Duck Season 2016-2017

[DComeaux]

Fri. 12/30/2016 Bonus shot of Marsh from parking lot at the camp as I was making the rounds with the hounds

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Good photo of a good looking pup, he looks like his nonc....... I'll have to tell him of his masters unkind words on his looks...

[Rick]

You must have had a crush on "The Flying Nun".

[DComeaux]

You must have had a crush on "The Flying Nun".

HAHAHAHA!! That"s not right! Shame on you.

[Rick]

My explanation that a Basenji raped a coyote appears to have stuck, as I heard one of the other guides repeating it to a curious guest petting Marsh in our parking lot the other morning. But I'm sure tickled with him.

[Darren]

Fri. 1/6/2017
Bunkie - Gold Dust Rd.
BJ Brooks and I with Harry
Winds North rippin 15-25+, temps low 30's, heavy clouds, intermittent rain/sleet/snow

First trip back to these old stompin' grounds in a few years, this year the field was in beans instead of the usual rice. As a result, it's about 4 inches of slick water one end to the other. We were fired up for the conditions and saw a ton of ducks but played hell trying to get them to break down over us instead of heading north of us toward larger part of the farm. Some would swing for the call and didn't quite finish, most came over hanging but clearly wanted further north of us. Those that did work us seemed skeptical, not sure if that was result of the cloud cover or just late season smarts, but it was tough. Plenty of mallards, pintails and spoons out and about........but we killed none of those. Specks were low and workable but I was trying to run a new Riceland and over-blowing it, and usual RNT was locking up......frustrating.

Up side, though, was Harry had a field day in all aspects of the term, he loved being able to run out on the pond and that was really handy on his longest mark and retrieve to date, easily 250 yards+ on a lively gray that sailed down wind on us nearly across the field. Enjoyed watching him chase down the crip once he got on scene.

Not sure if it was just today but sure seemed like there was much less low traffic on this field vs. when it was in rice in previous seasons, OR did the birds just not want to fight the wind to get down. That, and I've never had much experience with the power calling routines, just never had to in the marsh but may need to try new calls and routines to make more noise.

2 grays, 1 GW teal (a SE La marsh bag)

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Grays find me wherever I go

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Awfully hard to beat the proximity to the camp when staying here; view from front porch. If you expand the picture you can see the decoys

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Really need to spend some truck time getting acquainted with the new speck call. Really like the tone but I'm finding it a big adjustment from the RNT. In general, though, I just need to get better with speck calling overall and not settle for the "it's good enough for the rare chances I get since I mostly hunt in SE La marshes" which has put some birds on the strap in the past but leaves room for a lot of improvement.

[Darren]

Sat. 1/7/2017
Bunkie - Gold Dust Rd.
BIL Peter and I with Harry
Winds North rippin 20-25+, temps low 20's, clear, Frigid

Braved the icy roads to give it a shot again with hopes that the clear skies would have the birds working better for us. Should have taken it as an omen when truck door handles were frozen and then reverse button on fourwheeler wouldn't engage because frozen, so no R to back off the trailer on arrival. Sure enough, got to pond to find it locked up.....quarter inch to closer to an inch in some spots. Broke it up around the dekes with the bike to try to salvage something but knew it was futile. After about 20-30 minutes it was about frozen back, and there was very very little flight of anything. Opted to make better use of our time after about an hour by packing up and doing some blind brushing and other cleanup activities before heading for the truck. Heard only a couple of shots in the area overall

DNS

Harry loved the ice

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Not the kind of "locked up" we had in mind

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Will give it a shot again up there when we get some weather through but I'm done with these frigid conditions. Reports I got from friends hunting all over yesterday were universally terrible.

[Darren]

Thurs. 1/12/2017
Bunkie - Gold Dust Rd.
Solo with Harry
Winds S/SE 0 to maybe 6 or 8, temps low 60's, mostly cloudy to partly cloudy, full moon tonight

Harry and I made a solo trip back up to the Bunkie area field to give it a go now that the dekes have thawed out. Unfortunately, when the ice began to thaw under the north winds, it dragged the dekes out into middle of the pond..grrrrrr. Too many for me to move before LST alone so let them be figuring the gap would allow birds to work in between blind and the spread given the south wind in my face. Ended up costing me some birds that worked the dekes themselves, a few lit out in them. There must have been a big body of geese to our south/SE because every now and then we'd hear them stir and get some trickling from that way.

Called at one fairly low group of 8 specks and 2 peeled right off, I took the first pass they gave me and was able to chip down one that after some low flying around crashed into far end of our field. Pursuit was on!! Trudged over there with harry and got him to flush from the brushy bank running across pond for a shot. Harry's first goose! He wasn't sure what to make of it really and was reluctant with it initially. Turned out to be a nice one I'm planning for the wall since it's got some special circumstances with it. If any other goose would have taken time to work him with it on repeated retrieves.

With a partner in the blind we'd have certainly gotten both of the two specks and at least 4-6 ducks with the extra gun and set of eyes, I got burned a few times. Later chipped down a mallard hen that fell in neighboring pond but it got up and flew off seemingly just fine on us when approached. Had some luck breaking down a wad of mallards with making a lot of noise. Good time out there, has me wanting to go again.

1 speck

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headed out till next time

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Planning to try Delacroix on Saturday and possibly come back up this way on Sunday.

[Rick]

Doubt you'd shoot a prettier one for the wall, special circumstance or no.

[DComeaux]

Send me the breast...

[Deltaman]

Great report Darren, and beautiful Speck, congrats!
Tough being the only set of eyes in a duck blind.........anywhere..........is your neck sore?

[Darren]

Great report Darren, and beautiful Speck, congrats!
Tough being the only set of eyes in a duck blind.........anywhere..........is your neck sore?

Every time I tried to focus on main flight path from the south I'd get snuck up on from a group from the north. Primary goose flight was from my ESE but the ones that came from the WNW were low and lookin'

[Deltaman]

Great report Darren, and beautiful Speck, congrats!
Tough being the only set of eyes in a duck blind.........anywhere..........is your neck sore?

Every time I tried to focus on main flight path from the south I'd get snuck up on from a group from the north. Primary goose flight was from my ESE but the ones that came from the WNW were low and lookin'

Those are the ones that you lay in bed at night and think about as sleep comes, knowing that they pull you back to the blind just as hard, if not harder, than the birds you actually killed............

[Darren]

Sat. 1/14/2017
Delacroix
Raymond, Adam C. and I with Harry
60's, pt cloudy, FOG for whole hunt, wind steady 5-10 from E/NE

Didn't have high hopes for hitting our blind so we rolled the dice to hit a nearby broken marsh area where we don't have a blind, posting up on a small island using our old school public land guerrilla warfare tactics.......upside down pirogue surrounded in palmettos. Fog stayed with us all morning but there was a sporadic flight through the area of mostly green wings and mottleds with occasional grays dropping in on us, most everything decoyed well. Let a couple birds get away from us but not many, and Harry had a great morning working the area. Grays were still dropping in here and there as we paddled out around 10:00am. Most we spoke with struggled today, some didn't even see the number of birds we'd strapped.

Of course, visited our blind before heading in to pick up the dog stand, bar stools, shell hull bucket, etc. and there were a few grays and GW's sitting in the pond on arrival. Still think we made the right choice to try something new today.

We've wrapped it up down that way in the Coastal Zone for the season even though it doesn't close for another week. Boat, dekes, etc. are tucked away. Will focus on getting in a few more field hunts in the East Zone before it closes on the 29th.

(12) 2 mottleds, 4 GW teal, 6 grays

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one of our two mottleds, should have had all four that worked in

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happy hunters with late season haul

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Lease blind at season wrap-up with partially mudded out pond. Was great to us in first split, cant wait to get her ready for Nov '17

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[Rick]

Saw Robert this morning and asked if they were killing, and he replied "Time." There are a kazillion and twelve teal using uncut rice above them but they only got one "unreal" morning out of it when a survey crew shook it out "like black birds" and swarms were hitting their ponds.

[Darren]

Nuts, hate to hear it. Know we saw an absolute train load of GWs on my hunt there last year with him when something had run them up from nearby. They reported killing quite a few in first split

[Darren]

Note to log: Phil hit the Bunkie field this morning with a buddy and his son, a hunt I backed out of. Was said to be a green wing bonanza in the fog and the pics reflect as much. Thinking about giving it a shot tomorrow in what should be similar conditions

[DComeaux]

Nice hunt, and yeah, I chase those green wing if I had the opportunity, for sure.

[Darren]

Mon. 1/16/2017
Bunkie - Gold Dust Rd.
David C. and I with Harry
Winds E/SE 5-10, temps low to mid 60's, mostly cloudy

Had high hopes for today given the production of the pond just yesterday, but it was slow going early. They busted up the green wings yesterday but I didn't see the first one until 6:45 or so....but when they came there was 30 or so in the group. Buddy's gun jammed on the first wad, I got one, yuck. But it was fairly steady after that and hunt was wrapped up nearly too soon, 7:30 on the nose. Grays and teal worked us nicely, spoons tended to hang out for whatever reason but we made some shots and Harry was handy rounding them up across the big floods, seemingly in a retirement-for-the-season mode enjoying the fields compared to the marsh slog.

Geese were just getting going at workable height when we cleaned birds at the camp around 8:00, we didn't hang around since I was going to work today.

(12) 4 spoons, 2 grays, 2 GW teal, 2 BW teal, 2 ringnecks

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dressed up bluewing. This deer hunter was loving the action. Even slow for duck hunters is blazing for many deer hunters used to staring into the trees

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Our spread is looking really nice right now, with the ice helping to give the overall shape of it a more natural look, less of a "placed" or strategic look. Also went with the mojo gadwall today on a remote. Not certain of it's effectiveness but seemed to have the teal angling toward it which put them coming right across our front

Checking weather and work schedule to see about another visit late this week

[DComeaux]

A really nice morning hunt, Darren.

[Darren]

Fri. 1/20/2017
Bunkie - Gold Dust Rd.
Raymond and I with Harry
Winds S/SW 5-10 then zero then later 10+, temps low to mid 60's, mostly cloudy with occasional sun

Foggy for much of our drive up there but not at the field. Worked out for Raymond to come in town to give a new place a try. Wasn't a tough sell with no pushpoling or long boat rides, right?! Pretty good goose flight early but took a while for the ducks to get moving around, was again mostly teal with occasional grays or spoons working us. Over course of the morning did have grays and spoons work well but ultimately light outside the dekes....they're likely local and hip to our game. Teal worked pretty though and we were able to pick off a few. Harry had good morning working the wide open fields but was frustrated by one that dove on him never to come up. Its too shallow for a bigger bird to get away with that but just deep enough for a capable teal to swim under in. Eventually had to call him off of it after a good effort.

Ended up seeing a whole lot of fowl over the morning, both ducks and geese. Guess maybe they got bumped from wherever on occasion and we'd see huge numbers as far as you could see at times. A buddy is trying here tomorrow and I may give it a go on Sunday with a weather change/front coming through. Little better shooting on our ops and we'd likely have scratched out our 12 but happy with our late season take.

(8) 7 GW teal, 1 BW teal

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The one that got away, just before it did

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one doesn't match

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[Rick]

The one that got away, just before it did

You got the picture, so it must have happened.

Glad to see you're getting gunning inland. Just saw Larry's Jan survey and a reply from a Delecroix Island hunter saying it was his worst in 10 seasons there.

[DComeaux]

Put a frame around this.

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[Darren]

Yep it was just enough action today here and there to keep us interested, and just enough "aw dammit" moments where we should have made a shot or two to keep us honest and wanting to come back for revenge

Bird must have dove just off of his snout because he pounced right on it. Now when Ray went fetch the bike, harry followed and ended up locating and recovering a crip on that end of the field, that could have been this fella. But we'd also lost track of another crip that ventured very capably that way also, one Harry and I searched for and didn't find earlier in the hunt. The one recovered is likely to be one of the two described.

[Darren]

Put a frame around this.

I like it too; I need to learn to get the most out of this camera because I've got plenty of shots that are good but could certainly be much better in trained hands.

[Darren]

Just saw Larry's Jan survey and a reply from a Delecroix Island hunter saying it was his worst in 10 seasons there.

So strange down that way. In our frequent trips down there this season most said it was very good for them, and was pretty strong for us too overall. Just depends how things happen to look from your particular blind/perspective I guess

[Darren]

Note to log:

Phil had two guests joining him in the Bunkie pit this morning and they were able to pile up a mixed bag of spoons, GW teal, grays and at least one mallard. 18 was the report

Camp was rockin' with the nasty storms that came through over night. Johnny and I planning to give it a shot tomorrow. I did some work here at the house this morning draining-then-patching up or retiring a collection of water-filled decoys Raymond and I took from the field yesterday.

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[Darren]

Also worth logging here for future consideration:

http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/ ... iver_index

Only mottled ducks and spoonbills showed an increase from the December count. The biggest declines were among mallards (196,000 to 81,000), grey ducks (1 million to 477,000), ringnecks (765,000 to 404,000), canvasbacks (300,000 to 166,000) and green-winged teal (805,000 to 481,000).

My 2-cents: We'd had substantial warmups and prevalent southerly winds that bounced birds off the coast, especially after the great freeze thawed and let birds back into the fields of central and north La, Arkansas, etc. On top of that, we've had quite a bit of rain. All the low areas we've been driving by in recent couple of weeks are flooded and thus really scattering the birds we have. Given it's late in the season, pressure has helped to push birds from where they were seeking these hidden away new-floods for refuge.

One example we witnessed yesterday in the blind. We could hear what sounded like a mallard hen making a lot of racket just to our south/SW. We know there's no "pond" there but a whole lot of low scrubby wooded areas that, following a trek to look for a downed bird, noticed to be flooded up nicely. There are birds in places they wouldn't otherwise be, and probably darn difficult to count in those types of habitats as well. All up and down I-49 between Opelousas and our St. Landry exit we use is currently flooded woods

[Rick]

A friend who belongs to a usually super good club in Arkansas has been texting poor results for a week and said it still wasn't up to snuff yesterday. Though part of their problem is lack of pressure (you read that right), I still would have thought them covered up now.

[Darren]

Sun. 1/22/2017
Bunkie - Gold Dust Rd.
Johnny and I with Harry
Winds SE 5-10 then eventually SW/west 10-15, rain ending as we got settled in, storms in area over night, temps low to mid 60's, heavy clouds then eventually clearing as front line passed

Though hard to see we had activity pretty early on with the weather presumably to credit for getting them going earlier than what was usual lately. Nice wads of teal mostly with a few spoons and grays around. Unfortunately we shot poorly early on with the teal against the wooded/dark back drop and heavy clouds, we're sticking to that excuse. That, and I played hell trying to get them to work "right" for quality shooting ops for both of us. Figured it wouldn't matter and flight would likely keep up throughout morning but that turned out to be quite the assumption because before we knew it the flight fizzled, even as wind picked up. Those that came later, mostly spoons and grays, would not finish to save our lives, but certainly did well in saving theirs. Tried spinner on, spinner off, no discernible difference. Should have easily had our 12 early on, plenty of chances.

Whole lot of goose traffic all morning in all directions......northward early then big numbers southward later but I had no luck getting any to turn. Figuring it's the big floods that are hampering us this year instead of the usual rice stubble when we've had more luck with specks in the past.

(9) 7 GW teal, 2 spoons

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After working a lot early, Harry mostly lounged later. Was clutch on a couple of diving teal that thankfully kept coming back up

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Might give it another shot midweek if I can sneak away

[Rick]

Harry's looking all grown up.