Well, the duck season ended on Friday.
We gave it one more shot and that's about how it ended. I fired one shot and came home empty handed.
Two weeks ago there was a flurry of action when what I thought were northern birds flying along the Snake River.
The next two hunts proved that the massive migrations of northern ducks did not arrive in Idaho.
I remember when there were 750,000 ducks at Lake Lowell in the '70s. One count last month at the lake showed more than 90,000.
Don't know what's going on. We used to have a good migration. Columbia River mallards were common in Treasure Valley right after Thanksgiving.
I can say that this was one of the worst duck seasons in my 43 years of hunting.
Well, there's always next year.
Poorest duck season
Submitted by Zimo on Mon, 01/28/2008 - 6:27am
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scout
gotta know where to look.. one of my best seasons to date..
We're going to be scouting like crazy this year
You can bet your last No. 4 three-inch mag we'll be scouting more next year. We hunted all over the place including Hammett, C.J. Strike, Grand View, Walters Ferry and even Swan Falls Reservoir.
I know the ducks were thick around C.J. Strike Reservoir for a while. Also heard good reports up Coeur d'Alene and Pend Oreille way.
There's always next season.
Zimo
--deleted--
--deleted--
Musta been...
nobody_important, I guess.
Blame new housing!
When everybody moved in behind the Lake and filled in the dots between 44 and 55, the ducks split.
I agree
I have hunted the area from Grandview to Ontario for 20 years and I have never had a season this poor. I believe it is due to too much hunting pressure. It appears that the birds get hunted every day and never get a chance to settle into the area before they are pushed out. With all the new people in the valley, they want to become "hunters" when all they end up doing is sky-busting and educating a lot of birds.
Canvasback20, you are correct you need to know where to look. 90% of hunting is luck, being where the birds are, the other 10% is skill, being able to shoot them. You can be the best at calling, shooting and decoy set ups, but if there are not any birds around, none of that matters.
I do not think I would tell someone who has hunted the area for 43 years that he does not know what he is doing.
I also agree...
and I was an embryo at about that time.
that's why its called hunting
your right about that dang CJ Strike resivoir above the dam... the birds just pile in there from mid november til the end.. it cant freeze due to the continuous flow thru the dam... was about to set my boat in the middle of the lake there and see what happened... i saw 5 times as many birds the last day of the season than i saw the weekend before.. must of been that cold spurt and the snow... only 8 months til dove season...
Hey zimo.. any word if there is going to be and early goose season?
Early goose season
I haven't heard if there is going to be an early goose season. We need one at Ann Morrison Park. That place is crazy with geese and they are a problem.
I'll check around. I'll ask Roger Phillips if he has heard anything on it. He covers the Fish and Game Commission.
Thanks for the info on C.J. Strike. That seems to happen every season.
Good fishing, now that hunting season is over.
Zimo
Savage geese...
Every year they lose grade school kids in that park and find only feathers in their shoes...
9.4 million
Maybe those 9.4 million shots fired that Pete talked about in Sunday's column had something to do with it. And he told me he was being conservative. 49,000 hunters out there every single week. Yeah, right.
Early goose
F&G won't set duck and goose seasons until summer. In recent years, they have decided not to do an early goose season because they want to keep duck and goose season concurrent. The feds allowed a 107-day season last year. If Idaho decides to have an early goose season, F&G would have to take 7 days out of the regular goose season by either starting later, stopping hunting for a week mid season, or closing a week early.
The commission has preferred to keep the rules simpler by opening and closing duck and goose seasons at the same time.
Roger Phillips
I wonder if it had anything to do with...
30 mph winds and blowing snow tonight?
I'd be webfootin' it to Motel Quack in Chilliwack if I had to deal with this weather too.