Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / Ep. 545 – Great Lakes Region Habitat and Hunting Update
Transcript
- Chris Jennings: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Jennings. Joining me on the show again today is Jay Anglin, contributor to waterfowl360.com as a migration alert editor for the Great Lakes region. Jay, what's going on, man? Jay Anglin: Oh, you know, just up here enjoying the indoor life, looking out the window, wishing I could exist out there. Chris Jennings: Yeah, I know we, uh, you know, we did one of these, I don't know, about three weeks ago and it was ho-hum, you know, ducks, geese are stale, you know, Northern Michigan was still holding a bunch of birds. Um, and it was just kind of a little bit of a depressing conversation that we were having. And then, and now we've had this winter weather system hit earlier this week, um, really over the weekend. Um, and we're sitting here in Memphis at about four degrees. The lake out front is completely covered in ice, um, all pretty rare. And so that has put really a spotlight on, you know, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, North Louisiana, where I think guys are getting out into this wintry mix and finding some birds that possibly were not there prior to about 10 days ago. So Jay, really kind of paint the picture for what you guys are dealing with up there. And we can kind of just go around the Great Lakes region and talk about, you know, how that weather changed and what it really did for hunters up there. Jay Anglin: Well, no secret, we've had exceptionally warm falls. A lack of ice and winter weather has kept birds farther north, barely consistently over the last, gosh, five to ten years. And of course, you know, those guys down south are so dependent on that. So, you know, we get towards the end of our seasons and we're, we're kind of rooting for everybody down there, you know, and, uh, I know I do. And a lot of guys I hunt with do, I mean, it's exciting because we know guys just like us are down there and they don't really have much to work with. So, you know, normally this sort of thing happens. every year, but it's usually a little earlier and it's not as drastic. So in this particular case, hunting Saturday, it was cold, of course, and windy, but it was still in the high 20s. Wind chills were a little lower than normal. And then 12 hours later, it's minus 5, and 50 mile per hour gusts. So a lot of birds that were hung up up here. And there was a starting to be a little bit of a push. It was a slow trickle, picked up speed a little. Guys down south were seeing a few more birds. We lost our specs up here. We're holding quite a few specs in northern Indiana, at least where I live. Those bailed maybe three or four days before this bomb cyclone sort of started to drop. which doesn't surprise me. But nonetheless, it was kind of interesting to see birds just finally leaving. And then up north, there was still a lot of mallards in Michigan and Wisconsin. And of course, Canada geese, they had probed as far north as northern Michigan and northern Wisconsin. Well, those birds, they didn't come down here. They just kept going. We got a little influx late last week, which was fun because it kind of shook things up. And we beat on them a little bit, frankly. because they're kind of new to the area and they don't know where they're supposed to be. And then poof, they're gone. And so we went from kind of your normal winter setup with some snow, wind, got the lights out, the snow covers for the blinds, would go into what I call snow protocol, which is really our best time to shoot mallards and geese in the fields. We skipped through that about 12 hours and now we are full Arctic and there's nothing. I mean, The lakes froze so quick that the lake I grew up on is the deepest lake in Indiana. It was frozen within 36 hours. Pack ice on the rivers I guide literally overnight. So yeah, we're going to get a thaw next week. And I think that's pretty ubiquitous all around the Great Lakes region. But how many birds will come back up? And of course, there's holdouts here and there. The river systems have been really important. And of course, the Great Lakes are still open for the most part. There is some flow ice bouncing around, but yeah, it's crazy. It's nuts. This was like a slam the door in your face kind of situation, frankly. Chris Jennings: Yeah, now you guys were still hunting Canada's up there, but your regular duck season's closed, correct? Jay Anglin: Yeah, so northern Indiana. Most of Illinois, most of Ohio, of course, Michigan, Wisconsin, et cetera, with Minnesota, they've been closed X-wise. So the middle zone in Indiana in the south zone through last weekend, and now it's just the south zone. So down along the Ohio River, the southwest Indiana, Wabash River corridor that I know you're intimately familiar with. But what's interesting is my contacts down there, there was all this talk on Friday and into Saturday, what's gonna happen? And it appears that the vast majority of birds just flew right over them and got into, at a minimum, Kentucky, Tennessee, where you guys are, and obviously just kept rolling. Now, interestingly, The Ohio, which is a huge, as you know, it's just a massive river. In some places, it's really every bit as big as the Mississippi in that stretch. They did have some big migrant days apparently starting on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Guys were picking up some major flight birds through there, but I haven't heard anything since. I suspect those birds have lived on. Chris Jennings: Yeah, I was able to hunt last week over in Arkansas, and it was fun to watch the transition of Um, you know, so Thursday and Friday, really, you know, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we were looking at, you know, gadwalls, green wings, shovelers, um, by Friday, you know, our bags were mainly consistent of mallards and pintails. Like it went, um, by Saturday I didn't hunt, but you know, some other people did. And that was, it was pure mallards. You know, it was not that transition in some of those early migrants that we've had in Arkansas all year. I mean, I know guys who shot blue wings. in December and even right up to January. I mean, that transition from those ducks into those hardy birds, it was visible. So I'm thinking, you know, I was kind of looking at this anecdotally, but, you know, I'm thinking that Arkansas, Mississippi, you know, those states really picked up some birds over the weekend right before they got slammed. And so right now, we're looking at single digits. And those ducks that ended up here have now found either some open water, maybe the White River, Cache River, Arkansas River, Mississippi River, or they have just gone south, further south, which is kind of hard to imagine considering just a couple weeks ago, we were talking about how all those ducks were hung up in Wisconsin. Minnesota still and their seasons had been out for three weeks and they still had ducks up there, but it sounds like that door closed pretty quick. Jay Anglin: It did. And, you know, I, you know, I, I, the conservation side of me, you know, really kicks in now where I've, I've had some guys call me, Hey, I found some birds you want to go. And I'm like, absolutely not. They're in survival mode. Um, you know, they, they had the ability to feed heavily when they needed to, the weather has been so warm many days, they just didn't bother. Or maybe they kicked some grass and. Mallards would sit around the marsh and poke around at whatever was left to eat. But for the most part, anything really from here, obviously northward, but way down close to you guys, there's a lot of birds that are sort of in survival mode. And Thankfully, they were in peak condition coming in because the fact that it has been warm, they haven't had any, really had to burn a lot of calories and they've had good food. I mean, they were picking corn in Wisconsin and Michigan and Indiana two weeks ago in some cases. So birds had a lot to work with. And so when they did make that big jump in super cold temperatures, obviously that's stressful. They burn up a lot of body mass. And they found some places down there where they can feed and have open water, so good for them. I think as we get warm next week, and I'm talking, we're gonna get potentially into the 40s as far north as here, and rain and runoff. I think you're gonna have Primarily, the big Canada's are going to turn around and come right back, in particular, local birds. They might push 40, 50, 60, 80 miles or whatever and find a river somewhere. But we'll be back in business on the dark east pretty quick. Duck slides, man, I mean, you've got what you're going to get down there, basically, because I'm not seeing anything up here. I'm talking onesies, twosies type stuff. There's two canvases back, four redheads and eight mallards and a black duck. downtown at the park, you know what I mean? That kind of stuff. But other than that, there just really isn't much up here. Chris Jennings: Yeah, and I think for you guys, and I think it pretty speaks to itself all across the board, it's not necessarily always just the cold, but it's when you guys get that 12 inches of snow in that area, and it really cuts that field access out for all those birds. It really forces them. That's when they have to leave. There's not much of an option left. Jay Anglin: No, so there's big diesel dig through eight, 10 inches of snow. It's not the end of the world for them. But in the course of mallards and blacks will come along for the ride. Occasionally a pintail might be mixed in. But in this case, we've had snow, rain, snow, rain, and it turned to slush, and then it froze. And on top of that, we've got the 8 to 10, in some cases 12 inches in this area, Northwest Indiana, which is pretty much the snowiest area in Indiana. Further north, Michigan just got absolutely pounded for days on end with lake effect. So yeah, there's very little to feed on. Actually, at this time, Normally, what I do is I go out and check on some dairies that are going to spread manure on top of the snow. And that's where your dark geese, the ones that are really holding out, will start to focus on that, which sounds disgusting. But it's Canada goose hunting in the Midwest. But in this case, interestingly, most of the farmers were able to empty their tanks a couple weeks within, say, a two-week window prior the freeze and the snow. So I'm not even seeing that around here, which I've never seen before. They almost always have something left that they can spread. And they like to do that on the snow because it disperses it better. And of course, it's equipment can drive in the fields a lot easier when it's frozen like this. But bottom line is, yeah, again, some of the drainage ditches with watercress, there's going to be some mallards in there. Those birds are what I call our winter birds. This is as far south as they get. And as soon as it warms up there, boom, they're right back up to 300 miles further north. You know, we have those, we do have those birds, but they're not ever going to go south another hundred miles. It just doesn't happen. Chris Jennings: Yeah. And I think, you know, we're all kind of looking at the fall next week, um, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday here, definitely gonna. Thaw out rice fields are gonna open up, you know, some of that food availability Is gonna be I mean all those food sources are just back in business and so I know a lot of guys are waiting on that kind of looking forward to that and Unfortunately, I'll be in Las Vegas at SHOT Show So I will not be able to take advantage of the thaw this season and we're getting late You know it is by that time and we're gonna be shoot by the time I get back 25th 26th and We've only got about five days left, um, down here. So, and I know Southern Indiana runs almost all the way to the end of January. Uh, I think Southern Illinois does as well. Uh, so there's definitely going to be still some opportunities for some of these great lakes, region hunters. Jay Anglin: Yeah. Southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, we're lockstep with you guys. We, you know, we're one of those states that pushes it as far as you can. Uh, the way the zones are set up, of course, everybody up here is always upset because it doesn't go any later, but. Growing up, we never had the ability to hunt ducks. In early January, we did this year in Northern Indiana, which is pretty remarkable. But yeah, guys that have given up, I know a ton of guys, I put all my stuff away. All my stuff's washed and cleaned, guns scrubbed. This is a great time to go and explore some new ground and check it out or call some buddies that You know, you've known for a long time and don't ever hook up. And I have a feeling that last five to 10 days here coming up real quick, it's going to be a real barn burner for quite a few waterfowlers over a huge patch of real estate in this country. Chris Jennings: Good. Cause I think those are the guys who kind of took it on the chin early in the season to, um, kind of dealt with that mob mild weather the whole season long until really this final stretch. So, um, hopefully it opens up some opportunities for them. Jay Anglin: Absolutely. Again, we root for everybody. We're all brothers in this and sisters and whatever, however you want to term it. But this has just been one of those seasons where a lot of people have said this is the worst season I've ever had. And there's not a whole lot we can do about it. It's just the way things are with the weather this year. And so I look forward to seeing a lot of great photos on social media. Guys having some really great hunts here coming up real soon. Chris Jennings: Yep. They're going to have it. Well, Jay, this has been great. I appreciate you joining me on here and just giving a quick little update of what the weather kind of looks like throughout the great lakes region. Um, and you know, hopefully what we're looking at here within the next four or five days, you guys will get some open water. Um, especially the guys in Southern Indiana, they should Southern Illinois hunting should really start picking up in that area. Jay Anglin: Absolutely. Yeah. It should be on a high note. I'm still hoping to kind of sneak down there. I have to clear it with the boss. Chris Jennings: So, well, good luck. I'd like to thank my guest Jay Anglin for coming on the podcast today and just talking about some of the Great Lakes winter weather they've got going on right now. I'd like to thank Chris Isaac, our podcast producer, for putting the show together and getting it out to you. And I'd like to thank you, the listener, for joining us on the DU Podcast and supporting wetlands conservation.