Preseason

[DComeaux]

Can only imagine the kind of adventures (both good and bad) that I could get into with a long-tail motor.
Certain member here says he got himself a surface drive. Should I point him to the "where" part or let him discover "it" on his own? Gettin stranded where "it" is would suck suck suck.

You sure can get in a place where you shouldn't have, and you will not get out. The land manager told me of a time he borrowed a surface drive, and actually showed me where he put it in the marsh (missed curve). After attempts by other mud motors he had to get a very LARGE air boat pull him out. They would use outboards at that time, to and from the blind, as some still do today.

[aunt betty]

Mud flat is not a happy place for one on two feet. Not at all.
Once a guy blew into the mud flat and I horsed him out because I had waders. I was hunting nearby and was the only boat anywhere near. He gave me ten bucks. Earned every penny.
His story was odd. He was "guiding" a deer hunter and was supposed to be bringing breakfast. Got distracted while cooking and blew into the flat. If I knew he had food I woulda made him make me breakfast too!

My uncle once told me that you can get eight times more stuck with a 4x4.
Same thing with mud motors.

[Darren]

Can only imagine the kind of adventures (both good and bad) that I could get into with a long-tail motor.
Certain member here says he got himself a surface drive. Should I point him to the "where" part or let him discover "it" on his own? Gettin stranded where "it" is would suck suck suck.

You sure can get in a place where you shouldn't have, and you will not get out. The land manager told me of a time he borrowed a surface drive, and actually showed me where he put it in the marsh (missed curve). After attempts by other mud motors he had to get a very LARGE air boat pull him out. They would use outboards at that time, to and from the blind, as some still do today.

If water levels are fairly stable where you are, I sure would love a 16-17 foot by 42" bottom or so, with a hopped up 25 or 30 on a jackplate, tiller control. No good though when water levels get down to less than 6 inches on you

Guys I hunted with in Creole had a fleet of flats like that, ran that marsh really well......and fast

[aunt betty]

Got a river jon. 16-40 and it's not flat and not a modified vee but something sort of in between. It's a lowe from 1978.

The flat I'm talking about is usually about 1-2 feet deep. The lake has no controls. Water just flows over the top.
It's tween two and three feet low right now and that flat is impassable. I can't even get close.
Beyond it is the creek which at this time of year is the shangri-la of little ducks but getting to them is extreme even on a good day.

[DComeaux]

This is what I think of the upcoming duck season.

[Rick]

Not quite sure how to read that.

[Ericdc]

This is what I think of the upcoming duck season.

My favorite sound in the blind other than a yodel is that wigeon whistle. We don’t get many, but I love em.


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[DComeaux]

Not quite sure how to read that.

Optimistic.

This is what I think of the upcoming duck season.

My favorite sound in the blind other than a yodel is that wigeon whistle. We don’t get many, but I love em.


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Same for me. I really like those birds, and we don't get to see em often enough.

[Ducaholic]

I know a spot that you can kill a few...

[Darren]

I know a spot that you can kill a few...

I used to

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They dont go there any more

[DComeaux]

Nice straps! I find you're ether in em, or not. They (migration crowd) seem to hang together. IMO

[Ducaholic]

Nice straps! I find you're ether in em, or not. They (migration crowd) seem to hang together. IMO

I think your right. Hard to explain what makes a particular spot attactive to them.

[Rick]

I used to...

They dont go there any more

Back in the '90s we shot 14 drake wigeon one morning to get four footballs with clean caps and masks and nice sprigs for mounting. Now you can't kill enough ducks of any kind to make a gumbo on that farm, and I can't imagine passing anything else waiting for a wigeon of any description, much less a buster.

[DComeaux]

I used to...

They dont go there any more

Back in the '90s we shot 14 drake wigeon one morning to get four footballs with clean caps and masks and nice sprigs for mounting. Now you can't kill enough ducks of any kind to make a gumbo on that farm, and I can't imagine passing anything else waiting for a wigeon of any description, much less a buster.

It will be first come, first served opening morning. I hope to be covered with teal.

[Lreynolds]

I write a lot about the mallards that no longer show in Louisiana like they did only 20 years ago, but I should also be writing about wigeon as well. On the coastal and Catahoula Lake survey in January, we averaged 198,000 wigeon in 1990-99. In the last 10 years, 2008-17, we've averaged only 22,000 ........ a nearly 90% decline on the same surveyed habitat.

Interestingly, when we look at the BPop data, the distribution of breeding wigeon has shifted strongly to the West for unknown reasons.

[DComeaux]

Larry, did you get to fly?

[DComeaux]

Lots of ducks out here....more later when I can get to my computer.

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[Lreynolds]

Larry, did you get to fly?

Start the survey in the morning. Hope to be done Wednesday with coastal and Catahoula Lake with a report by Thursday afternoon.

But something will screw it up .........

[DComeaux]

Well, the birds are still there, and may have gotten reinforcements. Seems the youth hunters had really good hunts, with some on the upper end of the age scale getting there limits in fifteen to twenty minutes, I was told. Go pro battery was dead so I didn't get any footage.

The weekend didn't start out too good, with a dead battery for the go devil and then quitting on us half way to the blind with the first load of roseau. After push poling for twenty minutes back in the direction of the boat shed, I made an adjustment to the carb and got it running. It actually ran well enough for us to finish up all of the work this weekend. We'll cross our fingers for next weekend.


We got the blind brushed Saturday and I plan on adding roseau to the little islands around us to help with blinding. Behind me in this picture, about 40 to 50 yards, starts large stands of roseau for miles, so we're not the only clump in this marsh. Bill and I sat here (see picture) this morning watching gadwall land in the decoys. Activity was non-stop the whole time we were out there. We saw many species, and the mallard hens were loud. Lots and lots of feeding chatter just to our east, with large black clouds lifting and hopscotching over the marsh. I got out of the camp at daylight this morning and watched, for 20 minutes or so, flock after flock coming from the north, some had 80 to 100 birds. This was as far as we could see, east and west.




I was told that just two years ago this blind location was on the edge of a closed pond, with plush marsh behind it. Water levels have been high for way too long in the spring and summers the last few years. For now the water is low and falling. I actually pulled up young, healthy coontail with the push pole.

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Crab traps loaded.

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[Rick]

Still flips me out that you have so many ducks while our marsh is virtually barren. (I saw a lone pintail pass the mudhole yesterday morning.) Happy for you, well...in a jealous sort of way.

[Darren]

Sounds good, front should help later this week. Counting down..........

[DComeaux]

Still flips me out that you have so many ducks while our marsh is virtually barren. (I saw a lone pintail pass the mudhole yesterday morning.) Happy for you, well...in a jealous sort of way.

After the last few years of lack luster duck seasons for me this is probably just a dream and I'll wake up shortly.... I did pinch myself. It reminds me of what it was like some years ago down there. The front coming in later this week will probably reinforce what we have, but I can honestly say, we don't really need it. If the birds are still there in the numbers they are now and our shots are true, I don't think we'll be in the blind very long.

The only thing I didn't see or hear were wigeon, but I was busy and didn't take the time to really take it all in. I'll get a good look at whats there this Saturday morning. The divers have arrived. We didn't see any of those two weeks ago..... They're safe.

(Part of me wants to be excited, but a bigger part is very reluctant to be confident....ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY)

[DComeaux]

Blind looks good, everything ready - it will take forever for Saturday to get here

Thanks!, and That's the truth.

[DComeaux]

I need to come borrow some Roseau, what we have around just isn’t green and healthy like it used to be. Which I know I stated in rick or my thread but dang it bothers me


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It shouldn't be hard to find just south of you. After this past weekend, the stash at the boat house has dwindled. We had to end up getting some down the ditch near the blind.

[Rick]

We had to end up getting some down the ditch near the blind.

That fresh cut cane will sprout and take hold if you let it. Well, unless the water's too deep.

[DComeaux]

We had to end up getting some down the ditch near the blind.

That fresh cut cane will sprout and take hold if you let it. Well, unless the water's too deep.

That's what I'm hoping will happen.