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That pretty young lady looks oh so happy. I'd feel mighty blessed.

Beautiful box of blues, and glad to see that some ducks cooperated as well. Happy Birthday Dave, albeit belated

Date: 12/3/2022

Temp - 66

Cloud Cover: low overcast and thick at times, fog

Wind Direction and Velocity: None. We could hear conversations in blinds a 1/4 mile away.

Waterfowl Activity: A lot of teal in the area

Waterfowl Responsiveness: GOOD

Hunters: Me and Blake

Birds By Species: 3 BW 9 GW


We'd peep and quack often in that fog and they'd cover us up. The visibility was enough that we had a chance to prepare for the shoot. We were a little late getting to the blind and while getting in the blind we missed an opportunity on a 30-bird flock, but it turned out okay. We finished up @ 7:45.

The traps are producing well. We ended up with a little over 10 dozen this weekend.

Date: 12/4/2022

Temp - 62

Cloud Cover: low overcast

Wind Direction and Velocity: Light NE occasional light mist

Waterfowl Activity: A lot of teal in the area

Waterfowl Responsiveness: GOOD

Hunters: Me and Blake

Birds By Species: 3 BW 9 GW



Same exact species count as yesterday. Not as fast as yesterday but it was fun. We finished at 10:20 but had plenty of opportunity to finish earlier. The straps were colorful.

Wow what a weekend!! Nice work DC!

Duck Engr wrote:Wow what a weekend!! Nice work DC!

Thanks, I had a blast. Now we wait two weeks.

Mighty Fine !!

They found you! (Now send 'em back up.)

Rick wrote:They found you! (Now send 'em back up.)

I think we'll hang on to those for a while, thank you, or we'd swap you for some "big" ducks?

DComeaux wrote:

Rick wrote:They found you! (Now send 'em back up.)

I think we'll hang on to those for a while, thank you, or we'd swap you for some "big" ducks?

? Duck possession is the ones on the strap.
Which state actually is responsible when one crashes into my car?
Assateague might say something like that.
Remember?

DComeaux wrote:I think we'll hang on to those for a while, thank you, or we'd swap you for some "big" ducks?

"Big ducks?" The days when I could tell my guys not to sweat all that shooting on our more broken marsh, because we'd beat 'em on weight are behind us.

Rick wrote:

DComeaux wrote:I think we'll hang on to those for a while, thank you, or we'd swap you for some "big" ducks?

"Big ducks?" The days when I could tell my guys not to sweat all that shooting on our more broken marsh, because we'd beat 'em on weight are behind us.

I know the feeling.

What a sweet camp weekend, DC!? Glad for yall, surely enjoying the hard work on the camp.

TEN doz crabs!!

Teal-A-Rama, and one helluva mess-o-crabs
Congrats Dave!!!!!!!

Nice Finish DC. Seems like most had a good first split.

First Split totals

Gadwall - 6
Green wing - 36
Blue wing - 17
Scaup - 2
Shoveler - 4
snow goose - 1

65 ducks and 1 goose in 8 hunts- all two man hunts - plus one DNS outing (attempt) between rain showers that had us in the blind for maybe one hour. Without teal you can see where we'd be.

If anyone is wondering what to get me for Christmas, I would like 5 dozen AvianX top flight gadwall decoys.

DComeaux wrote:First Split totals

Gadwall - 6
Green wing - 36
Blue wing - 17
Scaup - 2
Shoveler - 4
snow goose - 1

65 ducks and 1 goose in 8 hunts- all two man hunts - plus one DNS outing (attempt) between rain showers that had us in the blind for maybe one hour. Without teal you can see where we'd be.

If anyone is wondering what to get me for Christmas, I would like 5 dozen AvianX top flight gadwall decoys.

Without teal youre hunting in east central illinoiz
Hehe

Date: 12/17/2022 Opening day of second split

Temp - Mid 40's and falling during the morning

Cloud Cover: Overcast

Wind Direction and Velocity: 10 to 15 NNE

Waterfowl Activity: seen a few groups of GW and a few Gadwall

Waterfowl Responsiveness: POOR

Hunters: Me, Bennett, and Blake

Birds By Species: 1 GW 1 scaup

We had missed opportunities. I DNS, Blake shot once and missed, and Bennett took both birds. Once missed opportunity was when Bennett took the scaup. We had a 30 or 40 bird flock of GW approaching from our left into the wind set for the decoys. Blake and I were down with gun in hand and had those in sight when Bennett fired a shot. When I turned while yelling his name, I saw the lone scaup falling into the decoys, while the out-of-range teal flared and left with the wind. He said he saw only that one bird and thought we were waiting for him to shoot. We'll try again in the morning, just Blake and me.

Crabs are thick. 2 shy of 7 dozen today.

That’ll work for a consolation prize!

Did Bennett get excommunicated for screwing up that op?

Duck Engr wrote:That’ll work for a consolation prize!

Did Bennett get excommunicated for screwing up that op?

Pro'lly just "time out," but I can certainly commiserate with the attendant frustration.

Duck Engr wrote:
Did Bennett get excommunicated for screwing up that op?

Nah.... He was only to hunt this one hunt.

Date: 12/18/2022

Temp - 30's frost

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NNE light to start then 10 to 15

Waterfowl Activity: very few seen

Waterfowl Responsiveness: N/A

Hunters: Me and Blake

Birds By Species: DNS

Very quiet this morning. Heard only a few (very few) shots in our immediate area. Reports from our campground neighbors and more were the same, poor. One of our camp neighbor's hunts a well-managed property about mile and a half due west of our blind and they are holding a few birds. They limited out both days with pintail, teal and spoonbill. I'm not sure we're going to make any hunts next weekend in that forecasted extreme cold. With Christmas on Sunday the logistics will also be a deterrent, especially with the current state of our waterfowl numbers. Blake and I got the camper and other water lines prepped today for the forecasted extreme and extended low temps at the end of the week.

They didn't move for us yesterday either. Still around, just sat.

Sorry you did not have great hunts, but the seafood is great.

You guys had a few good hunts. That strap of drake teal looks nice. Only problem with teal is how many we can shoot. They are great table fare, take up less room in filled freezers, and not many will pass on a drake blue-wing teal...I don't.
It's those crabs! Beautiful, sweet crabs in cold water taste so great. Sounds and looks like you guys are having a great season, and a great time. No reason on a DNS to take away from your fun. They happen, and it's great to be out there anyway. Thanks for sharing and Bon Appétit .

Bud wrote:You guys had a few good hunts. That strap of drake teal looks nice. Only problem with teal is how many we can shoot. They are great table fare, take up less room in filled freezers, and not many will pass on a drake blue-wing teal...I don't.
It's those crabs! Beautiful, sweet crabs in cold water taste so great. Sounds and looks like you guys are having a great season, and a great time. No reason on a DNS to take away from your fun. They happen, and it's great to be out there anyway. Thanks for sharing and Bon Appétit .

Thanks Bud. We're not discouraged, and had a conversation about that this weekend. I think I have finally given up on, or have accepted that I'll never have the experiences with fowl as I once did in my younger years. We'll just take what comes and pay the man what I can afford for a piece of private land to sit and watch the sun rise. ......Unless I win the lottery.

DComeaux wrote:

Bud wrote:You guys had a few good hunts. That strap of drake teal looks nice. Only problem with teal is how many we can shoot. They are great table fare, take up less room in filled freezers, and not many will pass on a drake blue-wing teal...I don't.
It's those crabs! Beautiful, sweet crabs in cold water taste so great. Sounds and looks like you guys are having a great season, and a great time. No reason on a DNS to take away from your fun. They happen, and it's great to be out there anyway. Thanks for sharing and Bon Appétit .

Thanks Bud. We're not discouraged, and had a conversation about that this weekend. I think I have finally given up on, or have accepted that I'll never have the experiences with fowl as I once did in my younger years. We'll just take what comes and pay the man what I can afford for a piece of private land to sit and watch the sun rise. ......Unless I win the lottery.

This is true but proving it ...just humor me.
If you study the graph the peaks and valleys coincide exactly with wet- dry cycle of the duck factory.
It will be good again.
Science...

Population crashes during droughts.
Duhhhh

What a sweet box of crabs......... to heck with the ducks, take what the marsh is willing give ya

Date: 12/26/2022

Temp - 32

Cloud Cover: clear with clouds approaching from the west

Wind Direction and Velocity: ESE 5 to 10

Waterfowl Activity: pretty good for a change

Waterfowl Responsiveness: not good

Hunters: Me, Justin, and David D.

Birds By Species: 5 spoonbill 1 BW

I came really close to not going down there yesterday evening when Blake had to cancel. I finally decided to go midafternoon when my son said he'd go with me. David hunts with a camp neighbor who hadn't hunted this weekend, and he was chomping at the bid to get in a blind, so he drove out this morning to meet us.
The spoonbill have arrived in force. We did see a fair amount of gadwall and teal but they'd skirt us. Had a large sized group of vocal pintail come over, but they did what they do. The big NW wind we had with the front had made a mess of the decoys and I really didn't feel like dealing with it in the dark, so we made the hunt as they were.
Ellie got extremely chilled in that wind this morning after a retrieve and it had me really concerned for a bit. I put her in the blind for a while and monitored her condition. I put her back out once we could feel the sun and she seemed to perk up a bit. I will start looking for her replacement very soon.

-32 wow


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