Duck season 2020-2021

by **BGkirk** » Sat Nov 14, 2020 1:16 pm

Nov 14th coastal opener
Hunted til 9, should’ve stayed another 15 min (as I usually do since others bump ducks when leaving)
Me and another member. The other 2 decided late last night to go hunt an empty blind and I was unaware, or I may have filled the empty seats.
11 ducks - 5 grays, 4 gwt, 1 bwt, 1 redhead. All the action was before 745.
And steady it was, even high birds which was a joy to see. I think we saw more high traffic today than all of last year. Grays and pins. Pulled a pair down from
Way up but couldn’t finish.
Others did just fine. Partner shot his 6, and I should have.
Boone had a good morning.

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by **Darren** » Sat Nov 14, 2020 2:42 pm

Saw more high traffic myself than usual, hoping bodes well for hunts to come.

by **DComeaux** » Sat Nov 14, 2020 5:49 pm

Awesome! Glad y'all had the birds.

by **BGkirk** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:18 am

Nov 17- Kev and I again in #2 blind.
Started out kinda iffy, but what was around seemed to give us a shot.
Had a good bunch of mixed spoons and pins drop right in, slight miscommunication but were able to get 2.
Did better on the next big bunch of gwt and dropped 7, one got away.
Rest were singles and pairs. First time I’ve hunted with the flock-a-flickers. Can’t say they helped but didn’t hurt us.
Got caught in the boat chasing a swimmer and grays were over the decoys. Grrrrr.
Shot my last one @8.
12 ducks- 2 pins, 6gwt, 1 bwt, 1 ringneck, 1 spoon, 1 gray

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by **Deltaman** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:44 am

Nice hunts, and glad you have some birds!!!

by **Duck Engr** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 12:37 pm

Sweet! Glad y’all have some to play with. Good day, especially for a week day.

by **Darren** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 1:13 pm

That'll work, nice hunt

by **BGkirk** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 3:34 pm

https://youtu.be/EFbNzGN9O_0

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by **BGkirk** » Sat Nov 21, 2020 1:46 pm

Nov 21
Tate F. & myself. 2nd buddy dropped out this morning.
Nice northeasterly breeze that I was expecting to be mostly east.
First volley was atleast 50 gwt hovering. What a pretty sight and should make anyone giddy.
Steady teal til we finished up just before 8 with more teal and had one gray duck op where they bumped on approach but were able to get 2. Boone was a tad hard headed with hand signals for some reason, but did get all 12.
Fun morning , I wasn’t expecting a good shoot with the forecasted east wind but I think Saturday hunters and east zone opening saved us

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by **Rick** » Sat Nov 21, 2020 2:00 pm

Fun shoot, that. (We got to see one little bunch of green-wings.)

by **Deltaman** » Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:21 am

Great Hunt!!!!

by **BGkirk** » Tue Nov 24, 2020 7:44 pm

11-24-20 tues
East wind 5-10 +
Cousins David, his gf Josie (bell city native), and Jared
Sun came out after 8. Was real dark until then.
Had 4 ops for the morning.
One group of teal they stayed to one side of blind and 3 were killed.
Another group of teal that did just right and killed 6.
Single teal buzzing by.
Then 2 mergansers did a fly by and we saw the white flash a little too late.
6 gwt, 4 bwt. 2 mergs.
Only got 1 group of big ducks to lock up and look but ended up leaving.
They are really sticking to the same pattern every day it seems and never check up ( big ducks).
There was quite the flurry between the 2 early teal ops and big ducks high. Was over by 7.
Did miss out on buzzing teal when we were all squatted and working the one group of big ducks.
Easy morning for Boone.
Josie said she felt bad as Boone had to pick up 5 in a row. I laughed and said he wants to hunt more than we do

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by **BGkirk** » Wed Nov 25, 2020 1:40 pm

11-25-20 Wed
Left @930 #3 blind
Cousin Jared and friend Konner
First few minutes awfully quiet and silence was broken with a pair of mallards that drifted right over.
Wind increased out of the south throughout morning.
Shot 3 pintails (1 presumably young drake that wasn’t plumed out, the other full color and one hen) that did same as mallards ( we face south so they come over our backs and I call the shot just before they get directly on top of us).
Was hoping the squall line would bring ducks during and after but not the case.
2 mallards, 3 pins, 3 spoons, 1 bwt.
Lost 2 others. 1 of which was dead on the water and I was gonna get on the way out. It vanished.
Got to see quite the pintail show 500-750 making their routine flight headed to Rockefeller I assume.
May go back Friday, but may just hold out til sat with more people hunting

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by **BGkirk** » Wed Nov 25, 2020 1:51 pm

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by **Darren** » Wed Nov 25, 2020 2:16 pm

Wicked looking front line! Its just getting here in Mandeville right now

by **BGkirk** » Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:08 pm

11-28 sat
Left @930
Bun**** lake with the cousins
Couldn’t convince them to ride with me to
Marsh again so I joined them. Sure is nice to be 20 min from a blind.
Nice North wind all morning, temp seemed to be dropping.
Did see some ducks come from the north dropping in on the lake but they stuck to the south end of lake (seems the place to be on flight days, or any day in my opinion with big water spreads versus being closer to the swamp/wood line).
1 gray 1 woody.
Blind sits on a big flat that’s 18-24” of water, combined with hard bottom makes me jealous for many reasons. Decoy pick up/blind brushing/dog work.

Boone preferred to be out on the perch versus in the box.

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by **Rick** » Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:10 pm

South end of a north bound dog.

by **Darren** » Sat Nov 28, 2020 1:13 pm

Aside from the hind end of the hound, looks like cool set up!

by **BGkirk** » Mon Nov 30, 2020 5:36 pm

11-30 Mon
#2 blind
Cousin Jared, Andrew and Grant (grew up playing baseball with him and was good to catch up). He’s a hardcore sabine hunter who was ecstatic to show up to a launch @5, step into a blind out of the water and have a dog.
NW @15+
Got there early for the expected decoy roundup. Gotta do something different with the weights. Hurricane opened ponds up more and are seeing more wave action, and our decoy weights aren’t handling it well. Prolly picked up 5 dozen drifting ones and brought them closer.
From 2-10 min before LST I saw several
Big wads of gwt cruising the marsh so I was expecting a barn burner.
Big blue clear skies with very little ducks at all High was the reality.
Friends shot well on the 3 ops we had.
Boone had a tough time with the waves, especially after ignoring a few hand signals causing his 20 yard retrieves to be 70+. Saw several waves cap over his head.

4 spoons, 2 bwt, 1 gray.

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by **Rick** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:39 am

BGkirk wrote:Boone had a tough time with the waves, especially after ignoring a few hand signals causing his 20 yard retrieves to be 70+. Saw several waves cap over his head.

I need to read that aloud to a dog who was looking mighty put-upon to have to sit out our long wait in the wind yesterday. Always someone who has it worse.

by **Darren** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 8:30 am

From 2-10 min before LST I saw several
Big wads of gwt cruising the marsh so I was expecting a barn burner.
Big blue clear skies with very little ducks at all High was the reality.

Sounds a lot like my observations from yesterday's field hunt. Had birds burning by the blind through the decoys before LST in the moonlight. Then the clear sky let them fly as high as they wanted en route to all the new sheet water. Hoping tomorrow's rains dont do much because it looks dry for a while thereafter.

by **BGkirk** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 1:40 pm

1-16-21
NW corner pothole bush whack
Left @930
10 bwt

Had 7 before 7. Other guys had a jam up bush whacking spot thurs and mentioned some ducks getting up from the area we hunted this morning, but I had not scouted any and went in blind. Most of the area is covered in debris still except I could spot a small opening and pirogued to it. Several landing before LST so I figured we would be ok.
Nice and easy hunt. Probably my last for the year.

Kudos: We had one crippled that was doing the death spin on the water then seemed to regain its direction and start swimming off, shot it when it got to edge of water and waited til better light to send Boone. He couldn’t find it so we walked to it later with no luck and as we were headed back Boone found it from somewhere, not sure where it came from.
I saw a few other ducks that included 4 pintails, 4 unknown big ducks at daylight, 2 mottled ducks. Other than the buzzing blue wings that was all. Ready to sleep in next sat

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by **BGkirk** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 1:40 pm

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by **BGkirk** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 1:41 pm

Oh and 7 of 10 were water swatted. Video to come soon

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by **BGkirk** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 1:57 pm

https://youtu.be/NcSa6rHR9M0

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by **Duck Engr** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 4:04 pm

Nice! Was it you or Marsh Bear who stayed in the blue wings so long a year or two ago?

by **Rick** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 4:51 pm

Banded birds with a Little Chenierite the other evening and learned others there have been enjoying stronger hunts than our area, thanks to the blue-wings. Glad you got into them, too.

by **BGkirk** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 5:41 pm

Duck Engr wrote:Nice! Was it you or Marsh Bear who stayed in the blue wings so long a year or two ago?

That was me. Last year was much better.
We started seeing them congregate just after thanksgiving but no one was willing to get out of the blinds to get them until last week or so.

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by **BGkirk** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 5:42 pm

Rick wrote:Banded birds with a Little Chenierite the other evening and learned others there have been enjoying stronger hunts than our area, thanks to the blue-wings. Glad you got into them, too.

I’d have to look to make sure, but I’m fairly certain blue wings have led the tally for the club several years running

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by **BGkirk** » Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:26 pm

https://www.vanishingparadise.org/blog/ ... DeTkQG5sMs

Cool success story. Find it pretty amazing a willow forest can start up right on the coast

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