Duck Population

[exiledguide]

Until I moved to this area I never realized that there was much in the way of duck shooting here. I just wonder how the population of birds in this area compres to the river noth of st louis and the Stutgart AR area and are there enough birds in the area to draw hunters from other parts of the country? Look at the money that is spent in southern IL on bids on Rend Lake I don't have any desire to hunt anymore This is just a question I have and I think there are guys here that can answer it.

[duckydoty]

Not near as many around Table Rock, Taney, and Bull Shoals area as compared to the Mississippi north of St. Louis. Two completely different areas. The only thing we have going for us is open water. No food to speak of in this area as far as flooded fields and such that can hold birds for a long time. The only draw we really have for hunters from other areas is the fact that the South Zone season is open till the 20th of January. A few people come down here to get in just one more hunt. We can have good hunts down here, but for the most part, it is not an everyday thing.

[Feathers and Fins]

We live in a area i call one of the best kept secrets in waterfowl hunting. We get overlooks because of Stuttgart and SE Missouri and Cheyene Bottoms in KS.

What we are blessed with is COE lakes that are free, Missouri has many Public Lands with scouting can be very productive in this region, Tack on so many fields with a little asking permission, then tack on all our little creeks its an unbelievable area.

But with that comes a problem of what areas to go to and when, it takes a great deal of local knowledge and contacts you can trust for information. This site is very diffrent than almost any other the members will tell you the truth and yet we are small enough that most of us have offered eachother hunts to the others. But it really takes local knowledge.

Bird numbers here can be very good, nothing like the Arkansas Delta area, that said though I have been able to limit almost every day of season if the right weather patterns show up, other years it can be very tough like this year. The one thing about this are though is an insane amount of resident Honkers we could easily rival any of the well known area for geese.

As for drawing people from around the country i doubt as they get keyed in on the " well known" spots aka bucket list. If they knew what a cast n blast was or how nice it is to hunt in the AM go to Taney for world class trout by noon and then Branson for shows and dinner we might just become more popular especially as a destination for a vacation for the family. Or Duck in the AM and stripers and walley on Beaver in the afternoon follwed by a trip to Crystal Bridges or a game at the UofA etc. We have the eliments to be a world class destination but SHHHHHHHH. I kinda like it the way it is lol

[Jeff Olson]

well I only reduced the tablerock population by 2 today. saw about 35 to 40 birds leaving before shooting time, then very slow until 10;15 and called it quits. pretty chilly out there in the open this morning! did have 2 separate pairs of mallards come in nice though early on, and took the drake out each time .had 1 flock of a dozen scaup decoy just out of range , a few high flyiers, and that was about it. good little hunt , just nice to get out! hope to get out wed am.

[Bird Watcher]

ducks are spotty at best around here. Relatively speaking of course. Sure, you might find a good group of them from time to time when conditions are right, but it seems like we spend a lot more time waiting for them then we do seeing them in this country. We shouldn't even be mentioned in the same conversation as Stuttgart or Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, IMO. Four Rivers and Truman Lake have their moments and so does Grand Lake in OK if they get the millet planted where they might start sniffing the 100,000 duck mark.

[moodyfour]

I have been fortunate enough to hunt just north of St. Louis, Southern IL, and Northeast Arkansas... They all have their advantages and they all hold a ton of birds depending on the weather... I don't think you can compare them due to several factors that is controlled by Mother Nature and only by her... Just my two cents.

[JohnP]

Hunted stockton this morning and although we (3 of us) had the opportunity to shoot this morning we didn't see but maybe 20 ducks total while hunting. Drove all the lake hit a few creeks and didnt see very many birds at all, a few here and a few there but no concentration of them anywhere???? Checked a few fields in the area and didn't see any that were being used that we could tell. Drove around bull shoals this afternoon and only saw one small flock 20-30 infront of k-dock on the old boat ramp flat. Still a few of the bigger ponds open down here this afternoon but guessing they won't be in the morning but only seen one pond that had 13 mallards and 3 gads on it, the other 4 that I seen that were open didn't have a duck on them. Didn't make it up to beaver creek, but snapps and cedar creek looked pretty bare from what I could see from my driveup spots, 2 hooded mergansers back in cedar creek. There were a bunch of geese about right off of 65 at the tracker plant in ozark this afternoon

[exiledguide]

I want to thank you all for your answers. I don't hunt but I still send a few bucks to DU every year cause I think that ducks in the fall make fishing a lot more enjoyable.

[duckydoty]

We hunted lower Taney yesterday. Saw maybe 150 birds but only a few wanted to work us. Ended up bagging 3 gadwall and due to feeling over crowded by an other group of hunters that came in and set up 50 yards right across from us, we decided just to go fishing the rest of the day. Did catch a lot of trout on midges and sowbugs up by the dam.

[Feathers and Fins]

Hey you met the Barnies that busted my hunt a couple weeks ago huh. Did they have DuckCommander crap and blow a call like it was a kazoo. I tell you the wousre thing this season is all the Duckcommander wannabies I would like to kick all the Robertsons square in the nuts.