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DUCK
SEASON HITS HOME STRETCH
by
Steve McCadams
January 25th, 2002
www.stevemccadams.com
Area duck and goose hunters
hit the home stretch this weekend. The 51-day season is rapidly drawing to
a close as hunters have until January 31st to scan the skies. This will be
the last weekend of the season and the last hunting opportunity for many
waterfowlers who, due to work schedules and other demands, can only hunt
weekends throughout the season.
For a large majority of hunters it will go down as one of the slowest
seasons ever in terms of harvest and waterfowl observation. It has been a
most unusual season with extended spells of warm weather both here and in
the northern states. The weather has not stimulated waterfowl movement, as
many areas up north did not freeze, a situation that offered waterfowl
ample open water and food.
Locally, flooding and warm weather have dominated the season. The vast
majority of hunters have simply not seen the ducks nor had a chance to
harvest many.
There have been some exceptions as a few fields adjacent to refuges
have reported good duck shooting. However, those areas were once primarily
goose hunting spots that have adapted to ducks due to the lack of geese
here.
Most of the ducks have not left the refuge areas as everything they
need is there. Plenty of food and open water. For that reason, a few
select areas right on the refuge boundary lines have had good hunting.
With the flooding dominating the waterfowl scene through most of
December, ducks had a million and one places to go. Thousands of acres
suddenly offered a Mecca of feeding opportunities in soybean and
cornfields.
Since ducks were scattered out during most of the season, they have
just recently returned to refuges where ample food awaited them. The
scenario has been good for the ducks but bad for the hunters.
The unusually slow season has not been limited to west Tennessee. In
fact, a lot of ducks have been seen this last week entering the Obion and
Forked Deer River bottoms here. Thousands of mallards and pintails were
seen this week flying back and forth between state refuges yet hunters
have had trouble getting the birds to respond to decoy spreads.
Seems the ducks are flying around with full stomachs. Combine that
with warm weather and it makes for difficult hunting.
The curtain is about to fall for waterfowlers in a season that has not
been kind. Weather is always a factor in any duck hunter's season and this
year was a tough one.
For Other Waterfowl Reports:
Click Here
Steve McCadams
is a professional hunting and fishing guide here in the Paris Landing
area and host of The Outdoor Channel's television series IN-PURSUIT. |
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