outdoors

Great article. It really gets you thinking. I am an avid hunter and fisherman, but duck hunting has generally been an after thought to pheasants, grouse, and deer, mainly because of all of the various regulations. If they were simplified as they were talking about in the article, I know I would hunt ducks more and I think it would draw people back to the sport.

Well why not? There's no effective limits to the amount of tile you can put in a field and the amount of potholes that dry up as a result. We may as well enjoy getting the last of the ducks. The blacksmith, the iceman, and the duck hunter - gone with time.

Agree with mmedia. What total nonsense and lack of courage and leadership by todays waterfowl managers,the great majority of them too young to have any clue what once was.My dad told me 40 years ago that this would happen and how true it is.Sad!

I've chased ducks for 53 years pretty much in the same 2 mile area, in this area the water and habitat has stayed the same,the changes I have noticed is for years the duck numbers have fallen and we had a lot of hunters, for the past ten years the number of hunters afield is dropped dramatically and, and as a result I am seeing a good number of ducks returning and nesting and good brood numbers and a decent number to hunt come duck season, could it be that killing ducks especially females mean that the can't return to nest, and that the less killed means the more there are to propagate the species? all the billions wasted on these "theories". the duck population will return as long as the hunter number stay down, and the price of license and other fees and ammo and guns and must disinterest in hunting in general is on the rise.

I have also heard that "dead hens don't lay eggs". Very hard concept for the brain trust to grasp I guess.If managers were even mildly serious about building duck numbers, close or severly curtail seasons and bag limits for a season or two. I think all "real" hunters would be fine with this but the big money would never allow it and would demand a season if there were 10 ducks left in the flyway.

I wouldn't eat a duck on a bet, but killing ducks is fun.