Adanac

Kyle Hauck

Member
I think most of you would agree here with all the artistry, antique boats, and hand carved decoys that we all enjoy the journey that waterfowl hunting is. It is now about the pile pictures you see online. I certainly am guilty of taking and posting those photos but they are but a trigger of the memory for me of the entire hunt from scouting to execution to cleanup. That being said if you have some spare time this evening this short film is well worth your time.

It is a film produced for Tanglefree by some friends of mine. It beautifully tells of a journey of a waterfowl pursuit and adventure. If you pay attention on the second half of the film you'll get to see my ugly mug [;)] as well as my wife and a few of my kids, both 4 and 2 legged.

Cheers!

https://youtu.be/LVxrfyVtN_0
 
Kyle

Thanks for pointing us to the video. I've seen several of the Sitka series and am always impressed with the attention to detail, videography, and voice overs. I've had the conversation with my son and his friends who form our hunting group that we probably have a gold mine of material for video but nobody seems to make the camera a priority. I don't mean just hunting footage, but all the pre and post season projects we do. Clearly Sitka has a dedicated camera man and video producer (maybe the same guy) that know how to get quality material from what the camera captures. That's a skillset I'd like to have or have access to.

As for the content of this video these guys are in the enviable position of being to take off for Canada when local opportunities are below expectation. That's not the most common scenario, although it does seem like duck hunters are travelling far north more and more to find waterfowl numbers and opportunities that the southern half of the US can't offer (anymore?). That might just be the trend of the future. I know locally we've had two really poor seasons back-to-back and I'm witnessing an unusual amount of duck hunting gear showing up for sale with the owner saying they are headed to another state and need different gear or they are spending more time in the deer woods and want to reallocate resources for that. The guys in your video are probably "lifers" and will go wherever and do whatever it takes. But that is a small percentage of the waterfowling population. I just keep getting the sense (probably biased by two poor seasons back-to-back) that southern duck hunter numbers are going to shrink at an increased rate while "north bound hunters" are going to emerge from those that stick with it.

Eric
 
It's amazing to see fellas from S. Louisiana drive to Canada to hunt ducks and geese. I know this past season was rough for us in S. La!

I've made the drive a time or two to Montana from here in SC in my younger days. The way duck hunting is going here in the South I'm giving it some serious thought of going back out West.
 
Well, it's not really a surprise that a lot of people are travelling north to hunt.

FL is growing very quickly. VERY quickly population wise. The land and waters we have to hunt are shrinking. The state sprays some of the biggest lakes just before and during the season to kill off submerged vegetation so lots of places that used to be good lakes to hunt become wastelands. Quail is almost....not quite...but almost nonexistent here. Some of our more traditional areas that have held ducks have been damaged repeatedly by hurricanes. Add in that the migration overall seems to come later to FL and early season is often a wash for many of us.
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So, I can understand why people who hunt birds in FL would be upset and looking for other avenues to hunt. I have a friend here in Tallahassee that usually hunts for two weeks in Arkansas or Mississippi. It is just as "cheap" to save the money for a trip and actually get to see and hunt ducks as it is to spend all season driving around looking for places to hunt that might have birds if you get lucky.

I'm not complaining, but it all is a reality for us at the end of the migration and is a large part of why I have been more than happy to spend my money and vacation days travelling to chase upland birds in the fall than to try to hunt ducks here in FL. Of course, my area of FL isn't what I am used to birdwise to begin with and I admit I got spoiled with hunting teal (I dearly love teal). I would be just as happy to spend my money chasing ducks across the country as well, but with my current dog it makes more sense to chase upland birds because I love to watch the dog as much as I love to shoot birds. PLUS I get to sleep in with upland hunting and I do so love sleeping in. I have also found that with upland hunting you get to see a lot of really neat and interesting things you likely wouldn't if you were chasing ducks (the opposite is true of course as well). I will have a lab in the nearish future so chasing ducks across the country and here in FL will become a higher priority again.

All that to say, it really is no surprise that people in the south that can travel, will travel. Increase of population, shrinking of huntable areas (for many reasons), birds not showing up or showing up later and later.....it can be very frustrating.
 
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