Preseason 2021 - 2022

[Darren]

Good to hear birds are showing but........

Capture.JPG

Good front tomorrow PM into saturday will have them moving, and another late next week. Good stuff at the right times.

[DComeaux]

They're going to pound them out of the rice with the early season. Disturbing the ducks.

[Rick]

Frickin' geniuses on our Commission.

[Duck Engr]

They're going to pound them out of the rice with the early season. Disturbing the ducks.

I noticed a marked behavior change in ducks in Arkansas on opening weekend when they started the early speck season.

[Rick]

Have seen the hopeful notion of our dual openers as a "soft opening" floated by someone apparently unfamiliar with LA's ag land hunting, but have a hard time imagining our speck regs as anything but more nails in the coffin.

[Darren]

Front comin' in hot at the Shell Beach camp this evening, we could use the north winds to get water down a bit

TONIGHT
South winds 10 to 15 knots becoming northwest 20 to 25
knots after midnight. Waves 1 to 2 feet building to 3 to 5 feet
after midnight. Dominant period 4 seconds. Slight chance of
thunderstorms until early morning. Chance of showers through the
night.

SATURDAY
North winds 20 to 25 knots. Waves 3 to 5 feet.
Dominant period 4 seconds.

SATURDAY NIGHT
North winds 15 to 20 knots. Waves 3 to 5 feet.
Dominant period 4 seconds.

[Duck Engr]

Waves 3-5’!!! That’d rattle some teeth out in a flat bottom

[Darren]

Waves 3-5’!!! That’d rattle some teeth out in a flat bottom

haha yep. That's out in Lake Borgne so thankfully we don't deal with that but our smaller lakes and bays can easily see 1-2's which are still not fun in the flat. So we run the protected shorelines and bayous when we can.

[Darren]

Spent Sat night at the lil farm camp following a nice frontal passage and improbable Tigers' win. Glorious afternoon to be outside as we gnawed sugar cane, poked fire, and heated up a gumbo for dinner on the porch. Biggest milestone was, however, introduction of real gunfire to my kids. Once earmuffs were in place, just let it rip and was so relieved to not have any tears. Was but a .410 but plenty real enough for our purposes and holds hope for youth hunts to come. Many thanks to a needs-to-be-retired GW teal decoy for being our target, sacrifice in the name of passing on tradition.

New blind is super spacious inside but thankfully still pretty tight at the top so as not to create giant gaping abyss to keep covered. Buddy already has subfloor built and ready to install in three sections. The front cut has leftover (long dead) beans, some volunteer rice, but also some short(er) stands of that terrible weed that plagued us here in 2018 season. It's not quite as dense but just seeing it gives some concern. Rear cut is plowed under beans and will be glorious slick water.

Sunday morning I was up before the first bit of glow so got the fire back going and just sat out overlooking the field, waiting. Sure enough, a few wads of teal burned by and later on enjoyed a good handful of low speck flights right over the camp, nothing like it.

It's pretty dang dry up there, thankfully, very little water on fields in the region but saw some starting to flood. Also seemed, to me, to have a lot of sugar cane in the area. Not sure if it's more acreage than past years, but its a lot, and harvest is in full swing. Also got good report from a friend of nice flights of grays seen just a bit south of our Delacroix lease over the weekend.

IMG_8481.JPG

IMG_8501.JPG

IMG_8511.JPG

[Deltaman]

Good Stuff Dad!!!!!!!

[Darren]

Happy birthday Ducaholic, right?!

Models are saying "Happy Halloween" this morning, and it looks to linger a bit. The front for this weekend will be pretty meager, at best, but we'll take it at this time of the year.

Sunday Oct 31, 6am

Capture.JPG

Next morning:

Capture2.JPG

Will be fun to watch over the next week to see if the models stick to it

[Duck Engr]

That’d be sweet! Have always heard the old timers say Halloween gets them moving. Having a front to ride won’t hurt the cause!

[Darren]

Got specks? Arkansas does, looks to be jammin' early season for them. Pic quality is poor but you get the idea, just massive congregations of specks. In the video clip hes clearing them out the roadway with the truck.

Capture.JPG

[Darren]

Still looking promising for Tricks or Treats Oct 31, and it looks to linger:

Capture1.JPG

But bigger story would be a couple days after:

Capture2.JPG

Capture3.JPG

Capture4.JPG

Glad to see it, but might be a tad chilly for a trip I've got that week to Des Moines.

[Darren]

ARK Specks, photo credit: Bill Byers Hunter Club

244213450_5178127988880846_3723125146246680574_n.jpg

247985978_5178128132214165_4794259026559892738_n.jpg

Looks like fair many juvenile birds in the close up pic

[MARSH BEAR]

The fronts coming down could be good news for the Nov 6, 7 youth/veterans hunt - I will be there with 2 grandsons

[Duck Engr]

ARK Specks, photo credit: Bill Byers Hunter Club

244213450_5178127988880846_3723125146246680574_n.jpg

247985978_5178128132214165_4794259026559892738_n.jpg

Looks like fair many juvenile birds in the close up pic

Look at all of those chickens

[Darren]

Piddled at the lease blind Saturday under warm conditions, very little wind, and above average tide levels. Gnats were out and about when inside the confines of the roseau patch. Everything in the area is greening back up and growing as hoped since teal season, can't even see out the blind where I'd broken down the cane for teal, so will have to get all that squared away again. It's grown 2-3 feet in the course of a month!

Feed in the pond is looking really good, though not a single bird of any kind seen in my travels to and from the launch to the lease. Not a mottled, not a teal, gray, nada. Others had same report. Granted, it was basically summer out there this weekend. Really excited about this week's front, wind forecast will most definitely get water levels back in check. These are some of the highest Lake Borgne wind forecasts you'll ever see outside of a tropical event so this one is definitely packing some punch.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Southwest winds near 20 knots becoming west
after midnight. Waves 3 to 5 feet. Dominant period 4 seconds.
Showers in the evening. Chance of thunderstorms through the
night. Slight chance of showers after midnight.

THURSDAY
West winds 20 to 25 knots. Waves 3 to 6 feet.
Dominant period 4 seconds. Slight chance of showers.

THURSDAY NIGHT
Northwest winds 25 to 30 knots. Waves 3 to
6 feet. Dominant period 4 seconds.

FRIDAY
Northwest winds 25 to 30 knots. Waves 3 to 6 feet.
Dominant period 4 seconds.

FRIDAY NIGHT
Northwest winds 20 to 25 knots. Waves 3 to
5 feet. Dominant period 4 seconds.

Next week still looking promising for now as well so we'll see:

Thurs morning Nov 4

Capture.JPG

[Darren]

People who are actually paid to do this are seeing the same things:

Capture.JPG

[Duck Engr]

No complaints!

[Darren]

Pretty much exactly what you want to see (at least possible) for the week leading up to the opener, in this case Louisiana's west zone opener which includes the entirety of the coast on Nov 13.


Morning of Thurs Nov 11

Capture.JPG

[Deltaman]

Sure hope it holds true!

[Darren]

NWS with promising projection, mirrors the models.

NWS outlook.jpg

Currently rippin' from W and eventually NW at the SB camp, good riddance to the abnormally high tides.

[Darren]

As predicted/hoped, there went all the extra water, and more. 4.0 ft and below is nearly un-huntable.

Capture.JPG

[DComeaux]

I sure hope we keep low water all season. The green wing love it.


This was Galveston beach yesterday. Low tide and strong north winds.

247710681_433267694834510_6501109342789029545_n.jpg

This is what it normally looks like.

download.jpg

[Darren]

Oh it's LOW on my end right now, and still falling. Like non-huntable, in the three-foot range on the gage. Normal is 5-6 ft

[Darren]

Looks like Arkansas has it goin on right now, can't even call the shot on the specks for all the pintails in the way:

https://www.facebook.com/1504299022/vid ... 329657790/

[Ducaholic]

Wow!

[Darren]

Nice little LST forecast still holding for our opener, Sat. 11-13-21. Temps in the 40s or so, north/NW wind gettin' it, that'll work. Have no reports from my end and think I'm better off that way. Given how last year on just the morning before the opener we were covered up and could have limited on grays with the boat parked in front of the blind, but ended up as a 2-bird hunt the next morning....

Have plans to head down next Friday morning to rein in the roseau growth and we should be in good shape from there for next morning.

Capture.JPG

Capture.JPG

[Darren]

West Zone youth hunts started today and reports in our area weren't good, most had 2-4 birds at most and didn't see whole lot. Got reports from the typically very strong chef pass area back to delacroix, none good. Water was high but otherwise good conditions, just not many birds being seen.

Hoping the front on tap late this coming week is the ticket for us next Saturday.