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Reelfoot Lake Duck Hunting
West
Tennessee Duck Hunting Report
2025-26
Fowler's Point
Guide Service
By Steve McCadams
DUCK UPDATE
WILL COLD WEATHER HELP DUCK DILEMMA?
Cold days returned to the outdoor scene this past week, courtesy of bone
chilling winds. Highs lingered in the low 30’s a few days and struggled
to get out of the low 40’s the rest of the week.
That winter weather curtailed outings for the Kentucky Lake fishing
scene but it should have helped stimulate duck movement for the region.
Frowns and moans have dominated the local duck hunting scene for most
weary waterfowlers.
There’s a few success stories but overall it has been a very tough
season across the board. Talk to ten different hunters across the region
and about eight of them say their season has been below average.
Bottom line is the lion’s share of hunters in public hunting areas such
as West Sandy (Springville bottom), Big Sandy, Gin Creek, Dover Bottoms
and Camden Bottom wildlife management areas have simply not seen the
ducks.
Several factors influenced the sloppy season, namely lack of winter
warterfowl food available in the units plus a long stretch of warm
weather had a negative impact. A lack of water across West Tennessee’s
river bottoms such as the Obion, Forked Deer and Hatchie didn’t attract
movement to the region either, not to mention very low river levels
along the mighty Mississippi drainage areas.
The Mississippi River has been very low all fall and throughout the
winter. That further influences the migration of waterfowl, at least to
some degree. When tributary rivers and low river bottom farm land fail
to flood out it greatly diminishes feeding, resting and roosting areas
during the migration period.
Ducks follow the water. This year we didn’t get it early or throughout
most of the season. That may have sent ducks winging further west this
year as they migrated South.
About the only success stories came from private hunting clubs that were
located next to state or federal refuges that pumped up some water.
Often the recipe was not hunting the spot every day and allowing ducks
to feed and rest. Letting the area set out a week or so and hunting it
just on the weekends helped the success rate as elsewhere dreary duck
hunters in high use public land areas suffered a poor season.
The ebb and flow of movement by ducks across the region just did not
occur. Around here duck numbers did not increase much during the season
as it was the same old ducks staying around with very few replacements
coming in during the winter.
Refuge numbers at Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge and also at Cross
Creeks NWR didn’t seem to be holding big numbers of ducks to the casual
observer. Since the refuges no longer make aerial surveys and
publish estimates of waterfowl usage, as was the case for decades,
waterfowlers have to form their own opinions of what was using the
units.
Refuges are the big magnets for the region. When they don’t attract big
numbers then local hunting suffers greatly.
Several days of empty skies and poor hunting easily helped form
opinions. They couldn’t shoot what they couldn’t see!
Meanwhile, season is fast drawing to a close. The 60-day season ends
January 31.
There will be some special hunts held for veterans and military
personnel on February 1 and 8, followed by two Youth Waterfowl Hunts on
February 7 and 14.
The youth hunts will be for youngsters falling in the age bracket of
6-16 according to TWRA regulations.
DELTA WATERFOWL RESPONDS TO REFUGE
DILEMMA
By Steve McCadams
Delta Waterfowl is launching Restoring Our Refuges, an impactful
advocacy campaign to secure enhanced public funding to revitalize the
health and waterfowl value of federal refuges and state-owned wildlife
management areas throughout the United States.
The 573 national wildlife refuges throughout the United States, which
encompass 95 million acres of land and 760 million marine acres, serve
as critical assets for the continent’s waterfowl and waterfowl hunters.
Refuges provide important waterfowl nesting habitat in the prairies and
other key breeding grounds, as well as foraging and loafing habitat
along migration routes and at wintering areas. In addition, U.S. federal
refuges host an estimated 2.6 million hunting days each year.
The National Wildlife Refuge System is ailing because deep reductions in
staffing and maintenance budgets have led to a backlog of failing
infrastructure. Funding in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service budget to
operate the NWR System has declined 35% or more since 2010.
The NWR System has lost 711 full-time staff since 2011, a 29% workforce
reduction. To compensate, many NWRs have been clustered into complexes
to stretch staff over several refuges, resulting in decreased time and
ability for biologists and staff to manage habitat effectively on each
property.
“To keep refuges running well, you need efficient water delivery and
fairly intensive management to maximize habitat productivity,” said John
Devney, Delta’s chief policy officer. “In too many cases, there’s not
the staff or infrastructure to do it.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in early 2020, Delta helped to
identify more than $250 million in “deferred maintenance” on priority
waterfowl and wetland projects within the NWR System. Over the broader
NWR System, the shortfall of unmet infrastructure needs is an estimated
$2.6 billion. Both deficits likely have increased since 2020.
Delta’s Restoring Our Refuges initiative aims to increase funding for
refuges in the federal budget and to work with Congressional
appropriators to ensure the money is spent to improve wetland and
waterfowl habitat.
“It’s about improving habitat, but it’s also about significantly
improving hunting opportunity,” Devney said. “Since the majority of the
federal refuges were acquired using duck stamp dollars, and duck stamp
dollars come from duck hunters, those resources should go back to
improving conditions for ducks and duck hunters.”
In addition, Delta will continue to work with USFWS staff at all levels
to increase waterfowl hunting opportunities on priority refuges. Delta’s
advocacy work during the past decade has directly led to significant new
public waterfowl hunting opportunities across the United States.
“When we talk about hunting opportunity, the value is in opportunity to
high-quality habitat,” Devney said. “It’s not just being able to go
through the gate, it’s going through the gate and having a chance to see
and shoot a few ducks.”
Restoring Our Refuges also strives to address waterfowl habitat and
hunting opportunities on state-owned lands, enlisting the help of
Delta’s chapter volunteers to amplify the effort.
“We’re asking our members and volunteers help engage in this topic to
help drive the investment back into public lands — both at wildlife
management areas and refuges,” Devney said.
“We understand how bad things have become on our public hunting lands,”
Tharpe said. “We’re talking about a legacy of conservation. As waterfowl
hunters, our refuge system is the flagship.”
Restoring Our Refuges is a major effort to improve waterfowl hunting
throughout North America by investing more resources into our public
lands.
“It’s a challenge,” Tharpe said. “I think it’s a matter of putting some
attention to it and getting our policy makers focused on the right
things. I think we’ve lost a bit of focus on game management in North
America, and it’s been replaced by ecosystem management, species
at-risk, endangered species management.
Those are valuable things. But we need game management. It must be part
of the system, especially in a system largely supported by hunters.
Delta Waterfowl is committed to leveraging its resources to ensure it
happens.”
FUTURE OF PINTAIL POPULATION
For the first time in nearly 30 years, duck hunters in the lower 48
states could have the chance to shoot three pintails a day as soon as
the 2025-26 season—a possible outcome of an interim population and
harvest strategy being put into use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
However, it’s important to note that despite a change in the model, the
daily bag limit for all future seasons still depends on the pintail
populations and habitat conditions on the breeding grounds. The data
will become clearer in August when USFWS releases its annual Waterfowl
Population Status report. So, despite speculation by other media
outlets, there’s no guarantee of a three-pintail bag limit for the
2025-26 season.
Based on a new integrated population model for pintails, the USFWS
Regulations Committee on May 17 adopted an Interim Northern Pintail
Harvest Strategy to guide setting of regulations for the 2025-26
waterfowl season. The new strategy, which was developed based on
banding, population survey, and harvest data, allows four options: Bag
limits could be three pintails daily, two, one, or a closed season for
the Mississippi, Central, and Pacific flyways. The Atlantic Flyway will
have a three-pintail daily limit every season unless the model calls for
a closed season in the other three flyways.
“The new model, the new data is some of the best science we’ve ever had
on pintails,” said Jerome Ford, USFWS assistant director, during the
meeting. “In this application (of the new strategy), we’re trying to
learn. The Service Regulations Committee supports the implementation
moving forward with the Pintail Working Group proposed Interim Harvest
Strategy. The revised strategy addresses stakeholder concerns with the
current strategy, and the important technical updates conform with the
idea of using the best available science to support harvest management
decisions.”
Under Adaptive Harvest Management, which was put into use in 1995 and
updated for pintails in 2010, only three regulatory options for pintails
exist: two birds daily, one, or closed season. Regulations for the
upcoming 2024-25 season are already set: The daily bag limit is one
pintail daily in all four flyways.
The USFWS will use 2024 breeding population survey data obtained this
spring to determine 2025-26 regulations using the new Interim Pintail
Harvest Strategy.
“The biggest difference is the new model factors in the harvest rate,
which is the percentage of the population taken by hunters, rather than
just looking at the total harvest from the prior year as a predictor of
the upcoming season’s harvest,” said Dr. Chris Nicolai, waterfowl
scientist for Delta Waterfowl. “The new model makes predictions based on
the observed proportion of pintails shot, not on the estimated number of
what hunters shot the previous season.”
Here is a phone video clip from a Reelfoot Lake youth hunt..."Smokin
Teal"
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