Preseason

[Ericdc]

South, I'm sure.

That's good


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[DComeaux]

When I boogered mine last spring I wanted to strap it to my side at night, so I'd quit trying to raise it in my sleep and waking myself up. Subconscious eventually wised up, but I still catch myself being afraid to wrap it around a pillow. In my case, time and caution were the cure - at least for the time being.

Heard this morning that the water has now risen over the road between Pecan Island and Rockefeller, so you may be out of marsh action this weekend, anyway.

Talked to the owner of the camp we'll be using Just after lunch today and she had driven there and was on the way back, she didn't mention this. It may haven risen to that level since then though. She had gone down there to lift things off of the floor due to the water rising in the marsh north of 82, just in case. She received a call last night from a local telling her this may be a good idea.

We're packed and will attempt to get there tomorrow evening for work Saturday morning. I'll post what we find when we get back.

[Rick]

I can't remember my source, let alone vouch for it and see no warning on the DOTD site. So, hopefully, "to the road" got stretched to "on the road" or some such.

[Darren]

Good luck Dave!

[DComeaux]

that is rough man

I am just an MRI technologist,but we see this a lot,hopefully the steroid shot helps,but if pain still persist,may need an MRI to see exactly what is going on down the road

funny some therapy not ordered,exercises to strengthen all the stabilizer musculature around the shoulder joint

My shoulder is doing pretty good this morning with the familiar pain I get from time to time on both when I over do it. The worst pain I have in the right shoulder now comes when I forget about it and make a move that I shouldn't. I call that "bout pee yourself" pain.

I should be somewhat pain free in a couple of weeks if I don't screw up, and I was given, and do have, and a set of exercises from a therapist I visited months ago and they did help, A LOT. I just let the frequency of these exercise's lag and this happens. As soon as this pain subsides enough where I don't feel I'm doing harm, I'll try to get back on a strict daily routine of those exercises, again.

[DComeaux]

Yesterday the rain and lightning wouldn't let us out in the marsh, but the low moved a bit west overnight and we were able to get out there this morning. Couldn't do a thing due to really high water, with the top of the blind about a foot and a half below the surface. We did see several flocks of BW buzzing around the marsh this morning.
We dropped the lumber we'd been toting around for a couple of days on a levee near the blind and I don't see us being able to hunt the blind for teal season, not sure any of the blinds in that marsh will be usable. The water is draining pretty good but every storm drops 3 or 4 inches and we start all over again. The wind yesterday afternoon, last night and this morning was from the NNE and every drain across the ridge from Grand Chenier to Pecan island had a heavy south flow. That was different then what we had observed yesterday.

The long property access road had water over it in spots and we had mottled ducks walking in front of us that seemed reluctant to fly.

Mottled.jpg

We pushed them for a bit and they finally jumped up and landed just off the road.

Jumped Mottled's.jpg

The fiberglass pit is down there somewhere.

Pit.jpg

Water is over the road (82) in one small stretch and there was a small gator crossing when we were on the way home today. We had to be vigilant in the evenings due to deer on the roads and did see one dead on the way home. There's also a good bit of crawfish crawling across the highway.
Apparently, this gator lost a fight with a vehicle.

Gator.jpg

This is what makes me happy. Just being out there lifts my spirits...... Things to come.

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[Darren]

Good deal! Glad you got out there and saw some teal to boot !

[Rick]

This is what makes me happy. Just being out there lifts my spirits...... Things to come.

Visited with several old friends I much too seldom get to see, listened to some fantastic callers, saw scads of ducks large and small over a farm we lease on the way home, and just finished a hurtin'-sized portion of what just might be the best jambalaya I've ever eaten - and I'm still jealous of your ride in the marsh.

[DComeaux]

Rick, I forgot to mention the caracara we saw sitting on a fence post in Pecan Island this morning. I wish I would have taken a picture of the bird. I remembered some conversation of these you were involved in some time back on one forum or another.

[Ericdc]

This is what makes me happy. Just being out there lifts my spirits...... Things to come.

Visited with several old friends I much too seldom get to see, listened to some fantastic callers, saw scads of ducks large and small over a farm we lease on the way home, and just finished a hurtin'-sized portion of what just might be the best jambalaya I've ever eaten - and I'm still jealous of your ride in the marsh.

What kind of jambalaya was it? Like what meats or seafood.


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[Rick]

Just melt-on-your-tongue pork. Bought it on my way out of the calling contest, and if I knew how good it was going to be, our fridge would be stacked with boxes of it.

[DComeaux]

Nice breeze from the NNE and clear skies have allowed our water to fall in the marsh at a good rate, and it continues to fall tonight. I got word this morning that Rockefeller refuge finally opened gates on their east side which will definitely help get water out of our marsh. The surrounding marsh will also drop which will allow us to drain just a bit faster. My fingers are crossed that our blind is enough above the water line this weekend to lift it a little and complete our work......I haven't cut my yard in quite a while and it's drying really well now. I'll have to squeeze in that hay cutting at some point......busy,busy weekend coming up, I HOPE!

OH!, I forgot to mention that we have a lot of decoys to retie with heaver weight and longer strings..... We'll probably just get the teal tied up this weekend.

[Darren]

And get those spinners a'spinnin

Think we're running a couple of teal spinners and likely the wonderduck as well, all the fun toys I usually don't use in regular season

[DComeaux]

My spinners are getting tired and some have missing parts. I'll need to charge a few batteries and have an audition.

[Ericdc]

My spinners are getting tired and some have missing parts. I'll need to charge a few batteries and have an audition.

Just an FYI, ship them to mojo in Monroe and they'll fix or just replace them for $30. I've had several fixed for friends. They have great customer service.


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[DComeaux]

My spinners are getting tired and some have missing parts. I'll need to charge a few batteries and have an audition.

Just an FYI, ship them to mojo in Monroe and they'll fix or just replace them for $30. I've had several fixed for friends. They have great customer service.


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Wow! I'll have to check into that... Thanks!

[Ericdc]

http://www.mojooutdoors.com/index.php/faq-s


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[DComeaux]

We'll be heading to the camp in the marsh tomorrow evening with hopes that the water is down enough to make things happen. The north wind and no rain this week have allowed for a good water drop and reports give me confidence of what we'll find.

My grandbaby was helping with decoy tying this evening. She's a mess

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[Rick]

My grandbaby was helping with decoy tying this evening. She's a mess

So change her, Papaw. Otherwise, she appears off to a great start.

[DComeaux]

Got home mid mid morning today from the marsh and got a chance to cut my yard to a level lower than I could last Friday. Not a half hour after I finished it came a toad strangler. I'm not sure how much rain fell in a very short span but my yard is holding A LOT of water. The dry spell last week was sure nice. BRING ON THE FRONTS!

The water at the blind wasn't down enough to get any work done on it, 6" to 8" above the blind, but we did pull a lot of cord grass and staged it on the blind's island. With he brisk south wind Saturday the water actually rose a bit that afternoon. We also have the decoys, boat and pirouge staged in their place and ready to go.

About 100 yards west of the blind is an old abandoned oil location that has 6 to 8 inches of water over with a very hard rock base and short vegetation growing over it. When we came in by boat we bumped a good bit of teal and mottled ducks from the location and they wanted back in pretty bad. They'd come back frequently to check it while we were there.
We found a really neat spot on the edge of that location with good cover for a hide and that's where well make our Saturday morning hunt. If the water is down enough next Saturday we'll start work at the blind after the hunt.

I got to try out the new pirouge....... Like riding a bike...It was very stable.

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We took a ride just a couple miles north of our blind to meet some guys at a camp on the Mermentau River. In the still flooded marsh on the way there we found a large concentration of Black bellies, some with broods. These didn't want to move out of the way. That area was thick with these, I mean thick!

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Standing watch

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We had a freak thing happen yesterday afternoon. While riding down the access road with the windows down I started hearing an air leak. When we stopped it was coming out at a pretty could clip from the driver side front tire of Blake's truck (nephew) and I could see the hole or area it was coming from. After close inspection and poking at this object with my knife I found it to be part of a crab pincer.......A frikin crab pincer! It was one half of the tips end from the business end of a crab. How in the world did did this happen!? It's a first for us.

[Darren]

Good to hear of your teal!

Here's some squealers dad saw in the yard next to our camp in shell beach! Said they were all over this weekend

IMG_2188.JPG

[Ericdc]

We saw a few along 27 today between the bridge and creole.


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[Rick]

Dave, if you think of it sometime, snap a shot of what you're calling cordgrass, Google images shows everything from roseau to something I've heard called both "salt" and "wire" grass. But I've also seem pics of folks planting what I believe was called cordgrass for coastal restoration that looked like rice shoots.

[DComeaux]

Dave, if you think of it sometime, snap a shot of what you're calling cordgrass, Google images shows everything from roseau to something I've heard called both "salt" and "wire" grass. But I've also seem pics of folks planting what I believe was called cordgrass for coastal restoration that looked like rice shoots.

That's it exactly. It's the perfect height for a pit.

[DComeaux]

Dave, if you think of it sometime, snap a shot of what you're calling cordgrass, Google images shows everything from roseau to something I've heard called both "salt" and "wire" grass. But I've also seem pics of folks planting what I believe was called cordgrass for coastal restoration that looked like rice shoots.

That's it exactly. It's the perfect height for a pit.

I cropped a photo from an above post to show the cord grass. It was in the background of the "pit" shot. After some reading it appears this stuff will get tall, so my comment about "perfect height" will only be for a few years without trimming, I'd assume. It also produces a seed head and I can't find anything yet of ducks liking it.

USDA Fact Sheet
https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_spsp.pdf

Pit 1.jpg

[Rick]

Thanks.

[Ericdc]

Planted a ton of it for NRCS as a summer job in summer of 99 I think it was.


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[DComeaux]

We've decided to just hunt and enjoy our opening weekend of teal at the camp, leaving the blind work for another trip. We have plenty of time before the main season, and have enough area to set up in comfortably for the teal hunts. If the water is down enough we'll do an assessment of the blinds current installation. This to get a better understanding of what we'll be up against for the plan I have in mind.

We'll probably do a little fishing and cook up some wonderful meals. Just a full and relaxing weekend in the marsh. Blake and I are leaving at noon on Friday and we'll get the decoys in place that afternoon. Ellie will finally get to see and sniff up her new job location. I'll be a bit on edge and will be scanning for gators while we're hunting. I don't have a good feeling about sending her on retrieves in this hot weather in that environment. We saw the first gator out there this weekend but it was at the entrance gate which is a 11/4 miles from our location, and that dinosaur was huge. I'm going to seriously assess the situation Saturday morning and will make a go no go at that time.

[Rick]

No way would I put Ellie in that water now. Maybe Blake...