My season is over and now I'm reflecting. Please join in with anything related to duck hunting.

1. It seems that North Texas for the most part has become gadwall country. Now I know that along the river going east and the panhandle are still good mallard hunting areas, but things have changed some. I used to shoot mostly mallards, for the last two years it has been mostly gadwalls. DFW hunters are having to get up earlier and drive further to "Get the Green."

2. Public hunting on the lakes around DFW has become a joke. I have never seen so many people stack up in the same areas. I still hunt public water all the time, but I will go to an area that I know holds less ducks just to get away from the crowds.

3. We had a lot of still days this season. When ducks are looking at your spread and it looks like a photograph, they don't land. Get some motion in your blocks. I like the battery powered quiver butts. They put off a lot of movement without making much noise. They are quick to break though, be careful with them.

4. What happened to spinners? Am I the only one who didn't use one all season. I have two and dad has two, we never use them anymore.

In the last 10 years in far Northeast Texas I have seen fewer and fewer Gadwall.

Canvasbacks have arrived here in the last 2 years for the first time I can remember.

Wood ducks are hard to hunt when ALL of your timber land is flooded.

I hope the season changes back to the way it was in previous years. I don't like the early start or the early finish.

Random thoughts about duck hunting.... don't forget you asked for them

Duck hunting is way to wet and cold and you have to get up WAAAY to early.

NOBODY likes to eat ducks.

Duck hunters aren't very frendly, if you don't know all their unwritten rules they call you Barney.

That's all I got...

There was a lot of wind still days this year.

Ducks are in paired up strong this year.

The last two weeks they have been the most call and decoy shy I have seen in a long time.

4 years ago we had a late storm like this year and the ducks acted the same way. ( call and decoy shy)
I wonder if the cold weather, and mean cold weather not a norther, push down the older more war vet typ of duck that we usually dont see. You know the old tough birds that stay up north most of the winter and have constantly been shot at since opening day in Canada.

Just a thought

i should have started sooner in the season...
had some nice folks offer tag along trips...
are barneys and newbies somewhat the same? hmmm
aww hell, thanks to everyone for the invites and tips.
couple more days left. gonna do it till the end!

1. Yep, majority Gad's this year.

2. Saw more Can's this year than the last 3 combined.

3. Yes, Public DFW = joke.

4. Sold spinners last season. Figured I didn't like the 50/50 chance of flairing them after the first 30 minutes of legal. My experience anyway. I'll take +50% of something vs 50% of nothing anyday. Plus added the Jerk-O-Spreader to the mix and am lovin it.

A full plume shoveler is a beautiful bird that deserves to be mounted! Whoa!

huh?

Lot of Gadwalls x2... First 2 weeks felt like teal season no wind 70 degree plus.. and yes Jeff very very decoy and call shy..

Most guys can afford some dekes and waders to go duck hunting.
To become a good goose hunter, a guy must make a big investment in his gear.

I still want to find the SOB who stole my dekes

I agree 100%.

If I shoot a nice one this last week and a half, I will mount it.

There are no ducks in Central Texas....

That is really my only thought...

You know what brand I run.. So it wasnt me

Once I'm in a position to go after rare ducks, I'm going after a harlequin first.

Where do they live, by the way?

Alaska I think

as i think of ducks,

what is so bad about them bootlip bastages?

HOLD IT! I love eating ducks, rick. Give me your's, I'll fill the freezer. It's my fav, more than venison. Even tho venison is reaaaally good. I just have more time proven duck recipes. I'll make it for you in a half dozen different ways that'll change your mind.

Bill's random thoughts. Killed alot more ducks than I anticipated. Thought that 20 would be a decent goal in this part of the world, but I'm one away from 60 as of today (dang fast ringnecks, couldn't get my bead on number 60 in time this morning). 60 is about my average back in AR, depending on the number of hunts I can swing.

Two, just becuase it's a county road, does not mean that it is all weather. Was damn lucky to get out without help today. Had a couple hundred pounds of mud on the truck, and it took $10 at the quarter wash just to get my wheels back in balance.

I never thought it could happen, but I have killed more pintails than greenheads this year. Coming from AR, just wow.

Guns that are hidden in a locked truck in the back seat, under layers of coats, are not safe in the parking lot of Los Cabos restaurant in Addison, TX during lunch on a thursday.

Hunting with family and good friends is nice, been doing alot of solo hunts through college, and I forgot how much fun just being out there can be. Couple hours with no birds in the air is no big deal when they company does more than just wag its tail.

That's all I got for now, I'm sure some more will hit me.

He11 all the paint has prolly chiped off any way . You didnt loose much

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He11 all the paint has prolly chiped off any way . You didnt loose much [/quote]


You told me you were going to give me 2 dozen mallards G and H right?

You told me you were going to give me 2 dozen mallards G and H right? [/quote]

At a fair price

"I never thought it could happen, but I have killed more pintails than greenheads this year. "
007---we need to swap out hunts in 2010. I tried all season to get a wall hanger and going into the last weekend I'm O'fer.
As far as green goes, I'm still waiting on the pics from my buddy's camera from the week of Jan 10th. We shot 21 greenheads over the course of 5 hunts. The pics will be up the minute they hit my email guys.
Random thought: I didn't really mind the ice that much 2 weekends ago. The mojo seemed to bring them right into the holes that we busted open.

Been that way a lot longer than the last two years, especially the numbers of Gadwalls. It is why I always have some Gadwall decoys in the spread if hunting DFW lakes. IMHO, it is because they do well eating aquatic plants and aquatic things you might find on flooded mud flats and such. There is a lack of agriculture around most metropolitan lakes that would be prefered by some of the other more desirable ducks, but there are lots of shallow mud, milfoil, hydrilla and other vegetation which makes Gadwalls the primary puddler in the metro areas and has for a long time. Not to mention that the Gadwall population exploded in the mid 80s and has stayed well above the long term average ever since.



Public hunting near populated areas has always been tough for the reasons you state. Tougher now days for sure, but I am more savy to it these days too. I have never had a problem over coming it, but I will admit I have gotten bored sometimes with the run and gun to the same old local places prefering to travel farther, stay longer, and often to new areas just for a different atmosphere and experience. The more I make those longer trips and farther away, the more I crave that kind of hunting and the longer and farther away I want those trips to be. I would much rather make a trip camping and hunting every day for 5 days or more in a row at some distant place I seldom or have never been to, than to make 5 or more separate short morning trips locally to a sure thing place. Even if I knew the hunting would be far better doing the latter, I greatly prefer the former now. Fortunately I work in a career I can get away to do this.



You ain't kidding there. It really hit me with my annual public land goose hunt. This year I had upgraded from static decoys to higdon motion decoys that looked just like feeding geese with the slightest wind and sillouettes that give the illusion of moving birds to circling geese. Geese where flying past several other spreads of static decoys on that hunt to come to mine. Not just some of the Geese, all of them. No one else killed birds out of 11 groups. I think it is even more important for duck hunting on still water as you stae and have seen the difference there too multiple times. I was agressively kicking the water during hunts and waving my hat up and down long before bilge pump and spinner decoys were around.

Rule of thumb: private land is MUCH better to hunt than public.


That's all I have.