2014-2015 Season Log...

[Rick]

Right up front (where it's easy for me to copy), here is the template I will be using:

Date:

Time:

Location:

Cloud Cover:

Wind Direction and Velocity:

Temperature:

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity:

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Hunters:

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Kudos:

Birds By Species:

Photo Ops:

[Olly]

Mine is pretty much the same and my logs tend to be more straight forward facts and figures not a story, unless something really good/funny happened.

[Rick]

I sometimes tell more of the story within one of the above categories, but having that format makes it easier for me to just "fill in the blanks" when I'm too tired to go into more detail and insure at least that much gets logged.

Time for me to head for the lodge and do a little dance through the door to set my mood right before tackling the inevitable last minute emergencies.

[Rick]

Date: 9/13

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: fairly strong NE

Temperature: pleasantly cool

Barometer: 30" and rising

Moon phase: 73% and waning

Special Notes: teal opener

Waterfowl Activity: Spooky slow for the first hour and change, but picked up just enough for our blind and one of the other six out there, and everyone had enough oppertunity that none were complaining. Saw a fair number of high birds headed north but no "new" birds high and headed south. What we shot came mostly from the east low from the east.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Getting very aggressive seemed helpful, and I lost a couple pretty bunches to bigger water when I let up to let them work on their own. Also seemed to have good luck keeping them on line with momma call.

Hunters: 2, Jeff and grown son, Caleb.

Guns:

Malfunctions: My gun started hang-firing occasionally, but cleaning the trigger mechanism after the hunt "fixed" it. Surprise, surprise.

Dog(s): While not allowed in the water this time of year, Peake was invaluable for collecting the roughly half of our birds that went down on the flotant around our little pond.

Special Equipment: Spinners large and small and the modified Mallard Machine/splasher. MMMS is splashing maybe three feet around, because it's floating with the prop too low, and I opted not to replace its decoys with bigger, higher floating ones this morning due to high wind. Used it, but couldn't say if it was better as is than standard MM.

Kudos: Super nice folks, pleasant weather and a fair show of birds after a worrisome start made for a sweet morning.

Curses:{/b] Just the low bird numbers.

[b]Birds By Species: 18 bw teal

Photo Ops: The camera's flash going off on a cloudy morning made the coyote's first bird of the new season look like it came a lot earlier than it finally did:


And the reason why we take him, flotant that would swallow much of our game without his nose and ability to cross it:


Jeff and Caleb with our birds:

[Darren]

Should have called you to swing by our blind post-hunt to put Peake to work on our 3 escapees. Nice hunt!

[Flightstopper]

It's good to see some fresh duck pics once again. Nice hunt.

[DComeaux]

Good to see you got em Rick.

[DeadEye_Dan]

[jarbo03]

Way to go Rick!

[NuffDaddy]

Nice work!

[Rick]

Thanks guys. Was a nail biter for too long and didn't help that we were only hitting them one or two at a time, though nothing completely beat us, which is kind of rare for teal.

Should have called you to swing by our blind post-hunt to put Peake to work on our 3 escapees. Nice hunt!

He's the only dog in our marsh during September teal, so he was doing some of that for others here.

[Woody]

Nice work Rick!

[Bad17]

Good work Rick

[Rick]

Date: 9/14

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE, not as strong as yesterday

Temperature: still pleasantly cool

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Had several spoons come by one to three at a time and tons of squealers, as well as the usual mottleds which seem to still be in family groups. Teal seemed even slower starting than yesterday, which seemed even spookier than then, particularly with a couple brand new hunters in the blind, who'd have trouble getting into the game at best. But enough eventually started showing to help work some kinks out and make a nice morning.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Did a whole lot of screaming on the call to pull and keep the teal off bigger water. And am having trouble losing them to our SW behind our island's canes where I can't see what they're doing and holler or cajole accordingly.

Hunters: 3, father and grown son brand, spankin' new to hunting and Dennis who, thankfully, is a fine shot.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Peake did a nice job

Special Equipment: spinners big and little and MMM, the later still not raised by bigger decoys I've not yet installed and, therefore, still not splashing as much as I'd like.

Kudos: Really nice folks had a big time.

Curses:{/b] Lots and lot of crowd control problems getting our crew in the game, but no one was shot in the process.

[b]Birds By Species: 24 bw teal

Photo Ops: My three, Dennis, Dad and Jamie on the right of corporate group shot:

[Darren]

Nice work Rick, especially with the new hunters. Now just hope you haven't spoiled them with limits on first hunt.

In our area we're also noticing the mottled families, seemingly out each morning to stretch their wings. Hearing lots of people call them grays but closer inspection reveals plainly mottleds, especially when they plop into the dekes. Yesterday even had a green head come in with them.....not sure if he's an eager beaver and hellbent on the coast OR just a local neighborhood fella who dabbles (dangerously) in the marsh. No spoons by us yet

[Rick]

Date: 9/14

Time: afternoon

Location: NW of Hathaway

Cloud Cover: heavy to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: light NE

Temperature: cool

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: Morning party had shot 34 in this location

Waterfowl Activity: Saw a small group and pair work pond as we arrived at 4:30 and thought we had it made, but what few birds we saw after that passed high, wide and hauling. Only thing that worked was 8 or 10 pintails that were the first we've seen.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Nada

Hunters: 4, 3 annual regulars for teal season and a new buddy

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Peake caught some Zzzzs

Special Equipment: 3 spinners

Kudos: nice guys who took it well

Curses: no show birds after a long drive and day working my tail off making it easier for my guys than those before us

Birds By Species: Put the first scratch of the new season behind us with a DNS (did not shoot).

Photo Ops:

[Rick]

Date: 9/15

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: Easterly moderate

Temperature: not too warm

Barometer: 30.4 rising

Moon phase: 53% waning

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: probably not as many working low as the past couple days, but saw a mess of birds high and going north out of the marsh.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had two or three groups that appeared to know that whirligigs have guns, but most worked pretty.

Hunters: 2 Docs Charles and Kent

Guns:

Malfunctions: old eyes and bent barrels

Dog(s): Peake snoozed a lot

Special Equipment: spinners large and small and MMM

Kudos: no one shot

Curses: Needed a whooole lot more birds or a whooole lot better shooting to reach the almighty limit Doc C gauges his hunt by.

Birds By Species: 9 bw teal

Photo Ops: Peake had some fun rounding up what fell in on the floating turf:


after getting there by boat to cheat the gators:


Didn't seem to mind his "chauffeured retrieves" in the pond, either:




But I noted that he remembered his snoozing post today:

[DComeaux]

Good to see!!

I was a little concerned about you yesterday when I didn't see your post. Especially after reading "new to hunting" in your Saturdays log.

[Rick]

Yesterday was just a very long one, and I didn't feel like doing much more than grabbing a bite to eat and crashing when I finally got home. Did have to physically stop the son's swing toward Peake a few times on the morning hunt, but I was in no danger as quarters were close with 4 of us in an 8' blind.

[Rick]

Date: 9/15

Time: afternoon

Location: Big John's

Cloud Cover: intermittent rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: Switched to south right after I set up for NE

Temperature: Hot enough the rain was welcome

Barometer: 29.99 steady

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Quite a few teal on the place when we arrived, but few tried to return any time soon. Mostly flew when it rained and quit when it quit.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Not bad but not great, either. High birds stayed that way, and some low ones were plainly married to elsewhere.

Hunters: 4, Mike and John from yesterday afternoon's water haul plus JB and Jeremy.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Peake broke twice, and his growing deafness was plainly evident when splashing in shallows. Hate that.

Special Equipment: Spinner large and small.

Kudos: So, so thankful to get them a little shooting after yesterday.

Curses; Could have used more ops, and sickened by Peake's hearing loss.

Birds By Species: 10 bw teal

Photo Ops: Rained out.

[Rick]

Date: 9/16

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: not enough to notice

Temperature: hot

Barometer: 30.04 rising slightly

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: least morning flight we've seen

Waterfowl Responsiveness: First time we've had many marsh teal act like they knew the spinners or blind.

Hunters: 1, big Lynn

Guns: Lynn was shooting a new Beretta A400 28ga

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): The coyote did some remarkable scenting work when a little southerly breeze came about late in the morning, scenting one at the edge of the big water behind us from beside the boat trail. (Yardage I'll not post, least readers think me full of beans.)

Special Equipment: Finally have the MMM splashing as hoped, but didn't see enough game to say how much that might matter. Also re-rigged the big spinner to be controlled from blind and stop wings down, as I use it for big ducks, due to a couple nice bunches of teal appearing to push off it.

Kudos: Pleasant company who hunts almost daily and knows how it goes on a slow morning, and he called it early for breakfast on a day that was probably a good idea.

Curses: Too few ducks, and it took Lynn a few whiffs to get used to the little gun, after which he shot like the ex-clays range owner he is.

Birds By Species: 7 bw teal

Photo Ops: What few I took didn't come out well.

[Rick]

Date: 9/17

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly to clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to light easterly

Temperature: hot

Barometer: 29.94 rising

Moon phase: waning cresent

Special Notes: may have set a new bar for snake bitten hunts

Waterfowl Activity: Saw quite a few more birds than yesterday, probably enough under other conditions.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: very good when my nose wasn't buried in an inop gun

Hunters: 2, Kim and Rene, two gals that are part of an all women group that comes for teal, was Kim's first duck hunt and Rene's second

Guns:

Malfunctions: Rene's Franchi 20 wouldn't release shells from the magazine - except once while I was messing with it, which kept me fighting that loosing battle much longer than I should have.

Dog(s): Peake was lovin' on the gals lovin' on him. Quite the ladies' dog.

Special Equipment: Just the teal spinner (see "curses") and MMM, which seemed pretty helpful.

Kudos: The gals were great company, followed instruction better than most men, and we passed a fine time in spite of...

Curses: Boat motor acted up all the way to the blind, where we found that the big spinner had fallen overboard somewhere along the way. Then Rene dropped her Thermacell in the pond while I was back at the last sharp bend in the trail hoping to get lucky and find the Mojo. We recovered it, however, and hope it will eventually light again. But with our first shooting op Rene found her nearly new gun, which had just been back to Franchi for the same problem, wouldn't release shells from its magazine. So she shot my Montefeltro 20 while I tried my hand at gunsmithing. Don't know if the unfamiliar gun was why she was initially not getting it shouldered while shooting, but when I finally managed to launch her gun's plug and magazine spring retainer - for the second time - and lost them to the mudhole, I shot the Franchi as a single shot and found it much the same as my Monte. (In fact a Franchi might very well be the Montefeltro's eventual replacement if I can't keep it healthy as long as I am.) After the hunt I went back out and probed what seemed the most likely spots for Mojo and gun parts with conduit and a crab net which came up empty, as did my trip to our local gunsmith for a 20ga retainer.

Found it pretty ironic, that I'd bought a second big spinner yesterday, so I could leave one in the marsh for the season and still have one for afternoon hunts elsewhere and backup. Folks at the store thought it funny, and profitable, that I was back so soon for backup to my backup.

Birds By Species: 9 bw teal expired during our adventure.

Photo Ops: I teased the gals so much about the bazillion and twelve pics they took that there was no way I'd break my own camera out. That I'd probably manage to plop it in the drink, too, may have crossed my mind, as well.

[Flightstopper]

Seems a rough start to the season Rick. Hope it picks up.

[Rick]

We're not setting the world afire, but yesterday's was the only morning we lacked limit opportunity, had we been up to taking advantage of it, so I can't kick. Have spent time with some old friends, made some new ones and watched a lot of neat birds work. Life's good.

Might mention to Alicia that Kim mentioned that it was, in fact, "her first rodeo," and she was the only one of our crew that didn't seem cursed. Shot remarkably well, too.

[Flightstopper]

We're not setting the world afire, but yesterday's was the only morning we lacked limit opportunity, had we been up to taking advantage of it, so I can't kick. Have spent time with some old friends, made some new ones and watched a lot of neat birds work. Life's good.

Might mention to Alicia that Kim mentioned that it was, in fact, "her first rodeo," and she was the only one of our crew that didn't seem cursed. Shot remarkably well, too.

Seems she put the curse on the rest so to have all the birds to herself. Alicia must have had the wrong inflection striking down the entire pit.

[Rick]

9/17 addendum: high probability of rain tomorrow afternoon reminded me to add my boat's bilge pump croaking to the list of today's mishaps and miseries - and to run to the nearest town big enough for a Wally World to get a replacement. Went with a bigger one than I've been running in hopes it will handle the sludge the coyote drags into the boat better than what I had.

[DComeaux]

The trials and tribulations of a duck hunter.

[Rick]

Looking forward to the new day. Camoed one of the new Mojos and modified its mount and stand to suit me, and even remembered to put my 12 in the truck with it, so I'll have something to lend a hand to today's gals with while Rene uses my 20.

Really should have oiled up the 870 spare I keep under the blind bench during the regular season and dug out its waterproof sock, but didn't, so more gun woes may be in the offing. Funny how much less gun trouble we seem to have when there's a spare in the blind.

[AKPirate]

Looking forward to the new day. Camoed one of the new Mojos and modified its mount and stand to suit me, and even remembered to put my 12 in the truck with it, so I'll have something to lend a hand to today's gals with while Rene uses my 20.

Really should have oiled up the 870 spare I keep under the blind bench during the regular season and dug out its waterproof sock, but didn't, so more gun woes may be in the offing. Funny how much less gun trouble we seem to have when there's a spare in the blind.

Getem Rick!

[Rick]

We tryin'.