# The ruin of great lakes sea ducks



## idylmoments (Apr 28, 2002)

I didn't post to ask for regulation changes. Its not about limits and the number of birds. Its about the pressure. Every social media site has nothing but squaw posts on it. Pressure will affect the hunting.

Plus we have nothing to hunt right now so we might as well discuss something.


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

OH BOY!!!


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## lastflight (Aug 16, 2005)

All this thread is doing is making me want to go shoot more Squaw! 

IDYL, seems you are part of the problem with all of this publicity.


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## chromer101 (Oct 21, 2011)

Let's be real most years you don't get more than 2-3 chances to hunt out there due to weather. Unless you are retired or self employed. This year with how warm it stayed and the plentiful east winds it just made sense to hunt out there more often. I don't see this being a trend and not worth a change at all. The only group to get a lot more action out of this is the coast guard chasing down people that show up with their LSC or Erie set up and try setting up for lake Michigan squaw action. Just remember Lake Michigan isn't Barbie's.


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## sswhitelightning (Dec 14, 2004)

lastflight said:


> IDYL, seems you are part of the problem with all of this publicity.


I agree. Plus it makes everyone sound very selfish. So what point can someone who hasnt done it go try. I get internet hype but its not going to destroy hunting. If guys hunt squaw I'll personally enjoy having a empty diver marsh again. Just got to get rid of dynasty hunters or any new hunter lumped into a group based on some imaginary rules of waterfowling experience based on others that yave done if for x amount of years. 

Worrying about spots and complaining to thousands of lurkers isnt helping.


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## Quack Addict (Aug 10, 2006)

idylmoments said:


> MS was directly responsible for the demise of the steelhead fishery off Erieau and Wheatley. Small group of posters, large audience who tells their buddies, next you have people coming from all over the midwest and your fun is ruined.
> It's happening again with our sea ducks.


There's sea ducks in Michigan? First I've heard about it. Guess I'm going to have to round up the crew next season for a few hunts. 

Are you guys running 10ga's or 3-1/2" 12's?


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## Dahmer (Jan 22, 2007)

idylmoments said:


> I didn't post to ask for regulation changes. Its not about limits and the number of birds. Its about the pressure. Every social media site has nothing but squaw posts on it. Pressure will affect the hunting.
> 
> Plus we have nothing to hunt right now so we might as well discuss something.


This is no different then pressure on any other duck on the Great Lakes.


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

Dahmer said:


> This is no different then pressure on any other duck on the Great Lakes.


Agree 100%

And agree with those who say there will NEVER be all that much pressure for this kind of hunting because of the excessive equipment you need to hunt Lake Michigan. It's not like buying a shotgun and a dozen floater mallards and throwing them out in your favorite marsh. This is serious **** we're talking about.


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## Big Frank 25 (Feb 21, 2002)

Enough pressure of any kind will move those birds elsewhere. Happens all the time on LSC. Hunters, fishermen or boaters. Gone to where they are less harassed!


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## Divers Down (Mar 31, 2008)

Big Frank 25 said:


> Enough pressure of any kind will move those birds elsewhere. Happens all the time on LSC. Hunters, fishermen or boaters. Gone to where they are less harassed!


LSC is a spit puddle compared to Michigan,
Squaw are 2-3 miles out anyway. The Mud Motor crowd wont last long enough to affect anything out there.


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## idylmoments (Apr 28, 2002)

> IDYL, seems you are part of the problem with all of this publicity.


The strategy is working


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## Big Frank 25 (Feb 21, 2002)

Divers Down said:


> LSC is a spit puddle compared to Michigan,
> Squaw are 2-3 miles out anyway. The Mud Motor crowd wont last long enough to affect anything out there.


2-3 miles or 50? Pressured birds will travel. With the ability to dive to deep depths these birds have a lot of area to use.


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

this is ridiculous! I have better things to do with my time...like watch my grass grow. Outta here!


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## idylmoments (Apr 28, 2002)

Trying to get some more attention so we can find that guys Bankes that was stolen in GR.


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## sswhitelightning (Dec 14, 2004)

Big Frank 25 said:


> 2-3 miles or 50? Pressured birds will travel. With the ability to dive to deep depths these birds have a lot of area to use.


So it wont be crowded when i got 15 miles out drift hunting them? Lol. Thats where i do all my summer trout and salmon fishing. Them twin 350 tiaras dont like spending the fuel to get there. My optimax burns 6 gals going in and out and fishing 4 hours.


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

I'm waiting until you push them out so far they come full circle and come back in to shore. I mean I spend a ton of time fishing on Lake Michigan and when I compile my average depth of fish caught every year it comes back to less than 20' of water...


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## scotts98rt (Feb 4, 2012)

This thread reminds me, I'm out of cheese.


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## Fixin' to Fish (Nov 13, 2006)

Big Frank 25 said:


> 2-3 miles or 50? Pressured birds will travel. With the ability to dive to deep depths these birds have a lot of area to use.


If their diving depth is limited to around 200ft, then the maximum distance from shore they would be found should be still confined around these limits. Once you start getting north of Muskegon up to Frankfort you start having definitive drop-offs which also concentrates them.

We really just lucked out this year weather-wise with the nice weather coinciding with the weekends during the relatively small window of the regular season that huntable numbers are possible. If we had heavy NW winds each of those weekends, these birds wouldn't have gotten this much online attention as those hunts wouldn't have ever happened. It doesn't take too much wind from the wrong direction out there to turn it from pleasant & enjoyable to uncomfortable & sketchy. Like someone else said, it's definitely not like playing Barbies™ out there...


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## sswhitelightning (Dec 14, 2004)

Fixin' to Fish said:


> If their diving depth is limited to around 200ft, then the maximum distance from shore they would be found should be still confined around these limits. Once you start getting north of Muskegon up to Frankfort you start having definitive drop-offs which also concentrates them..


Not exactly imo.
Everyone believes this and i do too when it comes to feeding on mussels. But ive shot lots of squaw puking out minnows on lake huron. So the last few winters when the great lakes have froze 50-90% over and thousands of squaw are rafted in the center of the lakes in well over 200 fow, how would they survive? Well they are either capable to depths much more than 300 feet to feed on bottom or they are eating suspended baitfish that salmon and trout are feeding on. So by that logic, a squaw could get pushed well offshore and still feed and survive without coming inside 200 feet.
I walked the beaches every few days during the winter of that hard freeze. I found scoters, mergs, ge, and gulls every few hundred feet for as far as i walked. All winter i found one dead squaw. So apparently they found a way to survive in the depths. 

Whether they prefer those depths or minnows as a food source is another question. But they have adapted to our great lakes quite well and i see no reason thier food source couldn't be altered as well.


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## grassmaster (Jan 10, 2009)

I saw first hand how Squaw Creek NWR in NW Missouri went insane from too much pressure and hype.
it exploded then imploded, people spread out even to other states to avoid being hunted on top of, the same will happen with Old Squaws, I just want to see an episode of Duck Commander with Si and Willie chunking over the side of the boat wearing blaze orange old school life jackets!
Lake Michigan isn't a single refuge like Squaw Creek, those Sea ducks are spread from one end to the other for probably 200 miles just on Lk Mi, now add Superior and Lk "O" and hunters will have there hands full trying to run a species out of an area they have used for 1000s of years.
If you think "your' little spot on that big ass lake is gonna get trashed from internet postings
then great don't go anymore, make room for someone who enjoys it.
If your really passionate about something it shouldn't even matter, because nobody beats a hustler.
Get the biggest boat, the best decoys spend tons of time out there even when season is closed and youll have a great time.If the weather cooperates, which is about 25% of the time.
so the season is only 15 days long if you look at that way, and I do.
i love it just for the fact I don't have to shell out $1000s of dollars for a lease, I like it because you don't need to get up at 4:00 a.m, I can let my other marsh spots rest and replenish while I'm out enjoying some cool scenery and some very cool looking birds that I'm just learning about.
If what you say is true then Saginaw Bay, LSC, and Lake Erie are already trashed world class waterfowl destinations ruined from years of magazine articles, TV shows and now internet posters.
Thinking a few extra boats out hunting on our Great Lakes is gonna drive the Old Squaws Somewhere else is nonsense. no more than daily bingo draws do. what if the bingo draws only operated 25% of the time?
daily all season pounding will never happen out on the big water, mother nature wont allow it.


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## grassmaster (Jan 10, 2009)

Its about time the westsiders have something to talk about, all you hear is Fish point this and Saginaw Bay that. Now I'm going 8 miles out ! 
Notice the real squaw hunters are like crickets right now, biting there nails hoping someone isn't in there spot Dec 26th .


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## blklab (Jan 5, 2011)

Well I hope you guys all get your wish when all the idiots from 
st clair and erie start coming over there. Please take them all! 

The birds get so educated you guys will have to idle out three miles. Then other guys will just blow them right out of there. If you have 15 good days to get out there at least 5 will be ruined.


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## SWMbruiser (Jan 25, 2012)

You guys just have it rough this year because of the weather. No hard water, nobody can ice fish, no snow to snowmobile, not even cold for deer hunting. Lot of guys just gonna give the sea ducks a crack this year.


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## WoodyMG (May 29, 2013)

Gamekeeper said:


> They don't have much going for them table wise, and people all start singing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as soon as there's any breeze. It really cuts down on the competition.


Unfortunately in the last few generations half of the crowd stupid enough to go out and hunt open water are also idiots that do it solely for the thrill of the kill and wont eat them regardless.


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## grassmaster (Jan 10, 2009)

The LSC and Erie crowd has just as many Old Squaws in Lake Huron and Lake Ontario , its closer and the wind is at your back most of the time.
No hunt is a ruin if you can get out on the Westside.


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## Spartan88 (Nov 14, 2008)

SWMbruiser said:


> You guys just have it rough this year because of the weather. No hard water, nobody can ice fish, no snow to snowmobile, not even cold for deer hunting. Lot of guys just gonna give the sea ducks a crack this year.


I think a group hug is in order...


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## plugger (Aug 8, 2001)

How can you ruin a sea duck? Just a thought of those fish ducks makes me a little nauseous.


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## pikenetter (Mar 28, 2009)




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## Gamekeeper (Oct 9, 2015)

They are about as beautiful as a duck can be, to me.
Like a charcoal drawing.

Don't anyone get themselves killed over them.

I wear a Stearns flotation suit when I open water gun. Won't keep me alive, but at least I can be used to make a good mount.
People always rib me about my green michelin man suit.


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## TSS Caddis (Mar 15, 2002)

grassmaster said:


> Notice the real squaw hunters are like crickets right now


Funny on a few levels.


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## idylmoments (Apr 28, 2002)

There's squaws on Houghton Lake too? 
Good time to invest in a company that makes squaw decoys. Everyone has to have em in the spread now


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## mkubiak (Feb 21, 2006)

I am not going to start until they make a squaw mojo.


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## sswhitelightning (Dec 14, 2004)

mkubiak said:


> I am not going to start until they make a squaw mojo.


You can pack up and head out. Several on the way. DW has one coming im.sure and i wont be suprised to see mojo follow.


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

Hey SBE, you watching these last few posts???? Better fire up your marketing machine because there are $$$$$ to be made LOL


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## Timber (Jan 1, 2009)

carsonr2 said:


> I'll take the bait.
> 
> No different than the blasting of information on any other spot that holds ducks in this state from Munuscong to Sebewaing, Houghton to LSC. The one's who do give out all the information have likely only been in the game a few years, and haven't experienced what can happen when locations are blasted on the internet. Soon enough one realizes that they made a mistake by plastering info. for all to see on the WWW.
> 
> ...


I think he has a valid point!


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## ice ghost (Jan 17, 2015)

I don't understand what the deal is. You can't call em, don't use a dog, they taste like crap, guys decoy em with milk jugs? Sounds like fun to me. Who cares.


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## Shlwego (Sep 13, 2006)

Well into 6-pages before a cryptic post from Caddis. Nice! Thanks, Gene that made me laugh....


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

Shlwego said:


> Well into 6-pages before a cryptic post from Caddis. Nice! Thanks, Gene that made me laugh....


Most of Gene's posts are cryptic LOL feeding the conspiracy theorists.... Come to think of it, so do mine...


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## TSS Caddis (Mar 15, 2002)

Am I the only one that noticed Grass is a super star and crying from the hill tops about squaw hunting and then posts "Notice the real squaw hunters are like crickets right now" as he continues posting with vigor. :lol:


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

TSS Caddis said:


> Am I the only one that noticed Grass is a super star and crying from the hill tops about squaw hunting and then posts "Notice the real squaw hunters are like crickets right now" as he continues posting with vigor. :lol:


um...yep!


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