2017-2018 Season Log

[Rick]

Date: 12/17

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: raining

Wind Direction and Velocity: light northerly?

Temperature: 50s

Moon phase: new

Special Notes: Rained hard all night

Waterfowl Activity: Would guess the birds were flat wore out from moving with last night's wicked weather. Know we still had a fairly good show of teal early but no big ducks to speak of early or late.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Lord knows much of what we saw seemed anxious to put in, but many caught us.

Hunters: 2, Tommy and Hunter again

Guns:

Malfunctions: Hunter's dad cleaned his Beretta yesterday afternoon, but it wasn't firing again today until we oiled it again.

Dog(s): Marsh and I had a round of butting heads over what his nose was telling him and my eyes were telling me.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just that we stayed to caught to get Tommy out of the weather quicker.

Kudos: Still managed a fine time and hunt.

Birds By Species: 3 bw teal, 11 gw teal, 1 mallard and 3 shovellers

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

[DComeaux]

I thought about you when I looked at the radar early this morning. The weather woke me up when it came roaring through, and when my alarm went off it was still coming down pretty good.

[Darren]

Rained hard all night

Waterfowl Activity: Would guess the birds were flat wore out from moving with last night's wicked weather. Know we still had a fairly good show of teal early but no big ducks to speak of early or late.

Yep, and same. Odd that we had a better flight of early GW's than yesterday, very few spoons, and then absolutely nothing else other than a few very high bunches of pintails.

[Rick]

Date: 12/18 Mon

Time: morning

Location: Mudhole

Cloud Cover: drizzly ground fog

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil

Temperature: warm

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Big ducks were either absent or above the fog for the most part with very few seen, but there were still enough little ones around for us to fill.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Tweeted on a teal whistle most of the morning, and every now and then something appeared, though most were reeled in with the teal-tuned DC.

Hunters: 2, another Tommy (aka "soildier boy" because, though now a retired Lt. Colonel, he started hunting with us as a 2nd Lt.) and Phil, another long time annual regular

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh culminated a good morning by rounding up our only mallard after a boat ride to the area where it chipped in.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Only the weather.

Kudos: Was nice to hunt with these old friends again, even if our stories are a little stale.

Birds By Species: 1 b-b whistling duck, 2 bw teal, 10 gw teal, 1 mallard, 2 ringnecks and 2 shovellers

[b]Photo Ops: Marsh and our scratched down mallard:

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Been forgetting to let one of lurkers know his favorite cook is back (and not telling anyone I ate three deserts for breakfast):

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[Ericdc]

Fog seemed to help my spot too. 4 guys went and they reported back to me that they had 13 green wings 1 gadwall and had a snow land in decoys


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[Darren]

Fog seemed to help my spot too. 4 guys went and they reported back to me that they had 13 green wings 1 gadwall and had a snow land in decoys


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Eric, I was wondering about that myself. Some of the best hunts of Bunkie field last season (all in Jan.) were in fog, and they were GW bonanzas.



Rick, what about that bridge with regard to Ms. Jenny? Put back together again after burned to ground? Great to see her again

[Rick]

Whole lot of necessity working on both ends of that bridge.

[Darren]

Whole lot of necessity working on both ends of that bridge.

Teamwork put it back together! Regardless of circumstance, hope it works out and hope to see her on a future visit

[Rick]

Think they'd have to be speaking to be a "team".

[DComeaux]

Wonderful hunt Rick.... Sure beats sitting in this office.

[Rick]

Ground fog again this morning, grrr... But at least there's a bit of breeze.

[Rick]

Date: 12/19 Tue

Time: morning

Location: Mudhole

Cloud Cover: Heavy/hazy

Wind Direction and Velocity: southerly light

Temperature: t-shirt

Moon phase:

Special Notes: Ground fog lifted after LST and didn't come back until we were back at camp.

Waterfowl Activity: Saw nothing for a spooky half hour or so, but teal in good numbers and a few big ducks started moving when it cleared.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Birds did as bid.

Hunters: 1, Doug from Laf

Guns:

Malfunctions: Pretty sure I've two or three or four coot decoys to patch.

Dog(s): Marsh and I bumped heads getting him to the AOF of a chipped bird on the big pond to our south, but eventually swam that gray down. Need to do some cast refresher/walking baseball.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Just that Doug was pretty careless about my decoys when teal were landing.

Kudos: Easy morning with enough game around that we eventually laid off teal to finish with a couple big ducks.

Birds By Species: 1 BB Whistling duck, 2 gadwall, 7 gw teal, 1 mallard and 1 ringneck

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

[DComeaux]

NICE!!!

Got a text early this morning saying that our marsh was infested with Pintail, and the GW were thick.

[Rick]

Got a text early this morning saying that our marsh was infested with Pintail, and the GW were thick.

If you gotta be infested, that would seem a mighty fine way. Only pintails we saw this morning were a pair mixed with spoons and got banged out on final approach by others' shooting.

[Darren]

I wanna be infested, sign me up. Pintails? Sure. Spoons? That'll work too.

[aunt betty]

I know a flooded field where the pintails pile up. The bad part is you have to ask a certain guy and then cross another's land to gain access. Getting them both to agree that you can...it can happen. Getting back in there is rough. The road is awful.
It's in Missouri.

[DComeaux]

Got a text early this morning saying that our marsh was infested with Pintail, and the GW were thick.

If you gotta be infested, that would seem a mighty fine way. Only pintails we saw this morning were a pair mixed with spoons and got banged out on final approach by others' shooting.

I think it's was the fog and low cloud deck that had them lost, overshooting little pecan by just a few miles. They're probably back over there enjoying the grub.

[Rick]

Date: 12/20 Wed

Time: morning

Location: Mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: SW moderate

Temperature: mid 60s

Moon phase: waxing 5%

Special Notes: Very rare for us wind.

Waterfowl Activity: Not many big ducks still around in the continuing warm weather, but the westerly wind drew a lot of little ducks and the most black-bellies we've seen to our end of the marsh.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Super with the normal banging and clanging from blinds to or north and east suppressed to nothing. Were first out even after laying off a mess and a half of little ducks to fill with mallards.

Hunters: 2, father and grown son

Guns:

Malfunctions: All of our barrels were bent by a kevlar greenhead: nine shots to knock him down and a half dozen misses when he flushed from the dog and flew back over the blind at low altitude.

Dog(s): Marsh had a good morning with a couple of sweet tracks.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Head's still pounding and sinuses still full of an all morning cigar.

Kudos: Finally filled

Birds By Species: 3 black-bellied whistling ducks, 1 bw teal, 1 gadwall, 2 gw teal, 5 mallards and 6 ringnecks

Photo Ops: A few of the umpteen lost jacks we passed on:

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And a mallard pair that forgot their kevlar:

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Lagniappe: These folks were a pair that had really rubbed me the wrong way in seasons past, but making a concerted effort not to let that affect how our morning went turned the trick, and I found myself suggesting we not finish as quickly as we could have and enjoying it. Well, except for that stinking cigar...

[DComeaux]

Keep it rolling!....I want to be in a blind.

[Rick]

Bottom could well fall out in tomorrow morning's calm, but it's been mighty nice while it's lasted. Still can't get over how sweet it was to work birds on the quiet, upwind end of the marsh this morning. Even Clyde's blind just to my east seemed so subdued that I was surprised to see he also filled.

[Ducaholic]

Would have liked to have that sky by 7;:00 this morning as predicted. Nice job Rick!

[Rick]

Would have liked to have that sky by 7;:00 this morning as predicted.

We've been incredibly lucky with ground fog that's thick when I air the dogs at 3:30 and, aside from Monday(?) a non factor or nearly so by LST. Came back with a vengeance one morning, but we were finished and on our way out when it did. Actually just been lucky all around.

Taking a couple of favorites this morning, so it would be just like the hunt gods to make this the one when the bottom drops out.

[Rick]

Date: 12/21

Time: morning

Location: Mudhole

Cloud Cover: stinking ground fog all hunt

Wind Direction and Velocity: none to light easterly

Temperature: cool

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Next to nothing passed our isolated pothole, but the guys on more broken marsh to the east caught some low local little ducks stretching their wings, and Issac's blind actually limited.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Teal would work, but yesterday's lost tame jacks were long gone, and what few we saw were high and hauling.

Hunters: 2, father and grown son, Harold and Mark

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh had an easy morning.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: These two are favorites of mine, and I hated the weather for them, especially father Harold, who was never in the game.

Kudos: Mark made a couple of sweet passing jack shots.

Birds By Species: 4 gw teal and 2 ringnecks

[DComeaux]

oof! It was still and foggy at home this morning.

[Rick]

Dave, I've been suspicious that the fellows I hunted this morning had your last year's lease before you and learned their entrance/launch was "100yds past the rec center". Just looked that up, and sure enough...

Going to ask them to show it to me the blind on Google Earth next time I see them.

[DComeaux]

Dave, I've been suspicious that the fellows I hunted this morning had your last year's lease before you and learned their entrance/launch was "100yds past the rec center". Just looked that up, and sure enough...

Going to ask them to show it to me the blind on Google Earth next time I see them.

Ask them if it's the big red gate. Is one of them a dentist from Alexandria?

[Rick]

No, they're local. Mark had Primeaux RVs. They've told me who controlled the lease, but the name didn't stick, and when we spoke of it again this morning, I let it pass because Harold said it was "16 miles west of Joseph's Harbor," putting it well west of you. That lost me completely, and I only Googled the Rec Center because that distance was at such wild odds with my memory of the area.

Anyway, I know where your blind was and will try to remember to have them show me theirs on the map, and we'll know.