StuStiltman wrote:I thinks its fair to say some ducks will be moved around by ywd and early goose over water, I seriously doubt any major moves of ducks are caused by it, certainly not enough to have a major impact on anyone's opening day.
Nershi wrote:Trigger wrote:Then please explain the large concentrations of ducks that are commonly seen during the early parts of early goose season but vanish by the time opener rolls around.
Birds will move to different areas for better food and/or habitat. You'll see these birds when you are out for early goose. Sometime in late summer to Mid September most ducklings build up enough muscle to fly a decent ways and mama takes them elsewhere. Two or three years ago (can't remember for sure) North Dakota was packed with ducks in late summer because of excellent breeding conditions. 1 week before resident opener most of the ducks left and went to Canada for better habitat and food. A lot of Canada was flooded fields that year so it was duck paradise. This had nothing to hunting pressure.
Why do you think certain areas of the state hold more ducks at opener? Do you think they all got raised there? The ducks moved there to find better food. When we had the bad flood two summers ago it killed most of the wild rice crop in northern MN. If you found the good rice crops there were more birds than you could shake a stick at on opener. These birds were there through early goose season and YWD and stuck around because life was good. I scouted an area on YWD and there were tons of people out showing the kids a good time. There were even more ducks (of all species) on opener because the birds were finding the food. The old timers in our group were hunting the opener 45 minutes south of us and saw the fewest birds they ever have on opener because there was no food. The area they hunted raised birds but they had left by opener.
Same thing happens with many MN raised geese. Many fly to the Dakotas from MN before the season even opens for easier living. Of course all the elite field hunters think the roosts got busted.
If we could get the right habitat the birds will stick around.
Trigger wrote:StuStiltman wrote:I thinks its fair to say some ducks will be moved around by ywd and early goose over water, I seriously doubt any major moves of ducks are caused by it, certainly not enough to have a major impact on anyone's opening day.
Now you're making it sound like early goose and YWD have basically no affect on duck numbers by the time opener rolls around. A couple posts ago you said you have to scout more before opener because of youth day and early goose. So which is it?
Trigger wrote:StuStiltman wrote:I thinks its fair to say some ducks will be moved around by ywd and early goose over water, I seriously doubt any major moves of ducks are caused by it, certainly not enough to have a major impact on anyone's opening day.
Now you're making it sound like early goose and YWD have basically no affect on duck numbers by the time opener rolls around. A couple posts ago you said you have to scout more before opener because of youth day and early goose. So which is it?
Bullet21XD wrote:I don't really care either way, but if ya'll believe a teal season won't have negative effects on our first week or so of "duck season", you're ignorant.
StuStiltman wrote:Trigger wrote:StuStiltman wrote:I thinks its fair to say some ducks will be moved around by ywd and early goose over water, I seriously doubt any major moves of ducks are caused by it, certainly not enough to have a major impact on anyone's opening day.
Now you're making it sound like early goose and YWD have basically no affect on duck numbers by the time opener rolls around. A couple posts ago you said you have to scout more before opener because of youth day and early goose. So which is it?
I said I doubt it has a major impact on duck movement, if there's ducks on one pond and the kids or early goose hunters blow them off one pond I think they will move to another, close by pond requiring some additional scouting. I seriously doubt that back when you did youth hunts you really saw major movements of ducks out of your area, I sure didn't. They may have moved away from the specific spot you hunted but I bet they were close by.
Bullet21XD wrote:I don't really care either way, but if ya'll believe a teal season won't have negative effects on our first week or so of "duck season", you're ignorant.
Bullet21XD wrote:It would be fine by me if we'd just open duck season the first Saturday of September. Not just a teal season.
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