New decade...new farm and a camp.

[Ericdc]

So we went into last season made aware that the farm we had been hunting since the fall of 2014 was for sale. The farm did indeed sell in February.

Rewind to November, when a friend had contacted me about an opportunity he had for a group of hunters that would be interested. I told him at the time, we were happy where we were, but this could be our last year because the farm was for sale.

We stayed in touch through the season last year, and once i heard a few discouraging details about what the new owner was wanting to do on the farm we were hunting on, I called him and let him know what was going on at our old farm and that I'd like to come look at what he had.

A couple of other hunting buddies of mine were also looking for something new after last season, so I invited them to come with me to look at the farm. So we were able to go look at the farm back on April 25th, which was a rather cool windy day. Due to recent rain events, the bigger field on the farm still had a lot of water on it, and as we approached the blind we noticed it was also holding quite a few blue winged teal. So it was neat to see them winging around the field while we checked out the pit.

What am I really excited about is that we will have a camp. I've never had a camp, so this will save me many hours of sleep and driving through the duration of the hunting season. We'll have access to 3 fields, 2 of which have nice big pits in them, and the other being the large cornfield that surrounds the camp. We'll have dove and goose hunting options in the corn around the camp.

It looks like both of the fields where the pits are will be in rice. One was planted about a week ago, and as of yesterday's work day, the farmer was doing his last bit of field prep and hoped to be planting by yesterday evening.

One interesting thing about the south field is that they have placed the acreage south of the pit into CRP, so it's been planted with trees and has lots of grass growing in it. There is a 3-4 acre area behind the pit that was not planted, so we'll have open water there, and much more open water on the north side of the pit. I've never hunted a field that offered cover, water, and food like this one will since the CRP area is also flooded along with the ag acreage on north side of levee where pit is.

The other field is a more typical agland setup with the blind sitting on a permanent levee that extends out into the field and will have water on both sides.

The camp is a small brick house that used was used for clients, but my buddy is wanting to slightly downsize his guiding operation so he's going to let us lease the camp along with the 2 pits. He''ll still be guiding 1 set of clients each day out of his smaller camp down the road. They'll be hunting another pit he has.

We'll be hunting the same flyway we have been hunting the last several years, just a good bit further south in the parish, along the same river.

We had a productive work day yesterday with 6 of the 8 members being there to do some wasp killing, weed eating, and trash pick up around the camp. I cooked a pot of jambalaya for lunch.

[Ericdc]

Drone shot from a few years ago. You can see the pit is not in a levee. It's been since moved further north to be on levee that separates the ag from crp. You can see the neighboring farm to the south with a lot of slick water.


The other field, we call the middle blind.

Both blinds lay East to west so we'll be facing north just like our pits we hunted on old farm the last 6 years.


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[Ericdc]

Camp.

Middle field is about a half a mile east of camp. Will be nice to watch birds come and go in the afternoons.

South field is a little further south, but will be able to ride wheelers from camp to access both.


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[Duck Engr]

Sounds like a sweet setup Eric! I’m looking forward to reading your logs this season. Our lease is farther north of you but a couple of lease members got access to a flooded CRP field last January and absolutely wore them out for 3 days straight on it when no one else was doing any good. The videos they sent after they limited were wild. You’ll have the advantage of having a different setup from most everyone else.

[Ericdc]

Sounds like a sweet setup Eric! I’m looking forward to reading your logs this season. Our lease is farther north of you but a couple of lease members got access to a flooded CRP field last January and absolutely wore them out for 3 days straight on it when no one else was doing any good. The videos they sent after they limited were wild. You’ll have the advantage of having a different setup from most everyone else.

You're in Arkansas right?


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[Rick]

That's good news, Eric, congrats.

[Duck Engr]

Sounds like a sweet setup Eric! I’m looking forward to reading your logs this season. Our lease is farther north of you but a couple of lease members got access to a flooded CRP field last January and absolutely wore them out for 3 days straight on it when no one else was doing any good. The videos they sent after they limited were wild. You’ll have the advantage of having a different setup from most everyone else.

You're in Arkansas right?


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Yep. In the delta north of I 40.


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[DComeaux]

Awesome!

[Darren]

Big news, excited to see how it goes for you. Having that camp.......game, changed.

[Deltaman]

Congrats Eric!!!!

[Rick]

Party at Eric's camp!

[Ericdc]

Party at Eric's camp!

Even if it was, I couldn't get you north of I-10, but the invitation still stands.


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[Rick]

Probably true, but thanks.

[Darren]

So you're saying we're all invited for La EZ opener? Need to break in new camp, new blind.

[Ericdc]

Having a camp will make taking guests so much easier.


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[Ericdc]

Brought Tricia to Monroe yesterday to pick up a few things and she graciously approved a quick trip out to the farm. I just wanted to see how the fields looked after a few showers last week. The rice in middle field is a little behind the other rice in area but it looked much better than the desert it was in last weekend. Cristobal's rains will bring much needed moisture to the northeast portion of the state. The big south field was planted in beans, they have started to sprout. Thought this field would be in rice also but they planted beans. That'll ensure that we have plenty of slick water on north side of pit.


Middle field


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[Darren]

Lookin good!

[Ericdc]

Hard to believe, and as long as it's not a flood, this storm providing some much needed rain in northeast Louisiana for the farmers.


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[Ducaholic]

Like the big pits.

[Ericdc]

Nephew Colin that's been borrowing one of my brownings the last several years has been working hard and saved up to buy his first gun.

Winchester SX4




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[Duck Engr]

Sweet! Congrats to the young man on his hard work. I hope he puts it to good use for years to come!

[Rick]

That's a big day.

[5 stand]

Kudos to that young man.

[Ericdc]

Rice looking good in middle field

Beans on north side of south field


Good stand of yellow nutsedge coming in on south side of south blind.


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[Darren]

Lookin good!

[Duck Engr]

Sweet!! Gets me excited just seeing pics.

[Ducaholic]

Lookin good!

Very good. Love the moist soil look and so do the ducks!

[Rick]

Sweet!! Gets me excited just seeing pics.

Shoot, I'm downright jealous - unless it's going to be crawfished...

[Ericdc]

No crawfish up here.


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[Ericdc]

Mowed and sprayed where we didn't want to have to mow again.





Rice looks good, beans might not do great too great compared to rest in area but they were planted later too.


Rice


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