Season

[Ericdc]

11-3-18
Goose season opener
Pit blind
Eric garrison Joseph
Clear, mid 40s and warming up quick l, calm to light S wind
Hunted until 8:15 then did more brushing and put duck decoys out
Saw very few specks but a really good showing of ducks, lots of gadwall with spoons teal (both colors) pintail and a few mallards.
Adjusted boards so water would maintain or rise a couple inches on bean side and hold steady on rice side.

Should have a good youth hunt next Saturday with what we saw today






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[Ericdc]

Date: 11-10

Time: unloaded at 11 and put some more brush on pit

Location: morehouse parish pit blind

Cloud Cover: none

Wind Direction and Velocity: 10-15 NNE

Temperature: low 30’s and staying cold

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: really excited about this early November weather and the birds put on a pretty good show

Waterfowl Activity: covered up in teal before shooting time then a few good opps on them after legal. Good many gadwall, mallards, and pintail flying around. Lots more snows and specks than we saw last week.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: had a few groups bump off the mojos but had some come real pretty.,

Hunters: My nephew Hunter and church friend Chandler

Guns:

Malfunctions: Chandler’s 870 Supermag hung up a few times......typical Remington

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Kudos: boys shot better on big birds than teal and birds didn’t seem to have a clue where we were

curses: had a pair of specks plenty low to kill but couldn’t pull em over us, they didn’t flare or buzz..just left

Birds By Species: 1 mallard 1 gadwall 4 shovelers 1 green winged teal 1 blue winged teal

Photo Ops:



Looking south



Looking north



The guys



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[Darren]

Very nice! Pretty birds

[DComeaux]

Sweet!!

[Deltaman]

Good job Eric!!!!

[Ericdc]

Preseason snow


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[Darren]

Eric,

what's your outlook for opener this weekend with no "weather".....no wind, clear skies, cold. Opener pressure enough to move birds around and make the hunt? Think i'm heading north friday to get dekes out, hope to find some live ones on site upon arrival.

[Ericdc]

Give me sunshine and I’ll be happy.


We should have a little wind by 9 and I’ll wait them out if needed, but pressure should have them stirring.


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[Duck Engr]

Give me sunshine and I’ll be happy.


We should have a little wind by 9 and I’ll wait them out if needed, but pressure should have them stirring.


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Amen!

[Johnc]

Should limit on specks and ducks up there

Not much of anything down here,bunkie included

[Ducaholic]

Eric,

what's your outlook for opener this weekend with no "weather".....no wind, clear skies, cold. Opener pressure enough to move birds around and make the hunt? Think i'm heading north friday to get dekes out, hope to find some live ones on site upon arrival.

I’m more worried about the lack of significant frontal activity after opening weekend. What’s here can only take so much pounding before they split for good.

[Darren]

Should limit on specks and ducks up there

Not much of anything down here,bunkie included

"Here" as in SW La ag land? Wouldn't know it from video after video online of birds alleged to be at people's fields, including some great reports of guys who speck hunted above 14 last weekend but were covered in ducks they couldn't shoot.

As for the greater Whiteville-Bunkie corridor, we shall see tomorrow after lunch i'm riding up. There was a good pile two weeks ago near us, right where they always seem to be. Will be the earliest in the season I've ever hunted there .

[Johnc]

Should limit on specks and ducks up there

Not much of anything down here,bunkie included

"Here" as in SW La ag land? Wouldn't know it from video after video online of birds alleged to be at people's fields, including some great reports of guys who speck hunted above 14 last weekend but were covered in ducks they couldn't shoot.

As for the greater Whiteville-Bunkie corridor, we shall see tomorrow after lunch i'm riding up. There was a good pile two weeks ago near us, right where they always seem to be. Will be the earliest in the season I've ever hunted there .

Well then you’ll should do well then. That’s totally the opposite of all the reports I have. But that’s good

[Ericdc]

I’m curious to see how it’ll be, there’s a lot more water than there usually is this time of year in our area and east Arkansas.

I don’t expect to be done by 7:00 like we were last year, I’d prefer to hunt a little linger in the sunshine but we’ll see.


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[Johnc]

I’m curious to see how it’ll be, there’s a lot more water than there usually is this time of year in our area and east Arkansas.

I don’t expect to be done by 7:00 like we were last year, I’d prefer to hunt a little linger in the sunshine but we’ll see.


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From the sources I have down here,there were ducks then this front pushed them out and nothing has filled the void

Some geese but no where near what should be

[Ericdc]

Yea we had plenty last Saturday for the youth.


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[Darren]

John, did see a fella share vid of big body of snows in Thornwell today so maybe a few are moving in. I distinctly recall the 2010 season being one that didn't have many snows at all moving through the Cheneyville/Bunkie area until a big front around Thanksgiving day.

We'll be giving Eric's preferred sky condition a test on saturday with the clear skies, as I tend to favor nastier conditions. Can tell yall that reports from my marsh today were pretty poor; one blind on our lease had 5 grays, another blind a few miles away had 7 teal and a mottled. No discernible push from this front

Does seem to be a tremendous amount of birds already staged in arkansas so would hope being there so early in season in big numbers would bode well for a push sooner than later....hope....

[Johnc]

John, did see a fella share vid of big body of snows in Thornwell today so maybe a few are moving in. I distinctly recall the 2010 season being one that didn't have many snows at all moving through the Cheneyville/Bunkie area until a big front around Thanksgiving day.

We'll be giving Eric's preferred sky condition a test on saturday with the clear skies, as I tend to favor nastier conditions. Can tell yall that reports from my marsh today were pretty poor; one blind on our lease had 5 grays, another blind a few miles away had 7 teal and a mottled. No discernible push from this front

Does seem to be a tremendous amount of birds already staged in arkansas so would hope being there so early in season in big numbers would bode well for a push sooner than later....hope....

I saw Nathan Lopez post. That’s a good body. And haiden Richard saw good flight on big four.

Hunter bardin had good flight across from Dixie on talens,specks shied from duck decoys badly though

[DComeaux]

Have seen quite a few flocks of blues and snows down here in the marsh this morning.

[BGkirk]

I saw a big bunch of snows bodied up at Cameron prairie “pintail drive” ... seems like they don’t show up there til later in the season in years past but they are there for now


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[Ericdc]

John, did see a fella share vid of big body of snows in Thornwell today so maybe a few are moving in. I distinctly recall the 2010 season being one that didn't have many snows at all moving through the Cheneyville/Bunkie area until a big front around Thanksgiving day.

We'll be giving Eric's preferred sky condition a test on saturday with the clear skies, as I tend to favor nastier conditions. Can tell yall that reports from my marsh today were pretty poor; one blind on our lease had 5 grays, another blind a few miles away had 7 teal and a mottled. No discernible push from this front

Does seem to be a tremendous amount of birds already staged in arkansas so would hope being there so early in season in big numbers would bode well for a push sooner than later....hope....

If no wind then it’s just a pretty day, but I just have more confidence when it’s bright and sunny.


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[Rick]

If no wind then it’s just a pretty day...

Sometimes. Sometimes it's a pretty darn good day, too. Don't ever really know until you go. 'Least I don't.

[Ericdc]

Date: 11-17 opening day

Time: packed up at 10 am

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clear to high thin cirrus with sun peaking through

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm until well after 9 AM

Temperature: mid 30’s but warming up fast

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: real pretty morning and garrison got to bring a close friend of his who rarely gets to hunt ducks due to work

Waterfowl Activity: not near the ducks we saw the last 2 Saturday’s, lotta big lines of snows and a decent amount of specks but very few not in formation

Waterfowl Responsiveness: ducks would work to the call well but did not like all the motionless decoys.

Hunters: Eric garrison Peyton and Joseph

Guns: broke in my new Maxus

Malfunctions: Peyton’s SBE 2 failed to fire a few times, needed oil. Fired after oiled.

Dog(s): Joseph’s dog charter

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Kudos: from what I’m hearing we did a lot better than several folks

curses: 3 big groups of green winged teal either worked field and landed wide or left in first 30 minutes of action. Those birds would have changed our fortunes a lot had we shot well...but we just had to watch them leave unscathed. We deployed a jerk string after that and will have another one in the morning, expecting similar lack of wind.

Birds By Species:
3 shovelers
1 blue winged teal (that makes 2 for this year, 1 more than we’ve killed in last 4 years on farm
1 redhead (my first)
2 green winged teal
1 wigeon
2 gadwall

All our birds except the redhead were very fat.





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[Ericdc]

Date: 11-18

Time: left at 10:30 after putting fresh stubble on pit and checking water control structures

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clear with occasional high thin clouds

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm to every now and then very light southerly and back to calm

Temperature: right around 40 and warming up fast

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: brought Garrick on his first duck hunt outside of North Carolina, he had a good time but I wish the conditions would have been better.

Waterfowl Activity: steady flights of ducks all morning from both directions but mostly high

Waterfowl Responsiveness: null, tried screaming at the high flights but without wind they just kept on.

Hunters: Eric garrison Garrick Joseph

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): charter

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Kudos: had a good time

curses: just no wind

Birds By Species: 1 gadwall 1 shoveler

Photo Ops: what’s wrong with this pic







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[DComeaux]

Date: 11-18 Photo Ops: what’s wrong with this pic

Your decoys are on a mirror.

[Ericdc]

Date: 11-18 Photo Ops: what’s wrong with this pic

Your decoys are on a mirror.

Exactly.... I hate calm days


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[Darren]

Waterfowl Responsiveness: null, tried screaming at the high flights but without wind they just kept on.

Oh good, wasn't just me seeing that all morning. We were early back in the truck heading south and noticed a whole lot of truck-trailer-bike rigs on the road presumably from others that also saw their flight fizzle early just as we did so took some solace in that.

[Ericdc]

Duck survey flown last Friday


In Northeast Louisiana, however, only 104,000 ducks and 96,000 geese (<10% white-fronted) were counted on selected habitats during the traditional cruise survey that was standardized in 2005. That is only 42% of the 247,000 ducks counted last November and is 30% lower than the November average of 148,000 for this survey since 2005. Similarly, the goose total is 61% lower than the 249,000 counted last November. Gadwall (38,000) was the most abundant duck species that along with pintail (25,000), green-winged teal (19,000), and ring-necked ducks (13,000) accounted for 91% of the ducks counted. The surveyed area is much wetter than normal for November, the rice harvest was not completed, and it appears some crops were left in the field. Along with above average flooding in agricultural fields, flooding was also evident in backwater areas of the major river systems. Concentrations of both ducks and geese were noted in flooded rice fields in the Bunkie/Grand Cote, which was holding nearly 1/3 of the ducks and half the geese counted on this survey. Nearly as many geese were counted in the Bonita/Mer Rouge area. Smaller concentrations of dabbling ducks were seen in flooded agricultural fields east of Bayou Lafourche in Richland Parish and near Bonita/Mer Rouge area, while a concentration of ring-necked ducks was seen at Catahoula NWR.

I concur


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[Johnc]

Half of the prior worst on record is what I heard

[Ericdc]

Date: nov 22 happy thanksgiving

Time: left at 9:30 due to lunch plans and flight was over too

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clear by sunrise

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm to very light NE (not enough to help work big ducks)

Temperature: 37 and warming up quick

Barometer:

Moon phase:big full moon, should have taken a pic

Special Notes: beautiful morning other than no wind, felt like we would have got 4-6 ducks had we had any wind

Waterfowl Activity: dead for first 30-45 minutes until goose flight, followed by a big duck flight from south from 8-830 then nothing

Waterfowl Responsiveness: specks were very responsive to calling even when mixed with snows, gads were being gads with no wind and circled and circled

Hunters: my brother Ryan and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Kudos: broke and finished my highest speck ever flying in small mixed flock

curses: just my 3rd hunt in a row with no wind

Birds By Species: 1 speck

Photo Ops:




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