2017-2018 Season Log

[aunt betty]

Public hunting is highly stressful but somehow I thrived in that environment. Did great and had tons of fun until one day I decided that maybe the grass was greener at the pay-to-play. It's not. At least not for me.

You have no idea how many times that I have paid to sit in a blind or pit with my shotgun unloaded so that I could not possibly piss anyone off.(many)
I did load up and shoot some doves with them CCC guys but they never knew it that I didn't load my gun when we hunted geese and ducks. It was funny when our "guide" called the shot on a pelican and they were expecting me to shoot it.

The making me take pictures with their birds stunk a little but I went along with it.

[aunt betty]

Public hunting is highly stressful but somehow I thrived in that environment. Did great and had tons of fun until one day I decided that maybe the grass was greener at the pay-to-play. It's not. At least not for me.

You have no idea how many times that I have paid to sit in a blind or pit with my shotgun unloaded so that I could not possibly piss anyone off.(many) The days at Grassey Lake HURT! I went there to try and re-create what my dad did. Found out he was the money guy and I'm not so I got stuck on the firing line and never got to see the famous "black hole". They worshiped my father at Grassey Lake because of his $$$. They gave me the royal treatment for about two minutes until they figured out who I actually was and how much I had to spend.

I did load up and shoot some doves with them CCC guys but they never knew it that I didn't load my gun when we hunted geese and ducks. It was funny when our "guide" called the shot on a pelican and they were expecting me to shoot it.

The making me take pictures with their birds stunk a little but I went along with it.

[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.

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.

Yea, I can’t really remember any days where we stayed in the marsh where brother Corey hunts past 10 AM and it being worth our while. Even on public marsh.

Got any theories on why ag land can be so much better later in the day?


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[Ducaholic]

Don’t think all ag land is good late. In your case as you stated it’s because you are in a known flyway. When we were in Cheneyville by 10:00 you could pack it in because the action stopped and that was the case even on the best days with the most activity early on.

[Ericdc]

Don’t think all ag land is good late. In your case as you stated it’s because you are in a known flyway. When we were in Cheneyville by 10:00 you could pack it in because the action stopped and that was the case even on the best days with the most activity early on.

Interesting. I’ve left them flying up here at 2 or 3 pm.


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[Ericdc]

I think being next to a river and the delta bottlenecking down fairly narrow compared to what it is going north and south from us is a factor probably.


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[Darren]

Don’t think all ag land is good late. In your case as you stated it’s because you are in a known flyway. When we were in Cheneyville by 10:00 you could pack it in because the action stopped and that was the case even on the best days with the most activity early on.

I agree

Definitely not an "all" situation---region or even field specific---

Dead as a hammer on the Bunkie area farm late-morning more often than not, even on big weather days

[Ericdc]

I think being next to a river and the delta bottlenecking down fairly narrow compared to what it is going north and south from us is a factor probably.

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that is where the flyway corridor narrows and funnels right through the Northeast portion of Louisiana---should be some of the best hunting in the state

It used to be. Farming practices have greatly diminished our holding capacity. One of the best and largest farms up here no longer has any hunting. Just disked leveled earth that doesn’t hold any water. Several other farms like it. To hear stories of when the rice was cut and stubble left with curvy “snake” levees meandering through the fields holding sheet water all winter. I would have loved to have seen it.

We definitely get a front row seat to the migration when the push is on, and that’s fun to watch.


All that said, I’m very thankful for where I’m able to hunt and make the most of it. I’ve hunted several other places much worse.






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[aunt betty]

I've googled a few rice fields and you can go to NEAR and see your snakey levees but it's gradually changing to lazer leveled fields.

I did not hunt with the Bayou Bottoms Boys long enough to see what we're talking about but I was shown where they 'used to hunt'. Other side of the Bayou from where they are now. Some doctors paid to hunt then bought the farm. Naturally them BB guys thought that maybe I was a doctor too. Has to suck getting your lease bought from under you. It happens. County Line Road...which county is on you.

The old field got bought and hunted for a season or two and then one of the docs got sold the idea that their farm was supposed to be a farm and make money off crops. SO THEY HAD IT PRECISION LAZER LEVELED.

That's the end of the story because there ain't no ducks ever going to go into that field again ever. They ruined it. Totally ruined. Bet they get a rice check now but forget about duck hunting. Forget it. Done over caput.

[Ericdc]

Yea that sucks. It’s happened all over. It still happens on our farm in the fields planted in rice but that’s not even a blip on the landscape. It looks good though.


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[aunt betty]

Whoo. Just escaped from an online argument with a guy from California over gun control. He's wacky and took it to a religious place. weird. So I asked him to pray for me to harvest more ducks and geese this year. Dude lost it.

So I looked at his profile. OMG he wears Hawaii shirts, shorts, and flip-flops with a pop-top stuck in... and looks like he lives in Margaritaville, California.

Back to my safe space here. sigh

HE SAID DUCKS AND GEESE TASTE SHITTY!!!
and that's all I could take.

I don't think he realized that in a thread with 40 comments that 38 were agreeing with me and his two were not. Have a feeling that If I go back there will be 160 comments all against him. Dumb ass. My argument was that amendment two is for not just hunting but is so we can form militias and "arms" means much more than small arms. I'm thinking artillery and big stuff. Dude was in way over his head.

[Rick]

Why would laser leveling, per se, harm a field? The bigger resulting cuts generally mean tamer birds here.

[Ericdc]

Why would laser leveling, per se, harm a field? The bigger resulting cuts generally mean tamer birds here.

Well that’s only the fields that are pumped to hunt. The rest of them are disced and don’t hold any water.

So it might not hurt the actual hunting all the time, but with all the leveling done up here, there’s not any slack water that last more than a day or 2 to hold birds. It all drains off.




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[aunt betty]

Why would laser leveling, per se, harm a field? The bigger resulting cuts generally mean tamer birds here.

There are nice little sloughs all up and down the BDV (river) and they hold ducks. Eliminate the sloughs and the ducks don't have anywhere to loaf. Make it perfectly level and start growing beans and then you go "what ducks".
Am quite sure that a duck has not used the old farm since it was leveled.
Just down the road on the other hand...

It's well-known that the BDV is leveed up for about 15-20 miles south of J-town.
The first farms past where the levees end are waterfowl sweetness.
Everyone knows that too. Last time I was in the area there were half a dozen brand new club houses that stuck out so bad that they kind of glowed and you could spot them from 3 miles away.
The competition has arrived.

Am pretty much done except for Big Lake and Dave Donaldson. Once you go to either of them two places you're hooked bad.
Rainey Brake has its own special allure but you have to be super hard-core to appreciate it.

[Ericdc]

Bayou Deview?


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[Rick]

What drains better depends largely on who did the work and, especially, the land itself. (Big machines have been lost for seasons at a time in laser level created bogs.)

Whether water is held or let go is the real issue, and what's changed of real habitat significance here is water's role in weed control. Was a time when most farmers held fairly deep water on their plowed (for next spring's planting) ground to hold back red rice and winter weed growth, but letting water go and poisoning what grows is more popular now. Much cheaper to do any final dirt work dry and drill their seed than water level and fly in seed - weather permitting.

[aunt betty]

It cracks me up every time one of the southern ag experts I meet in the field ask me the same question.
"What kind of rice do y'all grow up there in Illinoiz?".

[Deltaman]

I've only seen and hunted one laser leveled field, and that was in NE La., very near Angelina (the big rice farm). This farmer had not only laser leveled his rice and corn land (first time i'd ever heard of it), he also spent the money for underground piping along the rice, and could control the water level in any of his fields. Was nice when walking out to pick up a duck and there were no mounds to trip on. Another thing that impressed me was that he had one of those long watering/sprinkler systems on wheels in his corn that was close to a half-mile long. He had grown up a rice farmer in AR, and said that he could come pretty damn close to predicting yield per acre because of the control he had, barring any of ma nature's ugly surprises. We hammered the ducks while there (mostly Mallards and Gadwalls), and he hunted most every day of the season.........before work, my kinda guy!!!! Seems like the leveled fields with water control was a big plus, and reckon the water piping to the fields was the dif, not having to wait on rain.

[Ericdc]

Yea I know of leveled fields that still do very well. Like I said, the issue is there’s no slack water in other non hunted would be “rice stubble” fields anymore to serve as a resting place for birds in our area.


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[Ducaholic]

Yea I know of leveled fields that still do very well. Like I said, the issue is there’s no slack water in other non hunted would be “rice stubble” fields anymore to serve as a resting place for birds in our area.


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I was actually shocked by three things when I hunted with you. The vastness of the farm land up there, two the lack of water on the landscape, and three the very high percentage of fields completely plowed under. Not much food to be had for waterfowl compared to Arkansas which is just s few miles away.

[SpinnerMan]

I have seen a vast plethora of recent posts regarding motorized devices used to keep water from freezing North of us---that fight should get interesting as too where that goes

Fight over what?

We use aerators because if we don't in bad winters our fish die. The other thing people use are ice eaters which if run by a generator you shut off when hunting. I'm curious what there would be to fight over.

[aunt betty]

About the spinner ban. Hehe. Made a pun
AGFC banned them on public last time I checked. All motorized decoys. The squirters etc.
Bought spreaders for a 12 decoy jerk-rig.

John is it statewide now?

Next it will be motorized anything ban.
Spinner if you'd joined a couple of the private facebook groups like "high performance tillers (outlaw oosers)" or the Arkansas waterfowl group you'd have heard all this stuff to the point where you'd take it personal. I know I did.
They are throwing around all these theories on how to return to the 70's when a smoke was a smoke and ducks practically landed on their guns begging to be harvested.

One of the ideas "rake the oosers over the coals" hurt.
Did not go last year. It's just not the same when you know they want you gone.