Man, this is god awful… I've seen 2 GWT that almost worked us and 2 pintails - that's it….

Two single GWT early. Other than that nada, not even any high groups moving

Love the classic mule.

Grayson county
Bright ass moon this morning. Good north wind, 42 degrees & slightly cloudy. We had 3 ducks land on end of our pond about 150 yards away. Two more came in later but were really high up and circled once and left. No flights of Canadas today and we heard zero shots anywhere around us which is weird for a Saturday.

Today proved once again (for me) why I never hunt West winds… it always sucks.

Good deal. Last couple mornings, I've been seeing a lot of boats already on the highway or eating breakfast by 9:30. Sometimes being patient pays off.

We went to North Dakota for two weeks and it felt like the mallards barely showed up or numbers are way off. Same for Canadas, we did wreck the snows twice.

Either weather or populations are way off.

Talked to some young guys who hunted yesterday and today at a club in Garwood. Yesterday the worst hunt ever. Two ducks for five guys. This morning full five man limit in 40 minutes. Crazy

Yesterday was West Wind which usually comes after a really strong north or south wind and the birds tend to just rest and not move as much. Couple that with a full moon and Saturday was destined to be terrible for most folks. Sounds like this morning was pretty good from the two groups I talked to that went out. I won't be back for another week and a half or so

Crazy times. 45 years of hardcore waterfowl hunting. I'm not sure about the future of the sport. Glad I'm not an outfitter.

I'll be hunting in NE Arkansas next week and finishing up at the Sabine Ranch, within McFaddin.

Maybe we'll shoot some bw teal, on the way north.

Your definition of "no ducks" doesn't track considering yall seemingly limited on green heads one day.

No ducks for us here means "no ducks" I've been out 5 times and seen less than 250 ducks, with NONE any where close to shooting distance.

Just curious, are y'all seeing them in the hole when scouting the day before yall hunt? Or just showing up to historically good holes that have always held birds but birds just haven't been there this year?

I know some guys doing pretty well but they are chasing the feeds pretty hard and having to do a lot of scouting to stay on top of them. Concho Valley and South Plains area where they are having decent success.

Very nice!

This looks like an awesome trip!

Combination of things but mostly the birds just aren't there when scouting. One thing Ive noticed is you can't bump them and expect to hunt the next day. Used to that didn't matter. Now, if you do, a lot times they don't come back the next day. Noticed it in the last few years and it seems to be happening much more consistently. I assume it's just further response to extreme pressure.

As far as feeds go, on our last OK/ KS trip, we drove through hundreds of miles of ag land and saw one canada feed. No duck or other goose feeds. When we first started doing Oklahoma, you'd see a mixed goose feed every 20 miles, it seemed. I had friends that used to door knock and do well chasing feeds. Their key to success was staying on the fringes and not focusing on the hottest of areas. The outfitters that were there would lease up the hot zones but didnt need to cover every square mile of available habitat to run their businesses. My theory is those small areas that werent getting outfitter pressure acted as refuges for the birds. Now, with the outfitters run rampant, you knock on any door and its leased. The outfitters are covering much larger areas and no bird is left unhunted.

I have one group of friends that quit their Kansas outfitter last year. And another group quitting their Oklahoma outfitter after their hunt last week. Used to, they'd shoot limits every day. Now, standard procedure is you pay for a 3 day hunt and get one good day, one mediocre day, and one garhole day where they know you wont kill anything. And on top of that, they continue to up hunting group size because they don't have enough feeds to go around for all the groups that are booked. They aren't doing it because they're lazy, the demand just outweighs the supply and they aren't willing to cut back.

Lease groups over multiple properties in the Garwood, Eagle Lake, El Campo, Markham areas.

Bird numbers just are not there.

OnlyForNow said:

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Lease groups over multiple properties in the Garwood, Eagle Lake, El Campo, Markham areas.

Bird numbers just are not there.

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Man, that sucks and hate hearing that. It's just crazy to me to hear those places not having birds, haven't ever hunted that part of the state myself, but have always heard over the years how good the hunting was down that way. I've only been chasing them since 2008 when CS78 got me and Gulp Juice in to it my freshman year, but always heard the hunting down that way has historically been top notch.

Sounds like it's terrible compared to past years from the northern plains all the way to the Texas Coast. Hoping the birds can make a miraculous rebound, so I can take my kids and have them experience some great hunts like I've been on over the years. Just depressing to hear these reports.

OnlyForNow said:

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Lease groups over multiple properties in the Garwood, Eagle Lake, El Campo, Markham areas.

Bird numbers just are not there.

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Our properties closer to El Campo and Markham have been slower in general this year but we're still shooting quite a bit. Our average is still pretty good as a club...

For most of this year, the properties right off the coast have been holding more birds. The last couple of years it has flopped back and forth depending on a variety of conditions, like drought.

I am also under the impression that the number of available "good properties" in the areas you mentioned are being significantly over hunted. I don't think that is the result of clubs but more so the outfitters that are hunting the same ponds 7 days a week. Run N Gun leased an old property we had but it never held any birds after first week or so because they hunted it every damn day. I have heard similar stories elsewhere but cannot confirm with 100% accuracy.

You're on THC?

Would you PM me, I'd like to chat with you about it.

It could be due to the weather, it's so strange but that Dec 23 cold front - everyone nationwide that I knew pounded birds for a week to ten days.

This area is one of the larger staging areas during the migration so it's normal to pound them several times. More abnormal to only get 1 time.

Is THC still a 2+ year waitlist?

If you don't know someone on the club, I think that sounds right… not entirely sure though.

Any Rockport Updates?

Worked out of town all week and our duck lease has been idle since last weekend. I'm going out with my B-I-L Sunday AM. We had a small front blow though yesterday. Got my fingers crossed it brought some birds with it

Spent 8 hours scouting south Toledo Bend Wednesday. Every little nook and cranny between Indian Mounds and Texas islands. All the spots where we've found birds over the years. Grass wasn't great but good enough that we should have seen more than we did. Saw a total of 150 canvasbacks and maybe 20 other mixed birds. 150 cans where the used to be 15,000! Tried to set up on the cans Thursday morning but that didn't work. Shot one pintail. Couldn't believe the number of bass boats out. Probably saw 60-70 total. The wind was blowing 15 on Wednesday and it was raining Thursday, so not exactly great fishing weather even though it was warm. The one flock of cans didn't get to sit more than 10 minutes before another boat was jumping them. Makes you wonder how much the 12 month/ year fishermen are stressing the ducks. One more thing against them, I guess.

I didnt go last year but this was definitely the worst Ive ever seen it there. Also seemed to be very little sign of other people hunting. Guessing most people have written it off.



Coot/ Can spread



Needed another year.

CorpsTerd04 said:

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Any Rockport Updates?

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Duck hunted Rockport this past after New Years weekend Friday (am and pm), Saturday (am and pm), and Sunday am.

First time i have ever been to Rockport in Jauary and didn't see one redhead on the water. Not one. Saw numerous groups way way up high but they needed an oxygen mask and were not working at all. Didn't swing to take a look. Nothing.

We changed gears quickly and setup in the middle of the bay 2 miles from shore on mid bay reefs and lit up the bufflehead. Customers wanted trophy birds so we got on em. Put away the 70 decoy spread and put out 8 decoys. Smashed the buffle head from my duck boat blind way out in the middle.

I will say water was way way way low so couldn't get back in the marsh. But we only heard one or two volleys back there anyway out of all the 20 airboats running back there. We easily had the most shooting of anyone we talked to or could hear. It was also big clear blue skies....and 78 degrees.

https://www.kennedy.senate.gov/public/press-releases?ID=7ACE786F-AC54-42C5-970E-29D6EA345FF8

Just got back from NE Arkansas. 2 hunts, 3 mallards between 7 guys. We shot half limits of GW teal and gadwall.

Dry as a bone. Was 80 degrees the day before the hunt.

It is getting like our prairie up there. There was a duck blind on every flooded field we saw.

Headed to Sabine Ranch this afternoon ( McFaddin). Hope the bw teal are headed north.

water turkey said:

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It is getting like our prairie up there. There was a duck blind on every flooded field we saw.

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That's what I saw in Louisiana 20-25 years ago. There isnt a piece of duck habitat in the state that isnt getting hunted. And a lot of it is getting hit every day of the week. You ride 15 miles in the boat on a wednesday, walk 500 yards into a hole on an island, only to find there's already someone there. Then people wonder why the hunting has gone to crap. Unfortunately, that's the same things im now finding in places like OK and KS. The resource can't handle it.