I need a new sport

I am absolutely sick of this duck season. I don't know how you guys have been making out, but this has been terrible. I'm a puddle duck hunter and its been frustrating to say the least. 68 degree weather in December??? WTF. I hate the Atlantic flyway.

The coastal zone isn't any better. I could shoot Brant all day or 2 a day but I am like you Davey I like the puddle ducks and this warm weather isn't doing anything for us. I had high hopes for this season. It started off good. But Like last year were not getting new birds with the warm weather. On a good note Canada is frozen so the birds should be coming. I hope late December and January turn out to be good and get the birds moving like they should. Weather man says the warm weather is headed out we'll see we need a real good cold snap down in the 20's would nice and the teens at night to get things moving. We need some ice too. Last season I broke skim ice twice. We can only hope.

Chris where are you hearing Canada is frozen? Going up there next week and from what I have heard very little ice there too!

Capt. Larry M wrote:Chris where are you hearing Canada is frozen? Going up there next week and from what I have heard very little ice there too!

Heard from a friend but by looking at some on the weather up there in Manitoba it's gonna be low of -18 on Sunday depends where your going Quebec is not that cold Tue has a low of 10

God i hope so...this weather is keeping me at the home ramp....

I sure hope it gets cold. SEason opens this weekend. There are some birds around. got shafted on the first split as it was shortened to extend the late season. Would of had a good hunt one evening on a goose setup. John

Lots of Blacks and GW Teal on Long Island.....weird weather for sure tho

Capt. Larry M wrote:Chris where are you hearing Canada is frozen? Going up there next week and from what I have heard very little ice there too!

Manitoba day time temps are in the teens. I can't imagine you'll have a lot of open water if it stays that cold. Same with Montreal. I was just in Montreal last week and it was 16 degrees for the high during the day. Lake Ontario has a lot of ice in the shallows. The deeper water was still open last week, but I imagine thats going to change too. Flew over Burlington VT and Lake Champlain and that was all iced in the shallows. Ducks are coming down, no doubt about it. In fact, I think we've got good numbers here right now. One of my private ponds has over 75 mallards in it. A few other places I've checked out that are not legal to hunt are also loaded with puddlers. The problem is warm weather here. Birds aren't moving much and they're sticking to back waters. Too much water in this state. I'm going to hit my pond next week and bring Jimmy along in hopes of filling a strap with greenheads, but its such a small pond that even hunting it once a week is too much. But other than that spot, the rivers have been barren of ducks and I hear only Brant and bufflehead action is good down the coast. I imagine some divers gotta be showing up soon, but for good eating ducks, we need ice. But I'll tell ya what, if things don't improve next week, I'll be on a mission for a bow full of brant, buffs and mergansers. I need some action for my dog! I have 55 ducks in the logbook so far this year, which is better than last year but still much less than the '09-'10 season.

I am with ya Davey I broke down and took a coastal limit (2brant and 1black duck) we had merggies buzzing the deks but I didn't shoot any. I am hoping for cold and ice for December and January. I want my waders to freeze and my coat to crackle when I move.

And also too one major thing I hate about this flyway, is TOO much water. I know guys think I'm crazy when I say that, but honestly pull up a satellite map and just look at how many retention ponds, irrigation ponds, cranberry bogs, man-made lakes, backwater creeks and rivers we have in addition to the entire coastline of marsh. I'd be willing to bet that we get near just as many ducks as the other flyways do, but because the Northeast is so over populated, we have created so many water holes and the ducks are scattered all over the place. There is no real concentration of waterfowl during the migration. Not like you see in the mid-west, where water resources are limited and every duck in the flyway passes through those wet spots. To consistently have success in this flyway, you need to be incredibly mobile and incredibly good. I've gotten much more mobile this year and I'm sure thats attributed to more birds in the bag, but again, you hunt one small pond loaded with ducks and they are gone. You have to jump to another water hole somewhere. And with so much private land, its tough to get places. I've hunted more on foot than in the boat this year.

A perfect example of what I'm saying is look at the years when we've had ice. Now of all a sudden you have all of these ducks that were on the small fresh water spots funneling into the only open water they can find. In years past, I've shot limits of ducks within an hour when there was a lot of ice. Its just a fact, this flyway blows until there is ice.

I'm hopefully going to be headed out on saturday for the firsttime this season....going local...saving my river spot...but we'll see what happens....

I hear you about this season its been sloww[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] And i have had to deal with a broke toe then surgery on it so my days of trying to hunt just dont match the weather to good. Hopefully if that jet stream drops a little we will see some more ducks

Rick