Duck Season 2020-2021

[Ducaholic]

Very good split Darren!

[Darren]

Sat. 12/5/2020
Delacroix lease
Johnny & I w/ Harry
Winds NNE 5-15+ eventually, clear as could be, upper 40's

Tried out north blind on the lease, one I rarely hunt but enjoy the different vantage point on occasion. Wasn't much traffic overall, and disappointed by the lack of grays up and about but did have our chances to get near limits by the end of it. Had 6 on strap when Johnny went get the boat at 9:45a, thankfully I had gun still loaded when 7 or 8 grays showed up over decoys surprising me. Crunched two of them to add to our take and just bummed our staying late effort was 5 minutes not-late-enough for Johnny to also cash in. Buffles got a pass yesterday but not today, thankfully. Only thing getting a pass are the mergs buzzing about.

(8) 4 grays, 2 buffleheads, 2 dosgris

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Harry was real star on this hunt coming up with a gray waaaay further back than we last saw it. Turned out it had swam to back of a pothole then down a tiny trenasse so far I started getting concerned for Harry ignoring my commands to come back, but heard him slogging like he was on to something. Sure enough, lively stud gray was en-mouth. Later though, he put down a lively greenwing hen that promptly dove under on him never to resurface. With light winds in forecast, don't think we're going tomorrow.

[Darren]

Toyed with idea of going today since we're down at the camp, wife even willing to go, but had hard time agreeing to subject her to the lengthy, chilly boat ride with less than ideal hunt conditions. Turns out there's a little north wind this morning down here but haven't heard much shooting since not long after LST, and not regretting staying put.


First Split tally is:

114 ducks on 13 hunts

This is the highest first split total since the very strong 2012 season (133 ducks), and the second highest first split total on my log kept since the 2002 season.

We'll rest up and look forward to the second split opener on Dec 19

[Duck Engr]

Great start Darren! You’ve stayed mobile and on em

[Darren]

In an effort to make end-of-season species tallies easier, went ahead and tallied for 1st split now:


mottled - 1
Grays - 62
GW teal - 20
BW teal - 22
dosgris/scaup - 3
bufflehead - 2
wigeon - 1
woodies - 1
spoons - 2


Though I haven't tallied 1st split species numbers in the past to compare directly, I don't think, a few observations of note:

After being way up last year, mottleds are way down this year. Think it directly correlates to the 100 mph hurricane that plowed through my Delacroix hunting grounds as usually our property holds a good many of them. We killed one on opening weekend but haven't hardly seen one since then.

Grays are way up, already surpassing a lot of other seasons' totals for both splits. Blue wing teal are also up, directly tied to hunts in Bunkie area where green wings hadn't really shown up yet but the blues were thankfully there. No specks killed yet, which is surprising.

[Deltaman]

Lot of quality in those numbers too, congrats

[Ericdc]

I always tally by splits then a season total.


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[Duck Engr]

Lot of quality in those numbers too, congrats

X2!

[Duck Engr]

Lot of quality in those numbers too, congrats

X2!

[Darren]

Saw some birds around the lease and elsewhere yesterday, mostly grays and divers, not much for teal. Heading out in a few mins to give it a shot, decent ENE wind; good luck all!

[Darren]

Sat. 12/19/2020 LA 2nd Split Opener
Delacroix
Johnny, Beau & I w/ Harry
Wind NE to SE (10-15+), 50's, cloudy to clear


Didn't kill our first bird until after 8:00am, looked a lot like a scratch in the making. Just not much flight around us after seeing birds in area yesterday. Some others did some shooting but we really just didn't have traffic. Had one op of nice group of grays that didn't want to finish, they got out. Other than that, most grays didn't give us much of a look so we shot the divers.

(5) 1 gray, 3 buffleheads, 1 dosgris/lesser scaup



Will hunted solo, 2 green wings. Kyle and a buddy, 1 stud gray. Combined 8 ducks from three blinds. Some did some shooting but many struggled. Different wind tomorrow with some weather overnight, will try a different blind.

Ducks or not, we're shucking oysters on the dock, grilling deer sausage, heating up a huge gumbo, frying duck nuggets......we'll be OK. Report from Bunkie farm was good, most did well. Try that later this week hopefully, no one went this weekend.

[Darren]

Sun. 12/20/2020
Delacroix
Johnny & I with Harry
winds North 10-20, light to mod fog, drizzle, heavy clouds, 50's


Water back up so tried hole on the lease but no flights today, grays largely sat. Really was just the divers out and about so we got our share of those.


(6) 1 gray, 4 dosgris, 1 bufflehead


Eyeing weather later this week to try a field hunt.

[Ericdc]

I'm looking at Wednesday, will be on the coast Thursday


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[Darren]

I'm looking at Wednesday, will be on the coast Thursday

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Yea me too and hoping for Thurs as well, both would be in field. Done with the dogs and buffles on (my end) of the coast for now.


Neat fog pic from yesterday, Yscloskey Bridge

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[Darren]

Wed. 12/23/2020
Bunkie area farm
Solo hunt w/ Harry
heavy clouds, 50's, "wind" from the south at zero to maybe 2.5 at best when I packed it up early, big front coming tonight


South winds I'd hoped for didn't pan out despite blowing nicely last night, just dead for first hour or so. Was lucky to get one of a pair of woodies burning by me and that hen led Harry on quite a chase that I had to go help out with after it continued over a levee and into another cut. Could have had some ops in the 10-15 mins I was on that escapade but not much else. Did have a few beat me that I didn't see coming but not much else. Some high flights here and there and no geese till we were packing up the camp to leave.


1 woodie

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Not the biggest haul I've ever made here, but object of the exercise for this trip was a resounding success. Had the whole family up there for first time. Big, muddy time was had collecting hog bones, goose feathers, fire wood, etc. and even introductions to a Red Ryder, something I never had.

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Have plans to run up for a try tomorrow morning behind the big front. Seemed like there were some birds on a southward flight as we were leaving.

[Rick]

Sweet.

[Darren]

Thurs. 12/24/2020
Bunkie area farm
DComeaux, Johnny and I with Harry
Post front, winds NNW 15-30, 40’s and falling, heavy clouds, lot of rain overnight


Lot of new water on the ground from frontal passage storms, rippin wind. Right at LST there was a fairly hot flight on us for 10-15 mins maybe but not being able to see kept us from shooting. Got a spoon from wad of teal and spoons and before we knew it flight died. Killed a single teal in decoys later and even had a marsh dosgris find us. Picked up a little early to get home for Christmas activities. DC and I watched good few wads of birds from the camp window work the decoys, son of a B! Get em next time, Merry Christmas!


(3) 1 spoon, 1 GW teal, 1 dosgris


Pretty bad when you have to show off a lost dosgris

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Little better luck and we get a good handful of birds but too hard to see in the dark against the tree line. Not much shooting overall, talked to one blind that had 10 birds tho and said to have missed easy op on pair of green heads.

[DComeaux]

Thanks again for the hunt. It was really nice to be in a blind this morning.

[Darren]

Thanks again for the hunt. It was really nice to be in a blind this morning.

Really glad you could make it, we'll try em again soon

[Rick]

Pretty bad when you have to show off a lost dosgris

But he's a bruiser.

[Darren]

Monday 12/28/2020
Klondike, La fresh marsh
Johnny, and I w/ Rick and Marsh
50’s, cloudy to eventually clear, wind mostly 0-5 from E/SE


Not much for weather to move birds and sure enough didn’t see much for flight. Save for a pair of mallards we should have gotten at least one of, made the most of what came. Untimely shooting in the area cost us a few others for sure. Nice morning, nice time. Thanks Rick!

(5) 2 mallards, 3 GW teal

Mudhole green heads never get old

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Scheming on where to go next later this week when wind picks up.

[Darren]

Wed. 12/30/2020
Delacroix - north blind
Johnny and I with Harry
Winds east/SE 10-15, mostly clear, 50’s

Hadnt been here since last week so tried on a whim. Green wings in decoys at LST had us hopeful but was still slow overall. Some nice groups of grays came and looked, circled as they often do but wouldn’t commit, likely too many decoys out for this point in season. Did miss our fourth dosgris but got the other three of the group, and missed on a trio of skirting mottleds we should have had our two from but that was really it.

(5) 2 GW teal, 3 dosgris

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Did see a couple nice swarms of green wings while headed in but only scattered grays. Field hunt tomorrow

[Deltaman]

Monday 12/28/2020
Klondike, La fresh marsh
Johnny, and I w/ Rick and Marsh
50’s, cloudy to eventually clear, wind mostly 0-5 from E/SE


Not much for weather to move birds and sure enough didn’t see much for flight. Save for a pair of mallards we should have gotten at least one of, made the most of what came. Untimely shooting in the area cost us a few others for sure. Nice morning, nice time. Thanks Rick!

(5) 2 mallards, 3 GW teal

Mudhole green heads never get old

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Scheming on where to go next later this week when wind picks up.

The ducks may not have cooperated for this year's hunt with Rick, but I bet the stories were animated, and entertaining!!!!
Like your face camo Darren

[Darren]

The ducks may not have cooperated for this year's hunt with Rick, but I bet the stories were animated, and entertaining!!!!
Like your face camo Darren

Great trip as always. Face camo now gone, needed a freshening.

[Darren]

Thurs. 12/31/2020
Bunkie area farm
Johnny, Colin L. and I with Harry
Wind mostly zero to less than 5 from ESE, hvy clouds, upper 60s


Expected decent SE wind didn’t show, mostly stayed calm entire hunt. Did a big decoy shuffle before LST and think maybe we are better in the duck game with more duck decoys in our more open cut. Flights were sporadic but ended up seeing fair many and next blind over from us had them working well, had a nice pile of GW’s back at the truck. Hoping to try again tomorrow behind this weather coming in. Big body of new snows and specks on the ground nearby on way out. Ace shooting and we get maybe 3-4 more birds.

(4) 2 GW teal, 1 BW teal, 1 spoon

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[Darren]

late post earlier in week

Bunkie area farm
Johnny, Colin, & I w/ harry
winds WSW 0-10+, 40's, cloudy to pt cloudy


Not the duck flight we'd hoped for but again may have lost flight to new water following recent rains. Missed on an iffy teal op and also likely boogered some teal ops while I was in pursuit of crip specks with Harry that took us into the next cut north of us. Wigeon were a welcome change from spoons. Saw more goose activity and sure enough got a 7 pack to work really pretty, almost to the range where we were sure to wreck the entire flock but they got sketchy at last minute so had to take what we could. Low, low but edge of rear duck decoys.

2 wigeon, 3 specks



First time shooting at geese for Colin

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[Darren]

Sat. 1/2/2021
Delacroix
Winds NW 5-15, 50's, cloudy
Johnny & I w/ Harry


Hadn't been to our south blind myself since opening day of Coastal Zone and the first few mins had me wondering why not when a pair of green wings lit in decoys at LST and had grays looking shortly thereafter. Unfortunately it was largely a mirage, still not whole lot going on in that area. The grays around are holding to puddles, very few teal, few divers about. Missed a couple of teal that lit on us.

(4) 2 GW teal, 1 bufflehead, 1 gray

[Darren]

Sun. 1/3/2021
Delacroix
Winds NW 5-15, 40's, clear
Philip, Johnny & I w/ Harry


Guerilla style blind in some broken marsh teal had been using. Sure enough right at LST (and just before) it was busy with small groups coming in but didn't last long. After sun was up, flight was mostly shorebirds. Nice hunt with a few pretty birds though. Had one long off crip teal lost.

(7) 6 GW teal, 1 gray

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After hunting 6 of the last 7 days, ready for a break, though unfortunately that will entail going back to work. Will be watching weather for next trip.

[Darren]

Sun. 1/10/2021
Bunkie field
Phillip and dad (observing only), Grayson, Thomas and I w/Harry
Wind 0-10+ N/NE, mostly cloudy with some sun, also had a few flurries, 30’s


Some teal and spoons early working back cut but avoiding decoys, they would light wide on us including a single greenhead. Sporadic flights of pins and spoons thereafter breaking down nice but like pulling teeth to get to the guns. Tried spinners on and off. Huge goose flight in all directions for the morning, maybe the most in total I’ve ever seen there. Mostly blues but some nice groups of specks here and there; had some good looks and swings but couldn’t get to the guns. Maybe too much calling. Didn’t shoot well on the few duck ops we had, and we managed to find the lone hen between two stud sprigs hovering a little high on us.
Overall quite a bit of fowl seen, maybe coming ahead of the snow/rain storm event later this evening.

1 gray, 1 spoon, 1 pintail

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Most of the morning

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[Ericdc]

Tomorrow would be fun.


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