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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: 11/20/21

Time: earlier than I’d like to admit. We were the first 5 boats in line.

Location: river channel

Cloud Cover: clear for the most part

Wind Direction and Velocity: started light and variable. Picked up to a light SSE

Temperature: 30

Moon phase: boat drivin bright

Special Notes: super low water. Boat ride was hell. Sand bars, stumps, logs, you name it. More props mangled than not. I had 3 guys total in my boat. All the go devil wanted.

Waterfowl Activity: pretty good flight. Not abundant workable birds, but enough to entertain. Slowed after 930.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: good for the most part

Hunters: combined three friend groups for a total of ten. All good guys that really enjoyed each other’s company.

Guns: a lot of them

Malfunctions: breaking dogs. One in particular was making some fair catches and breaking when some landed while we had more working.

Dog(s): 4. Our two, Legh and Trace, behaved nicely.

Special Equipment: jerk cord.

Curses: none from me save the early dogs. Legh only retrieved 3 birds because she was well behaved and stayed until sent.

Kudos: super nice guys to hunt with. Made some nice connections for future hunts

Birds By Species: 34 total. 17 mallards. 16 teal. 1 gadwall.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: had one group of 15 teal make a mistake when 7 or 8 of us were all paying attention. Gave us a warning buzz then got their toes wet strung out perfectly in front of everyone. All 15 stayed. Wish I had a video of that. Buddy on the end said he kept waiting for one to try to fly out. None made it that far.

That is awesome.

"...super low water. Boat ride was hell. Sand bars, stumps, logs, you name it. More props mangled than not." made me think, "Now we duck hunting."

Way too many guys for my anti-social self, but reads like it worked out mighty well.

Rick wrote:"...super low water. Boat ride was hell. Sand bars, stumps, logs, you name it. More props mangled than not." made me think, "Now we duck hunting."

Haha yep you got it. Was 7 miles of it each way. I was ready to say uncle by the time we got to where we were going.

Reads like the effort was worth it, Nice Hunt

And I thought my 2019 "party" hunt of 6 guys in the marsh was something.......

and that group of 15 teal, geez

Sounds like a great time!

Darren wrote:And I thought my 2019 "party" hunt of 6 guys in the marsh was something.......

and that group of 15 teal, geez

Sounds like a great time!

For low water openers you either find a group of folks you know to hunt with or end up hunting with whomever walks up after you’re there. We chose the former. Folks tend to move on when you respond to the question of “how many you got” with ten. Helped to have several good callers in the group.

Sounds like a blast


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Date: 11/21/21

Time: morning

Location: same as previous day

Cloud Cover: heavy, spitting rain at times

Wind Direction and Velocity: light to moderate from the south.

Temperature: t shirt mid 50s

Moon phase: full but behind clouds

Special Notes: most guys slept in or went elsewhere. I should’ve slept in

Waterfowl Activity: waves of high mallards from north headed south. Wearing ear muffs evidently.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: couldn’t break anything high. Most of what broke came.

Hunters: 4

Guns:

Malfunctions: after opening morning, I decided no more 7 mile boat rides with 3 guys and gear. Had a buddy show up the night before and he was going to follow us in a borrowed excel boat with gtr. He’s an outboard guy. 2 miles into our trek I finally had him park his borrowed boat and get in mine. It was apparent we weren’t going to get to the hole before shooting light with how long he was taking. I told him nothing personal, we just gotta get it done. He was good about it and didn’t pout. So I suffered for 5 miles down but he rode back with our hole runner. He then broke said borrowed boat trailer as he pulled up from the ramp. Tough trip for him.

Dog(s): 2 Legh and Trace

Special Equipment: jerk chord

Curses: deaf ducks. Saw plenty.

Kudos: didn’t get rained on hard. Bottom fell out as I stepped inside the camp.

Birds By Species: 2 mallards. 1 woodrow.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

Date: 11/22/21

Time: morning. Later than previous 2 days

Location: private blind on the river. “The country club” as we’ve dubbed it.

Cloud Cover: clear, beautiful.

Wind Direction and Velocity: light from northeast.

Temperature: cool. Upper 30s.

Moon phase: big again

Special Notes: had a spot on public picked out but a few lease members left last minute the night before so we got to fall in their slots.

Waterfowl Activity: decent flight till 9. Slowed substantially after.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: good from ducks coming from north. Bad from ducks coming from south.

Hunters: 6

Guns:

Malfunctions: none

Dog(s): rotated a few in and out.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners

Curses: zero from me when I get to go country clubbin

Kudos: fun morning with friends I hadn’t hunted with in a season or two.

Birds By Species: 16 mallards. Had we been shooting “cows” as my buddy calls them, probably could’ve filled mallard limits. 4 wood ducks. 1 teal.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: nice way to end the trip. Buddy cooked a nice breakfast in the blind. Left with full bellies and satisfied trigger fingers.

Sure reads like a fine trip to me.

Addendum to the 11/21/21 log. Forgot to mention when we returned to the boat ramp we witnessed a Chessie attempt to remove a girl’s face. Friend of a friend of ours had brought his girlfriend (they hunted a different spot) who, being the social butterfly that she is, was chatting with several folks around the ramp. She went up to an older gentleman and asked if it was ok to pet his dog. He said certainly, plays with my grandkids all the time. Evidently the chessie didn’t like her personality or something. Growled, put his paws on her shoulders, and snapped at her face in a split second. Thankfully she’s quicker than most and was able to dodge the bite by an inch or two. Could’ve been ugly.

Sounds like an enjoyable hunt, and the birds cooperated. Country Clubbin' sure beats Public Clubbin' all day long!!!

Duck Engr wrote:Addendum to the 11/21/21 log. Forgot to mention when we returned to the boat ramp we witnessed a Chessie attempt to remove a girl’s face. Friend of a friend of ours had brought his girlfriend (they hunted a different spot) who, being the social butterfly that she is, was chatting with several folks around the ramp. She went up to an older gentleman and asked if it was ok to pet his dog. He said certainly, plays with my grandkids all the time. Evidently the chessie didn’t like her personality or something. Growled, put his paws on her shoulders, and snapped at her face in a split second. Thankfully she’s quicker than most and was able to dodge the bite by an inch or two. Could’ve been ugly.

Yikes! Rick's chessie's have been the only ones I've been around and they are as friendly as could be. Could have just been something about her or a smell or something that got his attention.

........but I do have two scars in my bicep I'll wear for life from a chocolate lab.

Date: 12/20/21

Time: morning

Location: local river

Cloud Cover: heavy with misty fog on hilltops early and settling to river bottom as daylight broke

Wind Direction and Velocity: north northeast moderate

Temperature: pleasant upper 30s.

Moon phase: not sure.

Special Notes: spot I’d scouted last week before the rain. Was concerned it would give them too many options but was pleasantly surprised. River was ripping pretty good with all of the runoff.

Waterfowl Activity: enough to play with and enough left for seed that should support a couple more hunts this year.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: great. Shot all 3 flushed out of the decoys at 15 yards or less.

Hunters: solo

Guns: M2 12 gauge choked way too tight for the setup. Will be a good opportunity for the 20 gauge on future hunts.

Malfunctions: forgot I had Texas rigs on my decoys. Had to quickly tie on long lines before deploying.

Dog(s): Legh had an easy morning save one longer swim out into current from a duck that didn’t realize it was dead for a few seconds.

Special Equipment: 2 Drake pintail decoys.

Curses: zero

Kudos: nice morning before work

Birds By Species: 3 wood ducks.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

Sweet little hunt

Nice little, quick hunt....

Date: 1/2/22

Time: morning

Location: private tupelo hole off of the river

Cloud Cover: heavy. Rain sleet and finally snow

Wind Direction and Velocity: howling from NW

Temperature: cold enough for me to walk back to the truck to get a heater

Moon phase: don’t know

Special Notes: had planned to hunt public with other friends but a buddy was going to hunt this lease by himself so I joined him.

Waterfowl Activity: disappointingly sparse. Waited all year for a day like that and what a disappointment

Waterfowl Responsiveness: pretty poor. Landed the only pair of mallards that showed any interest in calls. Had a group of 8 teal buzz the hole that we were able to get back in. Took 2 of those. Should’ve had a couple more.

Hunters: 2

Guns: 12 and 20, both M2s

Malfunctions: ducks forgot they were supposed to show.

Dog(s): Legh and Tink

Special Equipment:none.

Curses: not many ducks. Maybe saw 100

Kudos: nice guy to hunt with. First we’d hunted just the two of us.

Birds By Species: 2 teal 2 mallards

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: figured ducks were just hunkered down in bad weather. Turns out they’d left.

Duck Engr wrote:Lagniappe: figured ducks were just hunkered down in bad weather. Turns out they’d left.

Well, hell. Some seem to have come this way, as we finally had a good show of mallards join the miscellaneous mob at a banding site following the front - though the biologist running that program and watching its cameras felt those were already thinning again before our shoot the other evening. Probably all sitting in someone's private tupelo hole by now...

I did get a “ya shoulda been here today” text about 9 am yesterday morning…

Date:1/3/22

Time: early morning

Location: oxbow

Cloud Cover: big time clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: north moderate

Temperature: cold. 20 or so.

Moon phase:

Special Notes: had scouted this area the day before and found feathers on the water and a couple hulls. Was talking to a friend who lives out there and mentioned I’d found a spot with feathers on water. Mentioned general area and he asked me to further describe it. After a moment of silence on the line, he said “oh hell, that’s a spot I been hunting since I was a kid. Never seen anyone else in there. Feathers were from us day before yesterday.” He invited me to go with them and I accepted, as I hadn’t seen him in almost a year.

Waterfowl Activity: slow again.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: decent early. Poor after 8 am

Hunters: 4

Guns:

Malfunctions: I fell into a beaver run on the way in.

Dog(s): none. Left Legh at camp. 25 degrees is about my limit for her. She’s getting old and is a couch potato as it is.

Special Equipment: none

Curses: ducks left

Kudos: didn’t go with my other buddies who didn’t even shoot. That and all ducks were shot within a foot or two of the water, Woodrow’s included.

Birds By Species: 4 gadwall. 5 woodies.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: it became apparent that ducks were gone from the area after this hunt and talking with my buddies who hunted a location a few miles away. We put 4 trucks and boats on the road/in the water just after lunch covering about a 65 mile stretch of river. Didn’t find a lot of ducks, but found some that looked like they were willing to play.

"I fell into a beaver run on the way in."

OUCH, and a helluva way to start the day With temps in the 20's, I hope you were able to get out of it quickly and not get too wet!!!! Sure adds an element of "dammit" to the hunt
Thanks for the reports!!!!!

There were some dammits among other things muttered. Only real casualty was my glove, which froze solid pretty soon after. I bounced up without letting water into my waders. Quicker than I look.

Date: 1/4/22

Time: morning

Location: river

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: south 5-10

Temperature: 25 ish

Moon phase:

Special Notes: after yesterdays scout session we felt better about the prospects and turned out we were right to a degree.

Waterfowl Activity: better than we’d seen but nothing like what was described by our scout the evening before. So it goes.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: good but had to be real light on the calling.

Hunters: 5

Guns:

Malfunctions: oh buddy. Did I have a malfunction. Short sleep and a frozen boat ramp got me. Hopped out of my truck, thinking I was on the ribs of the ramp. Turns out I was not. 2 steps and I was onto a solid sheet of ice. Ass busting probably isn’t an accurate description since my shoulder blades hit the ground first. Luckily I didn’t hit my head. Have heard of several people killed from doing just that. Head lamp wasn’t so lucky though. RIP.

Dog(s): Legh and Mae; who is 45 lbs of twisted steel. Super dog that I enjoyed watching.

Special Equipment:

Curses: none from me given the previous 2 days.

Kudos: finally worked some mallards the way we like them.

Birds By Species: 10 mallards, 2 gadwall, 1 wood duck.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: last hunt of the trip.

OUCH! That could have been bad. Good to see yall got a few birds.

Glad you ended the trip with a decent hunt on big ducks, and I cringed when I read your slip and fall incident! Hope your shoulder wasn't damaged, and damn glad it wasn't your head taking the brunt of the fall!!!!

Deltaman wrote:Glad you ended the trip with a decent hunt on big ducks, and I cringed when I read your slip and fall incident! Hope your shoulder wasn't damaged, and damn glad it wasn't your head taking the brunt of the fall!!!!

I landed so evenly on my upper back that miraculously I wasn’t hurt at all. Probably helped with all the clothing I had on. Provided some nice padding back there.

https://www.harborfreight.com/cold-resi ... 99691.html

Friend of mine had a pair of these this weekend he let me borrow for driving the boat and picking up decoys. I went by and got a couple pair today. Figured I’d pass it on to all here.

Duck Engr wrote:https://www.harborfreight.com/cold-resistant-pvc-gloves-in-orange-large-99691.html

Friend of mine had a pair of these this weekend he let me borrow for driving the boat and picking up decoys. I went by and got a couple pair today. Figured I’d pass it on to all here.

Been using what appears the version on the left below those for years - after finally figuring out that the best Rx for cracked hands isn't Zim's Crack Cream, Bag Balm or even Boudreaux's Butt Paste but prevention. Cheap enough to keep pairs handy most anywhere I might want them, and I notch the cuffs to make it easier to slip them on for quick wet tasks that tempt me not to, like accepting wet birds from the dog and stringing them on cold mornings:


Surprising what a difference that thin fleece like lining makes over versions without, but I team them with military surplus wool glove liners for longer tasks like boat driving when it's really cold.

(Powder their wrists with talc the little assholes won't cross, and they're the ticket for picking gator eggs from nests fire ants share, too.)