This and that...

Re: This and that...

Postby Duck Engr » Mon Aug 19, 2019 3:33 pm

DComeaux wrote:
Duck Engr wrote: Said he’s still loving living out on the west coast.


Probably involved with that ANTIFA bunch up that way... :D


Lol better watch it, the last time I cracked on him about something my account mysteriously got deleted
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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:37 am

SpinnerMan wrote:For the fields that didn't get planted, they are going to mow the weeds and put in rye grass. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Once covered with snow it doesn't really matter. I'm definitely curious to see if the geese zero in on that grass when there is no snow on the ground. Might have to go down there early season if we get a warm snap and see if we have any birds using those grass patches. Maybe it will attract them like the golf courses do.


What attracts geese here (and on your golf course) is new growrh. So I'm thinking you'd be much, much better off if the land were disked and left alone to re-sprout. Know guys here will see geese in the cattle's rye grass and plant it thinking they'll draw game, but without the cattle or mowing to close-crop it, it soon grows too thick and tough(?) to suit the birds.

(Also see a lot of guys planting rye on fresh, bare ground levees here, even though most, if not, any blind cover you can imagine sticks out like a place with guns against rye grass green.)
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Re: This and that...

Postby SpinnerMan » Tue Aug 20, 2019 6:12 am

Rick wrote:
SpinnerMan wrote:For the fields that didn't get planted, they are going to mow the weeds and put in rye grass. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Once covered with snow it doesn't really matter. I'm definitely curious to see if the geese zero in on that grass when there is no snow on the ground. Might have to go down there early season if we get a warm snap and see if we have any birds using those grass patches. Maybe it will attract them like the golf courses do.


What attracts geese here (and on your golf course) is new growrh. So I'm thinking you'd be much, much better off if the land were disked and left alone to re-sprout. Know guys here will see geese in the cattle's rye grass and plant it thinking they'll draw game, but without the cattle or mowing to close-crop it, it soon grows too thick and tough(?) to suit the birds.

(Also see a lot of guys planting rye on fresh, bare ground levees here, even though most, if not, any blind cover you can imagine sticks out like a place with guns against rye grass green.)

Hopefully we are covered in snow and it doesn't matter. That's the best conditions by far for us. Also when it is cold, the geese want higher energy food so they may avoid the grass if we don't have snow. We have 11 pits. I don't know how many got planted. But if we have some warm weather later in the year, maybe the big green space may stand out in the area. But best case it's buried under the snow and it doesn't matter.
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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:49 pm

I see that jacks are way up something like 10%!!! So I'm breaking out my super-duper rice-field-jack-magnet spread for redeployment in the mudhole. Which is to say I'm climbing-the-walls-bored for something duckier to do than look at the counts, so I'm going to paint a few more decoys. And never mind that the little pod of jacks that it seemed like literally every rice field jack felt obligated to drop in with didn't appear to attract anything but bird shot during its seasons at the mudhole.

Haven't bothered with putting them out in years, but this is the season they're going to make all the difference. Got 'em patched and the drakes prepped for painting today, so if nothing else, I'll have something to do for a little while tomorrow...

(Might be getting a little desperate for more than just something to do after last miserable season. Might even be practicing spoony kacks...)
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Re: This and that...

Postby Ericdc » Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:59 pm

I need some jack decoys


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Re: This and that...

Postby SpinnerMan » Tue Aug 20, 2019 6:58 pm

Never seen a jack while hunting. They are a rare bird for us.
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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Wed Aug 21, 2019 5:07 am

They're generally the most common species utilizing our marsh, by far. And prone to flying and congregating on the more open water south and east of me, but only 18 managed to cross where mudhole guns could catch them last season. Pretty solid rule of thumb has been, "If it looks like a jack and actually comes to the mudhole (no matter what I'm doing to help draw it), it's a dos gris." I can sometimes "Brrr!" them into passing too close, but think they act like they will then don't just for sport.
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Re: This and that...

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Aug 21, 2019 1:05 pm

From what I gather unlike most other divers, none of them stick around in the north. We'll have the rest of the divers up here through the entire winter, but the jacks nest well to the north and just pass through. My annual diver trip is usually later in the season so they are long gone. About every other year someone will get one or two at my duck club. So it's not like I hunt much where you would expect them even when they are passing through. But I know down south they are quite common. Probably because they aren't spread out from Canada to the gulf like a lot of the ducks.

Speaking of the annual diver trip. Lake Ontario / Niagara River. Sounds like the odds are good for getting my first canvasback and scoter. This will be the last of the Great Lakes for my buddy that wanted to hunt all 5. It'll be my 4th. I couldn't make the trip to Superior. Time to start thinking about where we want to go in 2020 after we complete his bucket list.

I did shoot a canvasback in the air once, but I'm pretty sure it was folding up just before I squeezed the trigger. If I was quicker on the draw :lol:
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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Wed Aug 21, 2019 1:58 pm

Cans are supposed to be fast but come to the decoys like parking school buses. Consequently, someone else has almost always gotten to kill them, with the lone exception being a hen I shot after a lone hunter whiffed twice with his O/U. Would say he had to be mighty unlucky to miss such a target, but the fellow won the South Carolina lottery - twice.

Favorite can/name-dropping story featured Justice Scalia, who asked me about his chances of killing one at the mudhole. Told him I was sorry, but it was much too small to draw more than one or two a year. So, naturally, he and his buddy each killed bulls...
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Re: This and that...

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Aug 21, 2019 2:08 pm

Rick wrote:Cans are supposed to be fast but come to the decoys like parking school buses.

That's my experience 100% of the time. All 1 or 1. :lol:
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Re: This and that...

Postby Darren » Wed Aug 21, 2019 2:31 pm

SpinnerMan wrote:Speaking of the annual diver trip.......Time to start thinking about where we want to go in 2020 after we complete his bucket list.


Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana in December or January

All the blue bills you can stand plus buffleheads, redheads and occasional cans and goldeneyes. There was even an influx of scoters last season for whatever reason. All public waters, and no pressure to contend with.
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Re: This and that...

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Aug 21, 2019 3:55 pm

Darren wrote:
SpinnerMan wrote:Speaking of the annual diver trip.......Time to start thinking about where we want to go in 2020 after we complete his bucket list.


Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana in December or January

All the blue bills you can stand plus buffleheads, redheads and occasional cans and goldeneyes. There was even an influx of scoters last season for whatever reason. All public waters, and no pressure to contend with.

I shouldn't have put diver in there. My buddy wanted to hunt all the Great Lakes and not in marshes on the edge of the lake, but actually in the lake, so that meant diver/sea duck.

Somewhere we can get a mixed bag. Maybe Canada or North Dakota. ND is as close as southern LA.

I really want to get a speck, but I don't think I want to go specifically for them.

We had talked about a Chesapeake Bay trip. I hunted geese there when I was 15. Being originally from the East Coast, that has appeal to me.

I spend a good chunk of my winter in Florida, so I might invite them down and we go on a warm weather duck hunt. Good chance of getting a jack :lol:

Lots of options. If only I had the time and money to do them all :o
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Re: This and that...

Postby Johnc » Wed Aug 21, 2019 4:18 pm

florida---most likely---ringneck ducks,chance at mottled,bluewing teal and I would think both species of tree duck

although no fences in the sky,doubtful on the white-fronted goose in florida
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Re: This and that...

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Aug 21, 2019 5:00 pm

Johnc wrote:although no fences in the sky,doubtful on the white-fronted goose in florida

:lol: No probably not. But you never know.

Johnc wrote:florida---most likely---ringneck ducks,chance at mottled,bluewing teal and I would think both species of tree duck

I've probably seen more redheads than any other species. Although that's because last winter I saw one massive flock of redheads :shock: There is a lot of good diver hunting as well. I see a lot of bluebills on Old Tampa Bay when I'm down there.

But if I do go that route, more than likely it will be inland for those species you mention.
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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Thu Aug 22, 2019 4:48 am

I guided a group of cops from Dade and Broward Counties who made Lake Okeechobee sound like the ringneck capital of the country. Interestingly to me, they hunted it out of float tubes. (There's a Dunkin' Doughnuts for alligators joke in there somewhere, but they said they were more afraid of being run over by airboats.) Mostly hear of redheads from the Panhandle guys.

Believe that if I went for Chesapeake Bay divers, I'd want to try to combo it with a crack at body-booting geese there, too. And if you get near Chestertown, the Warf Restaurant's crab bisque and sweet potato pie are absolutely mandatory.
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Re: This and that...

Postby Darren » Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:00 am

See quite a few ads for Florida panhandle (back bay) duck guides, plenty pics full of redheads for sure, some scaup mixed in.
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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:22 am

Weather permitting, I hope to start opening the mudhole tomorrow. Have made my list and checked it twice, ok, thrice, and feel like I'm prepping for an opener.

But though the bug and i made a round of some likely spots, I've yet to lay eyes on a teal. Now working on the "Build it, and they will come." theory...
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Re: This and that...

Postby DComeaux » Fri Aug 23, 2019 11:02 am

We'll be out in the marsh tomorrow as well, weather permitting.
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Re: This and that...

Postby BGkirk » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:03 pm

X3 on being in the marsh in the morning. Gonna do majority of our brushing and hope it lasts. Bring on the cloudy weather minus the lightning


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Re: This and that...

Postby BGkirk » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:04 pm

X3 on being in the marsh in the morning. Gonna do majority of our brushing and hope it lasts. Bring on the cloudy weather minus the lightning


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Re: This and that...

Postby BGkirk » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:04 pm

X3 on being in the marsh in the morning. Gonna do majority of our brushing and hope it lasts. Bring on the cloudy weather minus the lightning


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Re: This and that...

Postby BGkirk » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:05 pm

Well that’s a coincidence it posted 3 times haha


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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Fri Aug 23, 2019 5:06 pm

Shows commitment.
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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Sat Aug 31, 2019 5:42 pm

Opened the mudhole today. Or at least made the first pass through the pond. Plentiful water meant there wasn't nearly as much of its bottom on top as some years:
026a.jpg


But it was still a six hour grind to get from that to this:
031a.jpg


And, of course, much of what's now down will soon be back up.

Going back out in the morning better prepared to take on the water primrose that's taken over the boat hide and much of the blind's island:
013a.jpg


Not at all keen on primrose but even less so on a new sub-aquatic that seems to have choked out the coontail most everywhere I rode today. Perhaps some sort of "cabbage" - anybody know?
040a.jpg


Could be even the jacks will be passing us by...

And speaking of ducks, I saw three birds I wanted to be teal just as they dropped near Issac's pond and took the detour with half a hope, only to flush an even dozen woodies from just behind the blind. Also enjoyed seeing a little wad of black-bellies pass west of the mudhole. But that was that, duckwise.
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Re: This and that...

Postby Ericdc » Sat Aug 31, 2019 6:46 pm

Looks like we going to have hot dry weather for the next week.


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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Mon Sep 02, 2019 4:25 am

Yesterday was another long marsh day, but I think I have the mudhole and its boat hide knocked out, aside from some inevitable mud muffins and thanks largely to good water depth:
001a.jpg


Biggest pain this go-around was turning the new "cabbage" into slaw that will hopefully sink (and, of course, add to the sludge below):
016a.jpg


Not all of the ponds have it yet, knock wood, but the east blind, where it first appeared, is absolutely loaded and trying to open it with the mudboat has only pissed it off so far:
022a.jpg


Every place the mudboat passed and cut it loose left a trail of matted whatever on the surface, no matter how many times it's passed so far. Just another example of how "things change". Even after I moved from it for regular seasons to take on the mudhole's mess, I did my September teal hunting at the, far better for them, east blind for a few more years, and I never had to do any more prior preparation than putting out decoys. Was the most idyllic spot in our marsh:
IMG_2483a.jpg


Stinkin' "cabbage".
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Re: This and that...

Postby BGkirk » Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:35 am

Rick did you forget exactly what that “cabbage” is called?

And for your gunners, is it easiest to say “if they are over the water they are in range?”


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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:37 am

BGkirk wrote:Rick did you forget exactly what that “cabbage” is called?

And for your gunners, is it easiest to say “if they are over the water they are in range?”


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It's a new-to-me plant this year, and I never knew, much less forgot, what it's called, but would like to both know what it is and be able to forget it...

And while I do point out that it's only 30-35yds to the mudhole's far "bank," we have no early free-fire period in September, as woodies would surely pay for it. That, and calling all the shots myself keeps anxious folks from whacking at low percentage bluewings I could otherwise make much easier for all.
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Re: This and that...

Postby BGkirk » Mon Sep 02, 2019 1:54 pm

After I typed, I thought yea that might be best to leave out that bit of info to not tempt any extended full choke shooters


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Re: This and that...

Postby Rick » Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:28 pm

When guys struggle hitting, I'm prone to ask if they're shooting full chokes, and have had one answer, "No, it's and 'extended range'." Damned if I know the difference.

Lot of rice field guys are shooting modified and even struggle with that at our ranges.
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