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Admittedly it took a bit more effort to get me to leave home with the family last night to head east for another hunt this morning, think I'm at one of the highest total second split hunt tally's on my log but figured it was an easy hunt to make and was back in plenty of time for a solid day at work. Just not as mad at them at this late hour in the season and have resigned to being just fine with a few birds scraped together rather than the hopes for big heavy straps. At least it's puddlers.....last reports I was getting from guides in Delacroix area were putting paying guns on dos gris, getting easy 3/man limits of those in short order, then hoping for some other bird to help mix the strap.

Plus, it's nice to be back in home marsh I was such a regular in for many years. There's been some much needed, significant, restoration work done so this offseason will have some evolving habitat that will do nothing but benefit the ducks and the long term viability of the area.

Opted not to hunt this closing weekend, figured my time and energy better used cleaning up, organizing, etc. and no regrets given the morning conditions each day. Bunkie blind scratched Friday and Saturday. Marsh had low water, no wind.

Some initial numbers overall and for my respective areas of usual hunts to kick around. This is regular season only, does not include teal season



Overall regular/big duck season total on my log:
105 ducks on 25 hunts

2017-2018 season for comparison - 205 ducks, 8 geese on 25 hunts, which was about on par for recent years. Obviously this season was exactly 100 birds off of that pace.



Delacroix Lease:

99 ducks on 21 hunts
2017-2018 season to compare: 188 ducks on 22 hunts



Bunkie blind:

17 ducks on 14 hunts
2017-2018 season to compare:105 ducks, 7 geese on 14 hunts

Will crunch species later, shouldn't take long given the low numbers.

Seems like the Bunkie area was off all year long from start to finish. Entire farms were void of waterfowl for long stretches then would load up for a day and then they would be gone again. It was a season to forget!

Article below pretty much tells the tale, in my opinion. On top of it, my buddy made is semi-weekly trek to lower Cameron parish this morning for work, said ducks thick in places there were none on last trip (and had been none or very few for much of season).

http://www.ducks.org/conservation/water ... GODNpPVQ_M

Yep. El Niño can take his happy ass back to where he came from and never make an appearance again as far as I’m concerned.

I'll bet this moves a few ducks.

Too little too late. This would have been nice a month ago.

SpinnerMan wrote:I'll bet this moves a few ducks.

Too little too late. This would have been nice a month ago.

21below.png

Right, I'm not unrealistic and expect polar vortex in November. But you're right on the timing, this would have been ideal at very end of Dec or first of January, and sure enough that was the case last winter.....and sure enough we had plenty birds down here. Even those with a slow first split had a pretty strong second split.

Finally got around to my sad species breakdown for the 2018-2019 season, as follows below:

35 grays (up from only 27 last year, surprisingly)
3 dosgris/lesser scaup
13 BW teal (excludes Sept teal season)
16 bufflehead (all time record by a mile)
26 GW teal (previous season, 76; lowest since 2008 season)
2 spoons - particularly low since we killed ONE in all Bunkie hunts, very unusual. The other one was with Rick, and were glad to have him
5 mottleds - on the higher end of the spectrum, highest since 2014 season, season record is 8.
1 ringneck
4 mallards (all at Rick's Mudhole)


The grays stat is interesting given this year in Delacroix seemed worse than last year, but we killed more grays there this go round, and not a one made the log after December 20th!

Last year's total ducks stat was heavily padded with more green wings and spoons, with the bulk of the spoons coming from Bunkie area.

Had I hunted some of my old public grounds that I had at end of season a bit more, likely would have logged a few more mallards. Would like to think my tentative plans of hitting that area more in 2019 season will show a few more mallards on the tally this time in 2020. The habitat in that area is stellar for them, and getting better.

Otherwise, it's simply about a 50% cut of total ducks from the season prior. 205 down to 105 for regular season, 253 down to 140 for total ducks including teal season. My tender plants in backyard are still green as could be with no severe cold in the long term forecast, just a couple of minor fronts. Tells the tale! Today, Feb 5, has a high of almost 80, and it was in mid 60's last night, what should be the highs.

Darren wrote:My tender plants in backyard are still green as could be with no severe cold in the long term forecast, just a couple of minor fronts. Tells the tale! Today, Feb 5, has a high of almost 80, and it was in mid 60's last night, what should be the highs.

I started to spot treat some weeds in my yard yesterday with roundup as I usually do while the Bermuda is still dormant, but stopped myself because I wasn’t sure the grass was, in fact, dormant. Didn’t want to end up with a polka dotted yard to start my spring.

DComeaux wrote:Your fields are looking good. If the birds ever make it down here you'll be in business.

In revisiting my log notes, how profound Dave's statement was given: 1.) Birds arguably never showed up in what's been typical numbers for this farm and surrounding area. and 2.) The rear field was attractive but the standing bushes in the front cut completely took us out of the game for the birds that DID show.

Later learned that farmer's helper wanted to have it sprayed, but farmer veto'd it.

Can't help but wonder, though, how much better the takeaway from the season in that area would have been had we been hunting with the proper field set up. Feel pretty sure that we would have been scratching out a few more each hunt since we often watched traffic pass us only to dive down and work just north of us where it was open. We do know that the east end of the farm had some BIG hunts for the season, but not the overall success of past (though recent) years.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda and next time...

Rick wrote:Woulda, coulda, shoulda and next time...

Seems the case about every season, but that's what keeps us coming back.

And while the teal season itch got going good, it went away when I got distracted with other matters, but when it came back, it took on the form of full on big season complete with the envie for the sounds of geese in the air.