Bailey wrote:Then you have places like Swan Lake that used to be great for late season mallards, etc and now are not very good at all. Just a ton of different factors.
Yup.
As my dad said about 30 years ago when the DNR got control of Swan - that it'll go down the crapper, and it did.
They are keeping the water levels down from the levels in the 50-70s. Meaning many years there was zero water in the refuge in the horseshoe shaped Anderson Island. Ducks imprint and get used to stopping at certain places. - that is gone now. I remember as recently as 20 yrs ago watching tens of thousands of Mallards coming back into the refuge late AM in the end of Oct. That stopped when they put in the new dam and they lowered it 1.5' than the lake used to be - making the refuge having no water. Thus hunting went down the crapper.
But this year you can go to places with a regular motor that you have not been able to go for many years with the very high water levels.
BTW, the carp are back. They caught a 14" carp in a test net 2 weeks ago. So it'll just be a matter of time before they are all over the place again and they will drain it. I'd give it 3 yrs, maybe 5 at most before it is a mud flat.
As for "Other factors" - 1 is DNR mismanagement of our wetlands.
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God, help me be the man that my dog thinks that I am.