Season log

[Ericdc]

Can't say I can remember a better weather forecast for opening morning in a long time.


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[Rick]

Not real cold here this morning, but no shortage of wind. A "dress warmer than you'd think" day for those of us who'll be facing into it for a while.

[Ericdc]

Date: Nov 19 opening day East zone

Time: hunted till 12:30

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light NW to 10-15 mph NNE

Temperature: 40's

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: beautiful morning with 4 of 5 members

Waterfowl Activity: tons and tons of specks heading north and south. Mostly high and in big bunches

Waterfowl Responsiveness: ducks were super spooky for opening day and didn't work but one bunch of gadwalls. Lower specks worked as pretty as can be.

Hunters: Eric Ridge Stuart Glynn

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Kudos: good breakfast and good company

curses: no ducks

Birds By Species: 4 specks

Expecting below freezing temps tomorrow but lighter winds.
Photo Ops:


Too much of this







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[Rick]

Like the blind pic.

[Ericdc]

Date: Nov 30

Time: hunted until 10:30

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clear and a little bit of thin ground fog before sunup

Wind Direction and Velocity: very light W to light NE to about 8 mph E

Temperature: right around 30 and warming up quick

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: first good frost of the year

Waterfowl Activity: more workable ducks than yesterday, way less speck flight and they were mostly high

Waterfowl Responsiveness: ok early on ducks then they got high and snobby, 2 specks worked pretty with very light wind
Specks really like my small guts RNT once they start working.
Hunters: Eric and Ridge

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Kudos: specks came pretty and tracked cripple on wheeler for a half mile before dispatching across highway. We saw some teal!

curses: first duck of the year...shoveler...thankful though haha

10 teal came in and landed....all survived..., got crossed by mallards and only knocked down 1. Early shooting spoiled a few opps

Birds By Species: 2 specks 1 mallard 1 shoveler

Photo Ops:







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[Ericdc]

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[Darren]

Nice specks, and I like the full body ducks integrated to the spread. Been thinking of how I might employ a few of my fullbody mallard hens myself at our mrash blind.

[DComeaux]

I had a chance to talk with a lost speck this morning in the marsh. I got him to come take a look but he wasn't interested in what we had to offer..... Nice looking place you got there.

[Ericdc]

Date: nov 23

Time: hunted till 11

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: heavy then lighter after heavy rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: S 10 mph to E 15-20 mph back to S 10 mph

Temperature: 50's

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: nasty morning, thankfully not too cold

Waterfowl Activity: lot moving early but real spooky then not much after rain stopped

Waterfowl Responsiveness: mallards came pretty and gads came decent, wish more had wanted to work early. Didn't have mojos out at first and then put them out. Seemed to help

Hunters: Eric Todd ridge

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Kudos: good time with a great friend from dry creek

curses: not enough chances, only let 1 bird escape

Birds By Species: 3 mallards 2 gadwall

Photo Ops:





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[Ericdc]

Date: Nov 24 Thanksgiving morning

Time: left at 9:45

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: tried to get foggy early but cleared off

Wind Direction and Velocity: very light SW to calm to 5 mph NE

Temperature: 40's and warming up quick

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: lots of gadwall and specks working before shooting time

Waterfowl Activity: good for first 2 hours then slow till about 9.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: very good but no wind made it tough to decoy

Hunters: my brother Ryan (gadget man) and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Kudos: seeing more birds each hunt and ryan made a nice shot on passing black jack

curses: Ryan got turned around on a nice group of gadwall that dropped in sweet in the NE wind pocket behind pit, on the bright side I went 3 for 3.ryan Didn't shoot well on another group of gads. Ryan only hunts a pit a couple times a year with me and is more used to stand up blinds in marsh. Hopefully he'll do better Saturday

Birds By Species: 4 gadwall 1 ring neck 2 specks

Photo Ops:


Some go pro footage




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[Ericdc]

Date: nov 25

Time: left at noon

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clear then high clouds then clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light and variable to calm to 5-10 NE after 11

Temperature: 40's then quick warm up

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: worked a lot of big bunches but calm winds hurt us

Waterfowl Activity: lots of ducks and specks bodied up south of us

Waterfowl Responsiveness: very good until closing time then having no wind we couldn't get em right, had to shoot a lot of weird angled shots and none of us shot well on those.

Hunters: Eric garrison ridge glynn

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: 2 mojos with remote

Kudos: lots of ducks

curses: no wind

Birds By Species:
1 Speck
2 mallards
1 wood duck
8 gadwall
5 spoons
1 teal
1 pintail

Lost 2 mallards and 2 gadwall
Photo Ops:




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[Ericdc]

Date: nov 26

Time: left at noon

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: cloudy then partly cloudy then sunny

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE 10 mph becoming lighter NNE when sun came out

Temperature: 47

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: my 4th day in a row, going to church tomorrow and back to work Sunday.

Waterfowl Activity: not as many as yesterday but decent flight until about 11:30

Waterfowl Responsiveness: mallards are still being quirky, gadwall doing pretty good, single speck worked in pretty.

Hunters: Eric ryan (gadget man) and Stuart (my retired pastor)

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: mojos with remotes

Kudos: we shot a little better

curses: still did some missing

Birds By Species:
2 mallards
3 gadwall
1 pintail
3 green winged teal
1 speck

Photo Ops:





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[DComeaux]

NIce hunts Eric

[Ericdc]

After a very slow start last Saturday the ducks started showing up Wednesday with rain and Thursday through Saturday we had a lot of birds. Lots of gadwall, pintail, mallards, and a few teal...speck numbers are also very good.

When it's good at my place we have almost constant traffic from the south, both low groups looking to work and really high ones headed back to Arkansas. This is especially true on north winds. If it's sunny, as we get later in the morning 9-10 am, the low traffic kinda stops and we start watching for high groups locking up over the farm. It's fun to watch them drop from way up over the farm, then they just pick which field they want to check out.

So far the mallards have been pretty spooky, while the gadwall just drop straight down. Getting a lot of attention from specks but really hard to keep them interested with so much traffic around us and birds have been bodying up just south of us.

I'm done till Thursday, which as of now is looking clear, cold, and north winds.

Overall a much better first week of our season, than compared to last year but not quite as good as 2014-15.


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[aunt betty]

Have shot gadwalls before but getting them to decoy while in a pit was nearly impossible for me when we had the rice field pit by the Crane Farm. They teased us a lot. I refuse to take pot-shots at passing ducks but want them to decoy. Might have helped if we had a cover for the pit. It stuck out pretty bad especially from above. Did you get that one to decoy?

[Ericdc]

Have shot gadwalls before but getting them to decoy while in a pit was nearly impossible for me when we had the rice field pit by the Crane Farm. They teased us a lot. I refuse to take pot-shots at passing ducks but want them to decoy. Might have helped if we had a cover for the pit. It stuck out pretty bad especially from above. Did you get that one to decoy?

We generally have very good success with the gadwall on days with sun and wind, but last Friday was high clouds and calm and they wouldn't get "perfect" but they got plenty close enough, was closer to decoying shots than passing shots.

Saturday we lit 2 right in the decoys and let the rest of the bunch get close before calling the shot...that's always fun. Just should have killed more with 3 guns.


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[Ericdc]

Had some flashy flooding type rain Monday that flooded our pit. Thankfully one of my blind partners lives 3 miles from farm and was able to pump the blind out Tuesday. Living 2 hours away, I would have had a hard time getting it pumped out before Saturday. He got it taken care of and will be hunting tomorrow morning.



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[Ericdc]

Experimenting with what kinda board we need in the pipe, a full 2x4 keeps it too high, so we are going to try what I'll call a 2x2-3 and see if that helps. We might not need that board in there at all. Our blind is the most sensitive on the farm to flooding, but it's also the easiest to hide cuz it sits lower than others.


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[aunt betty]

Interesting. Until I'd actually flooded a rice field or two wondered wtf people meant by adding a board. Looks like you're wishing you'd taken some out.
The systems I worked with had horizontal boards. You sort of slid them into channels.
Usually 2x4 or 2x6 sometimes with several stacked up.
Box-drain is what I'd call it. What are they actually called so I can sound like I know something?

[Ericdc]

Interesting. Until I'd actually flooded a rice field or two wondered wtf people meant by adding a board. Looks like you're wishing you'd taken some out.
The systems I worked with had horizontal boards. You sort of slid them into channels.
Usually 2x4 or 2x6 sometimes with several stacked up.
Box-drain is what I'd call it. What are they actually called so I can sound like I know something?

Yes that's how ours work. Most of our excess water has drained off, but I'm going to pull a board in the morning to prepare for the big rains starting tomorrow through Monday.


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[Ericdc]

Date: dec 3

Time: finished at 9

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: heavy light sprinkle

Wind Direction and Velocity: calm to light east

Temperature: 47 and holding

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: no flights but the local herd (a few hundred) of shovelers wants in our rice bad, few teal mixed in. Geese didn't note

Waterfowl Activity: constant low spoon flight around farm..big bunches

Waterfowl Responsiveness: just wait till the decide to commit while lots landed in stubble

Hunters: Eric wade Jeff

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: 1 mojo on remote

Kudos: we shot very well

curses: no gadwall or mallards

Birds By Species: 12 shovelers (personal best) and 6 green winged teal

Photo Ops:


Wade eyeing another batch of spoons inbound




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[Ericdc]

My 4th hunter couldn't make it or we would have probably shot 20 of them.


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[Darren]

Had some awesome spoon shoots in flooded rice, been a few years. If you don't shoot 'em, I will.

nice end to the split

[Ericdc]

Cleaned them yesterday. Beautiful birds with lots of fat under the skin. Been eating good in our field at night.


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[DComeaux]

Some of the spoons we took early on had rice in their crop (craw) and were fat. We hit a spoon on one of the last hunts that smelled like a dumpster at a seafood market....that thing was nasty! I've found that if the spoons are fresh to the area they're usually okay, but if they've been in the marsh a while they become fishy. No way to tell on the wing, but we'd been giving them a pass on our last couple of hunts.

Looks like the arctic is coming to pay us a visit this week We should hopefully have some new birds to play with on the 2nd split opener in a couple of weeks.

[Ericdc]

Yea our field will freeze solid Thursday night through the weekend probably.


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[Ericdc]

Lot of birds on our farm this morning.

Decided to get another speck call.



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[DComeaux]

Like to see the birds, and I've wanted to try a Red Bone for some time now. It's just my speck opportunity's have become very slim.

[Ericdc]

I ordered one without trying one, just based on info I gathered from John and a couple other friends. Surprised at how easy it is to run.


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