Regular Season 2023-2024

[5 stand]

"June. Made a nice search and recovery of a duck that fell in a swamp beyond an adjacent tree line"

This Trump's everything that happened before, even the sammich...


I hate the hard retrieves (in the heat of the moment) but feel so good when we're successful...

[Duck Engr]

"Wind Direction and Velocity: very light at my back, enough for me to smell June’s big dump she took right when we got there for most of the hunt"

Made me spit coffee with that remark

Haha glad my olefactory discomfort could provide some amusement.

[Duck Engr]

"June. Made a nice search and recovery of a duck that fell in a swamp beyond an adjacent tree line"

This Trump's everything that happened before, even the sammich...


I hate the hard retrieves (in the heat of the moment) but feel so good when we're successful...

Haha maybe. She has a long list of stuff to make up for (favorite chew toy is the hose pipe). It wasn’t pretty, and she didn’t see it fall and had to be boated to the tree line, but she saved me some steps in knee deep muck that I’m glad I didn’t have to take. May not have even found the bird if she hadn’t.

[Rick]

"Hose pipe" you from Houma?

[Duck Engr]

"Hose pipe" you from Houma?

Lol from L.A. (Lower Alabama).

[5 stand]

"Kudos: made one of the better shots of my life, which isn’t to say much as I don’t consider myself a crack shot. Pair came behind me overhead at treetop level. I didn’t see them until just after they’d passed me. Still managed to make an immediately lethal shot."

Good shot...
I left out the most important part, you have to have that before the retrieve...

[Duck Engr]

Date: 1/12/24

Time: morning before work/school

Location: timber farm

Cloud Cover: moderate. Rain inbound

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong from the ESE

Temperature: 51

Moon phase: small

Special Notes: Beau’s first hunt of the season. Finally got to full pool in the pond via a 2.5” rain Tuesday. This past weekend I had the kids on the cart sitting by the pond after deploying a game cam and had a group of 25 woodies and mergs try to come in while we sat there 30 minutes prior to dark. Knew fresh water would make it even more attractive.

Waterfowl Activity: saw 20-25 birds, all coming to the pond.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Beau stayed on the wood duck call the entire 15 minutes we hunted. He’s convinced he’s Kirk McCollough.

Hunters: Beau and I

Guns:

Malfunctions: Cart has a bad bearing so I was the horse. Beau walked the 1000 yards over in the dark, which I was thankful for. Rode on my shoulders on the way out.

Dog(s): June finally got to see some action. Did ok. Marked much better than she has in previous hunts. Retrieved the hen out of the water but didn’t want to pick it up again. Made a little training session out of it.

Special Equipment:

Curses: Zero complaints

Kudos: Beaus second duck hunt and first ducks he’s ever seen taken.

Birds By Species: 3 wood ducks. Left them still flying, though I believe the stragglers were mergansers.

Photo Ops:
“Dad these birds are heavy”.

Lagniappe: have the blind framed out and in the middle of the pond but haven’t decked it or put sides on it. Beau was a little chirpy about that but decided the bank was ok. Would’ve been easier shooting out there but turned out ok without it. Pond is about 75 yards across. Less of a problem losing sight of them below the trees now because we cut most of our trees this fall due to short leaf disease.

[Rick]

And, just like that, all of the work on the pond was well worth it.

[Deltaman]

Good job dad, and glad some birds cooperated! Beau is growing up fast!!!!!!

[DComeaux]

SWEET!!

[5 stand]

Sure did enjoy reading that, and I'm with Deltaman, Beau is growing up fast...

[Duck Engr]

Thanks guys. Really enjoyed getting to see his excitement. He bounced right out of bed this morning ready to go.

[Duck Engr]

Fell way behind on my logs so here’s my attempt to catch up. Beau seemed to enjoy our duck hunt so he stayed in my ear the rest of January about going. We were able to make a couple more quick hunts before school.

[Duck Engr]

Date: 1/19/24

Time: morning before work/school

Location: 1 acre wood duck pond

Cloud Cover: frontal passage right at daybreak. Mostly overcast

Wind Direction and Velocity: brisk from west to northwest

Temperature: low 40s

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: plenty but my shootin was better than my hittin.

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Hunters: Beau and I

Guns:

Malfunctions: bent barrel

Dog(s): June. Hunted up a cripple out of the brush for me that I probably wouldn’t have found. Still not doing great marking. It’s like she freaks out and forgets to look. Realistically it’s my fault for not doing more training with her where the bird falls outside of my arm’s range.

Special Equipment:

Curses:

Kudos: Another day afield with my boy, and it seems like he’s really taking to it. He bounces right out of bed every time I wake him up. He won’t do that for anything else.

Birds By Species: 1 wood duck

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

[Darren]

Sounds like the hook is set really nicely for the '24 season with your lil man.

[Duck Engr]

Sounds like the hook is set really nicely for the '24 season with your lil man.

I sure hope so! He ought be able to get after it a little harder next year. He wasn’t ready for dark boat rides this year but maybe he will be at 6 next year. Still have to be selective about where I take him.

[Duck Engr]

Date: 1/26/24

Time: morning before work and school

Location: wood duck pond

Cloud Cover: mostly cloudy with some ground fog.

Wind Direction and Velocity: light and variable

Temperature: warm. Upper 50s.

Moon phase: getting big

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: woodies were mostly absent save for a pair that we let go so that hopefully they’ll reproduce. We didn’t have much food in the pond due to the drought, so I didn’t expect the wood ducks to hang around long. Several pairs of mergansers and a group of 6 of them worked the pond as we left.

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Hunters: Beau and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): June. She made nice easy retrieves on both birds. Still not seeing them fall but water surface was clean so she saw them easily on the water when I lined her up on them.

Special Equipment:

Curses: none

Kudos: Beau decided he’d walk some on the way back too, saving the pack mule some sweat.

Birds By Species: 2 hooded mergansers.

Photo Ops:
“Take my picture with the ducks Dad”


“Look Dad, God painted the sky! Take my picture.”

Then proceeds to stand like a goof and not look at the camera.


Lagniappe: last Alabama hunt for us, as I departed later that morning for a trip. Had wanted to go each of the two previous weekends but work tied me down. My friends had really good hunts all week of the freeze and made sure I knew what I was missing.

[Rick]

Kids.

[Deltaman]

Glad Beau has taken a shine to duck hunting, and great pictures dad, he's getting big!

[Duck Engr]

Glad Beau has taken a shine to duck hunting, and great pictures dad, he's getting big!

Thanks Deltaman! He’s finally started to slow down and take some time to eat. Couldn’t get him to quit playing long enough to eat for the longest time. Thought momma was going to get her wish for him to stay little forever.

[Duck Engr]

Date: 1/27/24

Time: morning, got to the ramp late by Public land standards but didn’t feel like sitting in the cold rain longer than I had to.

Location: river

Cloud Cover: heavy with rain from the time we unloaded the boats till the time we put them back on the trailers. Despite rain jackets we were all wet from the waist up.

Wind Direction and Velocity: moderate to strong NNE.

Temperature: 42 but felt a lot colder.

Moon phase: big

Special Notes: ice was still present in the woods early that morning but the rain finally finished it off by lunch.

Waterfowl Activity: saw a fair number of ducks for going in blind. Not many low or looking though.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: I’d say less than fair. Wasn’t able to break any ducks. If the low ones made more than one circle they weren’t going to do it. Had best luck with ducks crossing east to west downwind and hitting them with a loud aggressive feeding call. Most of what we killed turned and came straight in.

Hunters: 3

Guns:

Malfunctions: got beat to a spot we’ve never seen anyone hunt before. There was not one but two groups in there. Had to fall back to plan C.

Had a group of 6 land in the decoys while I was back at my boat getting June’s vest and the guys were unloading from the other boat after a decoy retrieval mission. All got out unscathed.

Dog(s): June and Scout.

Special Equipment:

Curses: rain.

Kudos: Game wardens said we were the high boat they’d checked when we got back to the ramp, so I guess we made the most of the cards we were dealt.

Birds By Species: 4 mallards. 1 gadwall.

Photo Ops: too wet.

Lagniappe:

[Deltaman]

Sucks when it won't stop raining, but y'all shot some quality ducks, despite getting beaten to your preferred spot, good yob

[Duck Engr]

Date: 1/28/24

Time: morning till 10. Previous day’s evening scout wasn’t impressive anywhere, so we picked an old favorite spot we’d had luck late season before. We were the only boats at the ramp (ominous sign)

Location: river

Cloud Cover: heavy clouds early moving to a higher ceiling and eventually clearing after lunch.

Wind Direction and Velocity: started decent from northwest before petering out.

Temperature: 30

Moon phase: big

Special Notes: I don’t think that stretch of river had even been driven by anyone recently as I was bull dozing log jams on my way down river.

Waterfowl Activity: not near what we saw the previous day, but what was low was willing to listen.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: responsiveness was pretty good including a duck turning the hardest I’ve ever seen. Looked like a zero turn lawnmower. Of course that one circled about 20 times before it left, getting higher with each circle.

Hunters: 3

Guns:

Malfunctions: Jason was in his boat behind me on the way in and evidently chose wrong on one log jam because I looked back just in time to see his lightbar up at a 45 degree angle before his boat nose slammed back down. Said it took till about 9 am for his butt to depucker.

Dog(s): Scout and June. Scout made a nice chase and retrieve on a lively teal cripple.

Special Equipment:

Curses:

Kudos:

Birds By Species: 3 mallards (lost a 4th Houdini cripple) and 3 teal.

Photo Ops:


Lagniappe:

[Deltaman]

.....and all drakes, nice!!!!

[Duck Engr]

Doin our best to avoid the cows!

[5 stand]

I enjoy reading about the Alabama, hunts... Good times, right there...

[Duck Engr]

Annual turkey hunt post.

With 3 kids, my turkey hunting time has taken a significant hit over the last couple years. However, my 5 year old son, Beau, has taken an interest in going with me, starting last year, which ended with him being asleep in my lap when I killed a turkey. Goal for this year was to kill a turkey while he’s awake and watching!

4/5/24. 38 degrees, clear, calm wind. Perfect turkey hunting conditions. Beau, my dad, and I hunting. First setup was a bust. No gobbles within 700-800 yards, and those were off property. Heard a few hens close but never saw them. Went over to scheme with my dad when I heard a hen yelp real close. Took me a second to realize it was Beau using my slate call. He’s been practicing in our back yard and sounded pretty good. Thought we’d heard a turkey gobble a half mile down the creek to our south, so walked back across the crossing and sure enough, he was double and triple gobbling on his own. Got as close as we dared without being seen and sat down 500 or so yards away from him, just over the last hill between us and the turkey. We yelped at him with box calls and our slates. No response. 10 minutes or so later he gobbled on his own again, but I couldn’t tell if he’d halved the distance or walked over another hill due to the sound echo around the terrain. Another ten minutes passed, and my dad decided to give his old reliable mouth yelper a try. He gave the roughest, raspiest sequence I’ve ever heard, and just as I was rolling over to tell him how bad it sounded, the dang turkey gobbled just 100 yards away over the hill. 5 more minutes and another yelp and gobble and I see the turkey’s head pop up at 70 yards. About that time, Beau, sitting in my gobbler lounger, started to squirm. I got on to him for it and he said, “but dad, there’s an inch worm crawling down my pants into my boot!” I told him to forget the worm, we got a turkey to kill! About that time the turkey gobbled as he stood at 60 yards. That was all he needed to forget about the inch worm. He sat perfectly still as the turkey methodically made his march in to 35 yards where I made the shot. Not sure who was more excited, me or Beau. This was Beau’s first hunt of the year and the second hunt in a row where he’s seen me kill a turkey. Reality will hurt him when we go on the inevitable string of unsuccessful hunts.

Good turkey, 1 1/4” very sharp spurs and a 10” beard. Not very heavy, but our birds don’t get very big in that area for some reason.

[Rick]

Good goin'. And you're right, Beau's probably ruined and gonna be bummed when reality comes around.

[DComeaux]

Sweet!

[5 stand]

Dang, what a fine morning, thanks for sharing...