"For Hunters by Hunters"

Recap of 2010-2011 Season

And Looking Ahead to Next Season

As all of you know who hunted this last season, it was a very frustrating year. The season started out great with our new Harbison North blind shooting limits opening weekend. It was the only blind that had water for the opener. Harbison South came on line a week later, both it and Harbison North shot well for a week or two before the birds left the area. Then as is usually the case, shooting got very slow as we waited for the first storms and new birds to arrive. When the first small storm arrived the first week of November both Harbison Road blinds shot limits for multiple hunters and things looked promising. If we could get more storms we would have great shooting. Wrong!! We got more storms but no birds to go with them. For the next month and a half shooting was very poor. There were a few days here and there where our hunters shot well posting a three or four bird average but for the most part it was a couple of birds shot for the entire blind or no shots fired at all.

Due to farming issues beyond Valley Waterfowl’s control McCrea West did not come on line until November 24 and like last year had not been farmed for rice. It was simply a flooded fallow field. The father and son who hunted it the first day it was available shot quick limits of mallards but that was the best shoot this blind was to have all season.

As we entered the last month of the season, McCrea East finally came on line and, like last year, proved to be a very productive shooter. As the season closed out, both Harbison blinds shot well off and on but were never consistent. McCrea West completely tanked, and very few birds were shot or even seen here. McCrea East shot well up to the last week and proved to be our best blind for the last month of the season.

As the blind coordinator for Valley Waterfowl, it was my most challenging year. Because shooting was so poor, I had a difficult time putting hunters in our blinds and we had many more cancellations than usual. By the time the season ended many of our hunters had done so poorly that they simply did not want to make the trip north to try again. The one factor that really stood out this season was the lack of birds when we had weather. Valley Waterfowl has had blinds in the rice country for over seven years and in the past when we had storms we almost always had good shooting. You could pretty much guarantee it. Not this year. We often saw no more birds shot on storm days than on blue bird days. I have heard all kinds of theories for why this happened and I will not even try to go there.

Last season is history, so let’s briefly talk about next year. Due to a substantial drop in revenue from our annual dinner we will only have three blinds next season instead of four. We have decided to drop McCrea West since it has not been planted with rice the last two years and has shot poorly. We will keep both Harbison blinds and McCrea East. I will have much more information on our blinds in our preseason newsletter that comes out in September. That’s it for now.

Like all good duck hunters, I know next season will be the one we have all been waiting for. Until then, have a great summer.

Ron Tobeck