The article provided by Kentucky Lake Waterfowl Guide Steve McCadams.
Waterfowl have increased in the Kentucky Lake area lately but an extended spell of mild weather has curtailed activity for most duck hunters this week.
Late last week the quick weather change delivered a great day of shooting on Thursday and gale force northwest winds sent the mercury plunging more than 30 degrees in a 24-hour period.
Ducks filled the skies across the whole area that day and hunting was good. However, temperatures dipped to 12 degrees that night with no wind and ice entered the picture in many shallow fields and swamps. By the next day activity was down as stagnant winds gave in to a rapid warm up that has lasted over a week now.
Aerial surveys taken by U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service last Friday (Dec 8th) show numbers of ducks and geese have increased on the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge.
Total numbers for ducks increased dramatically from the previous survey taken over three weeks ago. Estimates show a total of 138,174 ducks, which is 80 percent ahead of last year at this same time and 87 percent above the 5-year average. That total is also some 93 percent above the 10-year average.
A breakdown of the survey indicated mallards were tops at 85,021, followed by gadwall at 72,792. Pintails were reported at 7,300 with greenwing teal at 5,021.
The Big Sandy unit of the refuge accounted for 56,069 out of the total survey and the Duck River unit showed 80,118 using that sector.
Numbers of geese increased slightly on the refuge as well. There were 3,361 Canada geese estimated in the survey.
Updates from duck hunters across the region stretching from middle to west Tennessee indicates action has slowed dramatically as above average temperatures have lingered for more than a week. Unfortunately, no cold fronts are in the forecast as mild weather is predicted through early next week.
Hunting success has been limited to only a few blinds in West Sandy WMA. Most hunters are not seeing many mallards there as most blinds above the Elkhorn Road area have experienced slow shooting this week. Only a blind or two in the pumphouse field was scoring and overall action was slow.
Similar reports are coming in from both Gin Creek and Big Sandy WMAs where hunters are off to a slow start in those two units this year. The loss of the corn crop planted by TWRA by in the summer has likely been a factor for those units.
Elsewhere, Dover Bottoms WMA has dropped off drastically since the opening weekends and Camden Bottoms WMA is in pretty much the same boat. Only a blind or two in Camden has been bagging ducks consistently with the lion’s share of blinds seeing low numbers of ducks and harvesting low numbers as well.
The open water of Kentucky Lake has been slow this week too. A few hunters have seen flocks of gadwalls and some greenwing teal moving but mallards sightings have been low and overall shooting fell off since last weekend.
Further west into the Obion and Forked Deer River bottoms hunters are also singing the blues as ducks have just not been moving up the bottoms much, choosing instead to stay on private hunt clubs and state refuges where abundant food and very little hunting pressure is holding them.
Duck activity also slowed for most blinds on Reelfoot Lake this week, although a few on the north end of the lake were getting shooting each morning.
Several ducks were using the Bogota sector around Dyersburg and White’s Lake Refuge this week. Most of the consistent shooting of mallards has come from that area lately.
While recent surveys indicate a surge in duck numbers for the Kentucky Lake zone, the song is pretty much the same across the middle and west Tennessee region. Ducks are not moving much in the spring-like weather and until another cold front slips in the door activity will likely be limited to some early morning volleys.
The bulk of waterfowlers are watching the weather forecast in hopes of seeing some change. It doesn’t appear to be headed our way anytime soon.