I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….
(Having no real knowledge of management)
I’ve hunted wister almost every Wednesday and a fair amount of saturdays for the last 12 years… pressured ducks don’t want wide open water! They want shelter/vegetation to feel protected! Take the Y15s and S ponds for example…Before they cleared those ponds out, ducks would actually work into the small pockets of water and if you knew where those small pockets were, you could have a good shoot on big ducks that actually “worked”.
Now, those blinds rarely get picked bc they don’t produce like they use to (maybe one or two spots might produce for those patient enough).
Ducks see the big bodies of water, minimal cover, and a blind that sticks out like a sore thumb, and fly right over and on to the next pond. Even when you drive by and no one is hunting those blinds, you hardly see any birds using the ponds.
I give CWA credit for putting the time and effort into Wister and using their resources to “improve” hunting sites. But in my honest opinion they aren’t “improving” them at all!
I hope I’m wrong when I say this. I’d love to see these ponds come to life in a near season once the new growth matures and fills in. But, I don’t think it will be the same. I think the days of the Y15 blinds being fully picked in the first 10 ressies are gone.
Now, they’re doing the same to the 315 blinds? And whatever other ponds they plan on redoing? Bigger ponds, no cover…. I can’t stand it.
CWA claims “millions” of dollars (I think I heard that amount) for these protects…
SO….IN MY OPINION
Leave all the vegetation in the ponds. Each season, clear out pockets of water around each blind stake. Let’s say, a 50yd X 50yd clearing on each side of the blind/levee. This way, ducks have all the cover and protection they want to hide in, and the hunter has a good pocket of water to set up in.
Wouldn’t this be cheaper, faster and easier than moonscaping an entire area? And could be quickly done before each season ?
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