I hear ya on this drought business Destry. When we bought our place in 2001, you could jump 1000 mallards just off our drain ditches. Today those ditches are bone dry. We have a deep artesian well that used to free flow 800-1000 gpm and of course it kept open water all winter. Mighty attractive to birds when it is -20. Today it is not flowing at all. We are right adjacent to the "no hunt" zone on a National Wildlife Refuge and between grain fields and the river (Rio Grande), however these days there is little to hunt anywhere on the refuge. Birds normally would be piling in to our place as they were burned off the refuge areas open to hunting. Not any longer. A guy whose faily owned our property told me they used to take in day hunters for $20 a man when they were in a barley rotation and ducks/geese were thick. Between water issues surrounding farming, changes in the irrigation season, increases in regulatory measures effecting warm water wells and continuing drought, it will be a miracle if it ever gets back to what it was 10 years ago. Changes in farming practices are taking a toll as well. We went from being a destination pheasant hunting area to none. The barley residue that birds like in fall/winter is now being sprouted and disked to give a leg up on spring planting. Very little stubble is left.
I have been pumping for a week to a large wetland I could usually fill to duck level in 4-5 days and it still has a ways to go. There are zero ducks on it and I am about to give up. While we still have fair hunting, I used to kill a limit every blessed time I went out, usually 5 greenheads and something else like a gadwall or sprig to fill the limit. I sure hope I am wrong on what the future holds.
-plc-
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