Waterfowl Hunting
2015 Waterfowl Reports
8/26/15 @ 9:12 AM
Displaying 1 to 15 of 463 posts
I hunt pools 8 and 9 on the miss. No shortage of birds, food, and closed areas and it's in southern WI. Iowa does manage their some of their properties more than WI however they have so few of them they almost have too. You have been away from Iowa far too long if you think the hunting is better, pressure lighter, and the skies fuller.
SLM- Where are you hunting in Wisconsin with more birds than the whole state of Iowa?
Does otter creek hold 100,000 birds, nope, they don't. Does the area hold a significant number of birds during the migration and then a few days after? Yes, it has the habitat, refuge and area to hold birds and keep the pressure at a controllable level. This is Especially good when they have water, pumped from the Iowa river.
Where in Wisconsin are they pumping water and controlling water levels? No where in the southern half of the state. The DNR has thousands of acres doing nothing other than growing piss elm trees and swamp grass. Why not put some levies and some pumps into these properties. Section off a 1/4 to 1/3 of the property and make it a refuge. The area will then hold birds and as the birds move out of the refuge into the hunting areas, they can be worked into the decoys.
Take Horicon for example- They have a refuge and hold birds. However I don't think they do much for habitat or food. Why not add those things to hold the birds a little longer? Then make more areas in teh state to spread out the pressure.
I personally don't think that a big rule change would change much either. I.e. Shell restrictions, lottery hunts, or closing time at noon. Examples shell restrictions the guys who sky blast are still going to do so wether they have a 20 gauge or 12. Seen guys teaching kids on youth hunts "you'll never get one if you don't shoot so why not." Closing at noon means (to me so don't rip my head off) the mornings would be more crowded because there is a group out there that only hunts afternoons and would eliminate hunting opurtunitys altogether. Also ducks aren't dumb you close at noon the ducks will figure it out and fly more in the afternoons. I'm sure we have all been out after closing picking up dekes and watching numbers of ducks flying in. The lottery system also from what I've heard of it means you'll be waiting in a crowded room in the morning waiting for someone to pick your number and if they don't you can't hunt that day. I'd rather just hunt and get nothing then sit at my house watching tv. As far as duck hunting here to me you can't base it off what the states down south do because it's not the same I've only been duck hunting for 12 years so I don't have all the answers and learn new things every year. What was great shooting 3yrs ago sucks today and what sucked 5yrs ago holds more birds then I've ever seen. Also the states down south are were the ducks winter some years it's even southern Illinois and the guys in Arkansas aren't seeing much. If it gets cold in Arkansas the ducks can't move or migrate further south that's so they hold there. So yeah there will be more ducks. If anything improve habitat and you will produce more ducks which hopefully will intern give you more opurtunitys. I've messaged people on this site and asked how do you hunt? What do you look for in a spot? What's your setup what type of shells how many decoys what blinds do you use? Never give me your hot spot. Ask those questions and if it works like it did for me you'll kill and see more ducks.
I think a better question would be this - are there areas of Wisconsin that would benefit from controlled hunting? Personally, I don't know enough about the topic to form an opinion. Would shell restrictions have a similar effect on hunting pressure and the willingness for some to skyblast? I don't have an answer to that either.
What I do know is some areas of the state are a real mess on weekends. Just like here, some people are rude and refuse to get along. Because of that, I would support some changes to popular duck hunting areas that could lead to making the experience better for everyone.
That said, I do not believe anything significant is going to change anytime soon. Wisconsin as a whole is way too entrenched in the way things are to seriously consider trying to make things better.
I'll take that as a no from another lake-link Internet killer.
Didn't twist a dang thing, still waiting for my original question to be answered because you sure didn't do it! Twisting would be posting up places that once had controlled hunting years ago or places where the counts were far less then Rem's numbers and considering them good enough. Here is the question again, try and focus and get google searching! Name any place in Iowa that has controlled hunting and 100,000+ ducks?
BS. He wanted WI to follow Iowa where there was controlled areas with little pressure and 100k+ ducks. I asked where in Iowa does that occur. I wasn't asking for a time in the 1950's or whenever except for now! Forney and Riverton (hunted them many times) were controlled hunting areas along with Odessa but no longer like I was implying. So I will ask again where in Iowa are there 100k+, little pressure and controlled hunting? Nowhere!
Gotcha, so besides the birds counted on Odessa which by the way is not one of the areas he was referring too we have to assume that there was at least 20k that the dnr counts missed? Ironically statewide the counts were between 100k-200k not individual areas that rem was implying. Not to mention the dnr does not have controlled areas either! Yep, rem, was spot on as well as you are.
Go back a few years and post up those numbers then. Hell go back to the 90's. You still won't come up with anything close to what you posted. And you still won't find controlled areas either. Iowa's knockout blow came with the high corn prices but it was heading down fast even before that hit.
Displaying 1 to 15 of 463 posts
