Preseason

[Rick]

Thought you guys might like to hear what the dogs and I found at your old turnaround blind this morning - nothing. Not a stinkin' duck.

Whole lot of dead high ground that's only starting to recover:


What's normally flooded is doing much better with a lot of smartweed coming on:


And there are still some high islands of fall panicum/spaghetti grass and something I don't know a name for out there by your old blind that would have made hiding it much easier - if Doug didn't plow it under:


But NO ducks.

Did find where the current renters optimistically set up for what appears to have been a small army of teal hunters:


and left less than a dozen empties to vouch for their efforts. So I'm guessing your September season went better than theirs.

Did put a slew of mottleds and teal out of the little 7 acre corner just before the hump, where they'd apparently been stripping the heads off of smartweed, with the main difference I could see being that corner is usually wet or flooded and didn't have nearly so much upland vegetation that died to produce as much black water as elsewhere back back there.

[Ericdc]

The difference in northeast and southwest la could not be more different right now.

It's bone dry where we hunt, river is real low, and the canals are all dry too. Not drought dry, but normal October dry.


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[Rick]

I'd say "good," but know God would get me.

[Rick]

And had to settle with this sore thumb of a blind...

There was a time when Douglas rented the turnaround to a group that had three or four places with us, and since I told them Bud as buried midway between the turnaround and north levee because we'd killed so many specks there in the white spread days, they did their best to put the pit on top of him (which freaked me out) and built a platform blind on the water to the south and another so far west it created friction with the school section hunters. These were nice folks who'd hunted with us forever but some seriously sorry hunters who couldn't kill much without help under ideal conditions and flat bombed out back there. So they picked up their decoys during the split, moved them to another farm and turned the turnaround hunting over to Mike Henry and I, who would often carry them on buddy hunts.

We never hunted back there more than a few times a week, carried small mixed spreads in and out with us, and held parties to one or two hunters we knew would hide, hold their water and shoot well. Most times, we were in and out PDQ to let the birds have the place and decide those big boxes were benign, so they worked a lot better than many would think, and I still have fond memories of some of our hunts from them, to include specks wading around one giving a calling clinic.

Of course, mentioning that our goose decoys were G&H speck shells on conduit extensions dates those particular "good old days"...

[Darren]

Jarren is there a school of thought you err toward when setting speck dekes? Larger numbers or small spread of uber high quality? Hope you get 'em regardless

[Rick]

Hope your luck with BFs proves better than mine.

[Rick]

Both the land owner and his lawyer have assured me it will be ready for the duck opener - for whatever that's worth. Specks is so early you'll just have to do what you can with what's there.

[Darren]

and of course I'm sure we will manage to cook up a good meal or two and watch the game.

Hard to beat that this time of year, hope yall get to work (and even shoot!) a few.

[Rick]

Big Cheese and I made a pass through your farm last evening, and it looked as pictured. New greens, rice and water in the same spot, which may look more like an eaten-out spot (shame on y'all) than a trap this early on and could be the ticket - if anything actually flies in this weather. Which puts you way ahead of the guys on the west end whose stuff was just laser-leveled (PJ's old spot) or is still being leveled (across the road from it to the north)...

[Rick]

Good to see you've birds nearby (though I don't recall that much open water anywhere on the farm). Don't know what the water story is, as everything was shut off when Doug and I went through the other day.

[Rick]

When you talk to Johnathan, you'll learn that you guys can hunt the middle blind behind your camp this weekend, if you'd rather.

[Rick]

Cedar is what I use for levees greened up with winter grasses. Better match than most for most greens. (And wax myrtle for blackberry vines and other medium greens.)

[DComeaux]

Ive never used cedar before but

......You'll at least have a good smell in the blind.

[Rick]

Can't be mad at that

Until it eventually turns rusty red and has to be hauled off.