2017-2018 Season Log

[Ericdc]

10-4 Rick, I knew it had to be some kind of endearing acronym haha.


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[Deltaman]

I was scratching my head on the "FE" designation too...........but knew it wasn't good, whatever it was.... For Rick to say that, know it didn't come without due cause! Thanks for the Great ride again Rick. Like Duck Engr, I always look forward to your daily report, Thanks Has also been fun watching the Bug grow up, fine tuning his skills!

[Rick]

Was going to wait for calmer winds, but couldn't stand not doing something ducky and made a day of shutting down the Mudhole for the season. Till September...

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[Rick]

Addendum to log omitted 3 specks from "birds by species" on 1/7

[Rick]

Rick, you frequently mention all of the things you have stashed in the blind. Where do you keep said shells, backup gun, etc? Large dry box?


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Another "oops" I missed, this one on 1/15. The blind is too tight (8' long by 4' at the bottom and 2' on top) for a possibles dry box, so while I keep the 870 in a dry-unless-submerged vinyl(?) gun boot under the blind's front bench, things such as a near case of mostly 2 3/4" 12 and 20ga shells, new camo caps corporate hunters give me, a couple rain slickers and other possibles are stored in the compartment under the boat's seat.

[Ericdc]

Have you ever thought about getting a slightly longer pit for when you hunt 3 folks plus yourself or is that too rare of an occasion to worry about?


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[Rick]

Ha! If I had a 10' blind, Doug would be sending four hunters with me - and trying to get me to take five.

That, and my boat and motor are designed for two men and the four it too often cares makes it slow-running displacement barge. As can even adding a strap of big ducks to two average-sized hunters and self.

Well, those, and the logistics of getting a bigger blind out there are fine reasons to be tickled that both old and new wooden structure at my location preclude it.

[Ericdc]

Gotcha. It surprised me when we hunted with you that Doug would even book 3 hunters for you...pretty snug


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[Rick]

No one tries to squeeze a rock harder than Doug. He's a long history of squeezing spots until they suck wind, then squeezing them some more... Just his way.

[Rick]

Have been transcribing logs to Word and came across this happy September scene from one of our sublets:

[DComeaux]

That made me smile, thinking we're going to do it all over again, God willing.

[Lreynolds]

Thanks very much for what you (and others) do here, Rick! The single most common thing demanded of me, and the most difficult thing to get, is objective evaluation of hunting success.

As examples, I have 2 separate e-mails from the same person (a dedicated life-time hunter in his 60's) in SW LA saying that had the best first split ever, and now he says the worst season ever. I have e-mails from people that averaged right at 4 ducks per hunt: one claiming it was his best season ever and the other threatening to quit because of such poor hunting. People saying we finally got the cold, but it brought no ducks, and others saying that cold brought more ducks than we've seen since 2000. I hunted in a blind with a man on January 11 in Vermilion Parish that had hunted every day of the season and had only missed the "blind limit" 4 days during the season, but he told me about blinds "a mile that way, and another 2 blinds a mile or so over there" that were having their worst season ever. Oak Grove Hunting Club had a poor year, and they want me to meet with their members to "review" this past season and tell them what to expect in the future, while 2 leases to the south of them, including my lease neighbors to the east, had average to above-average success and had "no complaints". I conveyed some of the complaints I received from the Grand Chenier area to some staff members at Rockefeller, and get the reply, "well, that's a lie" and they proceed to show me photos of their kills. I've had people as recent as yesterday angrily calling BS on information I do provide, claiming we don't get any birds before Christmas, all evidence including bag-check data from 4 coastal WMAs to the contrary. None of this is new, so I should quit whining, but it seems amplified this year. I think because the January weather really raised expectations.

My own hunting is geographically restricted as well, but I appreciate being able to see other perspectives.

[SpinnerMan]

I have e-mails from people that averaged right at 4 ducks per hunt: one claiming it was his best season ever and the other threatening to quit because of such poor hunting.

People that don't know how good they have it.

If I get 4 ducks in a hunt, it is probably my best day of the entire season. I've never got a full 6 duck limit where I primarily hunt. I'd be in heaven averaging 4 ducks per hunt. Which is a big reason I love these logs so I can live vicariously through those that have it so much better.

[Rick]

You want to see whining, reread my first split log - and the closest blind having a strong one was a whole 617 yards to my east. That's just the nature of the game for a host and a half of reasons, some, if not many, of which I don't suppose we'll ever know.

In any event, it's we Louisiana waterfowlers who should be thanking you for being so willing to share your insights. And for being incredibly patient with us.

[Rick]

Been letting my season wrap-up get away from me, so here, finally, goes...



Date: Whether it was one of the worst of seasons or a fine one depends on which we're referencing.

September teal was the second weakest in memory, superseded only by 2008, when Hurricane Ike met us on the opener and blew very nearly everything out of the region. Even had a morning scratch at the Mudhole this year. Yet, by contrast to most of our area, we were fortunate to enjoy what teal gunning we did, and it's always a treat to be back in the marsh come September.

Would have to dig much farther back to find a first regular season split as sorry as what my hunters had to endure this past one. And any solace to be found in the knowledge that many regional blinds struggled worse was lost to the generally frequent gunfire of others in our or the neighboring marsh. Can't remember ever being more sorely aware that mine is "a big duck blind" because it's isolated from the more broken marsh our little ones prefer to fly. As we generally saw precious few birds large or small, while the blinds to our east (and northern neighbors) enjoyed a much better split thanks to their ringneck and teal opportunities.

Ah, but the second split, when the weather finally blessed us with more big duck mornings was a relief made all the sweeter by the sour taste of September teal and the first regular split.

Time: Aside from a couple or three September afternoons and two for geese in the rice, all of my hunting was done in the morning this year. Simply wasn't going to take paying guests to anything of the three pee-poor blinds we could hunt in the afternoons, and didn't want to put any more pressure on them, or frustrate myself, by play-hunting them.

Location: Very nearly all of my hunting was done at the Mudhole this year, more nearly than in any past season. But I've not come as close to deciding to put it behind me and move to one of our more easterly blinds as I did while looking at barren skies and listening to them shoot little ducks during this season's first split.

By now, I take grinding a pond out of the Mudhole's black-dirt flotant for granted:

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But the canes on the blind's island have gotten out of hand, growing taller and more lush than any others in the marsh, presumably from Marsh and my stirring the nutrients in the flotant they're growing in or under it. So rather than just thinning them by hand before the regular season, as has been my practice, I spot-poisoned them at the end of teal with I felt good result.

Cloud Cover: We had what seemed plenty of everything this year and experienced both good and bad hunts in about all of it. But nothing shook my faith in clear skies to help hide hunters who can't or won't help hide themselves.

Wind Direction and Velocity: Though September teal and the first slit were pretty much devoid of weather changes and sucked wind, accordingly, the second split saw more changes in terms of frontal passages than we've grown accustomed to. With most new ducks seeming to show just behind, rather than before or with the fronts.

Our region's prevailing winds are easterly, and we don't often catch the west winds preceding fronts during hunting hours, but they do tend pull what's been staying in the marsh to our end of it. One such this year accounted for a remarkable show of, usually relatively rare there, ringnecks. So many, in fact, that we quit shooting and began photographing them:

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Temperature: Along with the second split's fronts came the most cold weather and ice our region has seen in at least a decade, dropping to the teens and "feels like 4" at one point:

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Moon phase: I'd think our January fronts helped negate the usual affect of late season moonlight.

Special Notes: Keep telling myself I'm going to use this section to keep closer track of front to flight relationships.

Waterfowl Activity: As noted ad nauseam above, the Mudhole saw near record lows in waterfowl movement during September teal and the first split, but rebounded nicely with weather changes later in the season. A September teal observation I've not already noted and that's been attributed to our lead waterfowl biologist, Larry Reynolds was that those birds may have arrived in force enough earlier this year to have been well enough rested and fed to blow out to points south when all the shooting started.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Rick]

Waterfowl Responsiveness: God bless Alan Stanley and his "Deceiver". Though I probably haven't noted them all on these logs, it's long been my habit to audition a new-to-me call or two each season in hopes of getting nearer to the ideal of being able toll every passing duck or goose, and a Stanley Deceiver brought us closer this season by breaking birds farther than my long time favorite MVPs were able to. And, every bit as importantly, leaving me enough air to stay hard on the call to then reel them in, which has been the great shortcoming of previous longer distance candidates. My old MVP is in no current danger of getting bumped from its lanyard loop, and the squacky DC I ran most calm days is safe, as well, but we had a lot of big duck fun with the Deceiver that we would have otherwise missed, and it's found a home.

Hope to have the presence of mind to experiment with trimming teal length reeds to audition it with for super aggressive September teal calling needs.

No telling how many birds my lacking the presence of mind to try the Deceiver sooner for distant big ducks cost us, but I'm particularly POed at self for forgetting to try wood duck squealing on mornings when "local" mottleds and mallards were the only game around. After having some early success with brand of off-s[ecies calling, I forgot all about it when the chips were down later on. Same for the old late season rice field trick of speck calling for pintails when they were our primary or only flight birds and being balky.

Hunters: While not something I tracked closely this year, much less over the seasons, there sure seemed a lot of first timers and hunters returning to the sport after long absences in this season's mix. And it was particularly nice to see some past regulars who'd been MIA a while back in camp this year.

Guns: Sometimes wonder why I've bothered keeping this section. But every now and then I still find reason to note something here, so I suppose we'll see it again next year.

Malfunctions: My ODing on Benedryl and being late on Bruce's first September teal day shares top honors with the big season morning I let John's party run us out of gas. (I know, I know: "rookie move".)

Most notable equipment malfunction was whatever A5 spring broke on Matt's gun to leave its barrel free-floating in its receiver. Wasn't the season's only A5 malfunction, but oil and elbow grease remedied the only other that comes to mind.

Dogs: Marsh was the only dog I saw retrieve this season and generally made me proud. Which isn't to say we didn't have some handling disagreements a more competent trainer would have addressed with more than log notes about the need for refresher drill. But we frittered away our potential training time wisely by taking his Nonk Peake, on frequent afternoon field trips to his favorite crawfish ponds.

Special Equipment: I'd intended to experiment with an X-flapper goose decoy and even set up a dry, stable base for it in the marsh but, as has been the case over the seasons since its acquisition, was too lazy to fool with it. Did use both a standard Mojo spinner and my modified Mallard Machine to what seemed good effect, though the slow roll of the former's wings when shut off for big ducks hurt us some windy mornings.

Curses: Could cry again here about the general shortage of teal in September and lack of little ducks on our end of the marsh during the first split - and guess I just did. And there's my perennial "guys won't hide" bitch.

But our most serious issues this season were a loose round fired by a combination of unsafe gun handling practices and, much worse, an intentional shot a guy took over his buddy and way too close to my noggin. Makes my head hurt to remember the later.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Rick]

Kudos: Not sure why I got stuck on this section. While we started slow, we finished strong. I got to hunt with a whole lot more folks I enjoyed than those I didn't, and even saw some I'd been missing. Found a new call that improved our "luck". Couldn't have been much happier with Marsh's sophomore season. And, over-all, life at the Mudhole beat living snot out of some jobs I've had.

Birds By Species: All told, we shot 893 birds of fourteen duck and one goose species. (3 ducks and 1 goose were banded.) Which was far short of the Mudhole's 1,100+ bird long term average. Perhaps the farthest short season there to date, though that data was lost to a hard drive crash and yet to be recovered.

Our most notable non-shortfall stats might be the new blind records of 14 scaup and of 4 bands taken in a season. (Probably haven't helped shoot so many scaup in a season since leaving Ohio, but past notable band years elsewhere here in SWLA include 6 banded mottled duck one at my old Reese farm blind and a seven neck-banded speck split on OB Broussard's farm.)

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Rick]

Photo Ops: Since the photo host site I'd used in the past, Photobucket, crapped all over itself, I've been attaching photos on this site and tried to be mindful that our already more than generous host, Olly, could end up being charged extra for indulging my photo habits, and I'll remain so here by refraining from my usual parade of the season's shots that caught my fancy for this reason or that.

Instead I'll go with just two, the first taken after an end-of-hunt sweep of what was on the Mudhole the slow September morning it was taken:

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and the second after an early January hunt:

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Lagniappe:When one of the site's log keepers posted his hunts' birds-per-hunter-effort averages and another responded with "...the true measure of success at least for me. Anything above 3 ducks per man per hunt is a good average above 4 is very good!" it set me to figuring our own regular season averages. (I lacked the nerve to tally September teal's.) And what I came up with was 3.4 birds per during our first miserably slow split and 4.2 during what seemed a pretty strong second one.

The second split I'd thought strong was numerically less than a single bird per-hunter-effort better than the first one I'd thought abysmal.

There are certainly elements of the "everything's relative" idiom to be seen in those perceptions: as our lack of first split action was driven home more mornings than not by all the little duck shooting the more broken marsh blinds to our east were enjoying, and no doubt heightened my enjoyment when the second split's weather brought the big ducks that made it our turn to shine brightest what at least seemed more mornings than not. But that single bird per man difference in satisfaction also reminded me of the old "3 and 30" days when the resulting precipitous drop in duck hunter numbers may have indicated that a great many duck hunters might not think three birds enough to merit going.

In any event, I know I'd sure rather not have another first split like this past one. And since I plainly can't count on conditions putting enough little ducks in the marsh that the Mudhole enjoys an overflow, much less westerly winds that pull what's around to our end or fronts carrying big ducks, I've been contemplating ways to draw more little ducks from their preferred more open marsh. Which is going to lead me in two worrisome directions I feel worth a shot.

The first, and least problematic, is adding a second spinner positioned to add line-of-sight flashing attraction to two higher traffic areas where low birds can't see my current one. Being philosophically opposed to spinners and aesthetically offended by them, as well as the problem of getting just one killed white-side-down in high winds to work big ducks or geese without their deterrence, has long stood in the way of carrying my September teal two spinner practice over into the regular season. But there will be a second standard Mojo in the Mudhole next November. Whether it will be there in December remains to be seen...

The second, and much more problematic, change I've just about talked myself into is knocking the heck out of the live canes on the blind's island. There's absolutely no question that they're a great aid in hiding hunters who can't or won't help hide themselves on northerly and easterly wind mornings. But they also block my view of marsh to our south that little ducks plainly favor and keep me from seeing how to handle flights that power-dive down over us and too often end up sliding away over that preferred marsh - unless I keep screaming at them blindly, which may then blow out those that swing and return too close to the racket for comfort.

Last year I experimented with spot poisoning the island's canes at the end of September teal, leaving me with sick canes, many of which lost their leaves and provided good visibility by the second split but were still too much cover to see through in November. This year's plan is to knock them back earlier and more thoroughly and adjust my blind and boat hide practices to compensate. If it turns out to be a terrible move for those won't help hide themselves, it will be easy enough to put it on them. But if it turns out to hurt the guys who can't help hide themselves, I'm going to hate myself...

[aunt betty]

In the future there will be holographic duck blinds that change according to the wind.
Hunters will have hologram suits that change too.
Rick you'll have holographic cane that you can turn on or off plus you can change the color and height.
Sounds great don't it?















This will all happen right after we finally admit that the queen lizard is running things.

[Rick]

The Queen Lizard was defeated by the red-necked legions in the last election - but that doesn't necessarily mean she won't be back or isn't still running the show from behind the hologram curtain.

No telling what technological turns are in waterfowling's future.

[Ducaholic]

Wow 3.4 for the first split given how I thought things were going for you was pretty darn good in retrospect and the fact that you guys stop hunting at 9:30 makes all your totals that much more remarkable.

[Ericdc]

Yep I agree, we wouldn’t kill half of what we do stopping at 9:30.

That’s as long as I’d want to be in the blind though with some of Rick’s FE’s.


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[aunt betty]

Interesting. I'm usually done by ten however...
There are certain public walk-in areas in south-central Illinois that close at noon or 1.
If you aren't done by 9:30 or 10 it's wise to go set on the bank/levee and drink some coffee or cook a shore breakfast then go back in. There are even some guys who don't show up until late because like clockwork the ducks come back right at closing time.

It's spooky when some guys from Idaho or Montana show up late like 10 am, walk in, get the X hole, kill limits, and are done in 2 hours but it does happen. Seen it happen too many times.

There's an odd time-warp in them places. The shooting starts around 10-15 min prior to legal and ends around 10-20 minutes after time to quit. Funny trick watches.

[Ericdc]

Unless it’s opening weekend and there are a lot of birds on the farm we usually don’t do much shooting before sunrise, even teal. We’ve shot a lot of teal later in the morning for what people normally think about when it comes to getting green wings.

We depend heavily on traffic going back and forth into Arkansas. The flight is always S and SSW to N to NE or vice versa.

Takes a lot of patience to sit in the pit with a couple birds by 9 AM waiting on the flight. I enjoy it tremendously though.


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[Rick]

Wow 3.4 for the first split given how I thought things were going for you was pretty darn good in retrospect and the fact that you guys stop hunting at 9:30 makes all your totals that much more remarkable.

I went through the log counting heads (including my own, of course) time and time again, because the numbers seemed so out of sync with the "experiences". Thought there just had to be greater separation than a single bird per gun. Which really drove home the importance of improving our "luck" on mornings when the blinds to our east are banging away at little ducks.

Pretty sure we can do so by both poaching little birds flying the more open marsh south of Clyde's blind with an additional spinner positioned to target them and improving my interactions with little birds working the big ponds south of us by thinning the heck out of our blind's cover. Know our teal take compares quite favorably with our eastern neighbors' in September, when I use a second spinner set to be seen to our east, where my main one won't show well. And know I lose too many high teal I've broken to known, much less likely, calling errors when they work the south ponds now hidden by the blind's cover.

Just not at all sure how the trade-off in big birds catching either that additional spinner or guys who can't or won't help hide themselves will work out. But I plan to find out.

[Rick]

Yep I agree, we wouldn’t kill half of what we do stopping at 9:30.

That’s as long as I’d want to be in the blind though with some of Rick’s FE’s.

Some mornings I sure would like to at least stay until ten, like Cherry Ridge. Other's, well... you've pegged it.

But when I hunted ag land blinds without curfew, we very often ate microwaved boxed brunches, because the kitchen staff was working on supper.

[Rick]

It's spooky when some guys from Idaho or Montana show up late like 10 am, walk in, get the X hole, kill limits, and are done in 2 hours but it does happen. Seen it happen too many times.

When I was dumb enough to write about waterfowling destinations, I did a piece on Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, which was then (pre-hurricanes Rita and Ike) about as strong as anywhere in the country. Asked its manager what advice he had for newcomers, and that was his: launch at daylight to avoid the pre-LST boat race, and hunt where the first folks to limit have left.