Dove/Teal/Preseason

Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Fri Aug 30, 2019 2:59 pm

Planning to head up to the farm one day this weekend to take a look at how the browntop is coming along. If the first planting is mature enough, I plan to mow some strips through it. Hoping the 75 or so doves I saw last weekend have recruited some friends.


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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby 5 stand » Sat Aug 31, 2019 3:41 pm

Duck Engr wrote:
Try posting in my 2019-2020 log under my preseason tab...

Rick, I can post a reply.
I have the post a reply tab on my screen ???
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:26 pm

Mowed a few strips in the browntop last Saturday and saw a hundred or so doves. Dad was up a few times during the week and didn’t see more than 10 until Friday afternoon, when he saw 75 or so. With how hot it was Saturday afternoon (season started at noon Saturday for us) I wouldn’t have gone even if we had 1000 birds. That’s just not fun to me. Did chores all morning Saturday morning until we couldn’t stand the heat.

Made a late decision after the ball game that night (Lord help our offensive line) to take the pup up Sunday morning, just she and i since we didn’t have hardly any birds. It was a nice, though warm, morning with a light fog on the field early. Arrived a little after shooting time due to a kerfuffle at the house. Left my phone in Beau’s room sometime during the night when I had to get up to give him his paci. Woke up to my alarm blaring through the baby monitor. Scrambled through the house and got it shut off in time before he fully woke up, but it still took some time to rock him back to sleep. I sometimes wonder how I survive in life with all the dumb stuff I do. Anyway, not a single bird seen the first 30 minutes of shooting light, though I could hear a few around me. Heavy dew and fog must have kept them in the trees. As the morning wore on a few trickled in here and there, mostly going down in the browntop across from me. Killed my first bird on a long right to left crosser (which I usually can’t hit to save my life). Legh made a nice blind retrieve on it as she didn’t see it fall. About 20 minutes later was an easy shot right over the top with a short retrieve. Last was a “mojo-ed” bird that tried to land on the decoy as packed up around 8.

Probably saw 60 birds total. Neighbors were shooting as well and maybe pulled the trigger ten times between several hunters. Not many birds around.

I did see a small group of teal cruising the pine treetops and take a low pass over our fish pond. Also saw a shooting star during the daytime, which was neat. Blue and white streak across the sky.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Rick » Tue Sep 10, 2019 3:56 am

Duck Engr wrote:...Woke up to my alarm blaring through the baby monitor. Scrambled through the house and got it shut off in time before he fully woke up...


Always nice to start the day with a miracle.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:51 am

Date:

Time:

Location:

Cloud Cover:

Wind Direction and Velocity:

Temperature:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity:

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Hunters:

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Curses:

Kudos:

Birds By Species:

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:[/quote]
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Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:44 pm

Date: 9/14/19

Time: morning. Arrived at the field around 10 minutes after shooting light

Location: Farm-CRP field, middle section.

Cloud Cover: mostly clear. Touch of fog early but not much.

Wind Direction and Velocity: east 5-10 mph

Temperature: 67 when I parked the truck

Moon phase: day after full

Special Notes: had an invite to go teal hunting for the opener but declined in favor of going dove hunting with Dad. My buddy did well on teal but I’d still go with Dad if I had it to do over again.

fowl Activity: again slow out of the gate but picked up as the morning wore on. Still not many birds around. Probably saw 75-100

Waterfowl Responsiveness: what came to the mojo died save one that I passed on due to it being so close it was in “vaporizing zone”. I let several go as they would have fallen in thick tall grass behind us, aka snake territory.

Hunters:Dad and I

Guns: M2 20 ga

Malfunctions: had several sneak past me from behind. Really needed one guy facing each way on the tree I was sitting by. Dad missed several easy shots. Said he doesn’t like morning hunting because he doesn’t have time to consuming enough “aiming oil” before he starts shooting.

Dog(s): Legh. Nice morning including a tricky double that she marked and remembered. The pair came in but broke left about halfway down. I killed the lead bird and the second dipped down to see where his buddy was headed, then reversed course back to the right and I knocked him down. Legh went straight to both birds. Made my morning as she’s notoriously bad at marking falls.

Special Equipment: one mojo dove

Curses: work phonecall at 7 am.

Kudos: A hair cooler than it has been and less humid. Little breeze from the East didn’t hurt my feelings either.

Birds By Species: 4 mourning doves

Photo Ops: I’m getting pretty bad about not taking pictures.

Lagniappe: had a young bobcat sneak up on me to about 15 yards before I saw it. We saw each other about the same time and by the time I composed myself and leveled off on it, it had doubled the distance between us and wasn’t slowing down.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:40 pm

Follow up on the rice experiment. I assume most of the rice plants didn’t produce seed due to drought. Couldn’t buy a rain shower most of the summer. However, one little southern corner produced pretty well. Don’t know if it’s because it stayed mostly in the shade and didn’t allow as much water to evaporate or what the deal was. All said I probably have enough rice for a duck, maybe a duck and a half to eat on. Oh well, there’s always next year. Image
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Rick » Tue Sep 17, 2019 3:48 am

Bobcats, like coyotes, are on my "never again" list, as I'd much rather just watch them.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Sat Sep 28, 2019 2:48 pm

Date:9/28/19

Time: morning

Location: public marsh

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: not a breath till 8, then only a little.

Temperature: warm to blazin

Moon phase: not much if any

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: 6-7 groups seen, half of which flew over while we were out picking up dead ones.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: good. Only had one group that didn’t respond and that was when I accidentally grabbed my Daisycutter instead of short barrel, though as mentioned we had 3 groups work while we had our pants down out in the decoys. Wouldn’t finish with that big strange boat-shaped blob out there.

Hunters:2

Guns: M2 20 and A5 12.

Malfunctions: jumping out of the blind to go get the first 6 on the water and blowing some great opportunities in the process

Dog(s): none

Special Equipment: 2 spinners

Curses: heat. I’m ready for a cool off.

Kudos: felt good to get back in the swing of chasing ducks over water.

Birds By Species: 6 bwt (2 drakes 4 hens).

Photo Ops: Image

Lagniappe: had a single come in early that took 4 shots to dispatch (I was the guilty party on three of those). Redeemed ourselves on a group of ten that came in at a funny angle. Let them swing again and got them front and center, maybe a little too close at under 10 yards. Killed 5 out of that group. it was fun to work some birds again. Scratched an itch that’s long needed scratchin.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby BGkirk » Sat Sep 28, 2019 8:36 pm

Oh how I do not miss those days of blowing chances while picking up ducks in decoys...
Just starting my 2nd season with my first dog and it’s so nice


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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Sat Sep 28, 2019 10:31 pm

BGkirk wrote:Oh how I do not miss those days of blowing chances while picking up ducks in decoys...
Just starting my 2nd season with my first dog and it’s so nice


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Just too many darn gators in that particular area for me to risk it with my dog unfortunately. If it weren’t for gators, I’d probably still be living on the coast.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Rick » Sun Sep 29, 2019 3:40 am

BGkirk wrote:Oh how I do not miss those days of blowing chances while picking up ducks in decoys...
Just starting my 2nd season with my first dog and it’s so nice


My thought on reading that was like DE's. No way am I letting my dog near alligator deep water this time of year, so we've still been blowing plenty of chances boating him to flotant across the mudhole and down its runs.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby BGkirk » Sun Sep 29, 2019 6:06 am

I suppose I took the chance this year seeing that we do have gators in our marsh. Although I had eyes on him at all times and only retrieved in the open water and his furthest retrieve might’ve been 40 yds. I know that’s enough time for something bad to happen. In fact we deterred some smaller gators before shooting light running them back into the Lillie’s and out of the open pond


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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Sun Sep 29, 2019 10:04 am

Buddy went back to the same spot this morning that we’d hunted yesterday. Smaller groups, but about the same number of birds. They took 8, with lots of woulda coulda shoulda had their 12.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby DComeaux » Sun Sep 29, 2019 2:52 pm

I shudder at the thought of seeing my dog grabbed by a gator. Ellie came with us to the camp but she stayed there. I think shes wondering why she hasn't made a boat ride yet.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:39 pm

Image

Sweet info from Paul Link today. No shortstoppage there.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby BGkirk » Wed Oct 09, 2019 6:47 pm

Wpw


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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Deltaman » Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:26 am

Impressive, and interesting flight line across the country. Seems weird that they wouldn't just follow the coast South, but glad to see that the imprint to LA is strong! What's with the 93mph? typo?
"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"
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby SpinnerMan » Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:50 am

Deltaman wrote:What's with the 93mph?

That's one hell of a tail wind.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Darren » Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:26 am

So very cool

hope she stays in the Boot, and doesn't rebound northward too soon. Hopefully more to come this weekend
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:04 am

Finished corralling all of my stuff into a pile this weekend in preparation for a trip out to the lease next weekend. It’ll be a short one. I had not planned to go but my wife decided she wants to visit her cousin in Oxford so I’ll drop her and my son off and continue on out. It’ll be mostly a work weekend, but early season speck does start Saturday, so we’ll try our hand at them in the mornings and work on brushing the pit and a few other odds and ends Saturday afternoon. We’re no expert callers like JohnC, so I don’t expect much from our efforts unless our field is holding geese, which it usually does sometime between now and the second week of November.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Tue Oct 29, 2019 10:31 am

Date: 10/26/19

Time: morning. Arrived Friday afternoon around 4. Brushed layouts and put decoys out.

Location: North levee of "runway" field

Cloud Cover: Heavy. Rain, switching from tolerable to miserable and back. Low ceiling.

Wind Direction and Velocity: 15-20 from north switching to west by lunchtime

Temperature: low to mid 50s

Moon phase: couldn't see it

Special Notes: Before brushing blinds Friday, we rode around the area to see what was there. 2-3 miles to our East several fields were holding 2-3k specks per field. Not near that over by us.

Waterfowl Activity: Saw 3-4 groups of 20 plus and a handful of singles. About what we expected after our quick scouting session the day before. The real surprise was the duck show for late October. Mainly spoons and teal with flights of pintails, but a surprising number of mallards as well. The field directly to our northwest was already holding water and had about 500 ducks on it, with 50 of those being mallards.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had one big group that wanted to play. The came directly over at about 45 yards high. I opted to let them swing, hoping they'd come down a little lower. Well, you know how that one turned out. Next pass was a little higher, followed by another pass that was even higher, and on their way they went. Had a couple singles that worked as well as we could have hoped along with some that survived due to our errors.

Hunters: 2

Guns: Benelli M2 12 ga and Remington 870 12 ga.

Malfunctions: Just a few early season rust mistakes.

Dog(s): Legh and Boo

Special Equipment: 4 dozen full body speck decoys

Curses: the rain really started to get old after a couple hours.

Kudos: Felt good to be back in the Delta again

Birds By Species: 2 specks

Photo Ops: Didn't get my phone out in the rain. Rather enjoyed a technology-free morning.

Lagniappe: After the geese stopped flying, we shifted our focus to brushing the pit [has (4) 8' long rebar doors that flip down]. Taking an entirely different approach this year for two reasons. A) the old approach with the doors staying up the whole season and blind material over the top with holes to pop up out of, left us with a very low ceiling, as our pit is shallower than i'd like. We have 3 guys over 6' tall, with the tallest 6'-5", so this led to quite a few back aches last year. B) we got a new member in the lease who is at the opposite end of the height spectrum and won't be able to shoot over the doors when they're in the upright position. So this year I had some welded wire fabric that goes in concrete slabs on 6" centers. Cut the wire into 4'x4' sheets and attached fast grass mats to them. We attached the wire and mats to our doors, essentially making the doors taller to where they'll actually meet at the top now. Only hiccup was we had to attach the panels higher on the doors than I'd anticipated, so our overall height is about 1' higher than we wanted. Now i'll have to add some skirting to the bottom of the doors. Hindsight 20/20 i should have waited to put the grassmats on the panels after i'd installed the panels. I'll just have to bring my wire snips with me on the opener and if we run into problems with ducks shying from the pit, we'll make the necessary adjustments on the fly. Other issue is that it looks like someone tossed my homemade dog box covers after i accidentally left them at the camp the last weekend of the season last year. Looks like I'll have to remake those.
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Re: Dove/Teal/Preseason

Postby Duck Engr » Thu Oct 31, 2019 5:25 pm

What’s the latest in the hearing electronic enhancement/protection world? Last I looked, been years ago, walkers game ear was top dog but I’ve seen quite a few new brands enter the market lately. The wife is asking for birthday present suggestions for mine that’s coming up in a couple weeks.
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