Duck Season 2018-2019

Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Rick » Sat Jan 05, 2019 6:12 pm

BGkirk wrote:I thought the same prior to shooting the two. They were swimming in decoys and he paid them no attention.


That was before retrieving them gave him reason to think them important.

Re: video, I download to youtube, then hit the youtube button above the reply box and insert the portion of the video's youtube url after the "=" sign (and before the word "feature," if there is one).

IE: for this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEtGZyfms7E, you'd use what you'll see if you quote this to embed it.
Last edited by Rick on Sat Jan 05, 2019 6:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Sat Jan 05, 2019 6:15 pm

Rick wrote:
BGkirk wrote:I thought the same prior to shooting the two. They were swimming in decoys and he paid them no attention.


That was before retrieving them gave him reason to think them important.

Re: video, I download to youtube, then hit the youtube button above the reply box and insert the portion of the video's youtube url between the "=" sign and word "feature".
ahh I see your point.. noted.


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Wed Feb 13, 2019 7:37 am

2018-2019 season recap:
I hunted more than last year, mainly because I’m settling in to the new job and have a little more freedom. Had 1-2 weekdays I hunted that paid off and around the holidays.
After my last post on 1/5/19 I hunted public with decent results and did not return back to lease. Last weekend spent in the East zone was a good way to end it, although I can’t remember the last time I intentionally missed a Sat of hunting while season was open.

Dog is back to the trainer to finish up. Will be excited to have him for the full season.

If it wasn’t for the abundance of bwt holding in our area, we would not have exceeded last years #s , which was terribly low . And to say that this season was better than last, catches most folks off guard.

Off season: our low budget club has had some proposals to spend more money for improvements such as decoys and blind concealment. Will discuss more in Mar after our spring meeting. Used to run 10-15 dozen decoys around some of the blinds but after years of hunting and no adding to the spread we dwindled down to 4-8 dozen. We didn’t have the ducks last year nor this year to make a difference anyways.

Our blinds used to be covered in Roseau, there was no brushing. It was cutting it back, like Rick. But we have lost 90% of the Roseau and are forced to brush a lot more, with the scarce Roseau that can be found, cattails and salt bushes/wax myrtle. I’ve discussed with Marsh Bear on their strategy when it comes to slowing erosion and placing old seawall around the blinds and pumping mud on the interior side. I love the idea but I don’t think our mud will pump like theirs. But we could attempt the slow the wave action. Our blinds virtually have no ground around them anymore.
We’ve also had a few guys take to the nutria, as they are definitely making an impact. I’ve never seen so many rats and they are eating tons of vegetation. The state has a 5 rat limit and even a season, which ends at the end of the month. Kinda thought that was strange for a “nuisance and invasive” species.

Frogging and fishing will start soon, we will really be eating good.

Like Darren, I’ve a new member joining the family in July.


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Deltaman » Wed Feb 13, 2019 7:54 am

BG, first of all, Congrats on the upcoming addition to your family!
I'm curious as to why you are losing Roseau?? Is it wave action and ground loss, or has the Roseau been dying because of disease?
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so"
Mark Twain
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Darren » Wed Feb 13, 2019 8:39 am

Congrats to you as well, hope for safe delivery for all.

Funny how some can't get rid of roseau, and others can't get enough of it. It does do well in holding ground together, hence why so critical to Venice area. I do tend to prefer the bushy blinds over the roseau hotels, just depends on how prolific it is in your area. Hope offseason treats you well; sure will be fun regardless with new addition at home
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Rick » Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:38 am

BGkirk wrote:Like Darren, I’ve a new member joining the family in July.


Hang onto your hat and enjoy.
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Wed Feb 13, 2019 5:11 pm

Deltaman wrote:BG, first of all, Congrats on the upcoming addition to your family!
I'm curious as to why you are losing Roseau?? Is it wave action and ground loss, or has the Roseau been dying because of disease?
its strange, different areas have lush green Roseau and then 1/4 mi it can be like ours. I think like rick said years of high water during spring time, coupled with wave action is hurting us. I’m not sure the Roseau scale is present in swla yet like it is in sela. I’ve watch old levees deteriorate and I believe those levees kept the wave action down. Goes to show how important vegetation is, the whips and cattails provided good wind breaks but we hardly have any of that anymore due to nutria.


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Wed Feb 13, 2019 5:13 pm

Darren wrote:Congrats to you as well, hope for safe delivery for all.

Funny how some can't get rid of roseau, and others can't get enough of it. It does do well in holding ground together, hence why so critical to Venice area. I do tend to prefer the bushy blinds over the roseau hotels, just depends on how prolific it is in your area. Hope offseason treats you well; sure will be fun regardless with new addition at home
our Roseau hotels used to not stick out when everything else was Roseau, but now they do stick out. This year was the first year we brushed a blind with a majority anything other than Roseau. It worked, but is our least producing spot so hard to judge from that perspective.


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Sat Apr 06, 2019 6:57 pm

First trip back to marsh since my last hunt down that way.
First off you’d think with all the rain in Lake Charles that we would’ve got some, maybe we will, but haven’t yet. Camp had 3/4” of rain in the gauge. Water was nice and low throughout the marsh, id prefer it this way.
We now have more blue wings than I’ve ever seen before. I’d safely estimate I saw at least 1000 birds. Picked out 1 spoony drake and a pair of gadwalls out of all the flurries of bwt.
One pic I did get
Image
Our goal was to relocate a pit that hasn’t been used in over 8 years. Got it out of the water and brought back to camp to get a fresh coat of resin and paint Image
We will get it installed hopefully sooner than later to get grass started growing around it because we will need it.
Here’s a pic of another blind that will be taken down a pit put in its place. Boat hides will stay unfortunately. Image
Here is that same blind last year in August. I don’t see how Roseau can grow back in 5 months but I hope it does. Image
Besides Bull rush, I found 1 other lush green patch of cattails. Other than that is looks like a hurricane came through and wiped it all out.
We’re gonna try putting square hay bales around the newly installed pits whenever that is and putting salt grass on top of them. For the hides we will still have to use cattails/Roseau.
We brushed some last year with willow and some of those cuttings have taken root and are green.


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Sat Apr 06, 2019 6:59 pm

Image
Underneath the cinder block that stays in front of the door.
Gonna have to double check the camp real good prior to teal season


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:02 pm

https://youtu.be/gxImu0d4_Vw

The longer video was super grainy. Squint a little and you can see a good bunch flying around. Wind felt great today.


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:24 pm

https://youtu.be/FCvmgmxW4Zk
Here is the longer video.
Them nutria hit the water as hard as some labs I’ve seen


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Rick » Sun Apr 07, 2019 4:38 am

Went to a South Cameron High ball game yesterday and saw enough water en route to be surprised your marsh is still low. But glad it was accommodating and that you got to see some birds, as we've run into precious few concentrations of teal so far this spring.
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Sat Apr 27, 2019 4:51 pm

4-27-19 back in the marsh again for some old blind disassembly. Thought about a can of diesel and a match but went with the sledge hammer instead. Managed to break down one entire blind except the posts and all but The floors in another. Water had come up over the floors so couldn’t get to them.
Saw maybe 15 bwt, several mottle ducks including a pair that gave us a 20 yard pass right on top of blind. And some black belly whistlers which aren’t too common versus the fulvous.
Funny how 20 days makes a big difference with everything greening up. Including salvinia which I think blew in from the south, maybe from a recent storm ? Noticed a tallow tree on a levee that had been uprooted and fallen back to the north. Never seen one of those blow over.
Also noticed in about a 2acre area that stays fairly shallow had new black willow shoots popping up everywhere. Rather them growing on levees and around boat hides to keep what ground we have left rooted.
Image
Hopefully next trip will be pit install.
Still gathering opinions on how to basically start from scratch as far as getting some type of brush to grow around the blind once placed.
-Square bales as a base and salt grass on top
-moving floatant around it and letting whatever start growing in it whether it be cattails or coffee beans


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Tue Jun 04, 2019 5:04 pm

Made a trip to marsh for some frogs, water is a little high and salvinia amounts are even higher.
We’ve been safe from it for 2 years now, it was bad in 2016 and 2017 but managed to get it under control with the weevils.
Imagesee if you can spot the waterfowl specimen my neighbor sent a picture of while he was mowing


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Thu Jun 20, 2019 7:32 pm

ImageImage

Wonder what platform they’ll run on.. I see Larry on the far left


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Darren » Mon Jun 24, 2019 12:18 pm

Hmmmmmm

Would have liked to listen in
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Duck Engr » Mon Jun 24, 2019 4:18 pm

Darren wrote:Hmmmmmm

Would have liked to listen in


Same here. I think they’re producing a social media series of round table discussions. I look forward to them.
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Mon Jul 01, 2019 5:10 pm

I, like a couple of you other guys, made a trip the hunting grounds. Even with all the rain water is not as high as I thought it would be. At first glance from the launch salvinia has taken over any open water but not 50 yards from the launch there was some already dead, dying, and weevils look to be spreading into the healthy stuff. Lotus has 2 of the ponds taken over but that’s normal, I’ve pondered on spraying it to let more sunlight to the water and promote our SAV (wigeon grass and coontail) but those aquatic chemicals are expensive. I wish we could
Fertilize and brush around the blinds like Dave, but there’s
No such thing.
I did get to put 1 coat of laquer (suggested by a co worker who works with fiberglass canoes a lot) on one of our pits to be installed asap. I’m thinking we need to get it in sooner than later in order to avoid any issues so close to teal season.


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Duck Engr » Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:21 pm

BGkirk wrote:....so close to teal season.


Reading that made me feel good. Only a couple months out!
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Darren » Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:45 am

At least it was something ducky to do.

Will be doing a bit of teal blind constructing in very near future. Plan is to do pre-paint and pre-fab all we can (in the shade) to minimize assembly/labor once on scene in the summer heat.
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Rick » Tue Jul 02, 2019 9:02 am

Darren wrote:Will be doing a bit of teal blind constructing in very near future. Plan is to do pre-paint and pre-fab all we can (in the shade) to minimize assembly/labor once on scene in the summer heat.


They have these things called "five-gallon buckets" you can turn over and sit on in the grass that make great teal blinds. Even have handles to help tote them in and out...
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Darren » Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:50 pm

Rick wrote:
Darren wrote:Will be doing a bit of teal blind constructing in very near future. Plan is to do pre-paint and pre-fab all we can (in the shade) to minimize assembly/labor once on scene in the summer heat.


They have these things called "five-gallon buckets" you can turn over and sit on in the grass that make great teal blinds. Even have handles to help tote them in and out...



Will keep that in mind just as soon as I get that invite to hunt high and dry on a comfy rice field levee. Short of that, it's high tide every morning in September, flooding my coastal marsh grass; we're tired of fighting to keep our stuff out the (salt)water so are building a little spot that elevates us a bit.
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Rick » Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:47 pm

We hunted the south side of Pecan Island off buckets in September, but the tide wasn't as meaningful as the wind.
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:02 pm

Got to the marsh around 630, and un-anchored pit blind got it out of its little island (probably was the hardest part of it all)
Put it in front of a boat and pushed it like a barge. Worked perfect. Got it in place and started bailing water (Eric has pump ).
Was surprised that it is sitting on bottom as usually when we get out of that blind you go up to your waist. I guess with all the surface area it doesn’t sink as far, which is ok with me because even with 1’ of water rise, which has happened, will be ok. Another plus was these floatant mats were easy to move and got them in place around blind and staked them down. Hopefully Barry won’t blow them away.
Salvinia got worse, I can see where some places the weevils have done their work but not spreading fast as I’d like. There was some airboats running back and forth just north of us, I can only guess they were spreading weevils around or maybe checking gator nests?? It’s on Miami property.
Imagetaking a break from getting it out of its original spot
ImageI rode in the barge to keep level on the way to new spot
Imageanchored (just realized I forgot 1 anchor as I have an extra in my truck)
Yes boat hide is a hotel
Imagefloatant barge
Imagethe plants on the floatant usually die off but I’m hoping it’ll be a good start to get roseau started or maybe cattail. Anything will help


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Rick » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:44 pm

Looks to be a fine start. Would guess the airboats picking eggs before rising water kills them. Know we scrambled to get most of ours out of the marsh.
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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Ericdc » Fri Jul 12, 2019 6:42 pm

You’re young, a little bailing never hurts. Was it full?


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:23 pm

Rick wrote:Looks to be a fine start. Would guess the airboats picking eggs before rising water kills them. Know we scrambled to get most of ours out of the marsh.
Hmm. Do they usually mark the nests with poles? I was curious if our area had any operations like that. We do have far too many 5 footers and less around.


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby BGkirk » Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:24 pm

Ericdc wrote:You’re young, a little bailing never hurts. Was it full?


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less than half bailing out then filled it half full to keep help it stay anchored til teal season


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Re: Duck Season 2018-2019

Postby Rick » Sat Jul 13, 2019 4:22 am

BGkirk wrote:Do they usually mark the nests with poles?


Usually, though not always, canes with hot pink florescent flags that are usually, but not always, collected as the nests are picked.

Thinking about Darren, Dave and others to our east this morning and suffering some early survivor's guilt, but see we may yet get run over, too.
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