Eric's log book

[Ericdc]

I haven't seen any. We did have one come out of a body today and land in our field, but it flew off later when we shot.


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[Darren]

Nice hunt, bet those decoys were lookin really good in all that wind.

[Ericdc]

The silo's were moving a little too much early I think or the geese were just being finicky most of the morning.


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[Ericdc]

Date: 12/3/22

Time: hung with it until noon

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: heavy to heavier to lifting to clear to partly to mostly

Wind Direction and Velocity: SW 5-10 then almost calm for a little bit then NW to N to NE 10-15 mph

Temperature: 60's to slightly cooler later in morning

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: got to bring a good friend to the pit for first time and call in a speck for him

Waterfowl Activity: pretty slow early then a pretty good flurry when sky cleared and wind shifted

Waterfowl Responsiveness: speck did good enough. Blue goose (definitely with flu) led the speck in. Blue almost crashed he came so hard. Knew he was sick when he didn't fly off after shooting speck...sad.
Had several ducks work and not finish. Pretty frustrating but chalking it up to local birds stirred by front.

Hunters: me Blake and Tom

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): me and Blake

Special Equipment: none

Kudos: we have come close to scratching this year but are only getting 5-8 each hunt.

curses: we have very few teal around and what's around won't work. Just having a lot of trouble finishing ducks so far this year.

Birds By Species:
1 speck
1 blue
1 snow (flu bird that sat in field all morning and was put out of misery as we left)
1 gadwall
1 green winged teal
1 shoveler

Photo Ops:




Front passage


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[Darren]

This flu stuff is a bummer, hate to see an animal suffering, and reportedly dying in such numbers. You hearing of bigger numbers being found dead?

[Ericdc]

This flu stuff is a bummer, hate to see an animal suffering, and reportedly dying in such numbers. You hearing of bigger numbers being found dead?

I've seen videos from Arkansas.


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[Duck Engr]

Was that snow a juvy or adult? Have been told it’s mostly confined to juvenile birds.

[Ericdc]

The snow was a juvie, blue was a big juvie.


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[Ericdc]

We've had a few better and a few worse first splits at farm.

Positives:

new guys like the place and are glad they joined ranks

I've called in specks every hunt that I've made.

We haven't had any scratches or really bad hunts.

Negatives:

We need teal to show up if we are going to come close to any limits.

Ducks are getting harder to kill each season.

Hoping as we get into 2nd split, ducks will favor our big spinnerless spread.


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[Ducaholic]

Need weather surge none in sight!

[Darren]

Need weather surge none in sight!

Models been pretty steady with a moderate front mid-next week, then another a bit stronger for Fri-Sat ballpark next weekend for 2nd split opener. Will show em on my preseason thread soon

Hang tight, this week and upcoming weekend are junk, be thankful we're not burning hunt days on this weather.

[Ducaholic]

Need weather surge none in sight!

Models been pretty steady with a moderate front mid-next week, then another a bit stronger for Fri-Sat ballpark next weekend for 2nd split opener. Will show em on my preseason thread soon

Hang tight, this week and upcoming weekend are junk, be thankful we're not burning hunt days on this weather.

The latter is looking pretty good

[Ricky Spanish]

Need weather surge none in sight!

Models been pretty steady with a moderate front mid-next week, then another a bit stronger for Fri-Sat ballpark next weekend for 2nd split opener. Will show em on my preseason thread soon

Hang tight, this week and upcoming weekend are junk, be thankful we're not burning hunt days on this weather.

The latter is looking pretty good

Been watching a certain weather channel.
Says this current storm has/had potential to spawn tornadoes like last year. Should be followed by a period where the entire Midwest is calm and dry. The calm before the storm. The next storm looks like it'll dump snow in the Dakotas...upper mid-west I may even get a dusting. The next storm however has big potential.
Will be a polar plunge again BUT this guy keeps saying "the next one is a doozy".
I don't know. If he's right I'll be driving thru snow to Arkansas.

[Ducaholic]

Be safe but I hope you do

[Darren]

This should NOT be taken as a forecast, but you can plainly see that the models are bullish on cold for the foreseeable after mid next week. This is leading up to Christmas and showing some serious cold for the upper half of the US

Capture.JPG

Could waver tomorrow but something to watch.

[Ericdc]

Certainly better than the last few Decembers.


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[Ducaholic]

If that holds I'm down! I especially like the minimal differential between the lows and highs. Anytime you stay below 50 for the high its generally pretty good this way!

[Ducaholic]

If that holds I'm down! I especially like the minimal differential between the lows and highs. Anytime you stay below 50 for the high its generally pretty good this way!

[Ducaholic]

So much so I said it twice lol

[Ricky Spanish]

Want to see a different kind of forecast where stuff never thaws?
It's coming.
Temp range: high of 33 (maybe) low in the teens.

[Ericdc]

Headed to Arkansas for the weekend. (Not hunting), but going to make a quick stop in Stuttgart for some Christmas shopping and then head to Little Rock.

My wife and I usually try to do something each year on the split weekend.

Hope to see a lot of birds around the Grand Prairie today.


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[Duck Engr]

Should be more water on the landscape.

[Darren]

Should be more water on the landscape.

With a big rain next week.

Enjoy the outing with the Mrs., Eric. This weekend is exactly for that kind of stuff, we got a full slate this weekend and I get to actually fully enjoy it with the season closed.

[Ricky Spanish]

Headed to Arkansas for the weekend. (Not hunting), but going to make a quick stop in Stuttgart for some Christmas shopping and then head to Little Rock.

My wife and I usually try to do something each year on the split weekend.

Hope to see a lot of birds around the Grand Prairie today.


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try and stay away from DeWitt

[Ericdc]

Lot of geese in the Stuttgart area but didn't see many ducks at all from the highways we were on.


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[Ricky Spanish]

Lot of geese in the Stuttgart area but didn't see many ducks at all from the highways we were on.


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If you'd went by the wma I bet you would have. You just.went to macks eh?

[Ericdc]

Stopped into RNT for a quick call tuning and a cold one, then stopped in Mack's.

Did see a lot of sheet water and pumped fields but it was just about all geese except for a few fields full of shovelers.

I'm sure there are plenty of other ducks around in other habitats.


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[Ericdc]

Date: 12/17/22 2nd split opener

Time: left at 10:30

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: high cloud bank cleared to allow sun around 9 am

Wind Direction and Velocity: light SW to W 5-10 mph to WNW 10 mph

Temperature: mid 30's to 40's

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: a bunch of ducks, mostly gadwall and spoons made our south cut their home during split and poured in all morning completely ignoring decoys and calls.

Waterfowl Activity: watched the local fall morning. Some geese out of north once sky cleared

Waterfowl Responsiveness: very poor

Hunters: 4 members

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Kudos: farm didn't flood from big rains Tuesday night

curses: no teal

Birds By Species:
1 mallard
1 shoveler
2 green winged teal

Photo Ops:

3 years ago today in same place we got em



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[Ericdc]

Date: 12/19/22

Time: finished around 10:05

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clouds with a little peak of sun after sunrise then heavy clouds with off and on light sprinkles with maybe some sleet early

Wind Direction and Velocity: light easterly and calm at times

Temperature: upper 30's and holding

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: solo hunt and patience

Waterfowl Activity: other than locals, pretty dead. Geese were in rice stubble about 7 miles west of me. All snows

Waterfowl Responsiveness: teal very good, everything else bad

Hunters: me

Guns:

Malfunctions: gun didn't cycle on first opp then thankfully did fine on big op

Dog(s): me

Special Equipment:

Kudos: let em get right

Had 3 teal come in early and land. Got 1 on water and gun didn't feed. Swapped shells and then didn't touch gun until 10:05. Was looking for birds with binoculars and saw a wad coming up the river from south. Was 50 or so green wings. Peeped really loud with the matt pierce whistle and pulled them to me. Had to give them about 5 passes to get them bunched up over the decoys. Shot 3 times and killed 5 drakes.

First good bunch of teal for me all year.

curses: very few specks around

Birds By Species:

6 green winged teal

Photo Ops:









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[Ricky Spanish]

Nice.
There has to me more details on the gun misfire.
Binelli click?
Sorry... mean question but I'm curious.
I tend to forget to reload sometimes.