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Significant north wind this morning, so we'll see...

I actually stood outside this morning predawn listening for migrating fowl. I wish I would have had more time to soak up this sunrise. It feels wonderful out there.

We went to the pond for about what would’ve been the first 15 minutes of shooting time. Didn’t see any at pond, but just saw a nice bunch of rather low specks flying northeast in Ruston area. Not the direction I expected but good seeing em


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Headed to lease this evening to clean trash out of pit and grass it up. Feel like we’ll be there for roost flight.


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Klondike report is: maybe tomorrow.

Rick wrote:Klondike report is: maybe tomorrow.

Nuts! Heard of some birds showing on my end, third hand

Twelve days until our season starts.


Today brought to you by the letter "P" and the number "6".

Still no big speck show in places I've been, but the coyote and bug and I took a spin around the marsh yesterday and bumped four ringnecks that are certainly new. Other than that, just a handful of mottleds on the north end of Gabe's and at the back blind, maybe a couple dozen mixed woodies, teal and mottleds at Issac's and a little bunch of teal at Ed's, plus another that buzzed us before we got out of his pond. Probably about par for now.

Was pleased to see the spot poisoning I did on my blind's island is working out well, at least in the short run. Presumably because of the dog and I churning the nutrients in the flotant those canes grow on, they've been MUCH more lush and green than any other canes in the marsh and really stood out from the far less healthy and bright neighboring stands. Much better match now. And I've apparently made some lasting progress knocking the floating black dirt down. Knock wood.

The bad news at the Mudhole is that the annual fourchette bloom has begun. Too soon to know how much, if any, help pulling a whole lot more than I cut last fall has helped hold them back for this year. Intend to pull, rather than weed-eat, again this year, despite the later being so much easier, "just to see".

Thought of Dave's empty wallet photo when I checked out of Wally World with the last(?) of the considerable painting supplies needed to complete the job of revamping my decoys "right". (OK, more nearly "right".) But being that deep into it, I conquered my fear of airbrushing enough to finally begin using one I've had in an unopened box for several years. Can't say I've mastered it, but am underway and practicing on my coot raft before tackling the mallards and, eventually, specks.

Didn't break out the sand blaster, which is also years old but still new-in-box, for the coots, but expect to for mallards this afternoon..."Baby steps."

Be advised that Tractor Supply's inexpensive siphon action sandblasters suck. Or, more correctly, don't suck hard enough to function as anything but a pneumatic sprayer, ie: worked with water but not very fine sand. Will try a gravity-fed Monday...

You're over thinking it man. Sand blasting decoys...they ain't made outa metal.

When I painted my flambeaus from the 70's and 80's if the paint was still attached I figured it ain't never gonna fall off.
Roughed em up with a wire brush just enough to knock anything that was loose off.
Rustoleum sticks good.

You're painting coots right? https://www.walmart.com/ip/Rust-Oleum-C ... 3=&veh=sem

This ain't no half-a--ed Aunt Betty project. Coots are long done with true-to-life poule d'eau gray bodies under their little black heads with the beady red eyes. Most will get shot up, and re-doing them up as need be will be no trick at all. But I want my mallards and specks to last and am doing them as right as I can, and which means knocking off anything loose close pressure washing might have missed and roughing up the plastic's surface with sandblasting, flash flaming, wiping with acetone, plastic primer and then a marine enamel paint. Maybe a Dullcote top coat, too.

Oh.
I get it.


Really should carve new ones to rick specs and then write a flowery book about it complete with photos.
Would be a good read. Right up there with TK's boat build.

Comme ça?






That's my personal, "just me and a precious few others" working block spread. Mottleds are composed of six pieces of wood each: upper bodies being two pieces of high density Venezuelan balsa originally warehoused for WWII life boats but used here to keep the upper bodies light and centers of gravity low, along with harder wood heads, tail inserts, lower body base and keel for durability and, again, low CG. All doweled together with nary a metal fastener or weight. And, while to my eye they appear overdone up close, they come to life with distance, swim with the slightest breeze and ride stronger ones remarkably well.

They're pretty sweet, but I am most proud of them because of how highly I value the friendship of the gifted carver (and finest human predator I've known) who blessed me with them.

Still not "specklebelly day," but what a great morning. Began in the rain when I left the truck to walk a deer rifle in a place I hoped to see a few birds, if not a deer, and I was sweating and carrying my slicker before the end of the nearly half-hour walk in. But about the time I peeled it, ducks started bailing out of the flooded fields I was passing in great, loud waves, "like the old days," and what sounded like a lone lost and confused speck was circling the melee. My day was made right there.

Found the farmer had flattened the little hide I'd made to watch the woodline from a few weeks ago, along with the rest of the levee's cover, so I set my stool in the water beside the levee to at least lower my profile and settled into a mighty sweet bird watch, as hundreds of ducks and dozens of geese worked around me. Spent so much time watching the show behind me that I may have been lucky to spot the not so lucky little buck that made the morning perfect by falling in his tracks where I could bring the truck to him:


Of course, the morning's real highlight was running into johnc on my way home when I stopped for coffee (that wasn't there) at the Tiger Mart. Seems he'd been toiling toting grass clumps to their blind, while I'd been playing.

Congrats on the deer Rick. We just ate deer steak for lunch.


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Little fellow was lagniappe. Dang near forgot about him when the "Whap!" of a solid hit was swallowed by the sound of birds flushed by the shot and the resulting airshow.

Anyone that has(had) the pleasure of shooting over those decoys has definitely been blessed. The decoys were blessed while they were being carved by a man's hands that are truly blessed. People like you guys help make Cajun wannabe's.

Can't recall if I'd told you that Ronnie is carving again. Has been having some cedar of some sort that he'd been saving for a hollowed-out personal spread for a very long time and was well along with that project when last we spoke. I'm thinking, but do not know with certainty, that they're the first decoys he's made since Elaine passed.

Good stuff, Rick.

Duck Engr wrote:Good to hear mention of duck numbers and good ole days in the same sentence.

Please know it's a VERY isolated case. Dammit.

Went back out in the afternoon and shot some video while not seeing deer. Initially hard to tell one bird from another without a scorecard, but my approach to the back of the farm created quite a stir and exodus:


Wasn't long, though, until birds were trickling back in:


And pouring back in:


But being bird goofy I also enjoyed watching the thousands of ibis leave for the roost, as I'd forgotten my stool and was laying prone on the levee in a spot they crossed LOW and then swirled in the lee of the woods I watched before topping them. No way to begin to capture the magnitude of that flight:


What I didn't enjoy was the farmer's pass around the farm just about prime deer time:


But it was a sweet afternoon, and I still got to watch the best part of the LSU game.

That is really good to see. Maybe we should hunt there.

He'll probably sublet it - if he hasn't already...

Finally some big ducks to watch lock it up and glide on down after months of only little ones. What species you confirm? Pins? grays?

In addition to our summer ducks, both kinds of teal, spoons, grays and pintails for sure. Haven't pegged either a mallard or wigeon as such, yet, and no divers on the farm, though there were four jacks in our marsh the other day.

What a difference less than a mile can make. Northerly winds dictated abandoning the waterfowl rich spot I'd been deer hunting for another Google Earth says is only .73 of a mile away, which despite being a generally good big season flyway has had all but barren skies the past two mornings. Have moved exactly three mottleds off its crawfish pond, seen two other small duck flights and maybe a half dozen speck flights. All but a couple really high ones of which were headed for my previous spot.

Specklebelly Day remains in Klondike's future - one hopes...

They (specks) are bunched up in R-Kansas and NE La, from what I've been seeing. Maybe this is a good thing? Early pressure won't push em back up like it's been doing. Pressure and weather will push em down later. Let em eat up the fields up there, first.

The way the weather just changed up here it's a good bet that they're on the way.
Went from summer to gloomy fall and almost winter in a few days. The seasons appear to be changing faster here.
Seems like we don't get much of a spring and even less of a fall.