Preseason 2016

[Darren]

3 ft by 3.5 ft seems big to me, Just needs to be big enough for him to comfortably sit and lay down.

Looks like many of the commercially available ones are more like 2-2.5ft square or so. Then again he's used to lounging in/curling up in the pirogue so that's why I was erring to larger. maybe 2 by 3 or so

[Darren]

I've made a dog box out of some old plastic barrels before and paired them up and screwed them down to some 2x4s I drove down. Not the best but it's easy to clean out and decent size for most dogs


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Like the idea though not confident in finding the barrels in my stompin grounds.

[Darren]

Will keep that in mind! Bet all kinds of stuff has washed around those parts. Goin to probably try my hand at a wooden platform this weekend in the nice weather using scraps I think i've got around the house.

[Darren]

Fired up to see this on the forecast down where we hunt for the next few days:

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One front at a time...........

[DComeaux]

It's going to feel nice this weekend for sure, but the temps way up north are still warm for this time of year. Plenty of food and sheet water. Late nesting is not in the mix this year, so we'll see what happens.

[Darren]

true to the forecast so far today:


By the Shell Beach camp, complete with a Wind Advisory

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And out on nearby Lake Pontchartrain as monitored at the Causeway station:

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water should be falling nicely

[DComeaux]

I like falling water.....

[Darren]

I like falling water.....

Bet you do! Yall were quite ingenious with that blind de-watering operation, way to salvage the trip! Our water was just artificially high with all of the easterly winds but its falling now. However, likely to stay on the higher end until we get fronts close together and that's fine for us, makes access easy. Just glad we got blind all set up

[Darren]

Yesterday afternoon took a shot at the dog stand project and looks like it will suit us just fine. $15 at Lowes and made use of a scrap sheet of plywood I had in the attic.

Sized plywood deck to match the rubber mat I got (cheap welcome mat)

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Got legs together and tweaked proper angle for attachment

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..........and dog stand!

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Today took a quick trip to Lake Charles for a family visit and hoped to put eyes on migrators on the way. Sure enough, saw nice wad of about 30 specks crossing I-10 near the Roanoke exit, headed NE. Also got a couple of reliable reports of good many birds having shown up in Delacroix overnight. Heard from another buddy that was deer hunting this morning in N. La and said he had a lot of specks pass him headed south high up.

[Rick]

Now all you need is a shower curtain for when he shakes.

[Darren]

Now all you need is a shower curtain for when he shakes.

Good thinkin! Guess I'll just aim to brush it up heavy enough between the two of us to form a suitable barrier.

[DComeaux]

Cabelas has em.

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[Rick]

First season I was in Lafayette, I went some with a fellow who hunted a boat blind with a big golden named Major who could carry a duck and a bucket of water at the same time.

[Darren]

Last week's drought monitor update shows it worsening:

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I find the lack of moisture in NW Mississippi particularly encouraging for my end of the state in the east as that area has a lot of old catfish ponds that hold birds, especially grays. Couple that with the lack of backwater flooding and it looks pretty promising for SE La marsh hunters.

Also the front helped get our water back to normal ranges from what had been over a foot or more high, thus flooding our blind. From what we can tell, looks like the 6.25-6.35 ft mark on this gage is what floods our blind, a number very uncommon during the season. In contrast, we also know that 4-4.5 ft is LOW and likely not huntable for us in there. Easterly winds forecast for this week so likely will tick back up a bit

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[Darren]

I was hoping we would benefit from the dry conditions to our North too

Was hoping we would get more specks that would skip over some of Arkansas and North Louisiana due to dryness,but from what I have seen there are mega speck bodies near Jonesboro,Cash,and other places in Arkansas

So once again,crumbs for us---BUT enough crumbs eventually make something good

You gotta like your chances, though, with masses as close as near the state line before the calendar hits November. Get you another front or two and should help move them for early season, then hope for better fronts through the season to keep new birds coming......in theory at least ha

[Rick]

Bah humbug. I find it increasingly difficult to cop a "half-full" attitude about our speck situation, to include getting excited about them being stacked up in places they used to over-fly on their way here. Grrr...

(Have crashed from my little Specklebelly Day high and have a seriously bad head from considering my real chances of significantly changing our current odds in the face of so much pressure. Hard enough to put a big duck front and center before someone nearby runs it off banging at something, and I get to see a lot more big ducks than specks...)

[aunt betty]

Bah humbug. I find it increasingly difficult to cop a "half-full" attitude about our speck situation, to include getting excited about them being stacked up in places they used to over-fly on their way here. Grrr...

(Have crashed from my little Specklebelly Day high and have a seriously bad head from considering my real chances of significantly changing our current odds in the face of so much pressure. Hard enough to put a big duck front and center before someone nearby runs it off banging at something, and I get to see a lot more big ducks than specks...)

Just last Saturday I took a young man hunting who has no clue that the good old days are over. He was calling at cormorants for quite a while before I could convince him that they're not ducks or them six boatloads of guys across the lake would be sky blasting.
Yeah...if there were ducks it would've been quite a competition. We were on the shady side and all others were sitting with sun in their faces. It's getting too easy to beat them duck commander wannabee guys and I'm confident we'd have killed all the ducks if they had been interested at all in decoys which they weren't. We saw some teal but no other species at all. The only two that came close were tree top high. I'm NOT a tree topper so they didn't get shot at. It's just how I fly.
Maybe after the next cold front.

[Darren]

Some buddies were fishing our public stompin grounds yesterday and took a quick marsh run, found a few of the usual suspects. Mallards mixed with the mottleds in flooded marsh, grays and teal with a few spoons mixed in munching on matted SAV. Plan to be out there Monday morning for some poking around and setting up a few of our usual haunts.

Speckled trout bite, termed the annual World Series trout run to locals, is in full swing in the area also.

[Darren]

Made it out to some local stompin grounds yesterday to have a look around and put together some hides for the east zone. Water was up a fair bit which made getting around easy. Jumped a fair few ducks early on in flooded marsh, mostly mottleds with some mallards and grays, few blue wings. Overall saw a whole lot of mottleds throughout the trip, only a few hands full of coots......but not a whole lot else. It was hot!

Nonetheless got done what we intended to so was productive day, just glad i'm not hunting here 'till the 19th.

New back blind in a tucked away seldom-hunted hole. Installed a floor deck we found in the marsh and made a first pass with the brush:

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and our trusty "big blind" in its usual location. On arrival looked like this:

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Got the decks in and a good start on the brushing.

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SAV in the area looks promising with a good bit of this type, need to ID.

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We'll look forward to weather we're told is coming per the forecasts and hope it brings new feathered faces to the area. This coastal forecast looks good but not so much in the way it shifts so quickly to NE with likely only a very brief NW component so only will have so much punch to achieve what we want.

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[DComeaux]

Looking good!

That grass looks like coontail (hornwart /ceratophyllum demersum)

[Darren]

another photo, complete with my reflection:

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[DComeaux]

Yeah, I think it's coontail.

[Darren]

Looks to be that indeed, thanks Dave.

http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wet ... ntail.html

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[Ducaholic]

Now I know why you don't want MM's running through public marsh. You don't want them running over your permanent blind...

[Darren]

Gotta be resourceful and use stuff we find out there, which considering the storm history of the area and the proximity to camps.........scrap wood is usually easy to come by in the wrack.

[DComeaux]

Looks to be that indeed, thanks Dave.

http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wet ... ntail.html

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I don't see Poule d'eau on that list. I've seen them carrying that stuff around in their beaks and thrashing it around.