Date: 12/15/18
Time: morning on river. Afternoon at lease field
Location:river/lease
Cloud Cover: heavy. Misting rain mixed with foggy periods.
Wind Direction and Velocity: strong from NW and sometimes swirling to southwest.
Temperature: low 40s
Moon phase: waxing crescent
Special Notes: arrived at camp around 9 Friday night and the guys who’d been there all day had slacked on their scouting duties, so we had to go in blind.
Waterfowl Activity: watched ducks stream out of the south all morning and afternoon. Quite a few on the fields at lunch. Several big bodies of geese around.
Waterfowl Responsiveness: the few ducks we saw at callable height had good initial response on river, but most of those showed up within a 30 second window of each other and we went from thinking we were about to land 5 groups at one time to having a single sneak in on us while I was looking at another group. A nearby shot then flared all of them. Had another couple groups not able to decide if they wanted to work the woods behind us or the hole in front. They probably circled 15 times.
Afternoon ducks were pretty responsive. Were able to break a handful of mallards and one group of pintails I still regret not calling the shot on as they made a low pass over us. Geese would lock initially then slide off or simply pick up and keep on going. Rascals are sharp this year.
Hunters: 2
Guns: M2 and Stoeger
Malfunctions: could have had a better set up on the river. Ducks seemed to want the better cover of the flooded woods instead of the open hole.
Dog(s): Legh and Trace. Trace, who is 2, made a nice 200 yard mark on a chipped mallard in the field. Highlight of a slow day.
Special Equipment: jerk cord
Curses: lack of low ducks
Kudos: My buddy seems to have fixed Trace’s habit of breaking on shot.
Birds By Species: 1 gwt in the AM. 1 hen bufflehead (huh, no kidding was my response when I saw her) and 1 mallard in the PM.
Photo Ops: Legh and trace considering finding new owners who are better at guessing where the ducks will be.
Lagniappe: I’m afraid I have bad news for you south Louisiana guys in addition to my observation of northward birds (typically the ducks will fly one way in the AM then the opposite way in the PM in our area). Both of the major rivers in our area are out of their banks and flooding a whole lot of ground. There is water on the landscape everywhere.