WaterfowlForum.Net

Tues. 1/11/2022
Delacroix
Johnny, Kyle & I with Harry
rippin NNE winds 15-25, low 40s, clear skies

Wind ripped yesterday down here and all night but thankfully water levels are stable thanks to the slight easterly component. Got all set up on our guerilla blind, low profile in the grass but there really was no flight. Watched a pair of buffleheads play in the decoys for easily 45 mins or more without harassment. Was looking like a scratch but thankfully three grays dove in to save us and all caught a ticket home with us. Didn't see a whole lot on our travels back to the launch today, cooollldd boat ride back north tot he launch against the wind.

3 grays


late season stud grays in their finest feathers



Done till the weekend, plans TBD but looks like some weather will shake up Saturday

Beautiful mature drakes Darren!!!!!

Looks like a fine weekend to chase birds both days

Not being a fan of NW fronts, best I can muster is a cautious, "We'll see..."

Rick wrote:Not being a fan of NW fronts, best I can muster is a cautious, "We'll see..."

Indeed, its not really a polar plunge of sorts. There are some of those on tap coming up but most of their punch looks to be skating east of us, with most impacts a bit north of us and eastward. Take what we can get !

Called off tomorrow's marsh hunt, wanted to make sure I logged here why. Note water level on our last marsh hunt, Tues Jan 11, compared to this morning's water level. Big tide range right now and it peaks in evening, bottoms out in the mornings unfortunately.



We'll wait on the front passage and go try the field on Sunday.

Blakes out in the marsh this morning and said the water is very, very low in our marsh. Lots of teal and gadwall around, just not moving. No other hunters in the marsh down there today and no wind. Took 1 teal last I spoke to him.

DComeaux wrote:Blakes out in the marsh this morning and said the water is very, very low in our marsh. Lots of teal and gadwall around, just not moving. No other hunters in the marsh down there today and no wind. Took 1 teal last I spoke to him.

Likewise I think many are hearing (or seeing) significant numbers of ducks around in places, but they aren't doing a whole lot of moving. Typical of late season, probably, but calm clear weather ain't exactly stirring them either. Hope you get some movement tomorrow and Sunday.

Sun. 1/16/2022
Bunkie area field
David R and son Will, Johnny and I w/ Harry
post-front, rippin WNW 15-30, low 40s, heavy clouds partially clearing later

Right at LST there was a flurry of duck flight on us and got a pair of specks to lock immediately and drift in, only got one though. Thought we were on to something nonetheless. Low ducks soon fizzled and about all we saw from then on for ducks was high flights in big groups, quite a few overall though. Still a lot of goose flight in the area every which way and got another pair to work but again not quite right and on my end, was lucky to get one of the two that involved a merry chase involving man, dog, gun and some periodic flight. Should have had another speck for sure and probably couple more ducks. One member of the party had some gun malfunctions, one of which was a failure to load.

2 spoons, 2 specks



perty spoon drake helped me keep up with the bunch while they worked low against the tree line. These two had three green wings in tow, all of which got out


Saturday morning David & Will had a couple birds but said quite a bit more flight and more shooting in the area. Its worth noting that though history has me never wanting to miss these post-front days up there, the last two in a row of such have been very slow for ducks. Eyeing next weekend's weather........

Figuring we'll be locked up all weekend to the north, and the marsh doesn't have much water. Little short on options

Today Cloudy, with a steady temperature around 37. North wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Tonight A slight chance of rain showers before 9pm, then a slight chance of freezing rain and sleet between 9pm and 3am, then a slight chance of sleet after 3am. Cloudy, with a low around 26. North wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 10%.
Friday Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 42. North wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Friday Night Widespread frost between 11pm and 5am. Otherwise, partly cloudy, with a low around 23. North wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday Sunny, with a high near 47. North wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 25. North wind around 5 mph.
SundayMostly sunny, with a high near 54. North wind around 5 mph becoming west in the afternoon.

Didn't go this weekend at all given we presume the field was frozen and water was low in the marsh. Can't say I was waking up mad at 'em and regretting the decision to stay home. We'll close it out this weekend and get decoys out the field, bring the bike home.

Had thought today may have been a decent one in the field with the rain passing through, but made no plans to go....

missed out, per neighboring blind on same farm

You can't kill em staying home

MARSH BEAR wrote:You can't kill em staying home

On the other hand...you probably won't get cold and wet staying at home.

But the green-wings sure are fun.

Had I had a bit more in my mad at 'em tank, I would have made plans but admittedly had already committed to tending other things this week and just waiting for the weekend to close it out. Also a little short on willing partners for weekday trips for last week of the season; then again, had I really wanted to go, could have just called the referenced blind neighbor and joined them I'm sure.

Looks like this Sunday will be our only hunt and wrap it up then. I'll head out to marsh in another week or so hopefully to grab pirogue and decoys from walk-in hole.

I’ve had a case of the “not as mad at em as I once was” the last few days too. Even set alarms and hooking up the boat the night before to not go the next morning. Even the wife was asking what was wrong with me. Guess I’m just getting, uh, more seasoned (won’t use the three letter word that starts with O as I think I’m the most junior member of this forum).

Geese at play while the hunters are away. View from camp porch this morning apparently. There's some in the front cut just outside the decoys but the rear cut appears to be completely covered one end to the other.

DAMN! Creep em.

DComeaux wrote:DAMN! Creep em.

Think they did that afternoon, got a speck and a snow.

Sun. 1/30/2022 last day of duck season in La
Bunkie area farm
Philip & young son Ellis (5), Johnny, Jeff, Grayson & young son Christian (9), & I with Harry
Wind very light from SW and eventually picked up to a nice breeze late in morning, clear skies, maybe upper 30s to start but warmed quick

Lot of goose activity in the area so hoped at least we'd get some action with them if ducks weren't happenin. Sure enough got some decent speck ops early and did pretty well with them. Far from gimme ops as they'd come looking but really call shy, took what presented and didn't fret educating for another day. Saw some massive, massive flights of pintails at times that would break and swoop but never worked in to range, couldn't buy a chance with them. Did have another spoon fly off on us after initially going down, but not before Harry and I trudged all the way there to poke around. Had gun of course, but couldn't get it off shoulder fast enough. Likely could have had couple more ducks and another speck or two with better shooting but given last year's closing day here was a scratch, we were plenty happy.

5 specks, 1 GW teal, 1 spoon



Before 5th speck made it to the table






Shoutout to Matt in the neighboring blind that took a minute to round up our third fallen speck of a volley that made it to his cut before falling hard. We opted to look later in morning in order to not disturb his hunt and sure enough he said he saw it swimming not long after we'd picked up and gone to camp, he brought it to us when we returned later to look. Got dekes out and hung in camp, blind un-brushed and cleaned up inside, bike came home, all set for offseason. Big time with a larger than usual crew to close it out, food was tremendous as usual, and sites and sounds were off the charts, just a special place when a lot of fowl are around. Geese were on the move well into the evening.

Water at the marsh lease is way, way down so keeping eye on that to hopefully get down soon and pick up a few items in marsh when tide comes back up.

Love the specks.

Mighty nice way to end it!

Damnba, another grand finale.

Sweet ending Darren

Was able to get numbers crunched without issues of species quantity mixups thankfully. Breaks down as follows for all my regular season hunts:

174 ducks, 8 specks and 1 blue on 21 hunts
1st split 79 ducks on 10 hunts, 2nd split (which includes the silly third split for West Zone) 95 ducks on 11 hunts

Species breakdown:
BW Teal 16
GW Teal 88 (up from 47 last year)
Mallard 2
BBWD 16 (all at Rick's blind, previous high was 7 in a season, largely influenced by where I hunt)
Pintail 2
Grays 21 (down from 69 last year and 82 the previous season, 21 marks the lowest count since 2009-2010 season)
Spoons 20 (up from 8 last season)
Dosgris/lesser scaup 1 (down from 17 last season)
Mottled 6 (up from 2 last season)
Wigeon 1
Woodie 1

Specks 8 (up from 4 last season)

Making but 21 regular season hunts is a full 10 hunts short of the 2020-2021 season's tally, but honestly feels like the same amount of fulfillment without quite so much burnout at the closing bell. Doesn't hurt that the wife and kids are happier too so its a win in my book.

Comparative stats are below.
8.3 ducks/hunt is among the better statistical seasons of the last decade+.



Bunkie farm blind: 166 ducks and 13 specks and 2 snows/blues on 23 hunts, averaged 7.2 ducks/hunt.
Last year: 85 ducks and 4 specks on 21 hunts, for 4.25 ducks/hunt

Jumped on the weather window this morning while the tides are back up and ahead of this cold coming in to get out in the marsh to fetch a pirogue and few decoys I had stashed and tighten up the blinds for offseason. Saw some birds here and there but wasn't wishing I was hunting, just wanted to get back on the trailer. Mostly grays, teal and dosgris, few buffles.

Didn't help that I nearly had a horrendous car accident when passing through Nola at 6:00a this morning as I narrowly missed a suddenly stopped/sideways vehicle in my lane, far left lane, and all I could see was headlights coming FAST in the rear view. Thank God car behind me was able to veer off and barely, BARELY touched my tail light on right side, must have been their sideview mirror.

Boat is rinsed and flushed, decoys going in attic. We have plans for a blind build before it gets too hot and so the offseason growth can do just that all around a new hide.

Whew, my palms got sweaty just reading that. Glad they dodged you Darren. Had a situation similar to that several years back on I-10 but the car behind hit us doing 60 plus. Luckily for us we were in the larger vehicle. Just some chiropractor time. Did not bode so well for the young man in the car that hit us though.

A friend shared with me this one he took of Harry on afternoon speck hunt. I'd gone to Saturday afternoon mass at Bunkie's neat Catholic church, of which said buddy's family had hands in designing. Always a good feeling to walk out at end of the service to specks and snows overhead as is so common during the season. Great closing weekend it was up there in so many ways.