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Message: <blockquote data-quote="zoops" data-source="post: 125146" data-attributes="member: 790">Always an interesting topic.  I started waterfowl hunting when I was 13, so I guess that was 1996.  Obviously lucked out in that the 90s were very wet and CRP was prominent and land posting was low as was hunting pressure.  My dad didn't really hunt but I was interested and had friends from hunting families so we tried to figure it out.  We didn't have decoys, just drove around west of Grand Forks and jumped sloughs that had ducks, primarily mallards, on them.  It always seemed as though there were birds around no matter the time in October - obviously more at certain times - but we always were able to find ducks to keep it interesting.  Now, it seems as though the sloughs are practically barren of most ducks after opener, and it seems as though migrators just come later and later every year.  I've hardly shot ducks in October the past few years.  Not that there aren't opportunities out there but it's gotten difficult and driving around a couple nights scouting without finding anything to hunt discourages a guy pretty quickly.  I field hunted almost exclusively about 10 years ago but don't do it much anymore just because finding a feed that hasn't already been spoken for is difficult.  Even some areas that I know don't get hunted much don't seem to hold a lot in the middle of the season.  Certainly there is no single thing that made it change or that could change it back.  I'd probably rank them as:1) Ag practices.  I've been to Canada and it's no wonder the birds don't want to leave until they have to - miles and miles of grain and peas.2) Warmer falls.  Don't have data to back that up but it seems as though it's been rare to have much of a freeze-up before November 10 in the last 10 years.  Heck, it was almost Thanksgiving last year when the peak migration occurred.  3) Hunting pressure.  Maybe moreso that there's not much in Canada.  You find a feed of a couple thousand birds in ND and there's probably someone (or more) looking at it or with permission to it.  Canada you might have half a dozen fields like that to yourself.  Also, people put more disposable income into hobbies nowadays.  Huge decoy spreads, traveling hundreds if not thousands of miles, scouting, etc. As Fargo and Bismarck grow exponentially I think that will get to be a factor as well. 4) Early Goose.  I've got to believe that having people banging away in August and September has made ducks (and of course the Canadas) more educated and concentrated in smaller areas.  Seems you used to have no trouble finding several good looking spots for regular duck opener and the last few years even that has been difficult.  I think an NR cap of ~10,000 would be reasonable just to keep it from totally getting out of control, but I don't think it would do a ton to get it back to what it was.  Just too many other factors at play.  I don't think land access will ever get back to what it was either but that's another discussion.  That said, it would be nice to have less pressure.  The pro-NR crowd always cites the money they bring in and I guess that's legitimate but if we get to a point where the hunting isn't worth coming for, the money's going to leave in a bigger way than if we just had some reasonable limits.   The discouraging thing is that every legislative session the restrictions get looser on NRs.  Early season, statewide licenses being a couple examples and there are always more bills introduced that aim to loosen it further.</blockquote>

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