The Problem Facing ND Waterfowl Hunting

[Huntdux]

I've hunted ducks in ND since 1966, life time resident of ND and only missed two years due to deployment overseas (military). This has got to be one of the worst waterfowl seasons I have ever had. Still working full time for the NDARNG and I didn't take much time off to chase waterfowl but when I did I put many miles on to find mostly empty sloughs and skys. A lot of things have changed and they are not for the better, no matter where I went north and NE of Bismarck I saw very few resident hunters, mostly nonresident. I know there are many good nonresident hunters out there but there are also many slobs just like many residents. I'm a die hard water hunter and I love diver hunting but until I retire I don't have the time to scout 200 miles to hunt some birds that 20 people are already looking at. Us working residents hunt weekends and the birds used to get some time off from being chased but the nonresidents hunt 7 days straight and it goes on almost all season. Wonder why they get up when a vehicle slows down 1/4 mile away. The only sloughs that held ducks were next to farms. I have nothing against nonresident hunters as I have hunted out of state many times too but something has to change. Seems like the lakes in NC ND that always held divers are mostly empty now and I wonder if all the chemicals going on the crop land now has poisoned the water so much that the birds no longer have anything to eat in them. I never thought I would see the hunting in ND change as fast as it did in the last decade. Don't get me wrong, we still had some great hunts but nothing like it used to be. A farmer friend of mine in the Braddock area never had birds in his fields once this year and he doesn't remember that ever happening. Good luck to alll in the future.

 

[Enslow]

I live in the middle of the migration both north and south. There are more birds than ever and more competition than
ever. The hunting and fishing in ND has become a revenue source that is relied upon. The local hunters and fishermen and fisherwomen are on the losing end of this because their dollars dont show up on the reports with the same number of digits as the NR. All decisions are made from a balance sheet, the biology degrees are just a means to get the job at the NDGF.

 

[Livetohuntandfish]

Just joined nodak angler because I'm confused on why people are so mad about this season of duck and goose hunting. I'm out watching the wildlife everyday of my life and it was simple this year. 2 factors. 1. We had a early cold front that pushed the locals and early flocks down south. 2. Canada in some cases never got their crops off. Extremely wet compounded with guys scathing their small grains left an endless amount of food up north. The second weekend of deer season you could sit outside and watch flocks for miles going straight through. I personally don't think the outastaters or hunting pressure has anything to do with out North Dakota hunting. I personally run into more dumb*** North Dakota guys who think because they live here they can do anything they want..... sadly this is why me and my neighbors post everything. If your decent enough to ask there's no problem letting you hunt. But that's a rare event to get a knock on the door........

 

[Account Deleted]

Thanks for the post and thanks for letting polite people on to hunt livetohuntandfish. I'm not certain it's all anger. Some of it is, a lot of it is frustration as we see things change so rapidly. It's not just this year. It's a decade and longer trend.

 

[guywhofishes]

I've hunted ducks in ND since 1966, life time resident of ND and only missed two years due to deployment overseas (military). This has got to be one of the worst waterfowl seasons I have ever had. Still working full time for the NDARNG and I didn't take much time off to chase waterfowl but when I did I put many miles on to find mostly empty sloughs and skys. A lot of things have changed and they are not for the better, no matter where I went north and NE of Bismarck I saw very few resident hunters, mostly nonresident. I know there are many good nonresident hunters out there but there are also many slobs just like many residents. I'm a die hard water hunter and I love diver hunting but until I retire I don't have the time to scout 200 miles to hunt some birds that 20 people are already looking at. Us working residents hunt weekends and the birds used to get some time off from being chased but the nonresidents hunt 7 days straight and it goes on almost all season. Wonder why they get up when a vehicle slows down 1/4 mile away. The only sloughs that held ducks were next to farms. I have nothing against nonresident hunters as I have hunted out of state many times too but something has to change. Seems like the lakes in NC ND that always held divers are mostly empty now and I wonder if all the chemicals going on the crop land now has poisoned the water so much that the birds no longer have anything to eat in them. I never thought I would see the hunting in ND change as fast as it did in the last decade. Don't get me wrong, we still had some great hunts but nothing like it used to be. A farmer friend of mine in the Braddock area never had birds in his fields once this year and he doesn't remember that ever happening. Good luck to alll in the future.

My brothers and I used to trap rats when we were real young (70s) and over Christmas break we were discussing the lack of muskrat houses on the majority of sloughs. What happened?

 

[2400]

Sorry I don't have answers but do agree that I would love for waterfowl hunting to return to what it was 20-40 years ago. I might also add, it was way easier to shoot a limit of snow geese years ago. Shooting 5 per day seemed like a really good day. Now you need 20 to have a really good day. I have been on some good snow goose hunts the past few years and shooting a limit isn't easy. It's fun, but not easy.

I have a question for you. If shooting 5 a day was good hunting years ago why isn't it good hunting now?

Maybe I have it wrong but just being out hunting is awesome. Bringing home birds, deer, fish , etc is just icing on the cake. Sometimes I limit out but most of the time I shoot a few and am happy to be able to enjoy a great day in the field with my Lab and sometimes a friend or two.

 

[Livetohuntandfish]

Hey guywhofishes the answer to your question is we had such high water over the last few years the reeds and vegetation that the muskrats use for making huts and surviving the winter was taken out by the high water. Now that the sloughs are receding the lack of this is what's killing the population. It's a cycle and as soon as we normalize you'll see more rats returning.

 

[zoops]

I have a question for you. If shooting 5 a day was good hunting years ago why isn't it good hunting now?

Maybe I have it wrong but just being out hunting is awesome. Bringing home birds, deer, fish , etc is just icing on the cake. Sometimes I limit out but most of the time I shoot a few and am happy to be able to enjoy a great day in the field with my Lab and sometimes a friend or two.

Without putting words in his mouth, I'll chime in here. I think what he's getting at are the high limits (certainly social media, etc has played a role as well) has led to a culture of needing to have the biggest bird pile at the end of the day. People see the big shoots on tv, online, etc and of course try to chase that - leads to people being competitive and not necessarily enjoying the hunt for what it is. Guys who only have bird numbers on the brain get old to hunt with in a hurry.

 

[guywhofishes]

Hey guywhofishes the answer to your question is we had such high water over the last few years the reeds and vegetation that the muskrats use for making huts and surviving the winter was taken out by the high water. Now that the sloughs are receding the lack of this is what's killing the population. It's a cycle and as soon as we normalize you'll see more rats returning.

We discussed that issue - but we have also observed reeds and cattails recede and advance quickly with the changing water levels. A couple years after "flooding" a slough looks just like any other slough. Vegetation of every type is there - just relocated. It's been a 15-20 year wet cycle... and not all areas of the state are that terribly different than the early 70s for sloughs on the landscape. With the exception of no rat houses on the majority of sloughs. Maybe they are still there but tunneling into banks rather than building houses.

Seems far-fetched to me that they can't adapt to changing water levels - but maybe you are right. I'm no biologist.

 

[2400]

I have a question for you. If shooting 5 a day was good hunting years ago why isn't it good hunting now?

Maybe I have it wrong but just being out hunting is awesome. Bringing home birds, deer, fish , etc is just icing on the cake. Sometimes I limit out but most of the time I shoot a few and am happy to be able to enjoy a great day in the field with my Lab and sometimes a friend or two.

Without putting words in his mouth, I'll chime in here. I think what he's getting at are the high limits (certainly social media, etc has played a role as well) has led to a culture of needing to have the biggest bird pile at the end of the day. People see the big shoots on tv, online, etc and of course try to chase that - leads to people being competitive and not necessarily enjoying the hunt for what it is. Guys who only have bird numbers on the brain get old to hunt with in a hurry.

I get what you're saying here. I have hunted with a few "numbers" guys and they are a pain in the ass to hunt with, I don't do it more than once.

I don't need to impress anyone or look good in a photo at the end of a days hunt. I am out to enjoy the outdoors and shoot a few birds, catch a few fish or kill an elk or deer. If I don't it's still a great day outdoors and that works for me.

 

[dean nelson]

The tats go through a cycle and their population explode every time we get a big flush of new water and soon after the population of the predators that eat rats explodes. In ND that predator tends to be mink and it only takes them about a year to clear out most of the rats then their population drops and we reset the board to play the game again. We will likely see another rat boom over the next year or so when all the potholes that were dry refill and soon after the trappers will start finding rats in their traps that have been eaten by mink.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

When I started hunting Canada Geese the daily bag limit was one. We didn't have a lot of flocks to work with and when they came in it was easy to limit, vacate the field and not educate more flocks. Today the limit is 5 in my area and it takes longer to limit, thus educating more flocks. And there are more hunters hunting them because they can shoot 5 instead of just one. However, the result is six of one half a dozen of the other. Goose hunting today is still better than it was 20 years ago.

Non-residents are a non-factor. They have to hunt within a certain time frame and if the weather isn't in their favor they're not going to do well. One time some non-resident friends and I hunted Friday Saturday Sunday. Blue skies, no wind, cold and the geese were coming off late. We had the whole place to ourselves, not another rig within 10 miles. Never fired a shot. They had to go home.

Monday morning I slept in and looked out the window at 8:00 am. Snowing and warmer. Called another bud and headed out. There were decoy rigs in every field. We couldn't find a field. Desperate we threw down in the flyway. We could see geese coming and then we could see them falling out of the sky before we heard the shots. There was a rig on the other side of the hill. Shit. They limited, vacated the field and then we got shooting.

It was amazing to me that so many guys could turn out on a Monday morning. They weren't non-residents.

 

[snow]

Seems it was 10+ years ago or so when the ndgfp capped the non rez waterfowl tags@ 20k,created a big ruckus with a gang of Mn state legislaters,seems a bunch of these folks bought land cheap back then just to hunt and when they found out about the non rez cap they threatened law suit and retailtory license increase for nonrez fishing licenses,shorten license to 2weeks rather than open all season etc,nothing ever became of that feasco,just some mud slinging.Oh well,our country has become over populated,what we see out east will become the norm here folks.

 

[Magpie]

Yes, muskrat populations are cyclical. But they also aren't very smart. In the fall of 2015,in my part of the state, there were tremendous numbers of rat houses. Problem was, alot if not most, were built in shallow sloughs or even road ditches less than a foot deep. Result-freezing out. If they dig out of their houses,where can they go? Everythings frozen up. Plus they're easy pickings for predators. They'll be back.

 

[dean nelson]

Seems it was 10+ years ago or so when the ndgfp capped the non rez waterfowl tags@ 20k,created a big ruckus with a gang of Mn state legislaters,seems a bunch of these folks bought land cheap back then just to hunt and when they found out about the non rez cap they threatened law suit and retailtory license increase for nonrez fishing licenses,shorten license to 2weeks rather than open all season etc,nothing ever became of that feasco,just some mud slinging.Oh well,our country has become over populated,what we see out east will become the norm here folks.

It was 2002 with a 30,000 cap. The next year they created the new units and split the nonresident upland and waterfowl licenses. I think it was 03 as well when the residents only first week started.

 

[LBrandt]

Mother Nature has her rules, only man tries to fix them and really screws things up. Ask any buffalo or wolf.