I've duck hunted for over 40 years. For fun and commercially.

It use to be common knowledge that ducks migrate and imprint on an area. They return year after year. Banding waterfowl probably started in the early 1900's.

Everyone knew this.

Now enter 60 day 6 duck seasons. You have 1 billion ducks... ok.... but how many come to your area? And what happens after 20 years of shooting at them daylight to dark for 60 days with a 6 duck limit?

I think that's what has happened. We've shot up all the ducks that migrate in the name of money. The 60 day season is all about MONEY. More days afield = more hunters, more leases and more licenses.

The unfortunate thing is that Alabama isn't on a flyway. So what has happened in N. Alabama has been accelerated due to that fact. Whereas in Arkansas they are on the flyway so it is inevitable and appears after a couple weeks into the season.... success is dependent on open water and the ice situation.


So no matter what happens... we... meaning those of us on the Southern End of the Flyway continue to kill all the migrating ducks year after year. And I guess we'll just keep doing it until we ruin it because some dipchit in a plane somewhere says he's "counted" plenty. And it's always more than the LTA... go figure.

That ignores everything we use to know as fact and this is clearly NOT how to appropriately manage our Waterfowl. When we went to 60 day season I said we'd never go back and we'd have record numbers every year until hunter's success is so bad people quit.