Summer drought may lead to a mallard drought!

I was all excited after reading the headlines about record duck numbers in North America. My duck hunting buddies were spreading the propaganda early and often. Great news, then I read the fine print. Apparently the eastern breeding grounds have lost significant wetlands due to the drought conditions. This has caused a poor mallard hatch. This is true not just for mallards, but golden eye and ring necked ducks as well. I am sorry for the golden eye and ring necked ducks, but let's face it, mallards are our bread and butter. Mallards,woodies, and teal make up the harvest for a majority of the hunters in the Buckeye state, and in that order. That can't be good for our bag limits this year either, gentlemen...and ladies. 

We have suffered through worse than this however. I recall three duck limits just two decades ago. Even further back when I started hunting waterfowl, we used the point system. Drake mallards were 35 points each. You were permitted 100 points per day, but you could go over on your last duck. A hen was 90 points! They really didn't want you to shoot hens. Wood duck populations were low, so they were a high point duck also. The most fun back then was going to Lake Erie to hunt "blue bills" (scaup). They were plentiful. We could take 10 per day! What a bonanza! We could hunt them on the break walls or from lay out boats. I remember taking two boxes of shells and hoping I didn't run out! Hitting the rascals was hard enough without having to break ice off of my gun and fight frost bite away from my toes and fingers! I recall standing on the break wall at Edgewater Park with the waves rolling over the first  wall and crashing into the second, sending icy spray all over my old army parka. Before long, the ice had built up on my coat sufficiently so that my body was protected from the frigid north wind. What fun!

Getting back to our current problem, there is some good news. Black ducks and green wing teal did very well. "So we have that going for us...which is nice." [for the Caddy Shack fans] Diving duck numbers seem to be unaffected. Well my fellow Ohioans, we may have to knock the dust off of those old diver decoys and head to big water. The truth is, whether the mallard numbers are there or not, real duck hunters will have fun. We will be out there enjoying the sunrise, the whistling of wings and the moans of anticipation from our retriever. There may be less meat in the pot, but there will be plenty of good times.