Though good numbers of ducks and geese visited our state last season, high-water conditions kept them spread out and hard to pattern for many hunters. Let's hope we won't have as much flooding this season. Photo by Lee Leschper

"Challenging!" That is how Rocky Pritchert, migratory bird program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), described the Commonwealth's 2004-2005 duck season.

Just what made the season so challenging? First, there was a lot of water. The lakes and rivers stayed up for a long time. There were good numbers of ducks, but because of the high water, the birds were scattered. Next, the high waters did more than just scatter the birds. It also played havoc on traditional hotspots like Ballard and Sloughs wildlife management areas (WMAs), both of which border portions of the Ohio River.

"We were flooded most of the season," said Mike Morton, area supervisor at the Sloughs WMA. "In fact, this was the highest 'in-season' flood we have seen since 1991."

The high waters kept the permanent blinds on both areas unusable for all but just a few days of the 2004-2005 waterfowl season. Hunters were forced to hunt the floodwater from boats, and Morton described hunting the vast expanses of water as "unpredictable."

In addition to the ducks being scattered, a 2004 production described as "fair" made things even more challenging by resulting in a greater percentage of adult birds in the population. And more adult birds means more birds that have survived a duck season and are not as apt to make a rookie mistake.

"These birds were experienced," Pritchert pointed out. "They had been shot at before, and consequently became harder to work."

The end result was a season where hunters who put in the effort to find the places that the ducks were concentrating had good success. Those who did not move around felt the frustration of another season sabotaged by Mother Nature.

Last year's duck season wasn't the only season that challenged Bluegrass State waterfowl hunters. The same high-water conditions that made duck hunting difficult adversely affected the goose hunting as well. Add to that the fact that production in the northern breeding grounds was a bust, and then you can begin to understand what Commonwealth goose hunters were up against.

The Ballard reporting area, which includes the Ballard WMA and the surrounding area, logged just 500 Canada geese harvested out of a 6,700-bird quota. Likewise, the Henderson-Union reporting area, which encompasses the Sloughs WMA, saw approximately 600 geese taken out of a 2,600-bird quota. Morton called the harvest "a new record low."

For hunters in the Western Coalfield, central and eastern portions of the state, the goose season was a little more promising, thanks to Kentucky's estimated 35,000 resident Canada geese. These local birds, combined with migrants from the Southern James Bay population (SJB), provided hunters with what Pritchert described as "fair to good" hunting.

So just what will this year's season hold for Kentucky's waterfowl hunters? As usual, much of that depends on the weather. As this issue went to press, the breeding ground surveys had not yet been completed, but initial reports reveal a mixed bag of conditions similar to last year. Some portions of the breeding grounds are holding water and are in good shape, while other areas continue to see drought conditions and are providing poor habitat for nesting waterfowl.

Even with just a "fair" production, however, keep in mind that overall duck numbers are close to their long-term average for the past 50 years, and well above the levels seen in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Given the right weather and water conditions, Kentucky's duck season could provide some excellent shooting action this fall.