Spinners aside, there is a growing disparity between the "haves" and "have nots" in duck hunting. Case in point, last year I was able to hunt with some clubs who had record harvest years. And these weren't clubs that had been around only 4-7 years, the "newest" club was formed in 1993 and set a record last year. The problem comes with the average joe who can't afford these clubs, or doesn't have the time to diligently scout public land in order to duck hunt. The bread and butter, average joe's, are now so far seperated that I fear they won't be around 5-10 years from now. Somewhere along the line it became an elitist sport and that scares me for the future.

I have several theories as to why fewer ducks seem to make the trip every year, available food source, lack of the severe weather, jet stream, lack of water in much of the south last year, more hunter pressure on younger birds every year (this is where the SWD's play a part). But, either way it boils down to this, there are problems facing duckhunters in the Southern part of the Mississippi flyway and nobody has come up witha good solution. The lack of a solution is what is scary. Heck the Mississippi flyway has fallen to the point that Phil Robertson doesn't even film there anymore, he knows his odds of getting quality footage are better in other flyways. I am not a scientist, and don't get to study birds for a living, but I watch a lot of birds and can see there is a problem...something in the current conservation model is hurting the hunter, and most severely hurting the Southern hunter. The model itself seems to be broken, I sincerely hope it gets fixed before Waterfowl hunting goes the way of Quail hunting.