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Started By
Message
re: Sen Kennedy wants more ducks in Louisiana.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 10:12 am to jimjackandjose
Posted on 1/8/26 at 10:12 am to jimjackandjose
quote:
Animals dont migrate because cold.
Mmm. We certainly have photomigrators but cold weather certainly has an effect
That cold front two days before dove season and the result should tell you it does
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Posted on 1/8/26 at 10:36 am to Tiger Prawn
quote:
Corn fields don't need to be flooded to grow. So leaving unharvested corn and flooding it serves no legitimate agricultural purpose. Its 100% done for the purpose of baiting ducks.
There are large areas of Kansas and Missouri that are not even farmed. They are turned into floodable cornfield/milo marshes. Zero Farming purpose. Solely for preventing ducks migrating further so they can profit.
The places I have hunted were not farm ground. There was farm ground nearby of course. But, these were man made marshes flooded after the milo/corn grew enough.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 11:22 am to jimjackandjose
quote:
Animals don’t migrate because it’s cold.
I don’t know man. Hundreds of thousands of acres of fields full of grain residue and no ice and snow to cover it up.
I’m not saying I’m right and you’re wrong, I’m just reporting what I’ve seen after hunting in southern Illinois for almost 30 years.
Ducks used to leave when snow and ice covered the fields for any extended period of time. We haven’t seen that type of cold in several years.
I guess my other comment would be the lack of food now in north Louisiana. Once corn became the cash crop, every farmer out there is hipping up his rows as soon as the last grain truck leaves for the elevator. Doing so covers all the residue grain up.
I believe if the reserves and management areas were managed correctly, Louisiana would have many more ducks, however for too long our state agency didn’t have to do anything but sell licenses.
Lastly, I saw a guy a few weeks back that had a satellite map of the Delta from 1990, and beside it he had a current satellite image. It’s easy to see how much habitat we’ve lost here.
Again, I don’t have the answers.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 12:18 pm to geauxbrown
quote:
Ducks used to leave when snow and ice covered the fields for any extended period of time. We haven’t seen that type of cold in several years.
Like someone said above, Habitat Flats is covered in ice and holding thousands.
I've hunted OK and seen mallards flock to a pond where guides busted some ice, like moths to a flame.
They just aren't coming as far south anymore....plan and simple
quote:
I guess my other comment would be the lack of food now in north Louisiana.
Loss of farming and coastal erosion are killing Southern Louisiana. When I was growing up, most of SWLA was either rice or soybeans. Now 90% of that isn't farmed any longer.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 12:36 pm to Ol boy
What about corn fields that don’t get flooded where the ground doesn’t freeze up and the waterfowl are still able to eat the corn out of the ground?
Posted on 1/8/26 at 1:12 pm to SmoothBox
See GB’s fourth paragraph above, farmers prepare their fields for next years planting right after harvest.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 1:33 pm to Tiger Prawn
quote:
The hunters up north try to compare it to people down here flooding rice fields....but rice actually needs to be flooded in order to grow.
That's not technically true. Rice can grow on dry ground or in a flooded field. The water is used as an herbicide to prevent unwanted weeds from growing in the field. That's why rice is started in a dry field then flooded once it gets up 6 or 8 inches.
As to the issue of flooding standing corn. Most of these groups own the land and are farming ducks. They spend a ton of money to plant and leave it in the field.
You have to own the property and be willing to spend the money. No leased farm around here is going to do that for you unless you buy the crop.
In conclusion, until the law is changed, you can bitch about it or pony up and apply the old adage... If you can't beat them, join them.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 3:02 pm to Ol boy
Me too cuz
Posted on 1/8/26 at 3:41 pm to KemoSabe65
quote:
See GB’s fourth paragraph above, farmers prepare their fields for next years planting right after harvest.
bullshite.
I hunt thousands of acres of ag fields in many different states yearly, in fact I hunted a corn field this morning that was harvested back in October that is just disked. They won’t plant again til the spring, when the temps are consistently 50 and rising. Corn doesn’t grow in when it’s cold. The amount of misinformation out there there is incredible.
I guess if you count disking or stubble prepping for next years plant it’s a correct statement.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 4:13 pm to Ron Cheramie
quote:
There are millions of acres of dry corn fields north and west of us that were not corn back in the day. It’s almost unlimited
Now switch rice for sugarcane. How many acres of what used to be rice fields are now planted in sugar (or fallow)?
This post was edited on 1/8/26 at 4:18 pm
Posted on 1/8/26 at 4:25 pm to Tchefuncte Tiger
quote:
Now switch rice for sugarcane. How many acres of what used to be rice fields are now planted in sugar (or fallow)?
There are still piles of rice fields but they are used as crawfish ponds which are virtually worthless for a dabbling duck. I didnt live in south Louisiana back in the day but I can drive all on hwy 10 from welsh to Crowley which is solid rice fields (crawfish) and not see a single duck. I can’t imagine it was like that back in the day
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:33 pm to Clyde Tipton
quote:
Most of these groups own the land and are farming ducks.
Correct.
Not many farmers will let you lease their ground, put a dike in the middle of it and then flood it and then have to undo it all after the season prior to planting. And to be honest, leasing the ground ain’t shite in the grand scheme of things for farmers, they couldn’t care less about the productivity of the hunting, it just puts a little more money in their pocket when they’re not farming.
The majority of the corn pond guys own it and farm it strictly for waterfowl, but it’s really no different than anyone who owns land and farms it for waterfowl, the only difference is it’s corn.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 5:50 pm to Ron Cheramie
Photomigrators migrate because it us a tell of changing seasons which minimizes food supply. Years of evolution to chase food supply.
Other ducks that migrated with cold to chase food supply no longer have to because the cold doesn't eliminate readily available food supply anymore. They can feed on ice or in dry fields with standing crop.
None of that existed in the glory days of the MS flyway.
Animals will only leave safe habitats when they feel they have to for survival. Pressure or food.
Other ducks that migrated with cold to chase food supply no longer have to because the cold doesn't eliminate readily available food supply anymore. They can feed on ice or in dry fields with standing crop.
None of that existed in the glory days of the MS flyway.
Animals will only leave safe habitats when they feel they have to for survival. Pressure or food.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 6:03 pm to Ron Cheramie
The Pettijean farm just west of Rayne used to be a roost on both north and southside of I10 back in the 90’s. It held tens of thousands of ducks and geese annually. I remember driving through that section of 10 one Christmas morning and they were trading barely over the pines by the thousands.
From lacassine to Roanoke on I10 it was common to have to wash goose shite off your windshield. There once was a duck blind on the southside of 10 in a field east of the lacassine exit. It’s all cane now so I can’t see the ducks anymore.
99 north of Welsh used to be the holy grail for duck blinds, you were a high stepper with coin. Hunted Christmas Day in a ten man which would’ve been 96.
Bet ya can’t scratch a limit on any of the old farms I used to hunt anymore.
From lacassine to Roanoke on I10 it was common to have to wash goose shite off your windshield. There once was a duck blind on the southside of 10 in a field east of the lacassine exit. It’s all cane now so I can’t see the ducks anymore.
99 north of Welsh used to be the holy grail for duck blinds, you were a high stepper with coin. Hunted Christmas Day in a ten man which would’ve been 96.
Bet ya can’t scratch a limit on any of the old farms I used to hunt anymore.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 7:58 pm to Ron Cheramie
quote:
I can drive all on hwy 10 from welsh to Crowley which is solid rice fields (crawfish) and not see a single duck. I can’t imagine it was like that back in the day
The geese used to be so thick along I-10 between Welsh and Jennings they would affect traffic. You can now drive through rice country and not see a single goose and the only ducks you may see are whistlers. It wasn't that way 50 years ago.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 8:18 pm to Tchefuncte Tiger
I know several people in Louisiana that plant their wrp’s in corn for ducks.
Posted on 1/8/26 at 8:48 pm to Tiger Prawn
quote:
The hunters up north try to compare it to people down here flooding rice fields....but rice actually needs to be flooded in order to grow.
I don’t know a damn thing about rice so educate me. At what leaf stage do they flood rice fields normally? What month does this normally occur? At what growth stage do they stop flooding?
Posted on 1/8/26 at 9:34 pm to highcotton2
quote:
I don’t know a damn thing about rice so educate me. At what leaf stage do they flood rice fields normally? What month does this normally occur? At what growth stage do they stop flooding?
Posted on 1/9/26 at 7:26 am to Outdoorreb
If it’s not corn that is so appealing to the mallard duck, and rather a distaste for southern habitat, then someone needs to explain why Duckbriar in Shelby, Ms, winters so many mallards every year.
Anyone who has had the pleasure to hunt there or has friends who hunt there know they kill mallards like no place else down here. They also have a massive flooded corn stand that they do not hunt, but will take guests to observe in the evenings to watch the tornado or ducks coming to roost.
So the question would be if all these places up the flyway stop flooding huge fields of corn, how long before those mallards quit using their farms and end up back in the public woods.
Anyone who has had the pleasure to hunt there or has friends who hunt there know they kill mallards like no place else down here. They also have a massive flooded corn stand that they do not hunt, but will take guests to observe in the evenings to watch the tornado or ducks coming to roost.
So the question would be if all these places up the flyway stop flooding huge fields of corn, how long before those mallards quit using their farms and end up back in the public woods.
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