Preseason 2016

[Darren]

I like cool and dry.

Particularly with "cold" to "brutal cold" north of us

I wouldn't mind the weather of the 2013 season as Ducaholic mentioned, I just don't want the lack of ducks from the 2013 season. Log and notes say it was cold, including ice/snow events that season, but many of our usual birds in usual places were just no shows, even after big blows would come through. Harvest of grays and green wings was way down, but mallards way up. Go figure

Thankfully grays returned in droves for 2014 answering our question of "Did they forget our area?" Latest update on front for late next week is holding fast and maybe even lowering the forecast temps. We'll just bite the bullet and pretend its fall for next 6-7 days

Weather.com

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Accuweather

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If you buy into even longer range forecasts, they're showing another front the following week. Steady fronts and very little rain.....

[Rick]

I'v e read that a Canvasback is the only duck that won't cheat on you, but being a diver, have always wondered.

Maybe so, but when I was hunting Maryland's Eastern Shore in the early '80s, I was told the cans weren't worth bothering with, because pollution had wiped out the "celery" that once made them good, and they were then eating some kind of skanky "cabbage" - if memory serves.

Know I've had guys from the Northwest tell of terrible greenwing teal that had feasted on dead salmon and heard of Atchafalaya Basin wood ducks that ate cypress balls and tasted like Pine Sol cleaner smells.

[Darren]

heard of Atchafalaya Basin wood ducks that ate cypress balls and tasted like Pine Sol cleaner smells.

Apparently a huge difference in an acorn-fed bird and a cypress ball-fed bird

[Darren]

Fingers crossed those cold fronts stay true and there will be more soon to follow.

As far as birds for table fare they are all on the chopping block for diner except the merganser I do not eat them so therefore I do not shoot them, and will pass on jacks given the chance unless times are really tough.
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And for you "jacks" are ringnecks or scaup?

Most in S. La will pile up the ringers but shun the scaup/dosgris given the chance. I find most in S. La call ringers "jacks", and in some parts of Cajun country "butter balls".


We make a lot of duck sausage with our birds so a dosgris goes into the pile with the grays, teal, wigeon, and misc. others all the same. I'm told some of my contributing partners have snuck the occasional coot into the sausage pile a time or two as well.

[Rick]

Not keen on shooting poule d'eau, but a big fan of eating poule d'eau.

[Rick]

Pluck 'em! Those butterball ringnecks, that is. John had asked me about Dusty in a recent PM, and his folks are examples of those who favor them over other ducks. Even if you're just going to cook the breasts, might want to try leaving the skin (and fat) on when you sear them on the grill or stove.

Used to call all scaup "bills," shorthand for blue bills or broad bills, on the Great Lakes, and everyone I knew smoked them. Many a smoked bill was whittled on with pocket knives as a favored blind food on subsequent trips. They generally get a pass at our blinds here (easy to ID: they're the ones that plop down in the decoys about as soon as you see them coming), but I remember a notable exception when they (and ruddies) for some reason showed in force and took over the flooded rice and crawfish ponds around the camp one season probably twenty or so ago. We'd gather our morning goose hunters or others who'd fallen short, surround the field behind the camp and hammer the poor things afternoon after afternoon as they returned time and again. I was eating most meals at the camp in those days and made a point of trying those rice field dos gris and found they tasted just like most any other rice field duck. Also made me wonder if those Ohio and Michigan bills wouldn't have been just as fine with Miss Betty doing the cooking honors?

[Darren]

Made it out to the Delacroix lease yesterday and fortunately all the moving parts came together nicely for a productive trip.

Johnny and I stopped at Home Depot on way down to get lumber for the new blind, and rendezvous with Anthony and Raymond at the lease was a success. Tides were up so we were able to get my flat boat all the way into the normally too-shallow pond which made the construction process a whole lot easier than the alternative of ferrying all the lumber in via pirogue.

Photo sequence below paints the picture well I think.

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Arrived to this, complete with the remains of the scant cover we utilized last season, and a flooded blind location.

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View from other side

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Nothing to do but get to work, first with the 6X6 foundation. Chainsaw was critical here

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Due to flooded site, used one pirogue as a platform to build the floor deck

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Once positioned, used 8 ft 2X4's for combination ground stakes and rail supports, roughly 4.5ft into ground, 3.5 ft left to support the rail. Don't want this thing floating off other than in event of tropical system, knock wood.

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Quick and dirty paint job to cover the bright wood. Now ready for our first round of brushing

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[Darren]

Both bushes and cane are common around our area so using all of one or both together usually comes out well. Just don't want it too tall. Most in the area build roseau motels leaving the cane at full height, including the nearest neighboring blind we noticed was freshly brushed yesterday. You can see it from a loooooong way across the marsh.

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We'll mud up the floor once the water recedes so it's not so bright as pictured

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First pass with the brush complete, we'll give it another round day before opener. Awfully cushy and should be very effective compared to what we operated from last year shown in photo below. Nonetheless we still did well usually

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Saw good bit of this grass in the pond which I think to be wigeon grass, same stuff that was in there last year

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Though it was plenty hot with high tides, we're looking ahead and excited for this forecast.

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[Rick]

That be wild and wonderful wigeon grass. But a lot of what you put around the blind looks to be what many here call "mung bush" and Comeaux found a real name for, which will likely have turned almost black by the opener.

Beautiful spot, in any event.

[Darren]

........ which will likely have turned almost black by the opener.

Yep that's what we expect, we'll fill in with a few fresh ones and a bit more roseau right before opener. Likely will also incorporate large palmettos to close off the lower third of the blind perimeter and also makes for a good wind barrier. Now trying to come up with some cheapy bar stools of some kind to leave in there so don't have to transport our chairs every time

[DComeaux]

Looking good! You have your base brush to build from. Man... I tell ya, a fiberglass pit would fit nicely in that spot..

[Darren]

Looking good! You have your base brush to build from. Man... I tell ya, a fiberglass pit would fit nicely in that spot..

Oh man would it be ridiculous. Unfortunately it would no doubt compromise the already shaky integrity of the fragile peninsula we're setting up on.

[aunt betty]

I'v e read that a Canvasback is the only duck that won't cheat on you, but being a diver, have always wondered.

Maybe so, but when I was hunting Maryland's Eastern Shore in the early '80s, I was told the cans weren't worth bothering with, because pollution had wiped out the "celery" that once made them good, and they were then eating some kind of skanky "cabbage" - if memory serves.

Know I've had guys from the Northwest tell of terrible greenwing teal that had feasted on dead salmon and heard of Atchafalaya Basin wood ducks that ate cypress balls and tasted like Pine Sol cleaner smells.

Pine-sol...lol
Now I'm starting to appreciate all them tasty corn-fed ducks I get to shoot around here even more.
The rice fed ones in Arkansas are fat and tasty too or I would not travel there.
One more season and I'm getting legislated into not going there until I'm a resident.

[Darren]

Should have also included this in the blind build entries to provide some context to the pond and our set up, with the blind location depicted as the white box. Forgive me, i'm not used to having access to private land, so also not used to posting any sort of maps of my public haunts.

We're oriented with north straight up here so we face the WSW, with nearly all of our traffic coming from the SW to NW so this point served us well last year. We tend to stack a raft of coot dekes and some grays for the bulk of the spread to the north and NW of the blind with a smaller wad of grays and pins just to the SW of the blind. The resulting gap proved to be the X and we enjoyed a whole lot of text book decoying in our first season on this pond last year. We obviously adapt this for significant wind differences but the approach remains the same. The upside and downside of this pond is that it's on the shallower end. Under normal tides the grass is matted on the top so the birds have ready access to feed. On the lower tides with big blows from the N or NW, the water falls out quick and it can be mostly mud in a hurry so we have to hit one of the deeper alternative ponds in the area which have also been productive.

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[Rick]

Looks sweet to me. Except maybe when a front rolls in carrying loads of birds and whisking away all the water while you're busy having a literal blast.

[Ducaholic]

How about the pooch stand? Did I miss it?

Looks like a great spot!

[Darren]

How about the pooch stand? Did I miss it?

Looks like a great spot!

No dog stand yet but figuring we'll stick him on something just in front of the blind where there's still some land before it drops off to the pond. In a pinch could just put pirogue there for Harry and make some kind of brush tunnel for it to slide under for proper concealment.

Rick,

Map below shows how this pond muds out with only tiny trenasses to get yourself out. This undoubtedly taken after a big time front blew NW for a few days

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But also shows why this whole area surrounding us is able to hold birds in its shallows for feeding when deeper ponds in other areas just have reds and gar fish. Picture also shows, however, that on certain conditions there could still be water in the middle of the pond for birds to take and feed, but without any way for us to realistically get there to hunt them

[Rick]

No dog stand yet but figuring we'll stick him on something just in front of the blind where there's still some land before it drops off to the pond. In a pinch could just put pirogue there for Harry and make some kind of brush tunnel for it to slide under for proper concealment.

Please be mindful of gunfire and his hearing, says the guy with deaf dog.

[Darren]

No dog stand yet but figuring we'll stick him on something just in front of the blind where there's still some land before it drops off to the pond. In a pinch could just put pirogue there for Harry and make some kind of brush tunnel for it to slide under for proper concealment.

Please be mindful of gunfire and his hearing, says the guy with deaf dog.

Yea I got to thinking about that after that initial idea. Think I've got enough room on my side of the blind to build a lil stand for him just outside the blind.

[Darren]

But also shows why this whole area surrounding us is able to hold birds in its shallows for feeding when deeper ponds in other areas just have reds and gar fish. Picture also shows, however, that on certain conditions there could still be water in the middle of the pond for birds to take and feed, but without any way for us to realistically get there to hunt them

I've hunted a few spots in wax lake that were like this. Seemed the birds would find the spots that held water when not much else had any and I ended up shooting plenty of birds over decoys just stuck in the mud even when there was water 30yds further out. Seemed like for whatever reason we decoyed and shot more pintail on hose types of hunts.[/quote]


There's a good size lake about 200 yards to the east of this spot that we could likely pull up to and just walk to our blind if we were really that hell bent on getting there. Will keep an eye on it and also build a backup blind or two in ponds that hold water nearby.

[Deltaman]

Beautiful area, and great to see that there is plenty of duck food available. Nice that you can actually walk in that marsh, and as you mentioned, you could always walk to it and drag a pirogue and pushpole if the birds are working it, and if not, like you mentioned, there are two smaller holes bordering it that appear to hold water. Do ya'll ever have problems with others hunting your lease when you are not there?

[Darren]

Beautiful area, and great to see that there is plenty of duck food available. Nice that you can actually walk in that marsh, and as you mentioned, you could always walk to it and drag a pirogue and pushpole if the birds are working it, and if not, like you mentioned, there are two smaller holes bordering it that appear to hold water. Do ya'll ever have problems with others hunting your lease when you are not there?

Like I said, we could hunt it on very low water if we really wanted to, but likely not necessary. You can walk the grass but NOT in the water for sure.

This particular area is further out from the "prime" areas closer to the launches so doesn't get as much yahoo traffic. We've also gotten to know the neighboring lease holder who has a camp near ours and he keeps a watchful eye out and is out there a good bit, he even approached us last year day before opener to see what was up and make sure we were supposed to be there. That said, we've got fairly limited experience here so not to say theres not some activity we don't know of but less likely than other locations. This particular pond takes some doing to get to down a very small trenasse so that helps us as well but some of our other ponds are right off the main waterways.

Our biggest problem has been that the lack of precise property mapping for the individual tracts. The same landowner owns a large chunk in this area, broken into small tracts for lease, but the maps provided to us depicting these tracts use topographic maps that are not only less than precise, they're not even geographically accurate in many areas with respect to land or water features in relation to one another. In short, its very hard to tell where the lease boundaries actually are and the landowner hasn't been much help. We operate more on gentlemen's agreement as much as anything it seems.


PS I welcome anyone's ideas for a dog stand given the setup we've got pictured. I'm thinking of just building something like 3 ft by 3.5 ft or using 2X4's for legs just set next to the left side of the blind (if facing out into pond) which is the side I always hunt from.

[Rick]

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