downeast

Twelve Pointer
I've seen a lot of divers on the coast but they are all on someone's corn pile. No matter what kind of boat you have, or gun, or decoys, or dog, or blind, or whatever, you can't compete with the little yellow decoys. I talked to a GW but they don't seem to be interested. Maybe because most of the corn was around the blinds used by the commercials and further than 300 yards away. The fines vs the work involved just ain't worth the trouble I guess. But the birds are definitely here.
 

JONOV

Old Mossy Horns
I’ve seen a lot more ducks this year than the last few but I also have a lot more time to hunt and scout. That being said I haven’t really seen a good push of new birds in about a few weeks, the ones I’m hunting now seem pretty stale
I'm seeing more birds around this year, not the huge pushes that would come from bigger deep freezes north of here. The pressure on the handful of public hunting areas means that they're getting blown off. And I don't think people realize how much off limits habitat seems to be created with the development around here. Every single subdivision around here has low lying wetlands on the outskirts that are designed to hold water and prevent flooding. I walk my dog along miles of it on the greenway. Huge amounts of birds in there now, mallards quacking like a dang video.
 

nekkedducker

Ten Pointer
Ducks have been mediocre for us at best, but we saw the most amount of swans we ve ever seen yesterday. One field had thousands in it. 20 of us all had our tag filled before 9 am.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 

TH80

Eight Pointer
Didn’t see many woodies yesterday but a few more than the last couple weeks. The last few weeks have been slow everywhere I’ve been but have managed one or two a hunt. I’ve hunted at least once a week since season came in and only had three hunts that were skunks. One hunt just couldn’t hit anything, one hunt water was so high two washed away before I could get them, and one there was just nothing close for a shot. It’s been bad this year but last year was worse for me.
 

waterfowlife

Button Buck
From Northeast Arkansas............the absolute WORST season in 20+ years. Lots of birds when the
season opener (calendar birds) but in between it has been to mediocre to terrible. The migration
never truly occurred in the lower Mississippi Flyway
 

Duckmauler dhc

Old Mossy Horns
I’ve seen less ducks this year while being on the water fishing 3 days a week and I didn’t think that was going to be possible. Coming down 40 the other day and passed the Crabtree lake or whatever it’s called. Used to see 1000s of birds on it, didn’t see a single bird on it. None of the silt ponds around my area have anything on them and haven’t all season. Selling my mag craft is going to be an easy decision next year when it’s paid off.
 

FITZH2O

Old Mossy Horns
Was in western NY this past weekend. No ice to speak of Friday when I arrived. Snowed almost a foot that night and the temps dropped and weren’t supposed to get above freezing for 10 days. There were tons of birds in the fields and open water. Not sure how many, if any, make there way to NC on freeze up though. Irondequoit Bay was starting to freeze by Sunday.
 

dobber

Old Mossy Horns
What part of Canada are you in Dobber?
Sorry i missed this, i am just south of Detroit in Windsor and for those true duck officandos close to Jack Miners
Just yesterday at work we had a flock of 80 geese fly on by, and see plenty flying around at home.
Not much snow either along the St Lawrence which is a fair distance from me, but them birds are still in the fields, and as long as the river doesn't freeze up and the snow is light, they have no need to move south.
 

CBD21

Eight Pointer
From Northeast Arkansas............the absolute WORST season in 20+ years. Lots of birds when the
season opener (calendar birds) but in between it has been to mediocre to terrible. The migration
never truly occurred in the lower Mississippi Flyway
The calendar birds were even weak on showing for the opener, I was out opening week at our place stayed 3 days and haven’t been back since it’s been so slow. I normally spend 30ish days out there but wasn’t worth it this year. Killed more in NC
 
Top