Preseason/Dove/Teal 2022-2023

[Ricky Spanish]

Sorry fellas but you triggered me to look it up.
There is a "cut" in the tree fence around my bee yard.
Electrify it...lol
Kids cut thru, stop, and party in the yard.

Screenshot_20220906-084836_Chrome.jpg

[Duck Engr]

What powers the e-fence? Batteries?

Yep, 12 volt deep cycle out of my boat. I just got the solar panel in the mail. Planning to install that mid week.

[Duck Engr]

Sorry fellas but you triggered me to look it up.
There is a "cut" in the tree fence around my bee yard.
Electrify it...lol
Kids cut thru, stop, and party in the yard.

Screenshot_20220906-084836_Chrome.jpg

Once had an issue with locals slipping into our pond and fishing at night. Put up a hot wire strand across their path and came back the next weekend to find a tackle box and half a zebco reel at the wire.

[Duck Engr]

Met sunrise at the farm this morning to top sew a couple deer plots with wheat and install my solar charger. Plans of “mid week” install last week were sidelined due to other commitments. Hot wire fence was still ticking away thankfully. Had 1.25” of rain over the weekend and did not see any fresh pig tracks inside the confines of the hot wire, so that was encouraging.

Rice down by the pond drain is finally starting to head out. Recall this was planted late, July 8th to be exact, so I was thankful to start seeing some heads. The rice up on the “high ground” part of the pond isn’t showing any heads yet. Maybe next week. Some barnyard grass has mixed in the gaps in the rice, which is ok by me.






Was able to drop a match on the dove field late last week before rain moved in. Saw a handful today. Nothing to get excited about.

[Deltaman]

Beautiful area DE, and glad your porkers are absent so far

[Rick]

Get creative enough with that hot wire, and you could have bacon waiting for your morning hunts...

[Duck Engr]

Get creative enough with that hot wire, and you could have bacon waiting for your morning hunts...

That would be more satisfying than a limit of ducks.

[Duck Engr]

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:

[Duck Engr]

Template shamelessly borrowed from Rick, per usual.

Date: 9-18-22

Time: morning. Two other trucks at ramp (which is a lot for this ramp. Turned out they were hunting together)

Location: local lake

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light from east early, switching to just a breath from the south

Temperature: pleasant

Moon phase: waning quarter maybe

Special Notes: Not exactly sure where the line was on how many makers marks I should’ve had Saturday, but do I know I crossed it with plenty to spare. Damn Auburn football.

Waterfowl Activity: wood ducks flying around having a grand time. No teal.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: N/A

Hunters: me

Guns: m2 20

Malfunctions: had to deploy the emergency toilet paper about 45 minutes after shooting time. Just as unpleasant as I had remembered.

Dog(s): sadly none. First boat ride without Legh in a long time. Definitely could feel the void she left. Have been looking at puppies but haven’t found one that suits me yet.

Special Equipment: dozen decoys and lucky duck

Curses: just the aforementioned makers mark after effects.

Kudos: boat ran good. First I’d had it in the water since new prop and new throttle. Prop gave me the mph I’d lost over the years.

Birds By Species: no teal. Over my limit of mosquito pterodactyluses.

Photo Ops:none

Lagniappe:

[PorkChop]

That is a great looking spot!

[Deltaman]

It's hunts like this one that make the really good ones stand out Could've been worse...... might've forgotten the TP and had to cut your drawers off

[Duck Engr]

It's hunts like this one that make the really good ones stand out Could've been worse...... might've forgotten the TP and had to cut your drawers off

Definitely could’ve been worse. I was doing last minute checks the night before and saw my little boy had taken my TP out and tossed it in the corner of my garage, so I was closer to disaster than I’d like to think.

[Ricky Spanish]

I thought I was the only one to have cut off his underwear to "you know".

[Duck Engr]

My 3 year old talked a big game all week about going teal hunting this weekend after he caught me backing the boat in the driveway at the end of last weekend’s dry run/teal hunt that didn’t include any teal.

Had planned to take him Saturday morning but my company gave us 4 tickets to the auburn mizzou football game (if you can call it a game). So the wife and I took he and his sister to the game Saturday with promise of a Sunday hunt. Went to wake the little guy up this morning and he stated in no uncertain terms he was staying in bed. He may be
more of an afternoon hunter like his mother. I’ll give him another chance on a warmish day this fall.

Went to do a little mowing this afternoon at the farm as saw 15-20 doves but still nothing to cause me to sit out there for a morning or afternoon.

[Duck Engr]

Rice is finally heading out. Wouldn’t hurt to have a little rain to finish it out. Ground is cracking.

[Rick]

Pretty stand for no water.

[Duck Engr]

Pretty stand for no water.

We are at the mercy of Mother Nature and were blessed with a rainy summer. Ground stayed wet up until the last week of august. Haven’t had measurable rainfall since.

[DComeaux]

looking good.

[Duck Engr]

Date: 10/7/22

Time: afternoon around 4-6

Location: farm

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: slight breeze from north that died out

Temperature: warm, mid 80s

Moon phase: full or close to it

Special Notes: knocked off work early and grabbed beau for a quick dove hunt before this little front.

Waterfowl Activity: slim on our field but 150-200 birds on our 12 acre field we’d mowed a couple weeks ago

Waterfowl Responsiveness: forgot the last part of my mojo stake.

Hunters: My now 4 year old boy, Beau and me. Dad joined us around 5.

Guns: M2 20 gauge and beaus wooden pop gun

Malfunctions: set up on wrong field.

Dog(s): Beau was the retriever.

Special Equipment: Snacks and juice boxes

Curses: Just the setup snafu.

Kudos: Beau seemed to enjoy himself.

Birds By Species: 1 mourning dove (had mostly short leaf pine mast in its craw along with some browntop millet). 1 cottonmouth.

Photo Ops:
Beau cheesin’.


Inspecting the prize.

Lagniappe: moved down to the other field when dad pulled up and saw them swarming but they must know what a dove hunter looks like cause they exited and didn’t return. As we walked out with Beau on my shoulders I about stepped on a little 2’ cottonmouth. I think Beau learned a new word today…

[Duck Engr]

Also saw a deer, 7 turkeys, and a covey of 10 quail that were out feeding in the field. Big wildlife day.

[5 stand]

I enjoyed the pictures of you and beau's dove hunt... My thoughts are, you have found the birds for that wooden pop gun...

[Duck Engr]

Thanks 5 stand! Hoping to have a few buddies and my little pop gun toter sit on the bigger field Sunday afternoon.

Note his “pop gun” in the photos is actually part of my mojo dove pole he found in my bag.

[Rick]

Note his “pop gun” in the photos is actually part of my mojo dove pole he found in my bag.

"Adapt and overcome."

[Duck Engr]

Note his “pop gun” in the photos is actually part of my mojo dove pole he found in my bag.

"Adapt and overcome."

Haha I think he abandoned his wooden popgun for the mojo pole due to lighter weight. He started across the field to my Dad about 530 with crackers, a Gatorade, a hotwheels car and his wooden gun in hand and after tripping and falling over asked me to come get his popgun. “I’ll just use my finger.”

[Rick]

Lot of 10ga toters could empathize.

[Deltaman]

Nothing like'm DE, and glad he is enjoying the time outdoors with you!!!!!!

[Duck Engr]

Did end up trying two more dove hunts, once in the AM and another afternoon shoot. Killed a handful of birds each time.

Hog wire still seems to be keeping the pigs out of the rice. Looks like seed was barely mature enough when the freeze hit. Now we just need a rain (or 6).

[Ricky Spanish]

Did end up trying two more dove hunts, once in the AM and another afternoon shoot. Killed a handful of birds each time.

Hog wire still seems to be keeping the pigs out of the rice. Looks like seed was barely mature enough when the freeze hit. Now we just need a rain (or 6).

ouch.
Frozen. This has zero to with growing rice or everything.
When I plan my garden I'm looking at a calendar and working backwards. First thing I do is read the seed package looking for "# of days to maturity".
Example: watermelons take a lot of days. Around 100 I think.
Next time plan better?
Sorry I don't mean to rub it in.
Just tryin to hepp.

[Duck Engr]

Yep no two ways around it, that’s on me, but I think we had plenty of seed mature by the time the freeze hit. Having young kids has made my timeliness on outdoor pursuits a challenge.

[Duck Engr]

Spent an afternoon last weekend working on the blind with the kids in tow, which hindered progress but kept morale high as my little girl sang twinkle twinkle little star at the top of her lungs for most of the afternoon. Still not finished but got a good start on it. Probably only lack a couple more hours.

Photos of my two assistants.