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Bud wrote:THE BUG has really turned into quite the waterfowlers' best friend. Looking at the pictures of him grabbing two big ducks and such really make me proud of him. His looks add to his prowess. He has become a part of your mudhole, as with all his predecessors. Would love to see a picture of each of your friends as they were with you in the past and present. Enjoy watching the two of you work together, Sir Rick. He doesn't seem to mind a season like this at all, as I would not mind. Why they call it Mother Nature.

While I'm with the guest who called Marsh "a peculiar looking dog" and Sweet Chereaux who calls him "our crazy dog" for his quirks around the house, I couldn't be much prouder of how well he's filled his place in the succession of dogs I've been blessed with. But maybe I'm just easy...

Though there were other fine gun dogs before them, those who've worked at the camp prior to Marsh were Bud:


Chien:


Both Blue and Kie, "the spotted Lab":


And, of course, the coyote, Peake:


Really have been blessed.

Great pics in history Rick!

That is awesome, Rick.

DComeaux wrote:That is awesome, Rick.

+1

Jan '12
Peake in his office

Darren wrote:Jan '12
Peake in his office

DSC07325.JPG

northerly breeze looks cold in the face


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Look at him shine. Maybe he knows he is in the company of great dogs from the past.
Thanks, Rick. Great dogs, memories, and pics. Need one of you and Marsh....owner's choice.....in there.

Bud, know my hunters have shot some of Marsh sleeping with his muzzle on my shoulder, like Peake used to, but don't know if I've anything of us together. (Did get to reach down and rub his noggin after typing that.)

Having our best friend with us is as much as we can ask for.

BGkirk wrote:

Darren wrote:Jan '12
Peake in his office

DSC07325.JPG

northerly breeze looks cold in the face

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Was ripping in our face behind a frontal passage, and big birds were dropping in over the shoulders.......huge hunt for my first at the mudhole.

Me Corey and perry hunted there in early January of 2013 I believe


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Ericdc wrote:Me Corey and perry hunted there in early January of 2013 I believe


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Passed a good time with the Rick and the Peake and the ducks cooperated pretty good to.

Even if none flew in from elsewhere, there are 88 more banded ducks in SWLA this morning than there were yesterday evening. And of the 66 that are mallards, 10 are hens also wearing transmitters as part of the coastal mallard study.

Something I'm apt to think about the next time a brown mallard tolls is that only 10 hens received transmitters because that's all there were verses 56 drakes. A ratio was even more skewed toward males in the batch we netted ten days ago.

Off to see if the fog's as thick at a Port Barre area blind as it will be for the East Zone opener down here...

Rick wrote:Even if none flew in from elsewhere, there are 88 more banded ducks in SWLA this morning than there were yesterday evening. And of the 66 that are mallards, 10 are hens also wearing transmitters as part of the coastal mallard study.

Something I'm apt to think about the next time a brown mallard tolls is that only 10 hens received transmitters because that's all there were verses 56 drakes. A ratio was even more skewed toward males in the batch we netted ten days ago.

Off to see if the fog's as thick at a Port Barre area blind as it will be for the East Zone opener down here...

No geese till next Saturday


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A shot of LDWF biologist, Paul Link, and his tech, Bret, watching and waiting as ducks began falling into their bait after sunset last night:


And another of the Basin blind were JJ, Mark and I had a nice visit and even shot a few ducks (well, they shot a few, I killed one and chipped another off into the white) while waiting for the fog to thin this morning:

One day, and what a blind.

DComeaux wrote:One day, and what a blind.

Don't know what instagram is or how to access it, but someone knowing what a Luddite I am e-mailed this screenshot:


You missed a good time.

Big sigh.....

Rick wrote:

DComeaux wrote:One day, and what a blind.

Don't know what instagram is or how to access it, but someone knowing what a Luddite I am e-mailed this screenshot:

Screenshot 2019-12-14 at 6.42.02 PMa.jpg

You missed a good time.

I sent that screen shot over to DC. Neat to read Paul's notes on the event

Suspect he noted that they're still a mess of hen mallards and some specks short and probably need to go again after the front? When it's c-c-c-cold. Having been there and done that on a night it sleeted early last Marsh, God bless Lacassane Land Company for volunteering a building we can move to once birds are in hand.

Ed and I went to the marsh to work on boats and introduce his pup to the marsh and working off a dog stand and boat and ran into Clyde coming in from brushing his blind. Said he didn't move much on the way to his pond but had a serious mess of mallards catch his attention by "blocking the sun" and watched them land to his south just as he was leaving. We stuck to the east end, where the jacks and a few big ducks looked about like we'd left them, but it was nice to see someone with Clyde's 51 years out there excited about what may be the start of something. Or, of course, may not...

Good news, and I'm anxious to get in our marsh this Friday afternoon to put out decoys. I'm hoping the water stayed low.

Serious front tonight.

Though really glad we didn't waste this past sat and sun with hunt days given the heavy fog in the marsh, would have loved to be hunting this week with the big front.

Given a choice, would have traded out the first week of the season in November (maybe?) for this week, or take it off the tail end.

Buddies I hunted the Basin with Saturday sent me a photo of their eight mallards this morning - rubbing in my declining to join them again this morning. And I'm still happy with that decision - probably meaning that I'm [u]really[u] old.

More excited to learn the crew has a good mess of specks on the bait - even if that means getting wet in the cold if and when we can net them.

Readied my blind for the weekend this morning and can't report anything but disappointment with what I saw, or didn't...

Rats. I figured this little front would have brought at least a few reinforcements

Hopefully they're in the rice many have been leaving alone because East Zone's geese are still closed. But I don't expect to be handing out passes Saturday.

Dave, we're expecting/hoping to band again tomorrow, Thursday, evening. Know it's still likely pee-poor timing for you, but thought I'd let you know.

Thanks, but I have a long day tomorrow.

Assumed as much, just wanted to throw it out there for "Justin Case".

When we let them go a couple hours from now, there will be another 123 banded ducks (115 mallards, 18 of which hens with transmitters) and 33 banded specks (9 hens with transmitters) on the loose in SWLA. Here's Garret Cole (Vendeta Calls) with one being measured for the record (tarsus, outer wing, bill and head, as well as weighed) before being fitted with her transmitter:


No way for hunters to avoid shooting those most valuable mallard hens, other than simply not targeting mallard hens at all, which I believe may well become my practice. Not just knowing some are transmittered but having seen the graphic evidence of how many more times as many drakes there are than hens in the overall population (probably 30-some out of this most recent 115 and an even lower ratio in our previous two captures).

But the speck collars are noticeable enough that one might well be able to spare them in decent light. Please do. They're a whole lot more useful to we speck hunters alive than dead.

On a related aside, one of transmitters installed last night was from a bird some asshole got caught popping with a .22-250 in a Dakota feed lot. Genius ran around with it in the console of his pick-up until he was picked up.