Duck Season 2018 - 2019

[SpinnerMan]

We saw a quite a few fully plumed drakes last Friday on Lake Erie. Many flocks seemed to be nearly all drakes. They wouldn't work the decoys, but they sure did look pretty flying halfway between us and shore when the sun came out. Literally only one drake decoyed, but that was enough for me to get my first drake bufflehead.

[Darren]

Fri. 12/21/2018
Bunkie ag land-Avoyelles Parish
Matthew M. and I with Harry
Wind NW 10-15+, clear skies, 40's to start

Good bit more water on the fields with more "show" but still same story.......hot early teal flight with some monster groups in the nearly too dark to see light, and then it's over. Saw but one pair of working spoons, few high mallards, and that was about it for ducks. Lots and lots of snows and blues trafficking every which way it seemed, primarily their usual SE to NW morning flight across that farm. Good many specks seen but not many low and looking. Very, VERY little shooting in the area and others seemed to not be having the teal action we were seeing to start. Enjoyed nice morning with a young hunter that got me started in the youth hunt game (and got used to jam up hunts), and he's now in town for the holiday break from the Air Force academy in CO.

1 GW teal


hound on watch for the no ducks

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On drive out, saw some geese here and there but no ducks anywhere. Based on the precious little shooting we heard, it's widespread in the area.

[Darren]

Thurs. 12/27/2018
Bunkie ag land-Avoyelles Parish
Matthew M., Johnny and I with Harry
Wind SSE 10-25+, heavy clouds with occasional showers, upper 60's to start, approaching nasty front line from the west


Had hoped the big south winds would have stirred the pot for us but really didn't see much of any difference from the previous hunt here a week ago. Should have known that very few trucks at the farm would be indicative of "no birds" but we were hopeful. Had fair early teal flight but mostly working behind us, never got a decent op. Saw a few small bunches of spoons and had a pair of mallards locking and circling for a couple minutes but wouldn't commit. Snows were lower than usual in the big wind but still just out of range and avoiding the blind/decoys like the plague.

Scratch!





Came down to the shell beach camp with a game plan for tomorrow. Headed out this afternoon in the big wind, tucked into the marsh and put a nice little mess of trout on ice with one bonus bass. So far so good down here, we'll see how the morning goes. Flat boat is loaded with brush.

[DComeaux]

I like to fish for trout.

[Deltaman]

Sure hope the marsh is holding some birds for you, and always nice to have that backup fishing plan

[Darren]

Fri. 12/28/2018
Delacroix
Johnny and I with Harry
Wind NW to ESE 5-20, heavy clouds, light to moderate rain the whole hunt, high water

Water is way up from hard southerly winds yesterday. Ugly storms passed through just before we shoved off from boat slip but the light rain never quit. Birds didn't move in the rain, set up in flooded marsh, just an overall stinker. Had one of two downed teal dive on Harry while he was coming back with the other one. Had enough just after 8am with continued rain and nothing moving.

1 GW teal, 1 bufflehead


Warmed up and dry in the camp, still pouring outside. If it would quit we'd go check out those freckled trout again. Plans for tomorrow are TBD

[Deltaman]

Bummer, I would've thought that strong Southerly wind would've had the birds moving, and making the rains slightly less miserable. That line of thunderstorms came thru here about daylight as well, and even knocked power out for a short period. Hope the backside clears up and you get a chance to fish while you are scouting.

[Darren]

Sat. 12/29/2018
Bunkie ag land-Avoyelles Parish
Johnny and I with Harry
Wind NE 10+, heavy clouds, a chilly/damp low 50's in the wind

Given the way the little bit of traffic has been working the field, we opted for a makeshift setup along the levee which all came together as planned with one key aspect omitted......trafficking ducks. Saw one nice high bunch of greenwings at LST, one or two tiny groups shortly after, then just nothing at all crossing the field but high geese. Never remotely thought about shooting. Did managed to get a speck pair to check up and look hard but we weren't adequately covered/set up for that; next time! Still think this set up will kill some ducks, but there has to be ducks to do so.


DNS




There was a notable increase in area shooting to start the morning but it all soon shut down to silence. Did radio show and listened to reports from all over after my segment.....Hopedale, Delacroix, Buras, Catahoula area......overall pretty poor, Buras having some decent days but were shutdown in fog today. Buddy from Arkansas was up at home this week, "no birds" he texted me. No ducks anywhere in the vicinity on the way out, saw a fair mess on a farm closer to Krotz Springs that hadn't been there on previous trips. Have now killed 2 ducks in the last three hunts, a total of 18 for entirety of 2nd split so far on 7 hunts. Looking on log since 2002, cannot find a stretch this bad. That said, I got word of a stellar 4-man limit on home stompin grounds (public) today, go figure. Said to be grays, mallards, wigeon, teal.

[Darren]

Wed. 1/2/2019
Bunkie ag land-Avoyelles Parish
Johnny and I
Wind NNE 5-15, heavy clouds with mist to light rain, 50 deg to start, chilly in the damp wind

With good conditions, figured we'd try it again but it's the same story. Even left Harry at home to help our makeshift hide as ideal as could be, even set out a nice speck spread. Ducks nor specks showed. Had some teal traffic in the dark at LST, could hear them well before seeing them (albeit very briefly), no shots fired. Very few hunters out, very little shooting heard, was back in truck by 8:00am. No ducks on way out though saw some nice gatherings of snows and quite a few specks on green fields, no water. At this same time last year, we were wrapped up in teal, pintail, spoons, fair many grays, mallards, few wigeon and even woodies. Not this year!

DNS


Got some reports from a long-time hunter on this farm who has apparently about hung it up for season, said he's never seen it so bad in the area. Pointed out the westerly fronts/Pacific fronts we're getting which are so typical of el nino winters. Found in my notes a similar observation from 2015-2016 season (see my post-season thread from 2016, "what happened?"). On top of it, there's water everywhere, everything's flooded.

May try the marsh again this Saturday with decent winds but very little optimism.

[Darren]

Had plans to hunt the marsh today but called it off when I got down to the camp and found the expected super low water AND still falling during the rising tide. Packed up all my gear down there, boat on the trailer, brought it back to Mandeville for some pursuits on my old stompin’ grounds in the coming weeks since it’s East Zone.

Few reports I got today were not good from down that way

[BGkirk]

Had plans to hunt the marsh today but called it off when I got down to the camp and found the expected super low water AND still falling during the rising tide. Packed up all my gear down there, boat on the trailer, brought it back to Mandeville for some pursuits on my old stompin’ grounds in the coming weeks since it’s East Zone.

Few reports I got today were not good from down that way

saw a video of a guy beached on an oyster bed it looked like. I wouldn’t like that feeling if it were cold and north winds, ducky weather and I didn’t have water to hunt


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[Darren]

Had plans to hunt the marsh today but called it off when I got down to the camp and found the expected super low water AND still falling during the rising tide. Packed up all my gear down there, boat on the trailer, brought it back to Mandeville for some pursuits on my old stompin’ grounds in the coming weeks since it’s East Zone.

Few reports I got today were not good from down that way

saw a video of a guy beached on an oyster bed it looked like. I wouldn’t like that feeling if it were cold and north winds, ducky weather and I didn’t have water to hunt


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

A friend had to get his flat boat dragged off a mud flat by an airboat on Friday, all for two ducks. Normal local tow service (SeaTow) couldn’t get to him. Usually when tides low we hunt walk-in landlocked ponds, or head north to the ag fields. No ducks up there as my last three hunts have shown !

[Darren]

Thurs. 1/10/2019
Klondike fresh marsh
Canaan H. and I with Rick and Marsh
upper 30's to start, clear skies, wind little to maybe 10+ later on from NE or so

Was glad for a change of scene and to have an old friend join me for a hunt we'd long had in the planning. Missed a first teal op but other than that made decent use of our few chances. Marsh saved me on a late green wing drake I'd shot the tail out of that should have fallen in the pond. We ended up with the big hunt of the marsh and had a really nice time doing it, most struggled as has been so typical this season.

Many thanks to Rick and Marsh in helping me break my DNS streak

4 mallards, 1 GW teal, 1 BW teal, 1 spoon

First greenhead of the day. Two found the strap and one more got away from us we likely should have downed clean.

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Traditional dog stand shot with the big haul

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Try it again here tomorrow in a different blind. Saturday's rain forecast has me thinking about trying an Avoyelles field hunt

[Deltaman]

Love seeing those Mallards!!!!!!

[Darren]

Fri. 1/11/2019
Klondike fresh marsh
Mark L. and I with Isaac and Boomer
upper 30's to start, clear skies, wind easterly 5-10+, surprisingly promising wind off the bat

Seemed like some decent conditions but for one key factor, lack of working ducks. Really no teal flight by us, just some skirting ringers. Once the early flurry was (quickly) done, just no flight of other birds. Saw very few groups of pins and mallards, and a very few specks of call-worthy altitude. Sure enough got a trio of specks to look, with one locking and dropping quickly. Ended up being one we should have had on the strap but missed our brief window to take him. Saved a scratch with a long shot on a ringneck burning by overhead and headed in 30 mins before curfew to get after the breakfast spread. Other blinds struggled as well with mostly 2-3 ducks

1 ringneck

Isaac and Boomer returning with our lone ringer

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Wraps up my annual trip over to Gueydan/Klondike. Overall saw far fewer birds than usual, including a long driving tour of south Gueydan rice yesterday that yielded zero ducks seen. yikes! Had some fair accumulations of geese in a few places but otherwise, far less fowl than usual as has been so common across the state this season. Still a great trip with great people and of course wonderful meals. Thinking I might give a field hunt a try tomorrow if I feel up to it this evening

[Rick]

It was mighty presumptive of you guys to think the jack wouldn't put us over our 18 bird limit.

[DComeaux]

[Darren]

It was mighty presumptive of you guys to think the jack wouldn't put us over our 18 bird limit.

Guide’s decision; guess he was willing to roll the dice.

[Darren]

Sat. 1/12/2019
Bunkie ag land-Avoyelles Parish
Johnny. and I with Harry
Wind ESE or so 0-10+, heavy clouds with occasional light rain, about 50 to start, much of a storm front passed before LST on our drive up


Largely same story as last few hunts but we did finally break the DNS streak up there, thank you Lord. Again heard some nice groups of teal moving in the LST dark but really not many working us for first hour. Around 7:30 worked a trio pretty nicely and downed two, though one was very lively and fell in far corner of field. Searched post-hunt to no avail. Had another trio circle us and I called us off of what would have been our best op thinking I could get them around again, but didn't. Also broke a speck pair to circle us a few minutes and once they eventually left I realized I'd left spinner on....grrrr. Did see first nice flights of pintails and overall more ducks than we've seen all season. Picked up a good many decoys before heading home, hoping to change the look a bit for rest of season.

1 GW teal


Harry proud with his first retrieve in weeks

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Though we're short on ducks, this plant, whatever the heck it is, is HARDY and is covering at least 85 to 90% of our main cut, thus drastically hurting our normal draw for working birds. It's chest high on me, and as you can see, pretty dense. Hoping something, anything, is planted this year to preclude another round of this awful stuff. It's on other adjacent fields as well, further hurting us and other nearby blinds.

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[Darren]

Two other timely items of note:

1.) The drive down I-49 heading south from up there this morning had water flooding the area woods as far as one could see, disturbing to think there's THAT much water on the landscape spreading the few birds that are around. What's staggering, is that the trees therein showed a water line 3.5-4 ft HIGHER than what it currently is from recent levels having receded. Just a crazy amount of rain we've had and it of course rained more today.

2.) Local radio show polled me about it this morning and Rick had made mention of it pre-hunt on Thursday; there's indeed increasing chatter about going back to a 4-bird teal season limit, apparently was tabled at recent LDWF commission meeting. Don't have any details on the "why" just yet but surely will be an increasingly hot topic. Rumors are it's not biology or population based, but we'll see as more info comes out.

From the release:

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission has made a proposed change to the 2019 - 2020 teal seasons to include a bag limit reduction: 'Reducing the daily bag limit of teal from six to four for the early September teal season.'

Public comment will be accepted at LWFC monthly meetings from February through March and/or can be submitted in writing by mail to: Tommy Tuma, LDWF Wildlife Division, P.O. Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA 70898-9000, or via email to ttuma@wlf.la.gov until 9 a.m., March 7, 2019.

LDWF will also collect public comment at public hearings to be held Feb. 25-March 2 throughout the state. The locations and times for those meetings include:
•25 (Monday) at 6 p.m. at the Ponchatoula High School Library, 19452 Highway 22, Ponchatoula.
•26 (Tuesday) at 6 p.m. at the LDWF Lafayette Field Office, 200 Dulles Drive, Lafayette.
•27 (Wednesday) at 6 p.m. at the LDWF Minden Field Office, 9961 Highway 80, Minden.
•28 (Thursday) at 6 p.m. at the LDWF Monroe Field Office, 368 Century Link Drive, Monroe.
•March 1 (Friday) at 6 p.m. at the Alexandria Convention Hall, 915 3 rd Street, Alexandria.
•March 2 (Saturday) at 10 a.m. at the LSU Ag Center Building, 7101 Gulf Highway, Lake Charles.

For more information, contact Tommy Tuma at 225-765-2349 or ttuma@wlf.la.gov .

[Darren]

Sun. 1/13/2019
Bunkie ag land-Avoyelles Parish
Johnny and I with Harry
Wind NW 10-15, cloudy on us, clear to east, 40's to start

After seeing that the blind was really sticking out in one of my pics from yesterday, we opted to take down a lot of remaining standing grass that was so bright and browned down the whole set up with cuttings of the brown stuff out in the field which closely resembles other browned weeds along the levee. Came out great, but didn't matter, just no birds. Had some nice flights in the dark at LST that got us excited, including a pair of pins that circled a minute, but other than that it was dead for us thereafter. We were out of there by 8am. Did hear some shooting on east end of farm and sure enough my buddy got a picture from someone hunting that way with a nice haul of specks and some misc. ducks including wigeon and pins. We could see (and hear) that there was a lot of goose activity further that way, the fight over us, though heavy, was high with planned missions elsewhere.

DNS

Sample of goose flight above us

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Like us, wondering where our ducks are

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Have plans for home town stompin' grounds this weekend, will try to get out for a scout mission on Friday,

[Darren]

Did some poking around this morning on some of my old public stompin grounds and was excited to put eyes on scattered teal and fair few mallards. Cut some brush, staged it, have a game plan for tomorrow so we'll see!

Buddy was passed along this photo from some guys he knows that hunt back side (east end) of same farm in Bunkie. South wind, probably some light fog....big hunt.

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Would love to hunt there this weekend, no one's going to blind we hunt. Given my options are limited from other factors this weekend, excited to try my old haunts with promising conditions.

[MARSH BEAR]

Good luck - hope the ducks show up for you

[Darren]

Sat. 1/19/2019
SE La public marsh
Johnny & I with Harry
Winds SW/SE 10-30, temps around 60 to start, heavy clouds with approaching storms/front line from west

Nice to be back in my old haunts with a game plan following yesterday's scout mission. Sure enough, we were on what little X there could be and they were coming in close, early and often. Pair of mottleds acted like friendly mallards coming in beautifully so had to give the half dozen or so others we had ops on later in the morning a pass. Teal were coming through really close but unfortunately only in 1's and 2's, sometimes literally too close to shoot, but no groups near us. Most of flight ended, though, by 7am with a long lull and only sporadic action after that. Stayed till 9:30 hoping for straggler mallard or gray but still only saw the mottleds so got ourselves back on the trailer before the storms rolled in with plans to hit same location tomorrow in the cold and ripping post-front winds.

2 mottleds, 2 BW teal, 2 GW teal

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[Rick]

Look the summer mallards. You've double our season's take of them on that string.

[Darren]

Look the summer mallards. You've double our season's take of them on that string.

They were seemingly everywhere around us yesterday, but didn't see much for them today on our brief hunt.

[Darren]

Sun. 1/20/2019
SE La public marsh
Johnny & I with Harry
Winds NW 10-30, 30's to start, post frontal passage cloud deck, low water getting lower by the minute

Was skeptical at first but sure enough had just enough water left to get down to the shallows we hunted yesterday and had high hopes of green wings fighting the wind and all kinds of fun in there......no shows. Few little pairs of teal early buzzing around, got one solo that lit on edge of dekes. Very little mottled traffic, didn't try our only op on a pair that passed overhead figuring we'd get another chance. Just very little duck activity at all, particularly given the seemingly ideal conditions. Packed it in early, 7:15, knowing we had to pole back to the boat and had a sketchy (shallow!) ride between the parking spot and the safe water of the main bayou.

1 GW teal


Watching forecasts to see if I might try this again mid week or maybe head north to ag field, looks like another front coming through.

[Darren]

Wed. 1/23/2019
SE La public marsh
Ray & I with Harry
Winds SW/SE 0-5+, 60's, light to moderate fog that lingered and seemed heaviest as we were heading in

Similar to Saturday's hunt, got this one in before the big rain storms made it through coming in from the west. Few teal moving around just after LST, again mostly singles, one group of three that skirted us. Got a few during that flight and shortly after it basically shut down, probably by 7:00a it was done. Maybe could have scratched out another couple of birds but not many. Buddy who was hunting couple miles away saw about the same flight, and early end to it.

Rain storms hit once we were in the truck

3 GW teal, 1 BW teal

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Water was back up high today but likely will fall with this front passage so weekend plans are TBD to close it out. Likely will head up to Bunkie for one morning to help pick up remaining decoys and button it up for season.

[Deltaman]

Good timing on the rain

[Rick]

Have to admit being glad I didn't have to hunt in this morning's rain. Nice that you missed it, and with a few birds to boot.