2018-2019 Season Log

[Rick]

Oh and if you ever decide to part with one of the deceivers in your collection, shoot me a pm.

I have one I'll be passing along but think it more of a collectors' call than hunters', as it has one of his early hand-turned inserts that doesn't hold a standard cork as snug as I'd like and came to me used with a narrower than standard reed that dampened its sound. Don't know if that reed was of Alan or the guy I bought it from's doing, but I tuned a standard reed for it and still didn't get as much volume out of it as my other two (both of which I'll be hanging onto).

Believe you'd be ahead, volume wise, to find another.

[Duck Engr]

Ah, very good. I appreciate your candor, Rick.

[Rick]

Date: 11/26 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly to clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong NW

Temperature: 40ish but chilly in the wind

Moon phase: 87% waning

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Had a pretty good mixed birds early flight before it tapered off to very occasional high birds. Lots and lots of blues coming out of the north.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Used both MVP and Deceiver to fine effect and even had pretty good luck getting them over the pond in a wind that brought them low and slow dead over the blind. Which proved a very good thing.

Hunters: 2 relatively young (30s) guys, Joseph and Jeremy

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh and I butted heads after his failure to take handling insured he was too late getting to where the second of two chipped woodies went in - then we lost a hen mallard I thought wasn't going anywhere and left on the pond too long.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Nice, nice guys who were incredibly slow getting underway, even after I started hunting them standing for everything. No chance of one shooting in time for me to pitch in on anything over the blind - and way too many birds "trapped" against the wind out front got out without a shot fired. Maybe deer hunters but certainly weren't up to the game at hand.

Kudos: Still killed a fair mess of birds, and had we finished when we should have we'd of missed the mega-swarm of pintails that broke down from impossibly high and did exactly as bid - except, in all but two cases, for the falling when fired upon part.

Birds By Species: 3 bw teal, 2 gadwall, 2 gw teal, 2 mallards, 2 pintails, 1 scaup, 1 wigeon and 1 wood duck

Photo Ops: Marsh with one of ours:

008a.jpg

A much more interesting one the next blind over shot:

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[DComeaux]

Mallards are rapist.

[Duck Engr]

Well isn’t that a beauty, no matter how it came to be.

[Darren]

ohhhh neato.

Given my first hunt at the mudhole was under conditions like today with the same wind and direction......I've got a pretty good idea of how special it probably was. Will hope for such conditions in January!

[Deltaman]

Nice variety of birds Rick, and glad to see this front brought you some more ducks

[Rick]

...glad to see this front brought you some more ducks

May have just stirred what's around. Can't say we saw a lot of game headed south - though I see I had a brain fart in the log, as the blues were coming out of the deep marsh, ie: from the south.

[Rick]

CORRECTION to 11/26 "waterfowl activity": Blues were all coming out of the marsh.

[Johnc]

CORRECTION to 11/26 "waterfowl activity": Blues were all coming out of the marsh.

new birds

[Rick]

I would think so. Was quite the show, in any event.

[BGkirk]

“Mega swarm”

I’d like one of those soon


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[Rick]

Date: 11/27 Tue

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NNW light to moderate

Temperature: 36 at LST but warming

Moon phase: waning 77%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: While most of the marsh struggled, we made hay from the high stuff there wasn't all that much of, either.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Strained both the MVP and Deceiver to fine effect, as the wind was light enough that the mile high stuff didn't find it too much trouble to change their flight plans and make it all the way down. Was fun to show off the power of "stage" hailing on such a morning.

Hunters: 2, Cody and Colin (perhaps a certifiable giant)

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh put on a clinic - and will probably eat a duck tomorrow.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Not a one.

Kudos: Had to get on the guys about respecting the birds' eyesight early on, but other than that, they were aces. Super sweet to finally have hunters who both shot when bid to and well. Even big Colin was getting up and underway while the birds were where we wanted them.

Birds By Species: 4 gadwall, 8 mallards, 4 pintails, 1 redhead and 1 ringneck

Photo Ops: "Maybe if I sit really still..."

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"Rats!"

007a.jpg

"Gotcha!"

012a.jpg

"Help!"

029a.jpg

Happy duck campers:

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[DComeaux]

Awesome!!
I can't wait to get back in the marsh.

[Deltaman]

Beautiful Rick! Nice seeing you and party strap so many big ducks, and not many prettier working ducks than Pintails, especially when they drop down from where Ezekiel saw that wheel

[Ducaholic]

Your best hunt this year IMO.

[Johnc]

Was the redhead plumed out?

[Duck Engr]

That’s a big fella

[Rick]

Your best hunt this year IMO.

We had more big ducks over the blocks yesterday, but this morning was a whole lot less frustrating than watching so many blow out without shots fired while they were still in range. Didn't have to ask Cody or Colin to "go ahead and kill them" twice, much less beg.

Was the redhead plumed out?

Was a hen flying with a mallard pair that also expired. If we get a pretty drake the guys don't want to mount, I'll be happy to save it for you, if you'd like.

That’s a big fella

"Big" isn't a big enough word for it.

040a.jpg

My little boat went "Umph!"

[Johnc]

Please do save for me. I will be hard pressed to get any good duck specimens where I am at.

Thank you

[Rick]

Will do. If there's anything else you're particularly interested in, speak up.

[Rick]

Date: 11/28 Wed

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly to cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to light SE?

Temperature: upper 40s

Moon phase: 57% waning

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw more spoons than anything else, and even they tended to be way the hey up and tough to break. Spooky quiet in the marsh, with precious little of anything apparently moving anywhere within hearing of gunshots.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Quiet marsh let me break a speck out of the only blue flight we saw and work it what seemed a very, very long time before getting it over the guns. Most of what high ducks we saw gave no sign of breaking, and we worked nothing but "locals".

Hunters: 2, a long time regular father and grown son, Mike and Mike

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): From yesterday's log: "Marsh put on a clinic - and will probably eat a duck tomorrow." Didn't eat a bird, but did blow off repeated return whistles to come in from searching the marsh for a blue-wing crip that ran back to the pond (where I couldn't finish it with the dog behind it) and eventually escaped. Given how slow it was anyway, and that my hunters were long time friends who would of understood, I should have gone to meet and correct the dog much sooner.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Even Marsh's behavior was overshadowed by our having repeatedly rocked the speck only to have him manage to stay above the grass to a point beyond the possibility of recovery. Then, too, there was the barren sky.

Kudos: Nice guys who took it well

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal, 1 mallard, 1 ringneck and 1 wood duck (which returned to a "swweeeet" through a speck call after the guys had already shot at him)

[DComeaux]

What a difference a day makes

I'll be in the blind in the morning and hunt the remainder of the first split.

[Rick]

Sure hoping the south winds draw us all some teal between now and the split.

[MARSH BEAR]

I hope the south wind does not send you all of our teal

[DComeaux]

Sure hoping the south winds draw us all some teal between now and the split.

I haven't used spinners since teal season and had thoughts of puttinga couple out tomorrow morning. I want to see if I couldn't lure in a few of those big bunches of GW we've been seeing. The guy I lease from and one other blind on our place has been using them and told me the birds are landing on it. I think I'll give em a try in the morning and make a little spread adjustment.

[MARSH BEAR]

DC the spinners are working for us - we putting out 3 or 4 per blind

[BGkirk]

http://www.kplctv.com/2018/11/28/viewer ... r-gueydan/

New birds?


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[Ericdc]

Report today is we have a very large body of geese on farm next door to us . We’ve started to get 1 or 2 each hunt.




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[Rick]

http://www.kplctv.com/2018/11/28/viewer-video-thousands-geese-flock-near-gueydan/

New birds?

We saw next to no geese coming to or out of the marsh yesterday, but it's been a, mostly blue, show the several days prior.