Preseason 2014-2015

[Darren]

Though haven't set eyes on any teal yet, my preparations have been in progress with some work on the duck boat. Outboard motor needed a new power trim and tilt motor that had finally given way to corrosion and died. Fortunately with the new trim motor in place, the rest of the trim unit seems to be working fine so will cross fingers to not have to do any more repairs. The boat got a new paint job, albeit with spray cans, that at least made the whole boat the same color for the first time since new. Used the Rustoleum line of "camo" spray paint that came out ok but with the usual inconsistencies of spray can painting. But for $3 a can it was hard to beat and the irregular coating made for a somewhat camo pattern using just one color.

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Complete with new seat

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Motor (and now trim and tilt too) is running well so managed to sneak in a quick ride of a small portion of our stompin grounds in the marshes near Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne. This area has been abnormally fresh this summer with persistent west winds rather than the easterly winds that typically bring in salty waters from Mississippi Sound. Couple that with the fairly consistent rains and the marsh appears fresher than I can recall ever seeing, complete with the varieties of grasses and aquatic veg typical of a fresher system. The brief tour was on August 15 with no birds seen though I was just happy to see such promising habitat.

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Probably won't get a chance to get back out there till the day before the opener so won't really have any means of tracking any arriving teal till then. Just hoping we have a few for the opening weekend close to the house

[Woody]

Is it better to have it "fresher" or saltier?

[Darren]

Is it better to have it "fresher" or saltier?

Good question and the answer is really complex down here where good hunting can be had in both salty (coastal/tidal) marshes, and fresh ones. Our marsh is tidal and traditionally holds SAV like coontail and wigeon grass but no lilly pads and other type grasses you'd see in a true freshwater swamp/marsh. Coastal marshes are known for their gadwall, GW and BW teal, some wigeon, etc. while you'd think freshwater marshes to be associated with mallards, teal, etc. I think in general as long as there's some kind of groceries in the form of grass growing in the ponds, the birds will have food to support staying there until pressured out. This time of year, we're just knocking all the wood we can to keep hurricanes away.

That said, we had some absolutely stellar hunting the year of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 hunting ponds that had zero grass in them but loads of gadwall and wigeon rooting around in the shallows. The marsh was a mess, looked like a warzone compared to the shape we're in today, but it was full of birds, go figure.

[Darren]

With a few reports trickling in of some birds showing up, I'm dying to get out to our marsh this Friday dark and early. However, I was finally able to put eyes on two blue wings today in Grand Isle, of all places, in a good looking marsh pond on the island. If they've made it all the way down there, surely there's a few at my stompin grounds much further north. Will report back on Friday

[Darren]

Was out and about all over our marsh at first light this morning, and it looks good. Well at least the marsh looks good, because we maybe put eyes on 2-3 teal in all the riding around we did. Loads of mottleds and woodies so looks like they've had a good summer. Even saw one brood of mottleds not quite flight-ready so not sure if this hen was late or is a re-nester. It doesn't look good on our end of the state at all with the exception of the Venice area reportedly holding a few. I'm planning to go but not with much hope for taking off the safety.

Lots of riding around like this with not much to see

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This little hole used to be much more open and provided us some shooting a few years ago on opening weekend. It was full of mottleds on arrival so may give it a shot since its in what is usually a good teal flight line in that area

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[Rick]

Have been pleasantly surprised more than a couple times by setting up for teal in places where only mottleds were thick the day before, and hope that's the case for you in the morning.

[DComeaux]

That marsh looks good, but I hate to hear that about the birds. Hopefully we get a good push soon to spread things out a little more evenly. I'm just hoping we can keep the little we do have for a hunt or two. Things can change awfully quick with these little rascals.

[Darren]

Yep hope we get a shake up soon, guys are pretty bummed on this end of the state. Then again, plenty willing to go just to see. I'll have a report in the AM, good luck guys!

[Darren]

Never been one for the banquet scene, but do keep memberships in DU and Delta perennially. Had never been to my hometown soiree but got an invite on a free ticket for last week's event I couldn't pass on. Turns out it's a big one, netting upwards of $100K in funds to be sent to DU to do.....well, whatever it is DU does with the money. Maybe save some breeding grounds, maybe put up the storied nets that short-stop my birds etc. I digress

Was a great time with a lot of hometown familiar faces and all the usual prizes you'd expect. This up and coming caller is but 14 and put on quite the demonstration letting his RNT ring out (sponsored by them as well) with local radio and TV personality Don Dubuc lending him the mic.



Hearing of a few birds showing on our end right now such as bluewings and grays but i'm most hopeful to be hearing of coots since they're usually arriving between now and Halloween. Won't have a chance to check out the marsh until Nov 1 as of now when we start work on our new blind(s).

[Rick]

Almost blew himself off the stage.

[Darren]

Finally got a hold of some GoPro footage a buddy has been collecting on some of our hunts. I'm working to develop the clips into a video series of some sort as part of a project in the making....could be a while. Nevertheless I grabbed a couple of good screen grabs from the clips shown below on some decoying birds on hunts in the 2012-2013 season.

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Hoping to improve on the video aspect of our hunts this year, but we'll see. Have HD camera that's yet to force me to put my gun down to run it short of capturing retrieving dogs between volleys.

[firstflight]

That is a cool spot and great pictures. It's fun to film hunts .

[Flightstopper]

Awesome shot

[DComeaux]

Nice shots, Darren. Damn, I miss the marsh!

[Darren]

Last season was so bad we didn't have any decoying grays or green wings to show for but could have gotten some good footage on mallards oddly enough. Hoping this season we're back to our usual suspects and will have some footage to share. Next up is a blind build day next Saturday the 1st.

[DComeaux]

Those grays are fun. I have good memories of these birds working in large groups in the marsh south of Erath. Later in the mornings, we'd watch groups get up and do high speed maneuvers over the marsh while doing there signature peeps and quacks..... I'm sitting here seeing this in my mind. Wonderful memories. I'm ready to hunt!

[Darren]

Yea i'm starting to itch pretty bad myself and we've only 3 weeks left so it's coming along. The video files I just got a hold of have brought a whole new element to off-season efforts to relive hunts passed. The videos, complete with whoopin and hollerin, high fives, etc. actually let you re-live the hunt vs. the still photos that don't include the sounds and motions of the hunt. I'm hoping to get them edited to shorter clips and uploaded to my YouTube channel for sharing here soon.

Last year we had the mallards but none of our usual grays and while many would pefer to strap the pretty greenheads, i've got a special place for the grays of the SE La marshes in particular, or anywhere along our coast. Really hoping for a return of the grays and green wings. Of note, despite last year's lackluster/late appearances, we were still covered up in grays on Nov 14 before high water bumped them out and we never saw another big push.

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This wad and raft below is 85+% gadwall with some wigeon and spoons mixed in along with some coots. They were there on Nov 14, saw a few good wads despite the fog on the youth hunt of Nov 16, then gone for the Nov 23 opener.

[Darren]

Always wanted a spinner with a remote control, without the remote control-outfitted spinner price. Did some tinkering with my mojo gadwall and hoped to put a remote in it to maybe help finish some birds that are suspect. We don't use the spinners a whole lot but having a remote would create a lot more options and maybe allow us to employ some flash for passing teal.

Mojo sells a 6 volt remote control system but the gadwall is a 9 volt system, so no go there and the mojo price is pretty steep at around 49.99 most places. Found a 9 volt remote clicker on eBay for $15 and just got it in and installed this afternoon...success!

Still tinkering with the range but early field trials in the yard are showing easily 20-25 yards working, say, 7 of 10 times. Closer to 15 yards and in its working pretty much every single time so we'll see how that translates on the pond. My early wiring shown in photo below before cleaning it up and packing it into decoy

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[firstflight]

Always wanted a spinner with a remote control, without the remote control-outfitted spinner price. Did some tinkering with my mojo gadwall and hoped to put a remote in it to maybe help finish some birds that are suspect. We don't use the spinners a whole lot but having a remote would create a lot more options and maybe allow us to employ some flash for passing teal.

Mojo sells a 6 volt remote control system but the gadwall is a 9 volt system, so no go there and the mojo price is pretty steep at around 49.99 most places. Found a 9 volt remote clicker on eBay for $15 and just got it in and installed this afternoon...success!

Still tinkering with the range but early field trials in the yard are showing easily 20-25 yards working, say, 7 of 10 times. Closer to 15 yards and in its working pretty much every single time so we'll see how that translates on the pond. My early wiring shown in photo below before cleaning it up and packing it into decoy

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Leave the antenna wire hang out the back,you can get at least 40 yards. Make sure your remote batteries are fresh also.

[Darren]

Always wanted a spinner with a remote control, without the remote control-outfitted spinner price. Did some tinkering with my mojo gadwall and hoped to put a remote in it to maybe help finish some birds that are suspect. We don't use the spinners a whole lot but having a remote would create a lot more options and maybe allow us to employ some flash for passing teal.

Mojo sells a 6 volt remote control system but the gadwall is a 9 volt system, so no go there and the mojo price is pretty steep at around 49.99 most places. Found a 9 volt remote clicker on eBay for $15 and just got it in and installed this afternoon...success!

Still tinkering with the range but early field trials in the yard are showing easily 20-25 yards working, say, 7 of 10 times. Closer to 15 yards and in its working pretty much every single time so we'll see how that translates on the pond. My early wiring shown in photo below before cleaning it up and packing it into decoy

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Leave the antenna wire hang out the back,you can get at least 40 yards. Make sure your remote batteries are fresh also.

Thanks for the tip! I've got it rigged hanging beneath the tail so should be in good shape

[Rick]

Unless you're saying it's hanging below the tip of the tail, make sure your signal isn't blocked by the decoy's body when set up. Can make a significant difference.

[Darren]

Unless you're saying it's hanging below the tip of the tail, make sure your signal isn't blocked by the decoy's body when set up. Can make a significant difference.

I drilled a hole out the bottom of the decoy, ran the wire through and it hangs a bit below the tail "feathers". I'll plan to set him up ideally with his side to me or at least quartering away so should give me good line to the antenna.

Very excited to get out in the marsh all day this Saturday, plan to have photos of the blind efforts and a bird report

[Rick]

Unless you're saying it's hanging below the tip of the tail, make sure your signal isn't blocked by the decoy's body when set up. Can make a significant difference.

I drilled a hole out the bottom of the decoy, ran the wire through and it hangs a bit below the tail "feathers". I'll plan to set him up ideally with his side to me or at least quartering away so should give me good line to the antenna.

Should do the trick. One of the problems with a goose flapper I've been modifying was lack of enough remote range to get it well away from the rest of my setup was an internal antenna wire. I ran it up out of the decoy's back and up to firm connection with an extension that may or may not do more than hold it upright and at least doubled its range - if I have the remote pointed dead at it.

[Rick]

Very excited to get out in the marsh all day this Saturday, plan to have photos of the blind efforts and a bird report

Looking forward to some upcoming marsh days myself. May have the whole marsh booked for youth weekend.

[Darren]

Unless you're saying it's hanging below the tip of the tail, make sure your signal isn't blocked by the decoy's body when set up. Can make a significant difference.

I drilled a hole out the bottom of the decoy, ran the wire through and it hangs a bit below the tail "feathers". I'll plan to set him up ideally with his side to me or at least quartering away so should give me good line to the antenna.

Should do the trick. One of the problems with a goose flapper I've been modifying was lack of enough remote range to get it well away from the rest of my setup was an internal antenna wire. I ran it up out of the decoy's back and up to firm connection with an extension that may or may not do more than hold it upright and at least doubled its range - if I have the remote pointed dead at it.

I know you like to set goose dekes plenty far from the blind so probably asking a lot of the little remote's we're jury-rigging in there haha. I lucked into the after market remote deal from a video on YouTube of a kid wiring in a cheapy setup vs. using the factory-available $$$ setup from Mojo. Just took a little extra thought to work in the 2 second on/off self-timer pre-wired into the decoy before I went to cutting wires.

We'll give it a shot on the 15th for my E-Zone youth hunt.

[Darren]

Made it out to our marsh yesterday, Nov. 1 around 7:45am, under abnormally low water conditions for this point in the fall. Following last week's front, the winds ripped Thurs and Friday from north and NW so really wasn't that surprised. Fortunately, we still had enough water to get what we needed done in putting together a new blind in middle of what's been a pretty consistent bird-holding area that also happens to hold water when it gets really low later in season. Got it assembled and made one boat-full of cover run on it to get it started before heading in around 2:00pm.

As for birds, saw some nice groups of grays and had some coots keeping us company in the area, also a couple of wads of teal with at least one of those confirmed to be blue wings. What we saw was about what we had at this point last year. We're figuring there was probably some more birds on waters to our east but the low water conditions kept us from really going poking around. Over the last two days we'd also gotten reports of some big numbers of grays and rafts of coots having shown up just to our east so the area is holding its share for now. Points south of us like Delacroix and closer to Venice also reported good numbers showing at end of the week so hopefully we're on the right track.

Brought out the hedgtrimmers for the roseau collection

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It's not much for now with limited cover (the biggest bundle of grass in photo) but when we're done brushing it should be a nice mid-pond ambush spot with the primary flight in the area often refusing to traffic closer to the points. The coots to the right kept us company all morning munching on the thick SAV in the area.

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[Darren]

With the day off, my buddy headed back out to the blind to continue the brushing effort, toting along his new pup who we hope to put to work there next season. The water is still low but he was able to get in another pirogue load of cane with some palmettos thrown in to help take up space on the lower portions where cane is without leaves. Reported some green and blue wings feeding on a shallow flat nearby and a smattering of a few big ducks flying about.

young Cole's first marsh trip, side of new digs coming together in the background

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[Bad17]

Looking good. Good looking pup.

[Darren]

Made a quick late-morning marsh trip today to do some blind work and brushing while the water is back up. With the fronts projected, 4 in the forecast between today and next Saturday, I figured this may be my last chance of using the boat to make some brush hauls back there. Water was way up from our last trip out there so made getting around easy so did some riding to poke around in some places where there's typically some birds hiding but it uncovered very little at all.

Got to the brushing at hand with a load of canes and some branches from some nearby marsh shrubs and was able to put eyes on a few flocks of grays in the process. Most were in and out before I could get a camera on them but was able to catch these while putting around in the boat, half of which had locked up over our pond but flared off me as I snapped the pic

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Also these

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Think it'll be next Thursday or Friday before any of us revisit the blind so had to make it youth-hunt ready, though it's not quite complete to what we've envisioned since April.

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On a side note, a buddy has been in North Dakota all week and has been enduring some pretty serious winter weather the last few days, waking up to 4 inches of new snow yesterday morning. This was the scene for this morning's hunt, which I'd figure to be a good sign for hunters further south with at least a few areas (and their food sources!) covered up in snow.

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[Bad17]

Very nice.