2014-2015 Season Log...

[Flightstopper]

Says, give me some rest dad! Great pic.

[Ericdc]

Rick hall selfie

[Rick]

Rick hall selfie

I was going to show some tit, but didn't want to wake the coyote.

[Ericdc]

Hahahahahaha

[DeadEye_Dan]

We're grateful

[Bufflehead]

Rick, do you ever hunt your mudhole blind in the afternoon? From your post it looks like you only hunt it in mornings. If so, do you leave your decoys out or take them up when not hunting?

[Rick]

Our marsh has a 9:30 AM curfew in its lease, and we leave the decoys out all season.

[Bruce Yerkes]

And 9:30 is usually enough, cause you got to get back to camp for Jenny Rose's breakfast. See you next week Rick.

[Rick]

Looking forward to it.

Bruce and the sweetheart of Doug's Hunting Lodge, Jenny Rose:

[Rick]

Date: 1/7

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: hoped for wind didn't make it

Temperature: cold

Barometer: 30.32 climbing

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Hoped for push before tonight's cold front didn't happen and was sparse again.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: More "locals" honoring the call and pushing off the pond than birds that bought in.

Hunters: 2 Robert and Chris

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy day

Special Equipment: sos

Kudos: Were blessed to have what we did, and didn't hurt that Chris made a triple on greenwings

Birds By Species: 8 gw teal, 2 mallards, 1 pintail and 3 spoons

Photo Ops: Chris and Robert:

[Ericdc]

Rick, I saw a lot of flight birds up here around the state line between 11 and 1 when wind really picked up over 20 mph

[Rick]

Hope some make it this far. The more I've heard from guys in some of our area's top spots, the more blessed I've felt to be managing what we have. Need an infusion or something to shuffle the deck.

[DComeaux]

It's gonna be hurting cold in the morning my friend.

[Rick]

I ain't scairt, but I feel for the wuss coyote laying in front of the space heater by my desk.

[Rick]

Date: 1/8/15

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong NE

Temperature: cold (20s)

Barometer: 30.2 dropping

Moon phase: 3/4?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: didn't see nearly as many ducks high or low as one might expect with this hard front, but guys on the east end said they saw lots of high ones

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most of what we did see worked beautifully.

Hunters: 2 Robert and Chris' last morning.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Peake didn't seem to mind the ice, though it hurt me to watch him have to break so much of it for birds downed out over the marsh.

Special Equipment: sos

Kudos: Neat morning to be alive and in the marsh, plus we got to send the guys back to FL on a good one.

Curses: Put the coyote through a lot more ice than hoped. That, and he lost what would have been our last greenhead after a long, and had to be miserable, track.

Birds By Species: 1 gw teal, 11 mallards and 2 pintails

Photo Ops: Chris and Robert with a heavy strap:


A speck that led quite a chase across the open water in the background:


Not a good day to be a hanging low in the ice:
d

But he got some sympathy from an old friend on the ride out:

[banknote]

I just turtled. Ouch.

[Flightstopper]

I just turtled. Ouch.

X2!

[DComeaux]

Look at the mallards! Nice hunt Rick. I sure hope we have a few birds this weekend.

Looks like the coyote needs a little neosporin.

[Deltaman]

WOW, doesn't get much better than that Rick ........... but Peake may beg to differ

[Rick]

Date: 1/8

Time: afternoon

Location: Thornwell

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: light from every direction but east at one time or another

Temperature: cold when the sun got low

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: precious little moving except very high ducks from SW (leaving LNWR) late in the day. Didn't see anything coming south.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Lot easier to get specks to look than finish, as they've either been burned on the spot or are afraid of the little standing snow spread. (Just don't see a couple dozen snows on the ground here unless they're decoys.)

Hunters: 2, Brady bunch

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): enjoyed the easy afternoon he deserved after this morning

Special Equipment:

Kudos: pretty sky

Curses: precious few birds in it

Birds By Species: 1 spoon and 1 speck

Photo Ops:

[Flightstopper]

Covering both ends of species spectrum with that.

[Rick]

Date: 1/9

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Strong NE

Temperature: cold

Barometer: 30.37 rising

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: saw scads of mile high ducks

Waterfowl Responsiveness: but next to nothing we had a prayer of breaking down in such wind. Only bunch of low teal we saw bounced off the robo, and only worked a mallard pair, a flock of pins and a little bunch of specks. Frustrating morning.

Hunters: 2, Tim and Matt

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment:

Kudos: specks came might pretty and guys were good company on a slow hunt

Curses: Nice guys, poor hunting

Birds By Species: 1 mallard, 1 pintail and 2 specks.

Photo Ops:

[Rick]

Date: 1/9

Time: afternoon

Location: thornwell

Cloud Cover: heavy and sometimes spitting

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong NE

Temperature: cold

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: nil until almost LLST, then still not much and mostly HIGH

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Broke a bunch of pintails and a bunch of mallards from way the hey up, but couldn't get them to stop dead over the plate for my guys. Also drew some tough specks only to have them shy from the bad standing rig. Would sure like to a couple dozen of another fellow's white decoys to the dump, so an otherwise decent spot didn't look so much like what shoots at them.

Hunters: 2 fellow who apparently don't get to hunt much.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): snoozed

Special Equipment:

Kudos: Nice folks.

Curses: Miserable weather. Sorry flight. Worse setup. And couldn't put anything where the aforementioned nice folks were in the game with it the wind we had.

Birds By Species: zip, nadda, nothin'

Photo Ops:

[DComeaux]

WOW! I'll be in the blind in the morning but my expectations are not high.

[Rick]

Date: 1/10

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE brisk

Temperature: still cold

Barometer: 30.45 flat

Moon phase: 3/4 waning

Special Notes: last chance for a rare glimpse of blue sky for several more days

Waterfowl Activity: Everything on our end but a couple bunches of teal was high again.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Tough to get anything down, much less where my guys needed them, before someone on the east end shot and banged them out.

Hunters: 2 more nice guys who apparently don't hunt much

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: SOS

Kudos: Nice folks.

Curses: Too few humans are genetically programed to hunt successfully

Birds By Species: 1 gadwall, 3 gw teal and 2 mallards

Photo Ops:

[Rick]

Date: 1/11/15

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear to cloudy as the morning progressed

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly strong

Temperature: better than it has been

Barometer: 30,.22 flat

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Strong super high flight of mostly pintails, and precious little where we'd want it in such wind.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: About blew the stopper out of the MVP to get what we did, while most that would break got banged out by upwind blinds before they could get in.

Hunters: 2, Jim and Tim

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: SOS

Kudos: nice guys

Curses: slow hunt

Birds By Species: 4 gadwall, 2 mallards and 2 spoons

Photo Ops:

[Ericdc]

Looking like adding a week to the end of the coastal season will be a mistake if the hunting stays the same for you and my friends in little chenier.

[Rick]

We'll see...

[Rick]

Date: 1/12

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: fog

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW moderate

Temperature: warmest for a while

Barometer: 30.14 rising

Moon phase: 3/4?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Greenwings returned in numbers and a good many big ducks moving, too.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Couldn't get the big ducks in before someone would shoot, but teal were quicker to toll.

Hunters: 3, Paul, Brett and Henry

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Worked the coyote's tail off on crips, but he was aces.

Special Equipment: SOS

Kudos: These guys could shoot, and we were done quickly.

Curses: Only that we had to quit so soon.

Birds By Species: 4 blackbellied whistling ducks and 20 gw teal

Photo Ops: Brett, Paul and Henry:

[DComeaux]

SWEET!!! I'd sure like just one more decent hunt to finish off the season. Got any openings?