Rick wrote:Just some great guys (aside from that character second form the right) after a "bad" hunt in "the good old days". Scratched like a red-assed ape on the south end of Creole Bell (the only rice between what was then Shot's Camp and the marsh and first rice for the Amaco flight) on a morning when they didn't fly where they "always" do. But Goat and the guys didn't come all the way from Crenshaw County Alabama to hang their lips.
I try to learn from guys like them or the small handful of guides we've had who never seemed to kill much but most always brought their hunters back to camp happy. Albeit without a whole lot of luck. Just not much of an entertainer, and the tougher it gets, the more my ass too often puckers over the mistakes we're making, instead lightening up and otherwise making the best of the morning.
Rick wrote:A shot of perspective from the wall over this computer screen, "1992 Goose Hunt, 'Day's Bag'":
Rick wrote:Just some great guys (aside from that character second form the right) after a "bad" hunt in "the good old days". Scratched like a red-assed ape on the south end of Creole Bell (the only rice between what was then Shot's Camp and the marsh and first rice for the Amaco flight) on a morning when they didn't fly where they "always" do. But Goat and the guys didn't come all the way from Crenshaw County Alabama to hang their lips.
I try to learn from guys like them or the small handful of guides we've had who never seemed to kill much but most always brought their hunters back to camp happy. Albeit without a whole lot of luck. Just not much of an entertainer, and the tougher it gets, the more my ass too often puckers over the mistakes we're making, instead lightening up and otherwise making the best of the morning.
Darren wrote:Mallard bay marsh is what the Oak Island folks hunt? And LA Reclamation the marsh across the ditch to the west of them?
Darren wrote:Rick wrote:Just some great guys (aside from that character second form the right) after a "bad" hunt in "the good old days". Scratched like a red-assed ape on the south end of Creole Bell (the only rice between what was then Shot's Camp and the marsh and first rice for the Amaco flight) on a morning when they didn't fly where they "always" do. But Goat and the guys didn't come all the way from Crenshaw County Alabama to hang their lips.
I try to learn from guys like them or the small handful of guides we've had who never seemed to kill much but most always brought their hunters back to camp happy. Albeit without a whole lot of luck. Just not much of an entertainer, and the tougher it gets, the more my ass too often puckers over the mistakes we're making, instead lightening up and otherwise making the best of the morning.
So it was, indeed, possible to have a slow hunt(or even scratch!!) long before these current times some are calling "the beginning of the end". Just wanted to make sure
Kind of like the globe is so hot these days from our human contributions, "its so hot that it hasn't been this hot since the record set in 1897".......so it was this hot (or hotter) back then sometimes too huh?
Darren wrote:Mallard bay marsh is what the Oak Island folks hunt? And LA Reclamation the marsh across the ditch to the west of them? Saw there's a Reclamation Road that serves a little tank battery down that way.
Drought monitor shows entire state in the dust. Heard a report of awfully dry conditions recently from N. La as I'm sure Eric can attest to.
Darren wrote:2.) LOTS of reports from people saying they were loaded with birds week before the opener but had surprisingly slow opening weekend; guess they all went back north to eat corn
That was some guys in Vermilion Parish all the way east to Capt. Ryan Lambert in Buras/Plaquemines Parish, similar story.
Lreynolds wrote:Darren wrote:2.) LOTS of reports from people saying they were loaded with birds week before the opener but had surprisingly slow opening weekend; guess they all went back north to eat corn
That was some guys in Vermilion Parish all the way east to Capt. Ryan Lambert in Buras/Plaquemines Parish, similar story.
Twas true .........
We got a rather unique look at a rather unique situation last year via band recoveries as well. LDWF NAWMP Coordinator, Paul Link, has been banding large numbers of bluewings in March/April the last 3 years as part of an avian-flu research project, mostly around Port Barre, AND he is the chair of the Mississippi Flyway Council Technical Section Banding Committee, which holds the permit and oversees the banding of ducks in Yorkton, SK, where we have banded large numbers of bluewings for the last 5 years.
Remember how unusually cool the weather was in early September last year? Almost freakishly so, AND the Waterfowl Program Manager, and a big majority of hunters, thought it a good idea to postpone the opening date 6 days and open on a Friday to hunt the last 16 days in September.
So now the stage is set for what I wanted to say ......
During the first 6 days of Texas' teal season, when we were NOT open, TX hunters killed 84 bluewings that had been banded in either Port Barre, LA or Yorkton, SK. I also flew the Coastal aerial survey during those 6 days, and counted the highest number of bluewings in 10 years. So there were plenty of birds around.
Rick wrote:Feel like I've been in the rain all morning while in our marsh (and just got out of a hot shower that felt flat wonderful), and we're still pretty low on the Clyde's boat and Isaac and Ed's slips indicators:
But I've seen the marsh a lot drier. Was disappointed with my spring cane spraying results and all the more so that the rain sabotaged my plans to hit another lick this morning, but I'd at least knocked them back some:
And praise be to Ma Nature that the mudhole was much, much better than expected:
Very much expected it to be covered in goose weed (like Isaac and Ed's boat slip), as was the case during the 2010 and 2011 droughts. Not sure how I escaped that so far, and may not in the long run, but I'm thankful to see what little bottom's showing, instead of goose weed prairie. Will little doubt look much different come September, but hopefully still manageable...
Darren wrote:Can you comment on the following:
1.) Do BW's move down in waves of some kind, sorted in some way? Early males that haven't stayed behind with broods? Other?
2.) When that mass is missed, as in 2017, are we basically SOL for the remainder of the 16 days? and
3.) These birds banded in Port Barre (in spring) opted to go to Texas coast in the subsequent fall migration. Is that common? Did they not imprint on Louisiana? Or is it just a crap shoot of which way they'll head each fall?
Thanks for kicking it around with us
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest