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Rick wrote:

DComeaux wrote:Two of the blinds on our place hunted this morning taking limits of grays, teal and mallards.

Were they not socked in by ground fog? (Ours was the only limit in our marsh this miserable morning.)

No mention of fog. It seems we have a constant breeze out there and fog doesn't settle in. It's more of a very low overcast. At least this has been my experience for the last couple of seasons.

12/23/2017

Mid 50's overcast occasional spitting rain early moderate NW wind

Me Blake and Bennett

Birds - 4 -2 GW 2 spoonbill

Not much shooting for us on the north end but the blinds south of us did well.grays and teal...Many large flocks of GW skirting us late morning and grays flaring.

Went to bait crab traps and found 15 nice crabs in the unbaited traps that were on a two week soak.

DComeaux wrote:...found 15 nice crabs in the unbaited traps that were on a two week soak.

Be interesting to see if there's much crab is left in the crabs...

They feel fairly heavy will find out

There seems to be a mass exodus of fowl from the marsh this evening, climbing up in large wads northbound..... I sure hope there's a few left out there, or they return in the same fashion in the morning.

After seeing so many sky high northbound flights myself yesterday, Eric's "Rest of the ducks were all very high and headed north to new water in Arkansas.", has me worrying about a pintail telemetry study they did back in the '90s that found many did, in fact, travel long distances to take advantage of new rain water one can only wonder how they knew about.

As always, I guess we'll see...

Rick wrote:After seeing so many sky high northbound flights myself yesterday, Eric's "Rest of the ducks were all very high and headed north to new water in Arkansas.", has me worrying about a pintail telemetry study they did back in the '90s that found many did, in fact, travel long distances to take advantage of new rain water one can only wonder how they knew about.

As always, I guess we'll see...

Cell phones, radios, the evening news, of course

The 7 day rainfall map tells the story


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12/24/2017

Upper 40's partly cloudy with some low stuff moving in from the gulf.. Light north wind

Me Blake and Bennett

Birds - 4 - 1 pintail drake 3 GW

We shut down, reluctantly, at 8:30 so we could get back to do family things. The green wing and grays were just starting to move, and I'm fairly confident we'd of taken a few more birds. Looking forward to next weekends three days of hunting. Heard tell of some cold weather on the way.

Wanted to add that we saw several high, large flocks coming from the north, diving down into our marsh. Similar to what I had seen yesterday evening, just in the opposite direction. It was neat to watch them loose altitude in a hurry and flare over the marsh.

Anyone know where I might find some reeds for this thing?

12/30/2017

Low 50's overcast East wind

Me Bill and Bennett

Birds - 6 GW

The lack of big ducks was real. Lots of GW though, and most just sat around us making noise all morning. It's still ringing in my ears. The blind just to our south took a 3 man limit with 15 gw on the strap. All it takes is a couple of three good flocks to do it right and they'll add up, which they had. The marsh is low and looks good, just need some birds.

12/31/2017

Mid very low overcast occasional mist Strong north wind increasing substantially

Me and Bennett

Birds - 12 - 10 GW 1 gadwall 1 ruddy > (Me to Bennett....take the teal from this flock...Bennett..BOOM!..Aw crap!)

Fair amount of activity this morning with more big ducks seen. Looks like some new birds, and probably most looking for small holes to get out of the gale force winds.

A boat passing south to north on the neighboring piece about a quarter mile to our east caused a duck rise that blackened the horizon for the last mile north to the road. They moved a hundred yards west and set right back down. There were good numbers of birds coming from the bigger water, settling into our marsh when we were leaving.

Missed opportunity on a mixed flock of mallards and pintail. Left to right across the decoys, mallards broke hard to the call and were feet down at 20 yards on Bennett's side. I called " take the green head" and he jumped up, and I not being aware of it, began to unload on the pintail, which were a bit far for this wind. I was waiting for the flare and downwind flight of escape of the mallards to get my shots. He had a hood on limiting his view and never saw the over the decoys, at 4', mallards. His face was buried in the brush and didn't see the mallards break and get low. All he had was a face full of pintail drakes when he rose from the blind.

I thought I'd do a Digby pose with the gadwall.

DComeaux wrote:
I thought I'd do a Digby pose with the gadwall.

Was gonna say, "that looks like my blind's kind of thing!" Gotta appreciate the beauty of an ol gray duck

"Looks like some new birds, and probably most looking for small holes to get out of the gale force winds."

Send some of those north. There's a small hole up here that could sure use 'em.

Went out and brushed the blind just a bit ago and saw lots of ducks and very low water. Grays and teal were standing in the boat ditch. Hoping we have enough water for the run in the morning, and that we don't have busted water pipe. Stuff down here is not prepped for such weather.

Better get ready, gonna be in low 20’s by Tuesday morning...

Lotta tidal type marsh will be mud flats by Tuesday you think with the strong north winds?


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It's a very good possibility

Stinks. We are going to be locked up till next weekend.


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I halfheartedly made the run to the blind this morning in the frigid winds and super low water. We got in the blind right at LST and the winds seemed to increase while we were there. The local weather said we had a 16 degree wind chill, and I believe it.
The duck rise was pretty good all the way to the blind, which was good to see, but with the low water not allowing for easy maneuvering for bird retrieval, and not wanting to put Ellie in the water at these temps, we just waited for the sun to rise a bit and headed back to the boat dock.
We watched ice form around the boat, and had a 10 plus flock of green wing hover and land in the decoys in the short time we were there. We didn't even load our guns. On the face burning ride back, very near the end of the shallowest part of the run, the prop kicked up out of the slush and I lost steering. The wind grabbed the front of the boat and we took a right turn up the mud bank. With a little help from the push pole we got back to softer slush and got back underway. The only other blind hunting this morning was the most northern blind on the place, and they took their twelve.

30 years ago, today's weather situation would of produced a different story, for me, and more than likely a few birds on the strap.

"30 years ago, today's weather situation would of produced a different story, for me, and more than likely a few birds on the strap."

Sometimes a hot toddy and a warm, comfortable lazyboy, trump the misery of the cold in a duck blind...........just sayin

Deltaman wrote:"30 years ago, today's weather situation would of produced a different story, for me, and more than likely a few birds on the strap."

Sometimes a hot toddy and a warm, comfortable lazyboy, trump the misery of the cold in a duck blind...........just sayin

I guess I'm not as mad at em as I once was, nor do I have the higher level of piss and vinegar of my younger years. This weekends shaping up for a more comfortable time in the blind. We should get some water back as well.

DComeaux wrote: We should get some water back as well.

Crossing my fingers we get some back, Sunday might be only viable day in the marsh for me. Will be tracking it online all week

Darren wrote:

DComeaux wrote: We should get some water back as well.

Crossing my fingers we get some back, Sunday might be only viable day in the marsh for me. Will be tracking it online all week

The water level was doable, and I don't know if it could get much lower, it's just the will that was weak. A relative to the property owner told me it's was the lowest he had ever seen that place in all the years he'd hunted it.

I would really like to see it at this level through the spring and early summer.......GRASSES.

Marsh Bear wrote:DC I agree with low water level in spring and summer. Our marsh has been too high for the last 3 years and the lack of vegetation shows it, but we have no control over the water level

If the landowners down there would allow this project, that's been in the works for some time to proceed, we'd have the control and fresh water. I've read the proposed plan and it has levees, control structures, and draw downs every couple of years, with a fresh water diversion canal right into our marsh. The water salinity would be monitored at the inlet before release.

I hear tell that some are afraid that the existing, rejuvenated, and extended canal would flood their cow pastures during rain events. I don't know enough about the hydrology plan for it to make an argument. I also have nothing at stake in this either, but it would sure be nice to see the marsh rebuilt.

Just over the last couple of years I've seen the ponds opening up and land disappearing. They'd better hurry and do something or it'll be all gone, with the only thing remaining being the Rockefeller marsh, jutting out into the gulf as a 4 mile peninsula.

Rick wrote:Have you tried the ruddies, yet? I ran into another reference to their having been a top market bird a while back.

I came across this article this morning and thought about this post. Seems they were the thing back then.

https://honest-food.net/ruddy-ducks-the-original-butterball/

Check this out: These are retail market prices for ducks taken from the Currituck Sound in North Carolina in 1884:

Pair of Canvasbacks: $1.00-2.75 ( $64.83 )
Pair of Redheads: $0.50-1.60 ( $37.72 )
Pair of Ruddy ducks: $0.25-0.90 ( $21.22 )
Canada Goose: $0.50 ( $11.79 )

The price in parentheses is the modern price, adjusted for inflation. Astounding, isn’t it? Also, note that no other species of waterfowl are listed. Then I found a 1901 restaurant menu cited in Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York from a place called Rector’s that listed restaurant prices for a single cooked wild duck:

canvasback, $4 ( $101.79 )
redhead, $3 ( $76.34 )
mallard, $2.50 ( $63.62 )
ruddy duck, $2 ( $50.89 )
teal, $1.25 ( $31.81 )

Can you imagine plunking down a Benjamin for one duck? Even crazier, can you imagine paying more than $50 for a ruddy, which barely feeds one person? I was gobsmacked.

I'm much too lazy to try to find it again, but am nearly certain the reference I saw was from the California market days.

1/6/2018

Clear upper 30's light ESE wind

Me, Bennett and Blake

Birds - 6 -4 GW 2 Spoonbill

Thought we were going to scratch early on. Lots of GW around, clouds rising with boats leaving is the only time they'd move. Few grays seen, hand full of mallards and not much else. Seems the scaup have disappeared, or they're just not moving.

Blake and I went back out mid day to chase decoys displaced by the ice, and we change up the spread a bit. The high wind combined with the weight of ice accumulation drug most of the spread to our south. We had teal landing in the decoys while doing this. Good many birds flushed on the way out and in. Did see a fair amount of gadwall on this trip.