Talked to a guy today that said he’d live to see it go back to 3/30. I agreed wholeheartedly.

It’s gotten stupid and if you don’t have deep deep pockets duck hunting gonna be sporadic at best

What got me going the other day was talking to a guy that’s hunted some of the best holes from the Delta thru Arkansas and over to Reel foot since the 90s, his family has connections. He made mention it’s been downhill since 2017 forward. Hes 15 years or so younger than myself and made mention his son will more than likely, will not know what it was like.

What changed around 2017 that negatively impacted duck hunting?

I haven't researched the issue but my guess is that duck dynasty started in 2012 and was gaining in popularity bringing out a bunch more hunters. At about the same time it seemed like we had a stretch of warm winters that influenced the migration. Those two things could be some of it. Ducks can have high fidelity to past migrations. It only takes a few years to have a great impact.

Also, I know several people that travel north to duck hunt earlier in the year. From what I've been told it used to be easy just to go find a spot in North Dakota and ask permission. Now it is overrun. So, these ducks see lots of pressure all the way down the flyway. No wonder that by the time they reach the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (starting in southern Missouri and Illinois) they mainly feed at night and loaf on the refuges all day.

Also think that YouTube videos played a role in showing the good things of duck hunting. The decoys, calling to em, the boat ride, timber hole hunting ie. Then it got to be all about public land hunting and that flooded the scene. Not saying social media is to blame but it definitely had an impact. I also think farmers tiling their fields making them not hold water was another notch.

A definite uptick in hunters and how many days afield. Not just days but longer hours per day. They’re hunting almost all day now. Back I the good old days it was rare to go past 8 for our group Andy times we were done by 7 and the ducks could have it after that. Now they get no rest all day or all season unless they find a refuge of some sort.

Another buggy is the likes of satellite imagery, there is no unknown holes

Ok the fields finally have plenty of water. Nobody is hunting ,no pressure where are the ducks?

Ok the fields finally have plenty of water. Nobody is hunting ,no pressure where are the ducks?

We got up for the aerial waterfowl survey of the Illinois and central Mississippi rivers on Monday, December 9th, 2024. After a couple of weeks of ice, we started to see some open water this week. Duck abundance remained above LTA along both the Illinois and Mississippi rivers this week. I estimated ~208,000 ducks in the IRV on Monday, a 23% drop from our last survey, but 7% above the 10-year average of ~195,000 ducks. Mallard abundance in the IRV, estimated at ~148,000, also remained above LTA this week (+12%). I estimated ~541,000 ducks on the central Mississippi river, a 15% decrease from last week but 4% above the 10-year average (~521,000). Mallard abundance (~252,000) remained relatively constant along the CMRV this week but fell 15% below the LTA.

Last week was hectic in the airplane, especially along the lower MS River as we observed a migration event during our peak combined with significant ice coverage concentrating birds. The partial thaw this week seems to have moved ducks around on the landscape, while simultaneously some birds are certainly moving on south. The theme of this week's survey was "birds in the air!" Indeed, my estimates on Pool 19 of the MS river and Goose Lake on the upper IL are likely conservative due to large flocks of birds moving around in the air. While boat traffic was the culprit on Pool 19, I'm still not sure what happened at Goose Lake. Regardless, it was a phenomenal sight watching waves of ducks moving to find open water.

This week's numbers and more info on the survey can be found at the link in our bio.

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