End-of-season Report

Hey there all you duck hunters. Let's get started on some talk. Right now it's the off-season for ducks, and I'm sure most if not all of us are tired and weary already from waiting for the next season to start. Hunting numbers went down this year from last year but with a lot of ducks in the skies, just none that came down in time. 7.7 million mallards were estimated as of the 2008 count, a goodly number indeed. Canvasbacks are only numbered at around 485 thousand, so looks like there needs to be more work done to help our kingly friend come back to his throne as the king of ducks. I killed about 8 ducks this season, 1 drake greenwing, 1 drake gadwall, one hen mallard and five greenheads. I hope to get more next season. I got most of my ducks in Southern Illinois over Christmas break, and the teal, gadwall and hen mallard were shot here in Utah. The season was, needless to say, less than what I had expected and was pretty submarginal for my second duck season since I too am still relatively new to waterfowling. My Dad is an old waterfowler who has seen and hunted lots of the well-known North American species of ducks and geese, and he always imparts tips to me and I to him as we hunt and as we chat on the phone during the season and in the off-season. My first duck call was a Haydel, one of the best calls I ever owned. Now I hang it along with a new call by Tim Grounds on my lanyard, along with pintail, gadwall, teal, and goose calls. I have learned to appreciate the species we have and look forward to hunting them and seeing them in their natural element once again.
So, what do we do now that duck season is over? Some turkey hunt, some fish, I dos schoolwork, haha. I go out to the places I hunted during the season and do some scouting and photography while the birds are migrating through, honing in on my identification skills and paying attention to flight patterns, calls, behavior, and habits of the birds--I'm a wildlife bio in training, by the way, so this is a bit out of the ordinary for most waterfowlers I would think. I recently obtained a job with Ducks Unlimited doing duck research in the Duck Factory up north in the Dakotas so that'll be cool if it all works out right. So, if your decoys are looking a little scruffy, paint em up and get you some good, dull-colored paint for bodies and some nice sheen for go on those greenheads, teal, wigeons, and anything else that has a colorful sheen to it like the back of ringnecks, which I own 6 fine GHG decoys of. Fine-tune your duck calling skills and listen to the ducks as they come through the area and listen to what they say and do and when they say what they say. Learn about bird placement patterns and start thinking about good decoy setups for next year. Also, something else that helps is to do something that helps you forget the season is over, but doing touch-up work and preparing for next season is a must. Start finding good land to hunt as well. Another good thing to do is to practice shooting, because none of us like skybusters. Learn to shoot well and teach yourself to shoot working birds once they have committed or are in close range--DO NOT SKYBUST.
Well, Let's hope this summer is a good wet one and that we get some good water and some early cold fronts. Let us all hope that the scaup and cans start coming back more and above all, have a good off-season. Back with more soon! Happy Hunting!