2014-2015 Season Log...

[Rick]

Date: 9/23

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: Northerly fairly strong.

Temperature: nice and cool

Barometer: 30.06 rising

Moon phase: New(?)

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Pretty fair show between LST and sunrise, but then slowed below a trickle.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: What was around still worked well.

Hunters: 2, Docs Charles and Kent

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: spinners large and small and MMM

Kudos: no one was shot

Curses: no one was shot

Birds By Species: 8 bw teal

Photo Ops:

[Darren]

Lots of folks seem to feel the small spinners are more effective because they're faster, and some even goose them more by replacing the AA battery packs with the little square 9volts, which run down quicker but run the motor even faster until they do.

But I usually teal hunt with both a full sized Mojo and a teal Mojo, and it sure seems to me like the big one has more draw, not just from a distance, where it must be more easily seen, but in close. I've often split them on either side of a levee, and have seen enough more birds buzz the bigger one to doubt it's coincidence.

If, however, I'm wrong about that, it certainly won't be a first.

"If you think I'm wrong, you may be right"

I really haven't enough documented observation with them in the early teal season over the years to lean one way or the other. As can be seen in a photo or two to-date, my little dove is painted brown (looked like a chocolate bird when done) with blue patches painted on its sides; and it just got a 2s on/off timer last night. Also running my mojo greenwing with same timer and the combo has worked so have just let it alone, though have considered the larger flash to mimic the throngs of mottleds we're seeing. Guess what I like most about the two little ones is they both fit in a small dry box I haul to the blind in september..convenience

Try 'em in the morning.....

[DComeaux]

Curses: no one was shot

I'm sure there's a story here somewhere..

[Deltaman]

Exactly what I was thinking too...............kinda subtle

Rick, I almost booked a trip to Doug's in Gueydan last year..........I saw that you mentioned Doug's in an earlier post. Is this who you work for?

[Rick]

Curses: no one was shot

I'm sure there's a story here somewhere..

Just a stressful morning. One of the guys has been hunting with me for what seems like ever and is both absolutely obsessed with shooting limits and absolutely incapable of not second guessing my every decision. (My only salvation is that he's also specklebelly obsessed and only reserves me for teal and goose only seasons, because my marsh blind is so iffy for geese.) And the other fellow who's been coming with him the past few years, while very pleasant, is at the stage in life where his eyesight and reflexes are gone. By the time he's on a teal, his barrel is well into our "no fire" zone and dangerously close to my dog, so I have to stay vigilant to stop his swings and save the coyote's noggin and what's left of his hearing. Which, of course, does nothing for my ability to contribute to achieving the Almighty Limit.

[Rick]

Rick, I almost booked a trip to Doug's in Gueydan last year..........I saw that you mentioned Doug's in an earlier post. Is this who you work for?

Yes, but please don't take that as an endorsement. We have some very strong places and guides, and we have some gar holes and ghetto guides that would be long gone if I were king.

[Duckdog]

I can only imagine how frustrating that could be Rick.

And, just for the record, I've always noticed ducks key in on, and seem to gravitate towards the big Mojo. Like mentioned above, I wish it wasn't like that because the smaller ones are a heck of a lot easier to store and haul in.

Makes a guy wonder if having 2 babies or teal would equal one big one..?? That'd be a heck of a study!

[DComeaux]

That'll put a damper on a nice cool mornings outing, Good thing it's not a common occurrence, at least from what I've read from you over time.

[Rick]

Makes a guy wonder if having 2 babies or teal would equal one big one..?? That'd be a heck of a study!

One of our marsh's normally strongest blinds is in a high traffic location and hasn't had a better looking pond in years, yet hasn't killed enough teal this September to make a gumbo. And I strongly suspect it's largely because it's being hunted with two teal Mojos this year, instead of the two big ones that had been it's past SOP.

[Rick]

That'll put a damper on a nice cool mornings outing, Good thing it's not a common occurrence, at least from what I've read from you over time.

Its been a season of mostly tough parties to succeed with, but making it work regardless is part of the fun, and most folks through the blind are great people to share a morning with. Shoot, Doc's easy to be around when he isn't going "coo-coo for Coco Pu...," er, limits.

[Deltaman]

That'll put a damper on a nice cool mornings outing, Good thing it's not a common occurrence, at least from what I've read from you over time.

Its been a season of mostly tough parties to succeed with, but making it work regardless is part of the fun, and most folks through the blind are great people to share a morning with. Shoot, Doc's easy to be around when he isn't going "coo-coo for Coco Pu...," er, limits.

Rick, I understand your pain........... I was a fishing guide in the 80's, and learned how to bite my lip and smile on many occasions. Just gotta take the bad with the good, and like you mentioned, make it work. Really enjoying your reports, keep'em coming

[Rick]

Date: 9/24

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light NE

Temperature: cool to warm

Barometer: 30.08 rising

Moon phase:

Special Notes: word's out that the season's a slow one and the camp's empty

Waterfowl Activity: Saw the fewest birds of the season on my end of the marsh, but others to our east had better shooting over more open marsh.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Low birds worked beautifully, high ones kept right on keeping on. Tickled me to be able to show my friend the little assembly call that's been putting them where they need to be, as well as show a fellow tinkerer by Mallard Machine modification.

Hunters: Buddy hunt with Ric.

Guns:

Malfunctions: Ric has some sort of special but pad on his SBE that had fallen off at the truck left him with no pad or plate at all on its synthetic stock. Ouch. But he shot lights out.

Dog(s): Peake had an easy one.

Special Equipment: l and s spinners and mmm

Kudos: Ric was good company and literally hit everything that came before we called it quits with his limit.

Curses: no birds

Birds By Species: 6 bw teal

Photo Ops:

[Rick]

I was a fishing guide in the 80's...

My Capt. Rick phase broke me of even fishing for fun.

[Ericdc]

Date: 9/23

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: Northerly fairly strong.

Temperature: nice and cool

Barometer: 30.06 rising

Moon phase: New(?)

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Pretty fair show between LST and sunrise, but then slowed below a trickle.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: What was around still worked well.

Hunters: 2, Docs Charles and Kent

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: spinners large and small and MMM

Kudos: no one was shot

Curses: no one was shot

Birds By Species: 8 bw teal

Photo Ops:

Kudos: no one was shot

Curses: no one was shot


That bad?

[The Duck Hammer]

Tickled me to be able to show my friend the little assembly call that's been putting them where they need to be,

You using something over than the MVP teal setup now?

[firstflight]

Date: 9/21

Time: afternoon

Location: John's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE moderate

Temperature: hot

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw the most birds since before the opener in this spot.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Fortunately excellent with several landing in the decoys for the boys.

Hunters: 3, the camp owner's great-grandson, 8yr-old Cole, his cousin, 11yr-old Gabe, and their grandfather and my favorite hunting partner, Mike.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Just the coyote.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners, large and small

Kudos: We were blessed with the kind of hunt they all should be, especially when kids are along. Cole and Gabe each shot a nice little mess of birds - and even some in the air.

Curses: None whatsoever.

Birds By Species: 11 bw teal

Photo Ops: Gabe and Mike teamed up in one hide:


as did Cole, the coyote and I in another nearby:


Tickled me to see my charge, Cole, who was pretty much raised at our camp, produce a tag from his pocket and proudly z-tie it to his first teal of the afternoon:


And you betcha we took lots of hero shots for the folks at home:


(The decoy is a DHC traveler I'm sitting between weekends with other area hunters.)

Great job on the youth and getting them out for a great hunt ..

[Rick]

Kudos: no one was shot

Curses: no one was shot


That bad?

You never wanted to shoot anyone?

[Rick]

Great job on the youth and getting them out for a great hunt ..

We were absolutely blessed with that one. Was supposed to take Cole and his new dad, who is also a new hunter, yesterday afternoon and suspect the mix-up over Cole's football practice schedule was also a blessing, as it was sloooow. Have fingers and toes crossed that this afternoon sees a lot more activity. Am, in fact, debating whether to shoot this morning, myself, (no pay hunters in the camp and my invited guest probably isn't going to make it) or wait to try and fatten their strap this afternoon. Have been known to leave the gun in the boat and just count coup when alone in the marsh - but have given away all but last evening's birds and sure wouldn't mind having more for our house...

[Rick]

Date: 9/24

Time: afternoon

Location: John's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly moderate

Temperature: hot until the sun was low

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Were a few teal on the pond when I got there that bumped over to Mamie's but precious little moving after that.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: What larger groups initially came my way pushed off the plainly too familiar spinner or spot. One trio and a single came pretty.

Hunters: Just the coyote and me. Was to take Cole and his dad, Mikey, but Mikey had Cole's football practice days twisted.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Peake caught up on some rest.

Special Equipment: Big spinner and a dozen and a half decoys.

Kudos: My belly button was thoroughly contemplated, we were blessed with just enough chances to put the best possible mess of birds on our family table. That, and Cole and Mikey didn't have to endure the long, uneventful hunt that wouldn't have given them any real opportunity.

Curses: Fear it won't be any better for them this (following) afternoon.

Birds By Species: 6 bw teal Noticed they were all drakes, supposedly indicating the beginning of migration, but haven't been paying more than casual attention to overall ratio.

Photo Ops: Was hot:


and boring:


But we did eventually get the "money shot" of the coyote passing a traveling decoy with game:


And a sixth little drake eventually joined the five that had a long wait for him to make a full strap:

[Rick]

Date: 9/25

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear at LST, then increasingly cloudy.

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly moderate

Temperature: cool

Barometer: 30.09 rising

Moon phase: new

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Virtually none, even the mottleds and squealers seemed AWOL

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had a hen that landed somewhere in the safe zone to the dog's right around LST, but I couldn't make her out on the pond, just listen to her periodic kacking. Finally stepped up onto the dog stand to see where she was, but only heard her flush and didn't see her until she broke the grass line well out. Then had a low pair swing around the pond for the call and/or spinners but push out hard just after entering our shooting zone inside the east spinner and disappear against the grass before a hurried shot where I thought one might be but wasn't. Later, what must have been the earlier hen returned from the east, banked hard at the spinner, lit on a patch of black dirt on the pond's east edge and started kacking at nothing again, which explained why I didn't see her earlier - but not why she found the bare humus flotant attractive or why she was hollering.

Hunters: Only hunters in camp were a paid member who hunts every day, his grandson (the two of whom split up between what have been our best two teal blinds) and two play hunt guests of Dave's. I was afraid to try to recruit a friend to share the kind of shooting Ric and I saw yesterday at my blind.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Peake snoozed

Special Equipment: the usual compliment of gadgetry

Kudos: Lynn and his grandson both managed limits in their two blinds (Ed's and Izaak's) on the more open marsh to my east. And I, thank goodness, was hunting alone, as I ended up shooting just the black dirt hen by stepping up onto the dog stand and clipping her as she flew out in what's normally a safe zone and lucking into a second coming low from that safe zone and pushing off to the rear, instead of crossing the pond, behind canes that hide us from the south. Would have been a DNS (did not shoot) scratch with guests due to what little shooting I had taking place where they couldn't have shot at all.

Curses Dave's crew didn't fare much better than me, with three, despite being on the east end.

Birds By Species: 2 bw teal

Photo Ops: The black dirt hen didn't make it out a second time once the lights were on:

[Ericdc]

Kudos: no one was shot

Curses: no one was shot


That bad?

You never wanted to shoot anyone?

Prolly so, what happened?

[Rick]

Kudos: no one was shot

Curses: no one was shot


That bad?

You never wanted to shoot anyone?

Prolly so, what happened?

Curses: no one was shot

I'm sure there's a story here somewhere..

Just a stressful morning. One of the guys has been hunting with me for what seems like ever and is both absolutely obsessed with shooting limits and absolutely incapable of not second guessing my every decision. (My only salvation is that he's also specklebelly obsessed and only reserves me for teal and goose only seasons, because my marsh blind is so iffy for geese.) And the other fellow who's been coming with him the past few years, while very pleasant, is at the stage in life where his eyesight and reflexes are gone. By the time he's on a teal, his barrel is well into our "no fire" zone and dangerously close to my dog, so I have to stay vigilant to stop his swings and save the coyote's noggin and what's left of his hearing. Which, of course, does nothing for my ability to contribute to achieving the Almighty Limit.

[Rick]

Date: 9/25

Time: afternoon

Location: John's, but in a new location.

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly moderate

Temperature: warm

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: saw a few big high and hauling bunches, but little working the farm and much less that appeared to want to stick. Mostly buzz and go.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Lousy. Had but one bunch buy in.

Hunters: Mikey and Cole stood me up, again, which was a very good thing, again. Not an evening for new hunters.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy evening

Special Equipment: teal spinner

Kudos: my hunters decided to go to the Homecoming bon fire, instead. And at least made a little hay, if not the triple it should have been, when a big bunch finally did work.

Curses: Knocked a high fast single down in a ragweed jungle I knew better than to shoot towards and lost it.

Birds By Species: 2 bw teal

Photo Ops: forgot camera

[Ericdc]

Kudos: no one was shot

Curses: no one was shot


That bad?

You never wanted to shoot anyone?

Prolly so, what happened?

Curses: no one was shot

I'm sure there's a story here somewhere..

Just a stressful morning. One of the guys has been hunting with me for what seems like ever and is both absolutely obsessed with shooting limits and absolutely incapable of not second guessing my every decision. (My only salvation is that he's also specklebelly obsessed and only reserves me for teal and goose only seasons, because my marsh blind is so iffy for geese.) And the other fellow who's been coming with him the past few years, while very pleasant, is at the stage in life where his eyesight and reflexes are gone. By the time he's on a teal, his barrel is well into our "no fire" zone and dangerously close to my dog, so I have to stay vigilant to stop his swings and save the coyote's noggin and what's left of his hearing. Which, of course, does nothing for my ability to contribute to achieving the Almighty Limit.

Yea that doesn't sound fun. You are brave getting into that little pit with armed people you might have never met before, I don't think I could do it. Pretty selective on who I hunt with, and have culled a few folks.

I was hunting next to you and the dog on our hunt and remember stopping my swing on birds going out that side a few times. Did shoot a teal or 2 while you and peake were out in boat that otherwise wouldn't have.

[Rick]

We're extremely effective live decoys.

[Rick]

Date: 9/26

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: light but enough to keep the sun off our backs.

Wind Direction and Velocity: Easterly moderate

Temperature: cool

Barometer: 30.03 rising

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: still not much around, but we were in the right place at the right time for most of the shooting in the marsh.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most of what passed reasonably close came to the guns.

Hunters: No pay hunters in camp, so I invited D. Comeaux, his buddy, Blake, and the Inda Bros, Keith and Paul, from DHC to join me.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): First hunt of the season that everything fell in the pond, and he wasn't needed.

Special Equipment: Spinners large and small and MMM

Kudos: Would have passed a good time with or without birds, but enough came to generate some hooting and hollering and a whole lot of laughter, as well as a teal dinner.

Curses: Wished I could have shown them more birds but thankful for what came.

Birds By Species: 13 bw teal

Photo Ops: Blake, Paul, Keith and Dave at the mudhole:


and posing with Old Yeller:

[Flightstopper]

Bet that was a great time.

[DeadEye_Dan]

Very nice!

[Rick]

Was an old fashioned hoot.

[Rick]

Date: 9/26

Time: afternoon

Location: John's

Cloud Cover: cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Easterly moderate

Temperature: warm

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: hard to believe it was the same field that's been so slow since the afternoon we lucked out with the boys. Not many birds on the water when I got there around 5, but a steady flow that included great swarms began about the time I loaded the gun and continued until I unloaded fifteen or twenty minutes later - then seemed to be over as I didn't see any others picking up or on the way out. Though a few were moving again when I got to the truck.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Set up in a new spot with a little 6 decoy spread, and they ate it and the call(?) up.

Hunters: Just the coyote and I. Wasn't going to go after yesterday's vigil for next to naught, but couldn't stand not going.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Peake had it easy with nothing falling far.

Special Equipment: Just my carved blocks.

Kudos: Dropped 3 from the first little bunch to cross the field, then couldn't/wouldn't shoot much of the time because I didn't want to educate hundreds to kill a pair. Neat to see what seemed every teal in the parish in such short order.

Birds By Species: 5 bw teal (Though I was officially just a boat driver and cheerleader from said boat while the guys took over my blind this morning, I did pick one cherry I just couldn't stand to see hanging overhead while the guys focused their fire on others.

Photo Ops: Hadn't taken any photos, so broke the camera out as the coyote returned with our last bird and he sat and struck a pose without prompting like the veteran he is:


Noticed the other evening that all six birds were drakes, and while that wasn't the case today, four of five were:


Wish I've kept track throughout this slow, slow season, just to test the drakes first theory. Does seem something to it when I do pay attention.