WaterfowlForum.Net

Right up front (where it's easy for me to copy), here is the template I will be using:

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:

Date: 9/11 (Still tough even to type it.) Sat.

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly moderate

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: waxing cresent

Special Notes: September teal opener

Waterfowl Activity: A rubber stamp of most teal openers: waited just long enough to start wondering before seeing teal, watched most fly high and fast early before settling down and starting to drop over the marsh, and the flight seemed strongest after we finished.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had to really, really get on them to break anything early on, then became pretty easy.

Hunters: 3, Spencer and his two sons Sutton and Grayson

Guns:

Malfunctions: Modified Mallard Machine (MMM) was in-op: later found a submerged wire splice shorted.

Dog(s): Marsh finally broke on one of the crips swimming by his stand, got stuck in the black dirt I'd not ground out in front of his stand and was "sternly" reprimanded in language I'd like to think the college-aged boys weren't hearing for the first time. Didn't do it again.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners and MMM, hereafter referred to as "SOS"

Curses: Just that what had been a sound wire splice crapped out. Not that the MMM was needed, just that I'd repeatedly catch myself trying to splash a dead trolling motor foot.

Kudos: Nice hunt for nice guys, and great to be back in the marsh working birds again.

Birds By Species: 24 blue-winged teal (Didn't note sex ratio.)

Photo Ops: Sutton, Spencer and Grayson with their birds:


The bug's first retrieve of the new season was a flotant triple:


And an odd merger between a lily and a hull the magnate missed:


Lagniappe: Sutton shared photos of a shotgun he'd made from scratch with makeshift tools, aside from its manufactured 3/4" gas pipe barrel and hammer spring, as well as some of a deer, hog and wood ducks he's shot with it. Young man's going a lot farther in life than I have.

[quote="Rick"]Right up front (where it's easy for me to copy), here is the template I will be using:

Date: 9/11

Time: afternoon

Location: Welsh farm

Cloud Cover: clear?

Wind Direction and Velocity: variable

Temperature: thankful for a breeze

Moon phase:

Special Notes: first year we've had this highly questionable piece

Waterfowl Activity: Zip other than a few woodies from our 4:30 arrival until 6:30, then far fewer birds moving, high or low, than we needed before quitting time.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully excellent.

Hunters: 6 1/2, annual regulars Mike, John, Glenn, Ryan, Lance w/young son, Sammie and new guy, Blake

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Lost two chipped birds in the rice.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners: large and small

Curses: No birds to speak of even seen.

Kudos: Guys who normally shoot like Sammie and his Red Rider trying to hit my spinners actually hit more than a bird or two per op and only whiffed on two chances.

Birds By Species: 10 blue-winged teal (6 drakes and 4 hens)

6 1/2?! That a record for hunter numbers for you Rick?

Also neat to realize you use a trolling motor foot pedal for the MM. You may not be making a from-scratch shotgun, but that’s some ingenuity right there.

Naw, took up to a dozen in my white spread days.

And nothing nearly so fancy as a foot pedal, the Mallard Machine is a trolling motor foot suspended by decoys. Stock switch doesn't last long, so I'm just tapping wire ends together to make it go.

Date: 9/12 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly moderate

Temperature: cool again

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw appreciably fewer than yesterday, but plenty for our purpose.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Same as yesterday for the teal, plus had both a woodie and group of three mottleds swimming in the spread early on. Spinners did all the big duck calling necessary, but getting on the teal hard was again the early ticket. Even had WJ joining in.

Hunters: 2: turned out to be my stepson, Warren John, and his boss, Darren, who hadn't shot a duck "in years".

Guns: WJ was shooting a ported Mossberg. Grrr...

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning.

Special Equipment: SOS and everything worked

Curses: Only not having good photography light for a shot of mottleds under a running spinner.

Kudos: Pretty morning with enough birds for Darren to get dialed in.

Birds By Species: 18 bwt, but didn't remember to check ratio

Photo Ops:Stopped at the pond that's been our post hunt "dog wash" for 30-some years, and this big boy came to check us out:


So that will be enough of that, unless I see him at a safe distance first.

Rick wrote:Naw, took up to a dozen in my white spread days.

And nothing nearly so fancy as a foot pedal, the Mallard Machine is a trolling motor foot suspended by decoys. Stock switch doesn't last long, so I'm just tapping wire ends together to make it go.

Soon as I posted that I figured you’d had many more in the goose days.

Could be a million dollar idea, or not. I know I always get tired of the jerk cord, call, reaching for my shotgun tango I always end up doing. Of course my feet are usually in water; so the get up would need to be an underwater contraption.

Rick wrote:Date: 9/12 Sun



Photo Ops:Stopped at the pond that's been our post hunt "dog wash" for 30-some years, and this big boy came to check us out:

007a.jpg

So that will be enough of that, unless I see him at a safe distance first.

We missed Ellie something awful this weekend and we're reminded of how much of a help she really is out there every time I/we have to leave the blind for a bird roundup. We haven't see any gators out there this year, and have only seen one small gator at our boat landing a few years ago, but I'm still a bit hesitant about taking her to the blind. I'd be a nervous wreck while she's in the water this time of year.

Date: 9/12

Time: afternoon

Location: Welsh farm

Cloud Cover: partly to heavy to hard rain to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: shifting

Temperature: cool

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Weather made all the difference, as the flight started with the rain and continued.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Broke some "way too high" birds with the help of tealized "contest hails".

Hunters: 6, same as yesterday afternoon's

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Ryan brought the first silver Lab I've hunted over, and while Ryan wanted him out there to watch. he managed a few retrieves.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners large and small

Curses: none from me

Kudos: Tickled to get the guys into birds after yesterday's slow one.

Birds By Species: 36 blue-wing teal

Great Start Rick

Mr. Consistent!!!!! Glad you had some birds Rick, and what a sweet retrieve on Marsh's part, with his 3'fer!!!!!

Deltaman wrote:... and what a sweet retrieve on Marsh's part, with his 3'fer!!!!!

He's just lazy.

Date: 9/13 Mon

Time: Morning

Location: Mudhole

Cloud Cover: cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE moderate

Temperature: cool

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Could definitely tell the weekenders weren't out.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Still having good luck tolling tall and wide birds by calling like most know one shouldn't.

Hunters: 1, annual big season regular, Bruce

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning with just a couple on the flotant - something he badly needed after yesterday afternoon's bird chipping crew.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Only that Bruce is convinced he can't hit teal and gets in his own head and way about it, instead of just letting the mental computer do its job.

Kudos: He made a nice double with his first two shots before tangling himself up in trying. And we had enough birds to eventually finish.

Birds By Species: 12 blue-winged teal

Starting with a bang! Love to see it.

Date: 9/13 Mon

Time: afternoon

Location: Welsh farm

Cloud Cover: intermittent light rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly light to moderate

Temperature: comfortable

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Still plenty of woodies wanting to be on the place and teal flights more similar to yesterday afternoon's strong one than Sat's near nil one.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Still mostly doing as bid aggressively enough to be heard.

Hunters: 4, Mike, John, Glen and a different Ryan

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Seemed just as many far chips for the Bug to work as when the rest of the crew was there. (So maybe we learned who's at least been hitting a few.)

Special Equipment: 2 spinners, teal and standard

Curses: just how hard the bug got worked.

Kudos: Big time was had by all but he.

Birds By Species: 24 blue-winged teal

Date: 9/14 Tue

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: tropical storm coming in so variable degrees of rain all morning

Wind Direction and Velocity: SSE varying from moderate to strong and back

Temperature: chilly when wet

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Didn't see much of anything early on but got a little better later.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Typical rain day crazy birds, with more I couldn't break than could.

Hunters: 1, Bruce

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning aside from one flotant bird he finally snagged close enough to gator water that I was reaching for the whistle.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Bruce's shooting struggles continued, and he's still in his head over it. Also the boat worries so much rain creates for a camp still without a boathouse. Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

Kudos: Had enough cooperative birds to fill before curfew.

Birds By Species: 12 blue-winged teal (9 drakes and 3 hens)

Y'all definitely need a boat slip cover.

DComeaux wrote:Y'all definitely need a boat slip cover.

I've put both manual and automatic bilge pumps in mine but was still sweat soaked by bailing another with no pump that no one was taking before leaving the dock. Moved the one I bailed and another without any pump onto the cut grass, where they couldn't sink, before leaving after hunt.

Rick wrote:

DComeaux wrote:Y'all definitely need a boat slip cover.

I've put both manual and automatic bilge pumps in mine but was still sweat soaked by bailing another with no pump that no one was taking before leaving the dock. Moved the one I bailed and another without any pump onto the cut grass, where they couldn't sink, before leaving after hunt.

I was going to ask you about an auto bilge earlier but figured you may have one. We took our boat out because of the rain. We're to far away to deal with that.

I'm trusting the auto pump to continue working, but probably should have pulled mine into the cut grass, as well, just in case...

Date: 9/15 Wed

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: westerly...grrr...

Temperature: comfortable

Moon phase: 63% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Slow starting but enough for our purposes.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Not good at all initially but better later.

Hunters: 1, Bruce's last morning

Guns:

Malfunctions: MMM on the fritz again. Fixed(?) after hunt: same bad splice, tried different connectors.

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: None from me, now that my splasher's back.

Kudos: Bruce had his best morning of shooting.

Birds By Species: 12 blue-winged teal (8 drakes and 4 hens)

Date: 9/15

Time: afternoon

Location: Welsh farm

Cloud Cover: intermittent spity rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly moderate

Temperature: cool

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: not at all what was expected, and most of what was seen was passing way west of us

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Worked but six bunches and a single.

Hunters: 2, Bud and Will, the later of which hunted with me in 1995

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy afternoon

Special Equipment: 2 spinners large and small

Curses: The hit but one bird out of each bunch until taking two from the last. Single is still flying.

Kudos: Nice guys who at least did a bit better than they had in the morning.

Birds By Species: 7 blue-wing teal

Date: 9/16 Thur

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy w/a bit of occasional drizzle

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly moderate

Temperature: cool

Moon phase:

Special Notes: Most mosquitoes ever at the boat docks. (Can't call it a "boat house" any more.)

Waterfowl Activity: Slow enough to be worrisome early on, especially given the change seen yesterday afternoon. But enough for our purposes moved later.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Same as it's been: poor early, great later.

Hunters: 2, annual regular father and grown son, Harold and Mark

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning with few on the flotant

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: none from me

Kudos: nice hunt for nice people

Birds By Species: 18 blue-winged teal

Glad to see the birds holding up for you Rick!

Date: 9/17 Fri

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: variable light

Temperature: Was dripping sweat from just climbing in and out of boat to chase crips

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Spooky slow aside from mile high flights later in the morning.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Said high traffic saved our bacon by dropping for screaming hails.

Hunters: 3,young guys whose names I didn't catch.

Guns:

Malfunctions: MMM crapped out again.

Dog(s): Wore him out chasing crips around the flotant.

Special Equipment: Did without MMM

Curses: Blinds other than Isaac's and mine suffered from the lack of game.

Kudos: Gave the guys tons of crap about being a crippling crew, but they took it well and had a big time.

Birds By Species: 24 blue-winged teal (20 drakes and 4 hens)

Where's your camera?

DComeaux wrote:Where's your camera?

Sitting here next to the computer. Been kinda wet out until today, but today's crippling crew is supposed to send Adrienne the tailgate shot I took on one of their phones for FB page. Best I can do...

That reads like you’ll be thankful for weekend traffic.

Duck Engr wrote:That reads like you’ll be thankful for weekend traffic.

Wasn't as hoped/expected but better. Only party we sent to the rice only shot one, which is scary. As is that Ed (who no longer guides for us was a guest of a Lacasane Co. member/lessee there a couple mornings ago, and they only shot 2 on what should be some of the best remaining ag land. Their guide said it was their first bad morning, so could be birds are moving on - or just really, really scattered by all the new sheet water.

Date: 9/18 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear, gloriously clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: zip, none, nadda that I, or the mosquitoes, noticed

Temperature: warmest morning to date

Moon phase: close to full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Much slower than expected with weekenders out.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully still good, though a few plainly bumped off spinners - and some were brought back around by killing the spinners and aggressive calling.

Hunters: 2, Long time regulars, Jim, and grown son, David

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Broke again on close chipped bird and got chewed for it.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Only the bug's indiscretion.

Kudos: Distinctly recall being surprised and frustrated with Jim and David's poor shooting last big duck season, but they were both aces this morning. Did more with less than most, if not all, of this year's guns to date.

Birds By Species: 18 blue-winged teal (10 drakes and 8 hens)

Photo Ops: Jim and David: