2015-2016 Season

[Rick]

Be sure not to miss http://www.waterfowlforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7607

For reference, the chicken trees in the first shot are at the end of the N/S flood canal.

[DComeaux]

12/19/2015 2nd split opener
Clear temp- low 40's Light NE wind to start
Blake Wes, Ryan and I
Birds- 8 ducks 5 specks --- 2 mallards 2 pintail 1 mottled 1GW teal 1 spoon 1 gray

Not a lot of ducks in the area but enough to make it fun. There is a LARGE wad of green wing just to our south that will not leave that field. The specks worked beautiful this morning. Our north cut looks like hogs rooted in it and there are plenty of preening feathers on the water. One chipped mallard was lost in the north pond. I had brought the FB speck decoys but didn't put them out,only the 6 floaters were used. I will deploy the dozen FB's in the morning along with the floaters.

The boys and the birds

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Ellie with a big boy.
I'm a little concerned about Ellie. She has not been herself lately and today she tired out on the last long retrieve on the mallard we didn't recover. She seems fine now that we're home. Dunno?

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[Rick]

That's much better than our crews just down the road did. Glad the specks came back.

[Darren]

Great hunt!! Missed out on a golden snow goose op this morning, had been wondering what Harry would do with a goose. Did, however, see what he'd do with a nutria.......retrieved it.

[DComeaux]

Great hunt!! Missed out on a golden snow goose op this morning, had been wondering what Harry would do with a goose.

Did, however,see what he'd do with a nutria.......retrieved it.

Ellie did the same thing a few years ago. I would think think she didn't want to come back empty handed.

[DComeaux]

12/20/2015
Partly Cloudy- low 40's Light NE wind
Blake and I
Birds- EL-SCRATCHO

What little ducks we had are gone and the specks had other places in mind. We didn't even think about shooting.

[Rick]

Yikes.

[DComeaux]

12/24/2015
HOT with heavy fog
Blake and 2
Birds- 3 2 mallards 1 gray

They did see a few ducks and the specks were moving but wouldn't work. I stopped by on the way out from Ricks and did see some speck activity, they re just not as thick as they could be. They lost one spoon that Blake went after. No treat for him.

[DComeaux]

12/26/2015
Temp mid 70's Low overcast moderate SE wind
Blake, Justin Bill and I
Birds- 2 1 mallard 1 gray

Missed a pair of teal in the decoys and one shot early on a working mallard drake, and that was it for opportunity. There were quite a few high flocks, well, as high as they could get and still be be visible, heading south to THE MARSH. Wouldn't even acknowledge our pleading until dizzy. Few specks around but were as response as the ducks. They were north east bound looking for something we didn't offer. FEELS LIKE SUMMER TIME!

[DComeaux]

12/27/2015 (Afternoon)
Temp 80 to start HOT Low broken to overcast with higher clouds Strong SE wind (blow your cap off speed)
WFF's Darren and Johnny
Birds- 3 Ducks 1 Speck 3 mallards

The most low ducks milling around I've seen this year. I pleaded with a lot of groups and it's probably a good thing that Darren and Johnny were wearing hearing protection Really nice afternoon with good people. I sure wish I had the week off with this weather coming through.

Johnny and Darren with the birds

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[DComeaux]

12/31/2015
Temp low 50's and cool in that wind Overcast Moderate NE wind
Darren and I
Birds- 9 Ducks 5 grays 2 mottled 1 dos gris 1 gw teal

Not many ducks seen this morning but some wanted to play. Got the attention of a few groups of specks that just didn't get right (try these). Pretty good flight of geese coming from way south this morning, specks and blues.

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[DComeaux]

1/1/2016 (Afternoon)
Temp upper 40's Overcast light rain 5-10 NE wind
Blake and I
Birds- 4 Ducks 1 gray 1 gw teal and 2 spoons on which Blake made a nice double.

When we parked the truck at the place and started grabbing our stuff for the ride to the blind, Blake looked at me and said "you're not gonna believe this S&%t". He had left his shotgun in his truck at my house. Since he hadn't hunted since last Saturday due to a medical issue I let him have my gun for the afternoon. I had a nice time calling and watching him shoot.

We saw A LOT of ducks coming from the south this afternoon, and I mean A LOT! It was pretty much a constant flow from the time we got there(2:00) and was still going on when we were at the truck pulling out of the place at dark:30. LARGE bunches of green wing swarmed low through the area during the hunt. We missed a couple of good opportunities on BIG butches over the decoys on those. The geese were pretty much nonexistent this evening,with only an occasional high flock coming through.

I haven't had a spinner out over the last several hunts but I think I'm going to put one out in the morning in hopes that the green wing are still around. I sure wish the birds were more responsive! I'm able to break a few down but it ends up just being a tease. I'd sure like to be where all of those birds we saw today want to be..... Big... fat.... loafing mallards headed into the north wind.

Blake and his take

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[Rick]

I was still feeling too punky to take the pup for an afternoon hunt over your way yesterday, but you're making me wish I had. Having seen little but pond hoppers the past couple mornings, would have been sweet just to watch the flight.

[DComeaux]

1/2/2016
Temp upper 40's overcast 10-15 NE wind
Justun, Blake and I
Birds- scratch

Nearly empty skies this morning. Didn't even think about shooting. This place is servery toying with my emotions. Two weekends left and I'm ready for it to end cause there is no way I'm going to sit at home with the season open, but it seems we're just going through the motions.

[Darren]

Bummer! Especially with seeing so many so recently, tough to swallow. Thought sure we'd see more than we did today as well

[DComeaux]

1/3/2016
Temp- upper 40's -overcast with light rain - none to light N wind
Blake and I
Birds- 1 dos gris

Very few ducks, and what little was seen was in the stratosphere. Sky carp northern flow was up high and really heavy all morning. Speck numbers are in the basement.

[Rick]

Sounds like you need to get Darren back over there.

[DComeaux]

Sounds like you need to get Darren back over there.

Yeah, he seems to be my horseshoe.

[DComeaux]

Bummer! Especially with seeing so many so recently, tough to swallow. Thought sure we'd see more than we did today as well

We've had to swallow that a few times this year. They're just not hanging around.

[DComeaux]

I hope this NOTHERN front coming through this weekend brings us some new stuff. Got word this evening that there are a few specks hanging around our place. I hope they stick around.

Mallard Tracker

http://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/waterfowl/waterfowl-reports-prospects/mallard-migration

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[Rick]

Not sure what "peake" means, but we do seem to have about as many mallards as the South Texas coast.

[DComeaux]

1/9/2016
Temp- upper 50's? -overcast - none to light variable wind - front coming through
Bill and I
Birds- scratch

Hand full of ducks seen with the usual south to north goose flight. Seems the specks hanging around this week got the attention of the locals. There we people in areas close by that are not normally hunted.

[DComeaux]

Jarren, our east neighbor, hunted a little later than I did this morning and had a jack, two specks and a snow when I left at 9:00. They added a few ducks to the strap after that. They hunted this evening and saw a lot of big bunches of ducks fighting that wind. They took a few ducks and specks on this hunt.

I'll be hunting with only Ellie the pup in the morning and hope this wind is still blowing like it is now. Blake's on call, Bill has a fever and my son didn't come over this weekend.

They took this dark breasted bird this afternoon.

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[Rick]

I'd been hoping to hunt that blind with them yesterday afternoon for old times and new friends' sake but had to help make up for the jacking around old friends have taken at the camp, instead. Glad to hear they put a good one together.

Hope you get whatever wind it takes to brighten things at your blind - though it will be dead in our faces and probably feel frickin' cold after a while at mine.

[DComeaux]

1/10/2015
Temp- Lower 40's upper 30's? -overcast to some sun later - Brisk NNW wind
Ellie the pup and I
Birds- 1 BW 1 Speck

On the walk in this morning Ellie and I got to listen to green wing peeps on our left and mallards on our right,not a chorus mind you, but enough to lift my spirits some. Just a minute or two after LST 5 mottles drifted low over the levee just to my east and passing over the decoys. They were too tightly bunched to chance a shot. They circled the north cut just out of the spread out of range and landed near the speck decoys. They stayed there for some time. Just a few minutes later a half dozen or so GW dropped in low from the east and were back peddling 15 yards in front of me. I got my hand on the gun and they decided to not land, grabbed a tail wind and passed 2 feet over the blind, disappearing in the low light to my south at warp speed.

The next thing to raise my excitement were 4 grays that played out of range just outside of the north decoys, over the swimming mottled,s.They moved on. Next came the specks, low over the mid field to the east and my calling was just enough to have them come over to take a look. They passed right to left over the north decoys. My first shot sent one heading for the water and my second shot splashed one 20 feet from the blind. When I looked up for the first bird it was low wobbling to the NE so I took my third shot on it to no avail. I watched it cross the two canals and disappear in flight behind the roseaux's..... BUMMER! I hate that with a passion!
Next up was the blue wing drake. He came from the south low and flared over the decoys,easy shot. At 9:00 I pulled in a pair of pintail drakes that worked low but just out of range. They made two passes and begin climbing south just to my east. I was able to turn them and they locked up diving straight for the blind. They broke the dive just a bit high and slightly east. This was the "try em" pass. Cut a few feathers on the first shot but that was it.

A bazillion blues seen this morning and a nice number of specks as well. There was a big body of geese on the ground a 1/4 mile or so to my SE all morning, and a ground to the way high tornado formed over them when I was pulling out at 10:30. Duck numbers were low.

My extractor broke on my pea shooter. Only issue was trying to unload it by hand.

I put Eliie in the pit to hunt up crawfish to pass the time. She found a half dozen or more.


My BW drake. Not as big or well dressed as the one from Ricks blind

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The speck

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[Rick]

She's a brave dog. The coyote never developed a taste for them, but the pup gobbles dead ones - and lets the live crawfish bluff him.

[DComeaux]

A little to brave sometimes, she makes me worry. When she finds a snake she goes nuts and wants to rip em apart. I'm afraid that one day she's not going to be fast enough to avoid the fangs. A few weeks back we ran into a family of nutria on the way out and one of them bowed up and came at her. She grabbed it by the head, crushed it and slug the rat in the air. I had to get her off of the crowd rats in a hurry before she got her ass in a bind.

[Rick]

"The coyote" earned his name trying to swallow live snakes, along with most everything else he could catch. Got him pretty well broke of that before it got him bit, but noticed the cottonmouths ran from him, instead of bowing up like they might to me or you. Hopefully be the same with her.

Nutria's are much the same: he's supposed to be broke off them. But every now and then...

Neither's been an issue yet with Marsh. Knock wood.

[DComeaux]

1/15/2015
Temp- upper 50's? -Clear- fog rolled in around 7 and stayed till 9 - light to moderate west wind?
Blake
Birds- 2 mallard drakes

Nothing much seen.

Opportunities besides the two taken--- Worked a pair of drake mallards that should have been a "try em", and missed a BW.

[Rick]

You should be extra proud of those greenheads. Just read the January survey, and the mallard count was the second lowest on record. No surprise, that.