WaterfowlForum.Net

Date:

Time:

Location:

Cloud Cover:

Wind Direction and Velocity:

Temperature:

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity:

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Hunters:

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Kudos:

Curses:

Birds By Species:

Photo Ops:

Hunted both days of the opener and then been playing catch up at home for wife coming home tonight, resulting in late log.

Date: 12/20

Time: Morning

Location: H Island

Cloud Cover: Heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: North and light

Temperature: 50

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: Opening morning of second split

Waterfowl Activity: Good numbers but all knew where they were going after first light

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Couldn't find what they wanted

Hunters: Ryan, Lemmons, Lemmons BIL, Jack

Guns:

Malfunctions: Left mojo in bed of truck before playing in the mud trying to get back to spot in the truck. Had Milo with me since we were leaving right after hunt and didn't realize buddy's dog was coming as well. Tried to leave Milo in the crate since I knew it would be ugly again but old busted crate did not hold him. Shit show ensued.

Dog(s): Briggs and Milo's unhappy self

Special Equipment: Disgruntled dog

Kudos: Mallards worked right at first light.

Curses: Well, you know....

Birds By Species: Mallards, greys and a lone pintail that worked even better than the mallards.

Photo Ops:

Date: 12/21

Time: Morning

Location: Warf tank(Family farm)

Cloud Cover: Heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Switched from North to SE around midnight and picked up as morning went on.

Temperature: 40's

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Steady stream of working birds until 8, then had just enough trickle in to finish up at 9.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Seemed a bit shy with little to no wind early but still came.

Hunters: Ryan, Danny and Jack

Guns: Opted for a 3" load, 1 1/4 LBC 43, for the open water over my standard 2 3/4 and gave a clinic on a couple far birds back to back.

Malfunctions: Left dog collar in truck in a hurry to get to the blind.

Dog(s): Milo still seemed wound up from the morning before after hunting with Briggs. I've never had an issue with him breaking but Briggs is a dog that breaks on every volley leaving Milo on the bank. Think that stemmed the competition in his head that carried over to this hunt where he was not going to be beat. Came back home today and took my other non hunting dog out to a field to work Milo. Sat Milo in the middle of the field and dropped balls from a distance all around him, with her even bumping him at times, and Milo never moved an inch. Strange dogs getting 'his' birds still has a far different effect.

Special Equipment: Homemade mallard machine, mojo, jerk rig and 3 dozen

Kudos: Had some great flights of teal and widgeon that put on a good, vocal, show.

Curses: Dog again

Birds By Species: Teal, greys, widgeon and a lone jack

Photo Ops:



Couldn't find my picnic table,

Looks like a big time to me.

Look at the birds! Nice hunts Flight.

Great reports Flight, glad ya'll whacked'em!!!!!!

Date: 12/23

Time: Morning

Location: H Island

Cloud Cover: Heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Strong north around 15

Temperature: 50's

Barometer: 29.74 rising

Moon phase: Waxing 3.9%

Special Notes: Strong front blew in last night, didn't drop the temps much but did push birds out.

Waterfowl Activity: Slow, was able to capitalize on early birds like we need.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had other places to be and didn't care what I had to say.

Hunters: Ryan, Brian and Payton

Guns: 3" LBC again

Malfunctions: Only left mojo pole in the truck this time, getting closer.

Dog(s): Milo, broke on the first flock and I put my gun down after that. He made a good mark on a sprig and found a widgeon hen we thought had hit the current and was gone.

Special Equipment:

Kudos: Good people

Curses:

Birds By Species: 1 sprig, 2 widgeon, 2 grey.

Photo Ops: Grey skies leave nothing but the strap pic.

For some reason can't get the pic to load right on PC.

Such a small picture. At least your not sitting in an office.


I see you fixed it

Edit to add numbers for my sake from the weekend.

12/21- 10
12/22- 24

DComeaux wrote:Such a small picture. At least your not sitting in an office.

Haha just beat ya to it in posting in another way. Try again, was a nice widgeon as well but wind and lighting made it hard to get the birds right for a good pic.

Thank y'all for the kudos, been a fun last few days.

Good to see your killin some. Tried to scratch a few out today. Couldn't get anything to commit. Snows are rolling in by the thousands though so maybe I'll catch them off the game refuge at some point.

Date: 12/28

Time: Morning

Location: H Island

Cloud Cover: Heavy and light rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: North 8

Temperature: 30's

Barometer: 30.30 steady

Moon phase: 49% waxing

Special Notes: Front blew in yesterday and birds didn't want to work much as expected

Waterfowl Activity: Light and knew where they were going.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Poor, seems days of heavy cloud cover, especially around a front, we have a hard time getting birds to work to the call. The best tool we've been able to find yet is simply being where they want. Which we weren't today.

Hunters: 4

Guns: 3" LBC

Malfunctions: none

Dog(s): Milo, kept a slip around his collar to put an end to the breaking nonsense he started. We had one group come in the back door on us where I didn't have him sat at the time and he broke. All other birds he sat nicely.

Special Equipment: Mojo 3 doz

Kudos:

Curses:

Birds By Species: 4 greys

Photo Ops: Ugly, gloomy and wet. Camera stayed in truck

Shame on me, missed a log entry and don't recall any detail other than 7 birds shot in the Canyon.

Spent last weekend filling my doe tag on the last day of season. Saw deer, shot deer, back to bird hunting.

Date: 1/10

Time: Morning

Location: Canyon

Cloud Cover: Heavy with off and on rain.

Wind Direction and Velocity: North light

Temperature: 32

Barometer: 30.5 falling

Moon phase: 74% waning

Special Notes: First decent showing of divers

Waterfowl Activity: Group of pelicans rafted up down river that ended up drawing more birds than already hit that spot. Lots high and moving out with the front activity last few days.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Poor

Hunters: 4

Guns: Mixed bag of shell loads.

Malfunctions: I did not realize it was even possible to miss that many ducks. Had we been on it a four man limit could have been close, although not a concern today.

Dog(s): Briggs

Special Equipment: Mojo, jerk

Kudos: Good time

Curses: Divers also made for tough work recovering.

Birds By Species: 1 mallard, 3 greys, 4 blue bill, 1 gw and a buffy.

Photo Ops:



If only the strap matched the bag.

Sorry for the small pics, can't upload straight to flickr with this phone and haven't figured it out yet.

Grrrrrr

Malfunctions: I did not realize it was even possible to miss that many ducks.

From what I've seen around here lately, you've probably only scratched the surface of that possibility.

Rick wrote:

Malfunctions: I did not realize it was even possible to miss that many ducks.

From what I've seen around here lately, you've probably only scratched the surface of that possibility.

I really hope we paid our dues this morning and give it to 'em next hunt. Lawd it was pathetic!

Date: 1/13

Time: Morning

Location: Warf tank, family farm

Cloud Cover: Heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: 10 North

Temperature: 35

Barometer: Steady

Moon phase: Near half waning

Special Notes: Threw together hide on north bank of tank to compensate for north wind. Worked like a charm

Waterfowl Activity: Very strong and steady for first hour. At one point had around 30ish birds working overhead.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Very well for most, although not much persuading needed.

Hunters: QHpaw AKpirate and Bad17. Great company

Guns: 1 1/4 oz lbc

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Kodi, received quite the workout on the Texas leg of their journey but easy pickings hunting a farm tank. Kodi and Mike made a great track on a ringer that sailed 80 yards out of sight over the tank dam. All birds recovered.

Special Equipment: 2 dozen decoys stacked into the north pocket, tailing out down the bank.

Kudos: Couldn't have asked for a better time with these guys and glad the took the time to stop by. The show put on by the birds was just gravy, one of those morning where everything just clicked. These boys can shoot!

Curses: Not even close.

Birds By Species: 3 widgeon, 10 greys, 4 ringers many sporting great late season colors -- 17

Photo Ops:

Nice hunt flight!

I'm hoping for just one decent hunt before we close, but I'm not real confident about our chances. Not looking for limits,either.

Hate to hear of someone putting in the time with no birds doing their part but have to figure odds would give it up eventually.

Date: 1/17

Time: Morning

Location: APD hole

Cloud Cover: none, FINALLY

Wind Direction and Velocity: Next to none

Temperature: 40

Barometer: 30.13 dropping fast at daylight

Moon phase: 11% waning

Special Notes: Caught an invite to hunt the same water but slightly different area.

Waterfowl Activity: Finally got to hunt where the birds really are, thick. Picking up decoys at 7:18.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Great, widgeon worked 2-3 passes then came in front and center.

Hunters: Myself and one other

Guns: Bout time to clean the silver with 1 week left.

Malfunctions: nil

Dog(s): Dixie, worked great.

Special Equipment: 2 doz, one spinnner

Kudos: Kudos for the invite for the first time of the year with the inviter.

Curses: Nil

Birds By Species: 7 widgeon, 2 greys, 1 spoon, 2 bills

Photo Ops: To follow.

Look the zin-zin. Haven't seen that many in one place here since the '90s.

Date: 1/18

Time: Morning

Location: APD hole again

Cloud Cover: very light

Wind Direction and Velocity: Variable, next to nothing

Temperature: 40's

Barometer: 30.36 dropping

Moon phase: 5% waning

Special Notes: After yesterdays hunt ended so quickly we decided to be selective today. Was tempted at first light with well over 100 divers that had piled in on us in the time leading up.

Waterfowl Activity: Puddlers steadily worked while divers were nearly constant.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Very well to hails to turn them and whistle/ chuckle them the rest of the way.

Hunters: Same as yesterday

Guns: Cannon's load

Malfunctions: none

Dog(s): Dixie, easy money today

Special Equipment: 2 doz, one spinner

Kudos: What a change a few hundred yards can make by having boat access, appreciate the invite again. Definitely not the norm for this spot but we were able to capitalize today.

Curses: Not even close

Birds By Species: 1 mallard, 4 pintail (1 being hen), 2 widgeon, 4 greys.

Photo Ops: To follow again.

That's some sweet piles of birds! Love those wigeon.

Rick wrote:Look the zin-zin. Haven't seen that many in one place here since the '90s.

They are awesome birds, seems we get about one good day like that a year for them.