Depressed hunters only

[morefishplease]

A few years back I thought wow this sucks, the next year was worse and I thought wow it couldn't get any worse, then the next season was even worse! Now after this season I have had it! I love duck hunting, I can not quit the sport, but so much as changed over the years I am seriously considering not buying a license next year. After spending a week of vacation during the first wk of November and not even shouldering the gun I have had it. My entire life I have used vacation time in late Oct and early Nov. to duck hunt, only to be dissapointed. You always get people that say you need to scout, you need to move around, you need to hunt a different lake. Now I'm not and don't expect to limit out everytime I go, but I do expect to get some shooting. And I do scout the lakes, and check out what the refuge is holding and each year it keeps getting worse. Sure you can shoot some local ducks the first two wks of the season but I'm not into shooting a few teal, woodies, and a bonus mallard. I'm sick of watching sunrises and empty skies! And I won't pump another dollar into gear or waste another gallon of gas on duck hunting until I see things get better. You need ducks to shoot ducks. Migration patterns have changes, weather patterns have changed and I can't do anything about that other than to start hunting the Dakotas or other states like Arkansas. If I could have one week of decent shooting in the Dakota's compared to six weekends wasted hunting here I will do it.

[GooBack]

Come to Arkansas. It's just like all the pictures you see, or better. It's geat, just show up and start shooting.

[Gordie]

Sorry but the only depression I have is that the season is over!

I hunted around 30-35 days this past season and that doenst include NoDak

I only had 3 outtings that didnt produce a duck and only 2 of those 3 that I didnt fire a shot and only one that I didnt see a duck and that was until after the hunt was over.

I dont claim to be the greatest duck hunter in the world or even in Minnesota but I for one will never give up the tradtion of waterfowl hunting in Minnesota until I phisically can not do it anymore.

I have spend way more money than I should to duck hunt but its worth every spent penny to me..

I even went as far as not hunting for deer in the regular firearms season for 7-8 years until my boys were old enough and wanted to hunt for deer.

People I know ask me Why do I duck hunt I tell them its about a feeling that I get and now its about passion. Most of these guys Bow hunt so I ask why do you bow hunt and they give me a host of reaasons and I say You answered your own question with that answer you gave.

ITS WHAT I DO

I hope that you enjoy hunting in a differnet state and I guess all I can say is the birds will miss you

Good luck to you

[TylerS]

elwood and I are on the same page.

I'm tired of trying to get people to keep duck hunting. If duck hunting is so terrible where you are and you really can't afford to go anywhere else, than by all means hang up the calls and take up whittling or something.

There are ducks in Minnesota. People shoot them all the time. Most on public property, too. I'd say it comes down to location, location, location.

I'll put it this way: Would you keep going to the same street corner looking for a burger if there was s no restaurant there? Of course not, that would be foolish. Same goes for ducks. Doesn't make sense to keep going to the same spots over and over and over again if there aren't any there. Put in some miles on the road. Do some scouting. I put on thousands of miles a fall scouring for ducks and geese in North Dakota. Yes, North Dakota. Just because we are a waterfowl mecca, doesn't mean you don't have to put in some work to be successful.

Anyway, rant over. Hope you find another hobby that brings you a quicker sense of accomplishment. I know there are a lot of guys where I grew up who would love to see more people hang up their calls. It's a circus during the fall.

[pureinsanity]

There is always duck hunt for Nintendo!

[Feathers Rainin]

You are right duck hunting in Minnesota is a waste of time and there are no birds. I would hang it up if I were you.

[fishuhalik]

ditto feathers. no ducks. the mississippi flyway no longer exists. talk everyone else into hanging it up too. then i can keep the ducks, er, sunsets to myself.

[magnum mike]

I am a depressed hunter this year and I agree almost 100% with Elwood. I also believe we (you, me & Elwood) are all roughly the same age. 20 years ago I had the same fire in my belly as most of the kids spouting about how hard they work for ducks. I still love the game as much as always but the appeal of dragging canoes over countless beaver dams has lost its romance. Our camp had our worst year ever in 2011. Last year we harvested almost 10 times more ducks than this year. We have the same routine we have used for years. Local weather, Canadian weather, predator numbers and the list goes on for things that will ultimately impact how many birds are in your area. The only thing that hasn’t changed over all these years is the FACT that things change every year. I wouldn't take too much credence in most of the responses you get from these forums. Do what you think is right for you.

[Scott M]

I'm gonna stick up for morefish since he can't seem to find someone to join his pity party. Most of you didn't read the thread title carefully

morefish, you're going to get the same responses here - you aren't working hard enough, you need to scout more, you need to get up earlier to get the good spot, etc. Don't you know that working harder means you'll be more successful?

No matter how hard you polish a turd, it's still a turd. And that turd is south central Minnesota. The ducks aren't here like they used to be. The war is over here and hunters and wildlife managers are trying to win small battles. Just suggesting that you go out of state will inevitably draw a "good, more for me" response that makes me chuckle. Anyone that has been to a waterfowl draw state or province knows how much better it is and its asinine to think its not. And for those that haven't left the state, they don't know what they are missing. It is to those unfortunate souls that I say, "good, more for me." And it's not about the killing, I just want to see some birds. I just want to see birds work close, get lost in the awe of seeing thousands of ducks get up, have my jaw drop as a tornado of birds lands in a field. It's kind of insulting really to hear that I don't work hard enough or am greedy or want easy shooting when I give up four hours sleep and bust my butt dragging a boat through knee deep muck to not take a shot on several occasions, or in the case of my buddy, put 1,500 miles on his truck and never see more than a couple dozen ducks in a spot all fall.

I did some duck banding a couple years ago with Al Afton and spent an hour interviewing him for a piece I wrote about the history of bluebills in Minnesota. There were several things he mentioned as we ran the gamut of all things waterfowl in Minnesota that I came away with, but one thing I found fascinating was what he had found with his radio telemetry birds. They were coming through Minnesota in the spring, but nearly entirely bypassing the state in the fall. Sometimes they would traverse the entire state in a day or two, in other cases, they swung west to the central fly zone and avoided the state altogether. I don't mean to change this thread into a "why is it so depressing in this state" so I won't get into why those birds behaved the way they did or why hunting in this state has dropped off so severely.

I make it down to Albert Lea a couple times a fall, I'm familiar with the history of some of the waterfowl lakes in Freeborn, Blue Earth, and Faribault counties (your country, nofish) and I'm just a little north of you. I wasn't alive for it, but I know how it used to be. I know Ray Hangge, he resides in Albert Lea. He's in the Minnesota Waterfowl Hall of Fame, huge guy in MWA. I ask him about duck hunting from time to time. He hung up the waders a while back, and not because he couldn't do it, because he can't see a duck anymore! If he's out, what chance to the rest of us have? So I feel for you nofish. That's the trouble with not caring when other people complain about not seeing ducks. What goes around comes around and your area may be void of ducks some day. Then what? You are seeing less and less people hunting, and although a digital age is tough to compete with, do you think we'd have stable per capita hunting rates if Minnesotans were harvesting 170K 'bills or 20K 'bills like today? Seeing and killing ducks is part of the draw of hunting them, not all of it, but a part of it. That much is a fact; when duck numbers are good, the state sells lots of licenses. When duck numbers are poor, they sell fewer. You see the same thing with pheasants here and in the Dakotas.

elwood, come back to your old stomping grounds and hunt around here. You're going to have a lot of empty skies. You know you are welcome to hunt with me any time. Besides, you skipped telling morefish what you shot in North Dakota. I never asked you, but I'm willing to bet you shot more ducks in North Dakota than you did in Minnesota (I can't remember if you went once or twice). You'd be lying if you told us you shot more ducks per trip in Minnesota than North Dakota.

so morefish, I would take Tyler's advice: location, location, location. There aren't ducks here anymore, relatively speaking. Might as well make it worth your time and and get the heck away from Dodge, instead of banging your head against the wall locally. I'm not even saying you have to go out of state, there are places in Minnesota you can get consistently good shooting. It's just not SC MN! Down here, you gotta be here on the right day. Good luck with that if you work 40 hours.

I might sound bitter but I still love duck hunting and won't ever give it up, I'm just going to hunt smarter, not harder. Seems like a better choice is to climb in a tree with a bow for a few Saturdays instead of sitting on empty marshes. So consider that my sympathetic response to a depressed hunter.

Flame on.

[Nate McVey]

^^^^^What he said^^^^^

Nice post Scott.

[Superduty]

I've been hunting ducks near Albert Lea for 30 years and seen many ups and downs. Clearly, it was better before my time-meaning the 1960's and the soil bank days. The 80's were pretty darn good though. Then it got dry and the early 90's were tough. When the water came back, it was great. Our shack ALWAYS had 20+ hunters and everybody had limits of ducks and their 2 geese. Recently, the hunting has not been as good as it was 10-15 years ago. That doesn't mean that the area is devoid of ducks. We have had two pretty good years in 2010 and 2011. Go ahead and give up if you think that's best for you. I will be back out there next year and bringing my kids out with me to continue the tradition!

[morefishplease]

Da chise is right on. Now don't get me wrong guys I didn't post this thread to start an argument, my point to this one and another one earlier in the year is that duck hunting is not the same. State sales stamps have declined year after year. Da chise brings up a great point about the bluebills, for years we use to head up to Thief lake for a week duck hunting, so yes people I do not hunt the same lake. Everyday there were waterfowl biologists at the landing that would check our birds and record info on the birds. This girl which had her PHD in waterfowl biology was following the migration all the way down to the gulf. She had talked about how migration patterns have shifted to the west out of MN and how it was troubling to see how birds will fly back through in the spring but in the fall they stay more to the west. She also talked about how the bluebills have changed drastically in their migration patterns. Some of you are young and just don't know what it use to be like here. Now I never said I was gonna quit, I'm saying that I will have to head out of state to get what I am looking for. Also mind some of you that a lot of people on here work 50+ hrs a wk so scouting and driving all over is out of the question. My whole point to this is I have seen the changes for years now and its depressing. Da Chise brought up some great points supported by facts. For those that don't see it like I do, well, I would like to know what you have seen these last years that make you say that duck numbers are strong in MN and support it with facts.

[Powerstroke]

As a hunter who is learning waterfowl, I always have a hard time listening to folks who say the hunting has never been worse. Perspective is everything I suppose and I have bought stamps the last 5 years and before this year I have always reported zeros when asked during the HIP certification.

However, that doesn't mean I haven't seen ducks. In fact, my lack of boat and waders and decoys, etc is more to blame. Its a very expensive and time intensive sport to begin.

This year I hired a guide after talking to a few people. Yes I had to pay, but the price for a day of hunting was equal to a pair of average priced waders. I saw numbers of birds that I've never experienced before. I had as much duck shooting as a group hunt at a game farm. My guide has pictures of day after day of full bags, all from central MN and the western metro.

My perspective is completely different from others, but thats one of the things I try to keep in mind as my excitement grows for this sport. Time and effort go a long way. I realize its tough for folks who've been hunting for decades because you have your usual haunts and not finding birds in the "usual places" is hard to digest. However, the birds are there, they just aren't in all the usual places. I don't know what else to say because I'm still learning, but I couldn't help but notice that some people are doing really well and it seems to be relative to location, location, location.

I happen to live in the metro, so any hunting usually requires a 1 hour drive. I guess I'm just desensitized to it.

[Gordie]

Great post dachise and very very good read and yes I shot more ducks in NoDak than I did in minnesota only went one time. Not once did I say Minnesota was better than other states.

I also know that my old stomping grounds are not what they once were so I do what comes next and that is what Tyler suggested LOCATION .

I hunted mostly whith in a hour and a half of my front door and did very well for waterfowl.

I work 50 to 60 hours a week and I still find time to get out and manage a duck or two not saying that is spectacular but as I said its what I do

and will continue to do. I guess when there are NO ducks in this state I will hunt else where but until then I will continue to hunt in this state that most people say Minnesota doesnt have any ducks..

I will also probably starting to hunt more geese in the future just to keep the wing shooting in my blood

I hope that anyone that decides to stop waterfowl hunting in Minnesota enjoys what they will be doing at least the fishing is good in the fall.

[hockeybc69]

Archery hunting isnt a bad option. Just sayin'...

[Gordie]

I also know that hunting isnt what it used to be and may never be that way again in Minnesota.

I just cannot give up the hunt its what I was taught back in the day by my grandfather whom I watched hunt those thousands upon thousands of bluebills just a a couple miles north of you Dachise and now I know your lucky to see one bluebill during the whole season on that lake.

The feeling I had back then when those birds came over in the morning at first light inwhich the hair stood up on the back of my neck and got my heart pounding is the same feeling I get today when it happens and yes I know it doesnt happen every time out but it what I look forward to.

I pray that I never loose that feeling.

I totally understand what morefish is talking about but for me I just cant quit I'm addicted and No 12 step program will cure this addiction for me.

Sorry for the rant

I would never put anyone down for not hutning ducks in minnesota its their choice.

[H0LE HOPPER]

Morefish come up north again if numbers were like they were this year youll prolly want to keep on hunting i havent went out to NoDak for the past 2 years wasnt really worth the money when theres this many ducks up north took a bit of scouting but everything we hunted was on public land and isnt to much of a secret. wasnt to uncommon this duck season to see a couple thousand birds in a day and some of our better days close to 10,000 birds but i have expierienced hunting southern MN really doesnt compare to up here now a days.

[dan z]

I'm gonna stick up for morefish since he can't seem to find someone to join his pity party. Most of you didn't read the thread title carefully

morefish, you're going to get the same responses here - you aren't working hard enough, you need to scout more, you need to get up earlier to get the good spot, etc. Don't you know that working harder means you'll be more successful?

No matter how hard you polish a turd, it's still a turd. And that turd is south central Minnesota. The ducks aren't here like they used to be. The war is over here and hunters and wildlife managers are trying to win small battles. Just suggesting that you go out of state will inevitably draw a "good, more for me" response that makes me chuckle. Anyone that has been to a waterfowl draw state or province knows how much better it is and its asinine to think its not. And for those that haven't left the state, they don't know what they are missing. It is to those unfortunate souls that I say, "good, more for me." And it's not about the killing, I just want to see some birds. I just want to see birds work close, get lost in the awe of seeing thousands of ducks get up, have my jaw drop as a tornado of birds lands in a field. It's kind of insulting really to hear that I don't work hard enough or am greedy or want easy shooting when I give up four hours sleep and bust my butt dragging a boat through knee deep muck to not take a shot on several occasions, or in the case of my buddy, put 1,500 miles on his truck and never see more than a couple dozen ducks in a spot all fall.

I did some duck banding a couple years ago with Al Afton and spent an hour interviewing him for a piece I wrote about the history of bluebills in Minnesota. There were several things he mentioned as we ran the gamut of all things waterfowl in Minnesota that I came away with, but one thing I found fascinating was what he had found with his radio telemetry birds. They were coming through Minnesota in the spring, but nearly entirely bypassing the state in the fall. Sometimes they would traverse the entire state in a day or two, in other cases, they swung west to the central fly zone and avoided the state altogether. I don't mean to change this thread into a "why is it so depressing in this state" so I won't get into why those birds behaved the way they did or why hunting in this state has dropped off so severely.

I make it down to Albert Lea a couple times a fall, I'm familiar with the history of some of the waterfowl lakes in Freeborn, Blue Earth, and Faribault counties (your country, nofish) and I'm just a little north of you. I wasn't alive for it, but I know how it used to be. I know Ray Hangge, he resides in Albert Lea. He's in the Minnesota Waterfowl Hall of Fame, huge guy in MWA. I ask him about duck hunting from time to time. He hung up the waders a while back, and not because he couldn't do it, because he can't see a duck anymore! If he's out, what chance to the rest of us have? So I feel for you nofish. That's the trouble with not caring when other people complain about not seeing ducks. What goes around comes around and your area may be void of ducks some day. Then what? You are seeing less and less people hunting, and although a digital age is tough to compete with, do you think we'd have stable per capita hunting rates if Minnesotans were harvesting 170K 'bills or 20K 'bills like today? Seeing and killing ducks is part of the draw of hunting them, not all of it, but a part of it. That much is a fact; when duck numbers are good, the state sells lots of licenses. When duck numbers are poor, they sell fewer. You see the same thing with pheasants here and in the Dakotas.

elwood, come back to your old stomping grounds and hunt around here. You're going to have a lot of empty skies. You know you are welcome to hunt with me any time. Besides, you skipped telling morefish what you shot in North Dakota. I never asked you, but I'm willing to bet you shot more ducks in North Dakota than you did in Minnesota (I can't remember if you went once or twice). You'd be lying if you told us you shot more ducks per trip in Minnesota than North Dakota.

so morefish, I would take Tyler's advice: location, location, location. There aren't ducks here anymore, relatively speaking. Might as well make it worth your time and and get the heck away from Dodge, instead of banging your head against the wall locally. I'm not even saying you have to go out of state, there are places in Minnesota you can get consistently good shooting. It's just not SC MN! Down here, you gotta be here on the right day. Good luck with that if you work 40 hours.

I might sound bitter but I still love duck hunting and won't ever give it up, I'm just going to hunt smarter, not harder. Seems like a better choice is to climb in a tree with a bow for a few Saturdays instead of sitting on empty marshes. So consider that my sympathetic response to a depressed hunter.

Flame on.

Hmm these guys must be in a different part of southern minnesota because our group had great outings and we didnt even hunt that hard. yes there were some days that were long, but there is tons of blind talk about previous years and what not. I WILL NEVER STOP HUNTING DUCKS. all you guys talking about hanging it up puts a on my face but then again I have a HUGE because thats one less guy I have to beat to the landing.

[Scott M]

dan, please don't take offense, but if I was laid off in the fall and spent as many days on Minnesota Lake as you, I'd hope I'd get into some northern mallards and various other migrators a time or two. Throw enough paint against the wall and some'll stick. Imagine if that lake wasn't a carp factory. I didn't even talk about the fly over DNR reports...very little to get excited about and they are flying over refuges!

[dan z]

funny thing is I only went to that lake a couple times, sorry for the rant.

[Scott M]

Nah man, it's all good. I'm not trying to bring everybody down. If you had good success, kudos to you. I offered earlier in the year, anybody that wants to come hunt SC MN with me is welcome. Haven't had any takers yet. (despite all this depressing reading I do have a good time in the blind, I've learned the Minnesota rouser, happy birthday to you, and the Vikings horn on my duck calls )

[dan z]

lots of noises come outta the call when the skies are empty in the blind here to. jingle bells, jack in the box the list goes on. how bout making a coyote yelp with it. heck I make a mad howl for that matter

[Musky Buck]

I wouldn't say I'm a depressed duck hunter I'm just retiring like the rest of the people in the town I live and surrounding communities and no we're not cruising 2 hours away or something, no can do, got kids,coach football,teach gun safety, etc. When grouse hunting fell apart years back you felt guilty to shoot 1 and the duck is the same way I'd feel guilt shooting at what very very few have been around the last decade. More birds for you diehards, more viking football on sundays for us .

[Musky Buck]

After typing that a bad day on the water/river is better than watching the purple, I'll still buy stamps, there's more goose hunters in my counties than duck hunters by a landslide, DNR lucky you got the goose reestablished or stamp sales would really tank.

[TylerS]

Well, I feel sorry for you south central Minnesotans, I really do. Perspective, I guess, is everything. If you can recall the days of better hunting, and today pales in comparison, I can see the gripe.

But, if you fished the same lake every summer for years on end, and the fishing just got worse and not better, who's fault is it? Do you blame the DNR for not managing it properly? Do you blame the fishermen for keeping too many fish? Do you blame the cabin owners for poor shoreline management? Or do you blame yourself for not getting out of your comfort zone and going to a different lake?

Change is hard. I can't imagine what it would be like if my grandparent's land in the Iron Range suddenly got bulldozed and my coveted grouse haunts disappeared into the mist of history. It would be heartbreaking. Likewise, I can see how favorite sloughs and honey holes that suddenly are devoid of waterfowl can make you want to hang up the waders for good.

But if grandpa's poplar grove DID change, I'd have two choices: quit hunting, or find new hunting ground. Now, being a diehard grouse hunter, that first option is out of the question. So what am I left with? Find someplace new.

This option is the toughest, because it requires ME to change. We humans (men especially) are stubborn creatures. Some would rather wear the same worn coat in every rain storm even though they get soaked. It's natural to fear change. But the ones who persevere, the ones who realize that change can be GOOD, are the ones who buy a new coat and stay dry when the next deluge occurs.

So back to ducks. Again, I have no doubt that duck hunting in parts of Minnesota is dismal. Heck, hunt within 30 miles of the Red River Valley in Nodak and you'll be surprised how few ducks you see, too (in fact, other than directly next to the rivers and feeder creeks, this part of the state is an ecological wasteland). But just like my grouse analogy, you have two choices: quit hunting, or find someplace new.

We'll assume that first option was tongue-in-cheek. I mean really, who are you kidding; you're not going to quit duck hunting. There is too much tradition, too many memories, too much FUN associated with it to quit. That would be preposterous.

But the second options is tough, too, especially with so many other commitments. Working 50-60 hours a week, kids sports practices, meeting your significant others' needs: those are a lot on a man's plate! When it comes to duck hunting, you're lucky if you can get out for two hours on a Saturday morning in the slough next to town and pray something shows up.

In that case, I suppose you're stuck. If you truly can't go anywhere else, if your commitments are so dire that driving to a new area is completely out of the question, you'll have to make due with empty skies and a bored hunting dog.

Or, maybe, you do something about it. Delta Waterfowl, Ducks Unlimited, the Minnesota Waterfowl Association and the DNR all have vested interest in increasing duck numbers. They lobby legislators, build nesting boxes, scrounge up habitat and do whatever they can to keep ducks coming for years to come.

Instead of waiting and wishing, maybe it's time to be proactive. Maybe it's time to get up and do something about the lack of ducks. If your cries and pleas are falling on deaf ears, maybe YOU make the CHANGE that the birds need. And maybe if there are enough like-minded individuals around who are sick and darn tired of the horrible duck hunting, you'll be able to band together and DO something about it instead of folding to the present circumstances.

I do not believe for one second that the current state of duck hunting in Minnesota can not be changed for the better. Will it happen over night? Absolutely not. Will it take five years? Ten? Fifty? Who knows, but the only certain thing is it will never happen if people don't take a stance today. Because the sooner you act to make CHANGE, the sooner those bygone days of blackened skies full of birds and innumerable ducks working the decoys come back to light.

Maybe it's a pipe dream, though. I guess it just depends on what's easier for you: to sit back and think about how great it USED to be, or to get up and do something to make it great AGAIN.