2019 - 2020 Duck Season

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Wednesday, Nov 27, 2019

Hunters: William, Matthew and I with Abby

Temp: Raining when we got up, drove to the boat landing and waited about 20 minutes for the rain to quit. Temp 62 degrees, with more off and on light rain.

Thought after the rain the ducks would be flying, but saw much less ducks than the day before. Matthew got his first double - he was smiling from ear to ear. We had 1 large group of teal come in, I shot first to make them go up, but for some reason neither boy had a reason they did not shoot - a great opportunity missed.
We quit about 10:00 with nothing flying.

Total: 6 - Gadwall, 2 - Spoonbill, 1 - Greenwing Teal, 1 - Wigeon

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Friday, Nov 29, 2019

Hunters: Buddy and i with Abby

Temp: 65 degrees, wind SSE 8 - 10 mph, with heavy fog for the boat ride, with lighter fog at shoot time.

A fair duck flight this morning, the ducks have returned after the cold weather last week. We are seeing 90% Gadwall, very few teal, which is normally our main duck, a few pintail and wigeon.
Early in the hunt you had to be quick with the ducks coming out of the fog with little time to react.
Abby made 3 long retrieves in the grass I did not think she would get.
Only saw 2 teal this morning.

Total - 11 - Gadwall, 1 - Wigeon.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Saturday, Nov 30, 2019

Hunters: Buddy, Keith, and I with Abby

Temp: 70 degrees, wind SSW 10 - 15 mph

We saw more ducks this morning than I ever saw at our lease. There were moving constantly, no large groups, just ducks moving mostly from West to East, did not go more than 1 minute the entire hunt without seeing ducks on the move. Unfortunately they were not coming to the decoys. Keith is a large man, with glasses, and he does not hide very well, which cost us some opportunities. Keith is a member of our club, but does not hunt a lot, we tried to give him first shot on ducks but he is very slow getting the shot off.
We shot well with the opportunities we had.

Total - 16 - Gadwall

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Sunday, Dec 1, 2019

Hunters: Buddy, Keith and I with Abby

Temp: 60 degrees, wind NNW 5 - 12 mph

Saw only about 10% of the ducks we saw yesterday - I think they packed up and left.
Still not seeing any teal, only saw maybe 10 today
With the lack of ducks Buddy and I decided to shoot when the ducks were in range and not wait on Keith today.
Abby made me proud again today, she trailed a broken wing pintail for 15 minutes, I could not see or hear her - started getting nervous.

Totals: 7 - Gadwall, 2 - Pintail, 1 - Wigeon.

[DComeaux]

Good hunts! I'm yearning for a bird filled sky in the blind.

[Darren]

Some great hunts! Indeed looks like your theory is right on with the southerly winds, warm conditions putting birds in your marsh.

[MARSH BEAR]

Yesterday a member of our club and his 2 guest had to leave the blind by 9:30, as they were packing up their gear a flight of teal flew directly over the blind, and the lead bird was a Cinnamon Teal, very rare in our marsh - in my 36 years hunting our marsh only know of 1 being killed.

[MallardBay]

Yesterday a member of our club and his 2 guest had to leave the blind by 9:30, as they were packing up their gear a flight of teal flew directly over the blind, and the lead bird was a Cinnamon Teal, very rare in our marsh - in my 36 years hunting our marsh only know of 1 being killed.

Bucket list bird for me for sure but just seeing one fly would be a cool experience. Did see a shot up immature drake come through the camp once.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Friday, Dec 6, 2019

Hunters: Larry and I with Abby

Temp: 60 degrees , wind West 0-10 mph, fog on the boat ride to the blind

Fog was very thick on the ride to the blind, got lost in the big lake, but then found the marker. Unloading at the blind the fog lifted to total clear, never saw fog lift that fast.
Slow start until 7:30 when wind picked up, but too many opportunities were lost to other blinds shooting on our duck approach.
Very frustrating to loose that many chances to shoot. Larry hunts in central LA and has not had very good success this year.
The water in our marsh has dropped to normal levels for the first time in 3 years.

Total: 5 - Gadwall, 2 - Greenwing teal.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Saturday, Dec 7, 2019

Hunters: Larry and me with Abby

Temp: 55 degrees, wind NNE 8 - 10 mph

Saw more teal today than any previous hunt this year, but still not the amount we expect to see.
Had our limit by 8:00 am, best hunt I have had this year. Larry was so excited to see that many ducks. Abby made a long blind retrieve on a Gadwall that was hit hard, but continued to fly for 150 yards before it fell out of the sky dead.

Totals: 2 - Pintail (drakes), 4 - Gadwall, 6 - Greenwng teal

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Sunday, Dec 8, 2019 - end of our first split

Hunters: Larry and I with Abby

Temp: 50 degrees, wind East 0-5 mph, I hate an east wind.

Very little duck flight this morning. We saw mostly high Pintail flights that would circle a couple of times then leave.
Larry shot a Mallard drake, when Abby got close it took off flying across the pond, with Abby in hot pursuit. The mallard landed in the grass where Abby was able to get him - Larry was impressed.

Totals: 2 - Spoonies, 1 - Mallard, 2 - Gadwall, 1 - Greenwing teal

[Rick]

Larry shot a Mallard drake, when Abby got close it took off flying across the pond, with Abby in hot pursuit. The mallard landed in the grass where Abby was able to get him - Larry was impressed.

Shame on 'em when they go to grass, instead of open water.

[DComeaux]

Awesome to have the birds.

[Darren]

Great hunts!

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Saturday, Dec 21, 2019

Hunters: Keith, Buddy and I with Abby

Temp: 50 degrees wind 5 - 10 mph NNE

Was expecting a great hunt today with the ducks seen on Friday, but someone forgot to tell the ducks. We heard a lot of shooting in the area early, but we did not shoot for the first hour. Saw a few teal groups of 100-150 each, but nothing like that came our way. We picked up some 1's and 2's but nothing much came our way.
Water is low, actually normal, but with all our high water the last few years the low water only exposes mud flats.

Totals: 7 - Greenwing teal, 3 - Gadwall

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Sunday, Dec 22, 2019

Hunters: Keith, and I with Abby

Temp: 47 degrees, wind WNW 8 - 10 mph

The wind was forecast to be N at 10 - 15, so we choose a blind with a small pond and protected for the north wind. Instead the wind came across the entire pond and only 10 mph at the end of the hunt.
Again lots of early shooting and we saw nothing. Keith is a decent shot, but not very fast to get off his first shot. He had 2 opportunities at teal on his side but could not get ready fast enough.

Totals: 2 - Gadwall, 1 - Spoonbill

[MARSH BEAR]

Merry Christmas to all - hoping all of you have a happy and safe holiday - and maybe Santa will bring all of us a few ducks

[DComeaux]

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you, bear.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Friday, Dec 27, 2019

Hunters: Buddy and I with Abby

Temp: 65 degrees, wind NE, N, NE, ENE, E 5 - 8 mph, fog and misty rain

Not many birds of any kind moving this morning. We heard some shooting but not the normal amount. Everything we had came in as singles, except for 2 pair, 1 pair leaving unscathed. Abby did a good job on 2 wounded teal, Buddy does not shoot many ducks dead, makes Abby earn her keep. We hunted until 11:30 to finally get our limit.

Totals: 7 - Greenwing teal, 3 - Gadwall, 2 - Spoonbill

[MARSH BEAR]

Saturday, Dec 28, 2019

Hunters: Buddy and I with Abby

Temp: 65 degrees, wind SE 10 mph, again misty rain and light fog.

Same conditions as yesterday with a little more wind. Ducks caught us offguard all morning. Buddy had a difficult time sighting birds on his end. It was my worst shooting day in a long time, after a while the frustration wore off and it became funny - let's see how many you can miss this time shooting.
We had opportunities for our limit, but the poor shooting saved the ducks.

Totals: 5 - Greenwing teal, 1 - Bluewing teal, 1 - Gadwall

[MARSH BEAR]

Leaving today to go on a fancy hunt with my son-in-law at Oak Grove Hunting Club in Little Chenier. He won it at a school raffle to raise money, I don't know how many tickets he bought.
I will post results Tuesday.

[DComeaux]

Curious of the outcome of your hunt. Take some pictures, please.

[MARSH BEAR]

Dave, I left my phone at the camp, calling that place a camp is like calling a Rolls Royce just a car. For pictures of the camp google Oak Grove Hunting Club, it is in Creole, LA they have pictures on their website. The "camp has 21 bedrooms with king size bed and your own private bath.
The hunting was not anything special, my guide's name was Richard and he said the ducks don't normally fly until 8:00 at the blind we were going to and he was right. They quit hunting at 9:00 and we left ducks flying. I did not shoot as poorly as I did on Saturday, but still not as well as I thought I should.
Oak Grove has 10,000 acres to hunt with 32 blinds, they have 16 guides and they hunt every day except Christmas and Thanksgiving. This is not a pay hunt, you are invited.

Totals: 5 - Greenwing teal, 1 - Gadwall, 1 - Greenhead, 2 - Spoons

I wish I had a picture of the Mallard, his head was so dark it was almost black, and he was huge.

[MARSH BEAR]

Saturday, Jan 4, 2020

Hunters: Buddy and I with Abby

Temp: 47 degrees, wind NNW 8 - 10 mph

We had ducks moving all morning. All the big wads of teal stayed away from the decoys, but enough 1, 2 and 3s came in pretty. Abby had her A game on Saturday, she came back with a greenwing teal that only had a broken wing and got to the far bank of the pond long before she did. She picked up that teal about 75 yards from where it went ashore. Had another teal that fell behind the blind and when Abby got close it took off flying for about 25 yards, I got my gun and was getting out the blind when Buddy said when Abby got to the teal the second time it took off and she caught in the air, I missed that as I was trying to get this old body out of the blind.
We finished at 8:30 and all 5 of our blinds that hunted got their limits.

Total: 6 - Greenwing teal, 5 - Gadwall, 1 - Pintail

[MARSH BEAR]

Sunday, Jan 5, 2020

Hunters: Buddy and I with Abby

Temp: 47 degrees, wind Zero from nowhere, finally got to 3 - 4 mph when we quit at 9:30

What a difference a day makes, same temp as yesterday, same clear skies, just no wind and a little light fog. We saw very few ducks ducks moving today, and the few we saw were headed somewhere else. Not much shooting in the area. We had 1 blind with 2 men get 10 teal, but that was due 2 large groups of teal coming in on them.

Total: 2 - Spoonbill, 1 - Gadwall

[Darren]

Saturday, Jan 4, 2020

Hunters: Buddy and I with Abby

Temp: 47 degrees, wind NNW 8 - 10 mph

We had ducks moving all morning. All the big wads of teal stayed away from the decoys, but enough 1, 2 and 3s came in pretty. Abby had her A game on Saturday, she came back with a greenwing teal that only had a broken wing and got to the far bank of the pond long before she did. She picked up that teal about 75 yards from where it went ashore. Had another teal that fell behind the blind and when Abby got close it took off flying for about 25 yards, I got my gun and was getting out the blind when Buddy said when Abby got to the teal the second time it took off and she caught in the air, I missed that as I was trying to get this old body out of the blind.
We finished at 8:30 and all 5 of our blinds that hunted got their limits.

Total: 6 - Greenwing teal, 5 - Gadwall, 1 - Pintail

Sounds like a pretty strap



Would be curious as to your feel for the season based on your own observations to date with a couple of weeks left.....what are you seeing on side of the road or on boat rides versus last year or other past years?

[MARSH BEAR]

Last year was very good for us, it was all teal after Christmas, but I like shooting teal and we had plenty. This year the teal have not come to our area like they usually do. For us this time of year we will see wads of teal in the 300 to 500 count. This year 40 or 50 teal is a big flock.
We are seeing ducks getting up on our way back to the boat landing, some days more than others. The ducks in the ponds along the highway are still there. I think the ducks have found the areas that no one is bothering them and that is where they are staying.
East Mud Lake is 1/2 mile west of where we hunt, and we are getting reports and videos of grays and teal rafted up on Mud Lake by the thousands.

[Rick]

East Mud Lake is 1/2 mile west of where we hunt, and we are getting reports and videos of grays and teal rafted up on Mud Lake by the thousands.

Blow wind, blow!

[Darren]

East Mud Lake is 1/2 mile west of where we hunt, and we are getting reports and videos of grays and teal rafted up on Mud Lake by the thousands.

Blow wind, blow!

Yea exactly!

Nonetheless, sounds like textbook late season behavior and that alone is encouraging given it's been that way for quite a loooong time. I'm hearing of similar patterns with grays to my south on larger bays that are shallow enough to hold food still. My food is about gone even in my best (shallowest/most protected) pond.

Otherwise, I'm seeing them jump from small, land-locked ponds that no one bothers to hunt......would if I had access to it.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Friday, Jan 10, 2020

Hunters: Larry and I with Abby

Temp: 65 degrees, wind SE 5 - 8 mph

Teal were moving the whole morning. We were hunting our #10 blind and it has an spot with a large clump of grass that restricts your view and guess where the teal were coming from all morning. We were ate up a few times, but thankfully we had enough opportunities to make up for it. Larry was so proud of himself he was 4 for 4 at the start, then it took him almost a whole box of shells to get his other 2. Larry hunts in the central part of the state and a good hunt for him is 2 ducks.
In our marsh the ducks don't "work", you get 1 pass and that's it, they may decoy in or be a fly by, but very seldom do the ducks circle a few times and come in, and Larry has a hard time getting accustomed to that.

Totals: 8 - Greenwing teal, 2 - Gadwall, 2 - Pintail