2022 Preseason...

[Rick]

Thank you. Peake could hardly have been better by any meaningful measure, but I've been blessed beyond all deserving with a long lifetime of grand gun dogs and now choose to view their short lives as opportunities to share mine with yet another such partner and friend. Now in my 70's, I sometimes wonder if Marsh will be my last - and know if that's the case, we'll go out on yet another high note.

[MARSH BEAR]

Abby made 8 in June, I am in my 70's also, and thinking this may be my last hunting dog. If Abby is my last she has been a joy to hunt with and a great companion.

[Rick]

Passed another annual mile marker yesterday when we began Marsh's preseason switch from low fat summer maintenance feed to a higher fat (and protein) working formula. "Fat adaption," the canine metabolism shift to make the most of fat for energy and hydration takes roughly a month, which is what remains to our September teal opener.

Making that change put me in the mood to start his preseason handling tune-up, as well as easing into some of the annual equipment maintenance I should have put behind me at last season's end. And while cleaning and silicon lubing the motor's shaft seal even stumbled onto and (hopefully) eliminated the modified Mallard Machine's periodic short that eluded me last year.

Believe I'll finally tackle power washing the decoys this morning. Season's coming, don'tcha know...

[Deltaman]

Yessir, It'll be here before you know it, and I can't wait for any meaningful North wind to push a few birds, and help us with the late Summer heat!

[SpinnerMan]

I was glad to see a decent flock of geese flying this morning not far from where I hunt. Fingers crossed there will be some around in the area flying the first 2 weeks of September. Also motivates me to get out there and finish mowing the shorelines around the goose blinds. Gotta give that golf course look if you want to attract golf course geese.

[Rick]

...Gotta give that golf course look if you want to attract golf course geese.

Migrants prefer new growth, too. Lot of folks here plant rye grass for them because they see them in grazed rye grass, but it soon grows too high to be of interest to them without the grazing.

[Ricky Spanish]

I was glad to see a decent flock of geese flying this morning not far from where I hunt. Fingers crossed there will be some around in the area flying the first 2 weeks of September. Also motivates me to get out there and finish mowing the shorelines around the goose blinds. Gotta give that golf course look if you want to attract golf course geese.

Don't tell but there are big flocks of honkers buzzing around the area early when I'm running my dog.

[Ericdc]

Yessir, It'll be here before you know it, and I can't wait for any meaningful North wind to push a few birds, and help us with the late Summer heat!

Speaking of north winds and fronts. Nice weather for the fall festival this weekend.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Duck Engr]

Man that’s extremely unusual for august, but will be welcomed with open arms.

[Rick]

Finally got the decoys pressure washed and patched 21, most notable among which being a drake mallard that took 48 hits from someone's tight pattern of tiny shot, much of which thankfully didn't penetrate the sturdy Dakota. Glad I didn't have to eat that cat's ducks.

[Ricky Spanish]

August weather?
It's still looking like spring up here. Wet ground. Everything is green not brown.
That's unusual.
Dog days of august...zero.
Not even hot.

[SpinnerMan]

...Gotta give that golf course look if you want to attract golf course geese.

Migrants prefer new growth, too. Lot of folks here plant rye grass for them because they see them in grazed rye grass, but it soon grows too high to be of interest to them without the grazing.

I just finished manicuring the lawn at 2 of the 3 goose blinds I hunt in September. The third will be mowed shortly. Hopefully this will stimulate some geese to take up residence in the area. There are a lot of geese in the neighborhoods, but most are just walking around. I haven't seen a goose in the air in over a week. Hopefully, that changes in a couple weeks. But I'm pretty optimistic because often in mid August, you can't find a goose around here to save your life. A lot more ducks around than typical as well. We also had a bumper crop of bunnies this year. Weather seems to have been good for all the little creatures of the suburbs.

[Rick]

Having noted, elsewhere, the absence of early teal sightings yesterday, it's only natural that I heard two reliable reports this morning: one of a small bunch at the Lacassine NWR "pool" and the other of quite a few on a flooded piece along I-10 just west of Jennings. Go get 'em, ciber scouts.

[Duck Engr]

Haha I got word last night of a couple of sightings from north alabama friends. Glad to see they remembered where to go. I always have a slight bit of anxiety that they’ll forget.

[Ricky Spanish]

Finally got the decoys pressure washed and patched 21, most notable among which being a drake mallard that took 48 hits from someone's tight pattern of tiny shot, much of which thankfully didn't penetrate the sturdy Dakota. Glad I didn't have to eat that cat's ducks.

The second time I put out my fully flocked higdons my "pals" dogged me about how the hens look funny and not natural...then they shot one. I mean full on blasted it. At least they killed a duck.
Foam filled I guess you're suppose to break em in with steel shot for ballast.

[SpinnerMan]

You want to take out a decoy. Hit one with the brush hog. The one blind. There are some decoys stowed under a boat. I moved the boat and decoys to brush hog the overgrown launch area. I missed one hiding in the thick weeds. There's no putting humpty ducky back together again.

[Rick]

First morning of teal prep in the marsh could have gone worse. Found our marsh still too low for normal boat launching without dropping my little 2wd truck's rear wheels off hard ground:

003a.jpg

So one of the poles that was supposed to support a new boat house finally did something useful and helped pull the boat far enough back on its trailer that a scrawny old displaced hillbilly could push it off into the water:

009a.jpg

021a.jpg

And off I went to the mudhole. Well, I could almost see it from where the Go-devil died. Been running it for several minutes every off-season Sunday without issue, but hadn't made a point of keeping its tank full to combat condensation and don't usually change the in-line water separator and plugs until our annual after-pond-grind oil change. Did have new plugs and a can of fresh gas in the boat, so I changed plugs, drained the carburetor bowl, shook out the separator, swapped gas, purged the lines and survived the apparently self induced misery of poling the mile and a half out and trying to figure a way to get the boat out and to a shop before the water comes back up.

Took a crack at opening the run to the back blind before starting on my own, but it's paved with floating black dirt and trying to cut its edge without the mudboat found me "grounded" over three feet of water I had to get in to free my little boat. So that's a project for another day and our Toyota 4-banger powered mudboat.

The low-water mudhole is a mixed bag of goose weed where the flotant's thick enough to support it:

030a.jpg

and duck lettuce under lilies where there's still water:

033a.jpg

Unlike duck potato and duck salad, neither of which are eaten by their namesake and both of which are a pain in the arse to grind enough to sink below the surface where the dog is all they'll bother. Didn't get much of a toehold in the goose weed washed out and chopped up before a serious rain cell chased me back to the truck.

Almost made it, too, before being soaked to the bone in a good ol' fashioned whiteout squall. Turns out August isn't always hot.

But, hey, I was back in the marsh!

[Rick]

Forgot the duck report: didn't see a single teal, but there were a slew of molting woodies paddle-wheeling out of my way when I ran through the east blind's pond to see what they were and a few in Gabe's big pond nearby.

[Ducaholic]

Good Report Rick

[DComeaux]

Wow. Thats a lot of vegetation.

[Darren]

ohhh man, going to be a grind

Heading up to Iowa for a couple of days this week, will be glad to read about your presumed progress while away.

Just be sure to have it ready for the teal closer Sunday, we're coming back!

[MARSH BEAR]

Darren - Iowa - that's about 12 miles east of Lake Charles.

[DComeaux]

I just noticed that your roseau patch is no longer there. Seems to be one lonely stalk waving in the wind in that picture.

[Darren]

Darren - Iowa - that's about 12 miles east of Lake Charles.

Ha, I wish it were that one, though the other one will be a good bit cooler than down here at home.

[Rick]

I just noticed that your roseau patch is no longer there. Seems to be one lonely stalk waving in the wind in that picture.

The great American philosopher, Roseanne Roseannadanna, pegged it: "If it isn't one thing, it's another."

Our marsh's roseaus were in sad shape last season, presumably from extended high water in and above the Intracoastal and all appeared dead from same when we picked eggs there in early July. So the two cane "stand" at my blind is new. and a few other thin patches have sprouted from what appeared to be dead stalks elsewhere, presumably thanks to the drought months.

Goose weed and whatever this crap is has thrived:

013a.jpg

Digging that out of the boat hide slip was a real treat - worse than goose weed, but the first pass on that and the rest of the pond is now done thanks to a long, periodically wet day yesterday. Just have to hit it all however many more times as the flotant rises to and above the surface like the devil's cake.

Also got pissed about not being able to break the back blind's trail with my Go-devil last time and finally managed that without waiting on the mudboat. Back pond, like the east blind's and Gabe's is beautifully weed free and will need no work beyond keeping the run open.

Haven't gone to Isaac's pond, as I trust him to stay on top of its possible needs without my help or prompting. But spent a half hour or so running the bazillion chinquapins (American lotus) in Clyde's pond without making much of a dent.

Don't know why mine is now the only one choked with duck lettuce, as I thought I might have brought it in from clearing where it first appeared in the east pond a couple years ago and was still thick last year, but that pond is now clear of it. Curse of the mudhole, I guess...

[Rick]

Forgot the bird report: no teal were seen, just some woodies and a foursome of mottleds that swung by the mudhole to prompt a "That's they ass."

[Deltaman]

Damn Rick, what a jungle!!!!!! It amazes me every year when you clean it out, and it looks so purdy......... and imagine just one season without your routing out, would make it untenable going forward. Do the birds feed on that duck lettuce?

[Rick]

I suppose ducks might find invertebrates in duck lettuce, if they could move it it. But the name comes from its appearance, rather than forage value.

[DComeaux]

I don't think you'll have to worry about water for teal season.

[Rick]

I don't think you'll have to worry about water for teal season.

I'm thankful as can be of having water to work with, as memories of the 2010 and 2011 droughts haunted my dreams until seeing the mudhole still held some water in July. Now all we'll need is teal, and I heard of another one being sighted nearby this morning...