2018-2019 Season Info

[FowlHooked]

FYI.  The regulations and season dates for 2018-2019 have been posted on NJFishandWildlife.   Pintails have gone back to 2.  Black ducks stayed at 2.  Now the countdown can begin. 

[Swampy]

There are going to be some interesting changes on the horizon and that’s all I’ll say

[Bubblehead]

Better enjoy the 4 mallard limit this coming season.  Going down to 2 next year

[Trophy8]

30 minutes ago, Bubblehead said:

Better enjoy the 4 mallard limit this coming season.  Going down to 2 next year

Based on what?

[Bubblehead]

10 minutes ago, Trophy8 said:

Based on what?

Just in this flyway, apparently our breeding population of mallards is quite low.  Heard it from multiple sources from 2 different agencies in 2 states in this flyway.

[FowlHooked]

Hopefully thats not the case....but if the breeding counts are low and they have to drop it for a little bit i wont complain.  Id be happy with 2 temporarily and  hope the counts bounce back.

[Thunderchicken]

[Swampy]

9 hours ago, FowlHooked said:

Hopefully thats not the case....but if the breeding counts are low and they have to drop it for a little bit i wont complain.  Id be happy with 2 temporarily and  hope the counts bounce back.

Well, it will be the case and  “the counts “ won’t bounce back by magic.  First off how many times do guys ampersonally shoot 4 mallards in a hunt?? i’m gonna say 90% might do it  AT MOST 3 times a year. This is a flyway of junk bird killers not puddle duck hunters.  So I think it’s safe to say that hunting mortality is not the reason for population decrease.  

 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2018 by Swampy

[Sako76]

What do the duck kill surveys for New Jersey say or is our HIP money going somewhere else.  I hunt in southern Warren County, Musky and surrounding area, 95% of our kill are mallards.  I don't think we kill a ton of birds.  If the limit goes down to 2 mallards the Feds are going to lose a lot of Federal Duck stamp money.

[Bubblehead]

2 hours ago, Sako76 said:

If the limit goes down to 2 mallards the Feds are going to lose a lot of Federal Duck stamp money.

I doubt it would stop very many hunters in this state or anywhere in this flyway.  The few guys that consistently kill more than 2 mallards in a hunt are going to be largely very dedicated waterfowlers and probably know how and where to kill other puddle ducks to make up their bag and will subsequently shift their focus.  The other (vast majority) hunters are not going to stop pounding buffleheads and geese because they can't shoot 4 mallards anymore.  That being said I'm sure there is a very tiny contingent of hunters in this flyway that will choose not buy a stamp each year because they are lying to themselves about how many mallards they shoot and they think having to cut a 1 or 2 birds out of their yearly take is a good reason to stop hunting

[rgw]

You guys scared me for a minute. I thought you were going to say they were banning buffleheads.  Wooooooo ho bring on coastal

[mazzgolf]

Question from a newbie waterfowler - what type of ducks do NJ waterfowlers normally hunt for and kill? Are most people hunting coastal and going for divers? Or are most people going for puddle ducks like mallards and woodies?

[Swampy]

5 hours ago, Sako76 said:

What do the duck kill surveys for New Jersey say or is our HIP money going somewhere else.  I hunt in southern Warren County, Musky and surrounding area, 95% of our kill are mallards.  I don't think we kill a ton of birds.  If the limit goes down to 2 mallards the Feds are going to lose a lot of Federal Duck stamp money.

First off money should never be the driving force in resource management. When it is you end up with “management strategies” such as the one for New Jersey’s  deer herd.

 

I’ll get on my soapbox here for a couple of things:

1)  The major waterfowl conservation groups And even our own state wildlife Agencies fail us Continually in the Atlantic flyway.  We are the forgotten flyway.  For various reasons. Starters even historically we simply don’t have the duck production as the other major flyaways so achieving relative success here for those groups is much harder and takes more of a concerted effort.  In the last 30+ years securing and procuring habitat suitable for species diversification both here and in Canada has been relatively non-existent.  57 magazine issues with 100 articles about Boy Scouts building Woodduck boxes is a nice puff piece but it doesn’t amount to jack shit in reality. Basically over that time period in the entire eastern seaboard we’ve allowed almost all of our marshland to turn into nothing but black duck habitat. And other than certain areas in New York and parts of western Pennsylvania concerted inland efforts for larger scale habitat  cultivation  doesn’t exist. Without getting into more detail I’ll just leave it at this: For most organizations the juice isn’t worth the squeeze in this flyway.

 

2) Very simply the explosion of the Canada goose population has also contributed to the decline in mallards and another puddle ducks they simply outcompete those birds when it comes to suitable nesting.

 

3) Migration patterns have shifted and a lot of recent band data has shown that. And I think a lot of that has to do with poor holdover habitat during the fall migration.

 

4)Hybridization is one of the main factors that is killing the mallard as a species.

 

Honestly I think they’re making the change because it’s really the only thing they can change....

 

 

 

 

[FowlHooked]

I think stumpy is on point with habitat and hybridization.  I remeber years ago there would be 100+mallards roosting on the swamps behind my farm in late december and early january (i didnt waterfowl hunt then...lol)  i havent seen thise large groups in years and only have the mallards that are residents anymore along with a good number of wood ducks. I realize its only a microscopic area in the big picture and doesnt scientifically mean anything, but its certainly not a good sign either.