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Sat. 9-10-2022 LA Teal Opener
Delacroix lease
Johnny & I with Harry
Wind mostly 0 to light from NE, 70s, pt cloudy, full moon

Survey said very few birds in SE La and my travels yesterday morning confirmed the same, had hopes big moon would move some in for us but wasn't the case. Did take the safety off a couple of times, could have taken one bird that was passing wide on my side but held off given the nasty stuff it would have fallen in. When the pair came back for the call, the dropped in short on us in a nearby puddle.

DNS

Big moon lingering, easy boat ride given we didn't hardly need a spotlight


mottleds bunch bailing out on us




Will & Kyle likewise logged a DNS in another area of Delacroix to our west/SW. On a positive note, after being spooky absent in recent trips to the lease, we enjoyed some nice flights of mottleds right through our area, looks like they've had a good hatch. Probably saw 30-40 in total; one bunch even had a teal tagging along. Try again tomorrow.

Ooof. Big moon and front incoming. Hopefully your fortunes will change overnight.

Sun. 9-11-2022
Delacroix lease
Kyle, Johnny & I with Harry
Wind 0 to 5+ from W/NW/N, 70s, pt cloudy, full moon lingering


Noticed wind shift on boat ride out, from standard easterly/NE in prior days to westerly and hoped it was a sign that today was a new deal. Sure enough saw probably 250-300 teal or more by the end of it, mostly high migrators coming in from the north in large groups. Were a few more low and looking groups around us but only one wad of about 15 gave us a surprised iffy chance we managed to scratch two down from. Harry made one trip out to mid-pond for the first, the other a chauffeured retrieve to far shoreline that thankfully found the bird stone dead and only 10 feet into the TALL grass, after winging down leaving me fearing how far he may have gotten.


2 BW teal





Nice to put a few feathers in the new blind


Seeing the new arrivals and little bit more local activity gives us hope for things swinging our way for the next trip, likely not till next weekend. Will scratched again at his place but said he had a couple of chances that he should have fired on instead of hoping they'd get right instead of right enough.

Hoping this gets another batch of blue wings on the move from points north, though could also hurt some that already are holding birds.....we aren't.

Seemed like arrivals we noted this morning were ahead of this front.

Pumpkin spice for everyone


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Ericdc wrote:Pumpkin spice for everyone


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The white women will be fired up.

Gone today, here tomorrow...........damn teal!!!!

Be interesting to see whether the front bringeth or taketh away...

Rick wrote:Be interesting to see whether the front bringeth or taketh away...

Brought it yesterday. Several groups that scratched Saturday limited Sunday around central and nw la.

Do y’all think the hens and juvies are going to arrive before the closing bell?

Anotherone wrote:Do y’all think the hens and juvies are going to arrive before the closing bell?

Some have, some won't. Don't generally bother looking at tails, but did this morning to show my guys the difference between the adults and juveniles after showing them wing sex ID. Didn't have to dig deep to find a ragged tail tip example.

Darren, my guys this morning have buddies who hunted Delacroix over the weekend and did zilch.

Rick wrote:Darren, my guys this morning have buddies who hunted Delacroix over the weekend and did zilch.

So I'm not the only one that pretend hunts and puts you goose egg numbers? I coulda limited on pelicans today.

Poor fellas.

BTW - like your Heron decoys Darren

Certainly ought to help draw visual attention.

Yea just like other areas, our teal are often found with egrets (and other various wading birds). Not because they are good friends or anything necessarily, but because the wading birds, like teal, need shallows, thus the egrets are part of our scheme to sell other birds on the water being sufficiently shallow.

Does it work? You should see how many other wading birds swoop in and put down their feet only to sink to their tail feathers and fly off to nearest tall bush dry them. The big white visibility aspect doesn't hurt either.

Haven't made a habit of using them in regular season but maybe this season.

Rick wrote:Darren, my guys this morning have buddies who hunted Delacroix over the weekend and did zilch.

I noted on the opener hunt that I likely could have killed a teal, had one in range at least, though recovery may have been tough so I passed. After getting back to the camp and collecting reports, seems we would have been the big kahuna's by a mile for not only seeing a teal in the region but actually firing on one. Sadly 1 bird would have been high blind for miles around !

Will scratched on his end of Delacroix this morning, said it was just dead. Regardless, headed down this evening to try 'em tomorrow on our end.

Sat. 9/17/2022
Delacroix lease
Johnny, my 3 YO son and I with Harry
Winds ENE 5-10+, 70s, light rain around when left camp, partly cloudy, high water


Sure hoped the report of “dead as a hammer” I got from yesterday a few miles from us could be proven at least partially wrong this morning but sure enough, same. Sure we were almost 15 mins late in setting up due to a redirect finding out the bridge was closed to marine traffic but doubt it mattered given not a single teal was seen. Nice handful of mottleds made appearances but that was it. Only a few shots heard in the distance, just very few teal on hand here which isn’t all that unusual. Other than no shooting ops, sons first marsh hunt went pretty darn well and he had a good time, shot egret dekes with BB gun and slept for the boat ride in.

DNS


Object of the exercise was a success at least





Also took advantage of the blind visit to add a dog stand step down for Harry and an experimental rail system of sorts that is designed to hang beaks the next time we may have any to be hung. With water up so high on the east winds blowing pretty good outside, called off any efforts for tomorrow. We’ll just hang tight and catch the LSU game down here this evening and hope for new birds the next trip out.

Great hunt, according to that last pic. Had a wee one giving my decoys hell with his Red Ryder last Saturday afternoon, and there's no question he was having the best hunt of our lot. Well...until they fired a shotgun volley when the boy didn't have his muffs on. He literally screamed and it took a mess of BBs to get him settled back down.

There's a reason I keep muffs for kids in my blind box.

Awesome work Darren! I haven’t been brave enough to take my 3 year old on a morning hunt yet. Only evening adventures so far. I have to remind myself he doesn’t care if we see a duck or not.

That is awesome! Have two grandsons and a granddaughter I hope to get interested in our passion.

Jumped a lil pile of teal ducks and mottleds in one of our public holes this afternoon so we gonna go see about that in the AM. It’s very small water so they’ll be awfully close if they show, but good many mottleds and teal using it this afternoon.

After leaving there committed to doing that tomorrow, went tidy up a couple blinds on the lease to close them up for teal and begin readying for November. Not a one mottled or teal seen in lease area so didn’t give me second thoughts about the current plan to head in opposite direction when we leave the camp in AM. Nearly back to camp, a three pack of blue wings buzzed right in front of my boat this afternoon against a slick calm MRGO ship channel, a sight sorely needed after the first three hunts we’ve had over this way.


We’ll go see….

Glad things are looking up! Good luck in the AM.

Sat. 9/24/2022
SE La public salt marsh
Wind NNE 5-10, 70s, clear skies
Johnny and I with Harry

Set up in what was a good collection of birds’ living room yesterday afternoon, and sure enough fair few teal and mottleds flushed on arrival this morning. Was some sporadic flight around us early but it flat died by 6:45a. Killed the only two we fired on, others that came didn’t want to finish, some never veered off their line and showed no interest. For sure this spot has the right habitat so likely will focus on it for Sept 2023.

2 BWT

Harry returning from across our tiny, shallow hole


Wasn’t the big haul I’d thought it had potential to be but was better than our previous few hunts by seeing low workable birds around. Closed up everything down that way and headed west tomorrow morning to close it out.

Darren wrote:...headed west tomorrow morning to close it out.

No pressure...

Rick wrote:

Darren wrote:...headed west tomorrow morning to close it out.

No pressure...

He'll be as excited as Boone in the morning


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Ericdc wrote:

Rick wrote:

Darren wrote:...headed west tomorrow morning to close it out.

No pressure...

He'll be as excited as Boone in the morning

Not a pretty thought, that.

Sun 9/25/2022 La Teal closer
South La fresh marsh
WFF Rick, Johnny, and I with Marsh
Wind nada, clear skies, fairly comfortable 70s

Had hoped our trek west would do us right just as it did this time last year and sure enough, couldn’t have been better. Birds were showing for us early and often, made our chances mostly count and it was over all too quick. Stayed a few minutes to shoot a few video clips from the boat hide (though missed some stellar chances earlier for good footage). Left em flying

Good people, food, etc etc, closes out our two weeks on a high note. Thanks again, Rick, really enjoyed it, albeit so short of a visit.

18 BW Teal (10 hens!)

What a finish! Glad Rick was able to perform under pressure.