Pre season 2020-2021

[BGkirk]

This coming weekend starts off the 1st of many early sat mornings. Our marsh workday will be this sat, little earlier than I’d like to brush but between this weekend and teal opener is usually a big skeet shoot most of us attend and dove opener so gotta make it happen at some point.

Will update after the weekend work. Shouldn’t be much work as a report from
Another is still the same as mine from weeks ago where only 1 pond will be huntable. Guessing my spraying didn’t do a whole lot with the salvinia


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BGkirk]

Wish I would’ve watched the weather more intently Friday prior to Saturday, even though it probably would not have made a difference but we did get one blind brushed, and did it well as it took 3 boat loads of roseau and willow mixed in. Sucks as it will probably all blow away now. And I debated on bringing water pump to fill pit blind in other pond but didn’t, so that might as well disappear too if it doesn’t fill up first. I’d rather not a storm surge but if that’s what it’s gonna take to get rid of the salvinia then so be it. But I do hope no deaths/injuries come from it. We shall see I suppose.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[BGkirk]

Big pond that cleared up. Willow is ok for teal but tends to turn brown when everything else is green, then if it roots into next year it stays green when everything else turns brown,, but we are starting from scratch so I’m not being picky.


Ran the boats round and round to get what is “huntable.” As you can see salvinia is present in bottom of picture and is more so anywhere else in that pond except where my camera is pointed. Blind is just to my right but does not face the hole we opened up. This will be pallets in the bushes to stand on kind of hunting for teal.
Salvinia does appear to be dying but sure does take awhile to sink


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Rick]

You can probably call the brushing "a practice run," but the pond looks good.

[Darren]

You can probably call the brushing "a practice run," but the pond looks good.

Thinking Rick is all too right, hoping for the best for you over there and indeed I wonder what slight positives could come from a flushing of invasives due to a surge. While I would rather no storms at all on my end, I do know many areas around me that are locked up to salvinia or hyacinth, or both, the latter of which doesn't allow a boat/motor combo of any kind but air-driven through. There have been a fair many make (quiet) wishes for a decent surge to knock it back, flood it up into the woods/bushes to die.

[BGkirk]

Hurricanes. Busted water pipes. And Boone.
We didn’t have any damage, that I’m aware of.. almost every other house in our neighborhood has pine trees through them. Hope everyone else stayed safe.

All too curious if the storm
Surge made it to our marsh. Have a friend that’s a pilot and may take a ride next week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Duck Engr]

Hope all is well at your camp. Looks like Boone has it figured out. It’s been terribly humid these last few days, just adding another layer onto the folks trying to recover from the storm.

Long range forecast shows a front coming Labor Day weekend.

[BGkirk]

Bucket list item got scratched today.
Pilot friend said that he was leaving the airport in 10 minutes, I said I’m in!


Camp still standing. Appears to have some roof damage and door was wide open. The debris is unreal.

Little Chenier road, looks like it is barely just above water line.

I didn’t get to take pics of our marsh but obviously salvinia is gone. I saw 2/3 blinds still there, but I’m sure they were damaged.

Saw several areas with an oil slick or some kind of fuel that spilled.
Shrimp boats and barges 8-10 miles inland.
One huge chemical plant tank north of the ICW.
I finally figured out what the white objects I was seeing, they were gators belly up. And had to have been large for me to see there shape from that high up.
We didn’t see many power poles down, but I still don’t think we can get to our place by vehicle before teal season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DComeaux]

Bucket list item got scratched today.
Pilot friend said that he was leaving the airport in 10 minutes, I said I’m in!


Camp still standing. Appears to have some roof damage and door was wide open. The debris is unreal.

Little Chenier road, looks like it is barely just above water line.

I didn’t get to take pics of our marsh but obviously salvinia is gone. I saw 2/3 blinds still there, but I’m sure they were damaged.

Saw several areas with an oil slick or some kind of fuel that spilled.
Shrimp boats and barges 8-10 miles inland.
One huge chemical plant tank north of the ICW.
I finally figured out what the white objects I was seeing, they were gators belly up. And had to have been large for me to see there shape from that high up.
We didn’t see many power poles down, but I still don’t think we can get to our place by vehicle before teal season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That Cirrus is an awesome plane. She's fast. Is that a 22T?
Glad to see your camp still standing. Would love to low fly the area around our camp and duck lease.

[BGkirk]

Bucket list item got scratched today.
Pilot friend said that he was leaving the airport in 10 minutes, I said I’m in!


Camp still standing. Appears to have some roof damage and door was wide open. The debris is unreal.

Little Chenier road, looks like it is barely just above water line.

I didn’t get to take pics of our marsh but obviously salvinia is gone. I saw 2/3 blinds still there, but I’m sure they were damaged.

Saw several areas with an oil slick or some kind of fuel that spilled.
Shrimp boats and barges 8-10 miles inland.
One huge chemical plant tank north of the ICW.
I finally figured out what the white objects I was seeing, they were gators belly up. And had to have been large for me to see there shape from that high up.
We didn’t see many power poles down, but I still don’t think we can get to our place by vehicle before teal season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That Cirrus is an awesome plane. She's fast. Is that a 22T?
Glad to see your camp still standing. Would love to low fly the area around our camp and duck lease.

I want to say yes but I’m honestly not sure.
It was nice. He usually flies a small Cessna with the windows open so this was a treat. This guy would most likely take you, his daily rate wasn’t too bad at all. We were in the air an hour and 20 minutes total. Went from deridder straight over gibbstown and followed little Chenier road down to camp then went south to the coast and made a loop around Cameron, then a couple passed around downtown lake Charles then back home. I got a little woozy the 3rd pass around the camp.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Duck Engr]

Sweet ride BG!

Glad y’all still have a structure standing. Pretty wild about how the gators fared, or didn’t. Can’t imagine it was a fun ride for any critter.

[Darren]

Wow heckuva ride, though terrible to see what you found. Will need heavy machinery to move all the marsh in places it shouldn't be but glad you have a structure to work with.

[BGkirk]

Wow heckuva ride, though terrible to see what you found. Will need heavy machinery to move all the marsh in places it shouldn't be but glad you have a structure to work with.

Camp owner says FEMA came in and cleaned up the whole road and yards when Rita did this last time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BGkirk]

Cut and burned millet

Excuse the excessive number of hulls. I’m gonna blame not having my gun and using FILs benelli which I had a hard time finding the safety for.
Anyone else think doves would act goofy when cloudy similar to ducks ? I had no problem where I was setup but others were complaining how high the birds were flying compared to last year. I blame the mojos, several guys were using them. But I also saw birds dive bomb on them too.
Dog had an easy morning as I waited patiently for “pot shots.” (After missing several that were probably out of range but I felt I could hit.....wrong)
People were right about dogs being mouthy with doves. Boone didn’t eat any but he sure knew it wasn’t a duck. Especially on the first one as he blew by it and I had to make him fetch. After that no issues


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Darren]

Nice hunt, great way to kick things off

[Duck Engr]

Sweet nice start. That pile of hulls is a good day for me unless you’re hiding more off camera. Though I was 1 for 1 today while “scouting” for tomorrow morning’s hunt. I’m sure that means I won’t miss tomorrow...

[BGkirk]

Day 2. Field owner watched them yesterday afternoon and said it was a much better flight versus the morning so we hunted the afternoon yesterday. Got out there around 3 but didn’t really start rocking til 430. Then the later it got the better.
Had a bonus Eurasian collared dove today.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Duck Engr]

Looks like a good time! We had the same experience. Saturday afternoon was better than Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon was also better than Sunday morning. Birds were just passing by and loafing in the morning.

[BGkirk]

Made 2 trips to the marsh today. One by air and other by truck. Had to look at some damaged timber again by air and decided to go further south. This time in a slower plane which was nice, got to take some nice videos. Had I known another member was going to try and take a boat down there I would’ve skipped the flight to the marsh.
The road is clear, but the devastation is unreal. The road looks like a canal with debris (mostly mud and grass) piled up 6-8’ high on both sides of the road.
There was a brand new Jeep on top of one the piles pushed off the road, or maybe it was like that already ? Idk. Probably the strangest thing I’ve seen yet.
Having trouble uploading pics in the evenings .
Camp suffered one broken window and a couple missing shingles from what I can tell so far.
Amazingly all blinds are good for the most part. Missing board here and there. The one pit blind stayed, thank goodness.
No teal to be seen but not surprising as we never see any prior to opener.
Marsh is full of water, land has shifted and new places opened up. No invasives to speak of, kinda looking forward to next year already in hopes of a full growing season for the SAVs without salvinia (I hope). Water was pure salty and we are 10 miles ish inland.
Inherited a ton of trash, mostly bad, but some good including a pirogue (Dave are you missing one) and a canoe.
Have no time to brush blinds again before Saturday but have picked out some places to park the boat in and shoot from or make a quick pallet blind.
Saw plenty of teal on both sides of 27 in the “sweetlake curve” between chessons and holmwood. That was exciting.

I can’t imagine going home to a place like I saw today. How people rebuild and continue to live there is beyond me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BGkirk]

2-3’ tall debris


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BGkirk]

Oh and just East Of the camp in what has always been a deep hole, we saw what I assumed to be a large gator making a splash that resembled a outboard thrust taking off but supposedly another friend of the camp owner was down there recently and videoed a dolphin????
I have my doubts but the tail end of the video you can see a fin.
I’m banking on large gar or redfish.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DComeaux]

Pirogue is here in the boat under cover, but thanks for thinking of me.

[BGkirk]

Member made it down to the marsh today. Water is about 1’ high. Blinds are there, brush will be scarce, may have to do some importing. I planned to bring a youth but not feeling too optimistic about it being a decent shoot with all the water on the landscape


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BGkirk]

Made a trip this morning to see myself if Delta made things worse and see if could get started on some projects. Blinds look the same and as expected and are pretty much bare. Did find a good Roseau patch we can cut from and will need lots of it. Curfew still in effect, and the camp isn’t ready yet nor has electricity which if we can’t get down there before 7pm the evening before we cannot get through til 6am. Hate having to rush and found out from teal season that it can be a little dangerous. After only seeing 1-2 camps being actively repaired, I can’t foresee too much hunting going on in our area.
Saw a pair and a group of 3 on the way out and while working on a blind saw 2 good groups of grays low and bouncing around. Even better I got buzzed by a dozen shovelers that came within shooting range. All came from the south. And this was after 10am, didn’t get out there til about 930.
Was planning to youth hunt but not sure we can get ready before then


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rick]

Just going by what I've heard from my ex-Creole/Camron grandson, I doubt you'll be alone in the area.

[BGkirk]

Had our official workday last sat. Decided not to bring youth because absolutely nothing was ready to hunt, plus the unknown of the Cameron parish curfew; which we were not held up and came through at 530am. Curfew sign still says 6am-7pm but maybe they’ve stopped enforcing. Will call the sheriff and make sure they won’t be enforcing this sat morning with anticipated heavier traffic.

We were able to get most of the work done. Some are working on things this week. Did see about 100-150 ducks coming from the north shortly after LST. Then we started working so may have not seen all there was to see.
Cousins mentioned a strong flight of pintails for 30 minutes today coming from the north and I quote “atleast 1000.”
Miami to our north appears to not have many hunters preparing blinds. I’m thinking it could go both ways as far as help or hurt our situation.
Will see, either way as always. I’ll be waiting on them sat morning


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lreynolds]

Talked to Parish officials today who said the curfew will be lifted tomorrow.

I didn't know it wasn't being enforced, or worse yet, selectively enforced, and I was getting a few calls as well as being concerned for myself.

[BGkirk]

Talked to Parish officials today who said the curfew will be lifted tomorrow.

I didn't know it wasn't being enforced, or worse yet, selectively enforced, and I was getting a few calls as well as being concerned for myself.

Thanks for the confirmation. Shortly after I posted, KPLC posted saying it will be lifted tomorrow


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk