I have a private hole here in AL and up until maybe 5 years ago we'd get 2-3 hunts out of it per season and shoot some mallards. Last 3 years haven't seen a big duck at all. Not one.

It isn't weather related. It's not an "ice" issue.

We've known since the early 1900's that ducks "winter" and imprint on an area. It took all these biologists you all trust like your mother that long to figure that part out. Well.... If you shoot them to pieces there are going to be fewer and fewer return each season. We've know this for near 100 years.

At some point there is a real impact from continuous non-management and just throwing a 60/6 season out there for what is now seemingly forever...... and that was around 5 years ago.

I remember clearly in the late 80's shooting in front of Swan Creek on the river in a T-shirt because our old rubber waders were so hot I was sweating to death I had them pulled down around my waist. I could walk you out the West Dike gate to the spot we hunted that morning right now and put you on the same stump row.

There's no birds in the air Today. That's the difference. You can't kill what isn't there. Nothing in that area has otherwise significantly changed. What changed?

No government employees were harmed in the making of this mess.