2016 Preseason:

[Ericdc]

Would like to post a video of the 3 blue wings on my pond in jackson parish. Made me think of how awesome live decoys must have been. They fell from way up and landed 30 feet from me with my mallard ducks.

[Ericdc]

Can't seem to post video on tapatalk app from iPhone.

[Rick]

They fell from way up and landed 30 feet from me with my mallard ducks.

That would have been fun to watch. The friend who gave me Bieber has a huge porch and glass doors from his living room looking out on his ponds with cypress and the multitude of ducks and shore birds that inhabit them. Once told him that if I lived there I'd never turn on the TV.

[Ericdc]

They fell from way up and landed 30 feet from me with my mallard ducks.

That would have been fun to watch. The friend who gave me Bieber has a huge porch and glass doors from his living room looking out on his ponds with cypress and the multitude of ducks and shore birds that inhabit them. Once told him that if I lived there I'd never turn on the TV.

Can't see our pond from house, wife still wants to rebuild next to our 5 acre pond. Would be real nice, just $$$$, and we can walk to pond from our house in a minute or 2.

[Ericdc]

I've been out there before right at daylight to see some big groups drop in in September and October when we catch a front. Great way to start the day.

[Rick]

The coyote and I took the new guy to our marsh office this morning - after a bit of coercion to get him in the boat. Water level at the boathouse was better than it might have been after our dry Summer, presumably thanks to recent rains, and most of the vegetation we found at the blind was aquatic:


Marsh didn't seem so sure about it, but Peake seemed aware that the chinquapin jungle beat snot out of finding "prairie":


And brushing the blind for September teal won't be much harder than pulling the lids:


After we dig out the boat slip behind it, of course:


That, and open a pond the birds can see beneath the lilies and black dirt that gives the mudhole its name:


So we started the annual grind (I kill me) of making that pond with a Go-Devil prop:


and gained a toehold before storm cells ran us off:


Whoooole lot more grinding to be done, but it's a sweet work place.

Should note that we probably moved a couple hundred birds touring the marsh, though the bigger bunches were woodies, and the rest scattered mottleds and whistling ducks. Nary a teal was seen.

[Rick]

Forgot to note that the inherently cautious pup that had to be drug into the boat at the onset of our venture was a regular old salt by the time we toured our camp's other marsh blinds:

[Rick]

Spent most of the day in the marsh and made some serious headway on my pond:

[Ericdc]

Looks good Rick. Big front pushing through the Dakotas right now, should be getting the teal moving.

[Rick]

That reminds me that while I didn't see more than a pair of maybe-teal along with some Summer ducks, Dave said he saw a little bunch of six or eight in our marsh yesterday morning. But this coming week is Duck Festival week and when we generally expect to start seeing them in numbers, so they're not far off track yet.

[Darren]

Looks good Rick. Big front pushing through the Dakotas right now, should be getting the teal moving.

Looks like north winds across the flyway most of this week, hoping to see a couple next weekend at home.

Nice progress Rick !

[Rick]

Heard another reliable report this morning of more than a dozen small bunches seen south of Thornwell yesterday evening, so I was hoping to see a few when the coyote and I hit the marsh to work on opening the boat hide before the sun got too high. Nothing but the usual suspects moving, though, and that danged ol' sun got too hot to be sitting in that one spot before we got far, so we generated some "breeze" running in the pond for a while before calling it a morning.

Those north winds, should bring drier air, along with (hopefully) birds, but they're still predicting temps in the 90s. Going to have to forget about having a dog's company while grinding out there.

[Rick]

8/25:
Finally seeing teal, mostly high, but several nice bunches south of Gueydan.

[Rick]

8/26:
Celebrated a beautiful, cool morning that began in the upper 60s with a trip to the mudhole to grind out my boat hide's slip. Found the pond living up to it's name with plenty of floating black dirt along with debris from grinding it open, but not nearly so bad as it is after initial grindings some years:


Ground out the slip:


Then made about as many spins in the pond as I had fuel for, before declaring "enough 'work'":


and taking a tour of the marsh to see if I could find a duck. Found only a pair of woodies at the back blind, a dozen or so woodies and one unidentified big duck that looked more like a gray that shouldn't be there yet than a mottled in Clyde's pond, a surprising scratch at Izzak's, a lone woodie at Dave's and, at long last, five bluewings by Ed's blind.

That tiny taste teal prompted me to put the sneak on the old crawfish pond where I photographed the "banded" blackbelly and other whistlers and mottleds few days ago to see if they'd added teal to their mix, but nothing but ibis, egrets, stilts and a lone mottled was there. And ticks.

Did find where a Cajun coyote had passed. Know he was Cajun, 'cause he'd been eating crawfish and rice:

[Deltaman]

WOW, world of difference Rick, the mudhole's looking good Never would've guessed a coyote would eat rice.........or crawfish for that matter. Also, amazing how much Marsh looks like a young Peake in those pics.

[DComeaux]

Looking good Rick.

[Ajverret]

Is this a lease or family property

[Rick]

It's leased by the camp I work for.

[quackhead]

WOW, world of difference Rick, the mudhole's looking good Never would've guessed a coyote would eat rice.........or crawfish for that matter. Also, amazing how much Marsh looks like a young Peake in those pics.

A coyote will eat anything. No different then most dogs

[Rick]

First duck of the season:


Albeit the little gal caught herself in one of our marsh pits:


Primaries were still too short to lift her out of it.

[DComeaux]

That's neat. I thought you'd be in Gueydan at the festival.

[Rick]

Was on my way to shake some hands at G&H and the dog trial when it occurred to me the cool morning could be better spent readying boats and blinds in the marsh. Might make it for some of the calling contest later in the day tomorrow but expect to take the pups boat riding early on.

[Rick]

Peake and I took young Marsh boat riding in the marsh while it was still cool this morning, and since the mudhole is looking good, we "worked on" (read: "ran laps in") a couple of other blind's ponds. Saw next to no ducks of any kind and just one teal, despite the earlier start and having the marsh to ourselves.

Old friend, Jim Ronquest, called to say he was in town judging our state calling contests, so after checking on the water at some ag land blinds (read: "giving the dogs a long romp in safe water"), I dropped the dogs off at the house, cleaned up and headed to the Gueydan Duck Festival to visit with Jim and several other folks I see too rarely.

Was a great reminder that I don't know pecans about contest calling. All the better duck callers sounded so much the same that I'd as soon take a beating as pick a winner, but it was nice to see a fellow who'd guided for us and is starting his own call company take state speck. Makes at least seven state speck champs who've worked with us.

Also happened to notice several hundred teal piling into shallow flooded fields along 14, just west of town.

All in all, a very pleasant day.

[Darren]

Saw a few pics from Brook Richard with Jim in it; I still keep up with Jason Campbell now up in north Mississippi, guess his absence takes one big contender out of the contest, and the young guns keep getting better. Been a good 5 years or so since my last Duck Fest

[Rick]

Jason would probably still hang tough in duck, but don't know about specks. That's now a very different routine than I last heard him run. The two "old" champs still doing speck were John Chaisson, who probably hurt himself by proving he can run a call fast enough to make mush, and Nick Patin, who sounded the most speck-like of the lot to this hunter's tin ear. But Garret ran the piss out of his Vendetta call, and earned a name for he and it.

Couldn't have gone to a nicer guy, either. Was the subject of one of my favorite hero shots on a hunt were he was our retriever:


That was after making the mistake of leaving the blind with only one shell in the gun, which lead to a fun to watch (from the blind) chase and flying tackle:

[Rick]

Sounds like a nice weekend, Rick. Always enjoy reading your posts and living vicariously through you when I can't make it afield.

Thanks, it was great. Absolutely amazingly this close to teal, the welcome call from Jim was the only time my damn phone rang all weekend.

[Ericdc]

Rick, I don't know if you are still using the Kent Teal Steel but if you are Presley's Outdoors has a case of the #5's for $120. Couldn't remember what shells you actually use? I'll probably be stocking up this weekend on the estate's i've been shooting for a few years now. Can get them locally for $10.99 a box for 3 inch loads.

[Rick]

Usually shoot Kent's 20ga 2 3/4" Upland Steel 5s for ducks and been getting them a hair cheaper than that locally, but thanks for the heads-up.

[Ericdc]

Usually shoot Kent's 20ga 2 3/4" Upland Steel 5s for ducks and been getting them a hair cheaper than that locally, but thanks for the heads-up.

What do you use for geese?