Looking ahead...

[Rick]

Launching long marks into crawfish water remains hazardous, as we're not very far along with his casting conditioning and keeping casts short. Couple mornings ago I launched a long one (using a bumper good for about 110yds barring strong head or tail winds) and found when i turned to release him (after marking the fall, myself) that our hero was watching blackbirds in the new rice behind us. Not wanting to lose a $20 bumper or go get it myself, we tried running it as a blind that he broke down and started hunting well short on, and I ended up having to wade out, cut the distance to the bumper to that which he'd gone straight and send him again - successfully that time.

Sloshed the next couple miles in shrimp boots that kept needing drained of my soaked-to-the-pockets jeans' runoff before trying to prove I'd learned nothing that morning. That time Call watched the launch and had a mark but got steered off course to it by a pair of low passing white bec croix/ibis. Wanted to kick myself with a still wet foot, but got lucky and a left cast got him from where his diverted line broke down to where he could scent and retrieve the bumper.

Better believe I looked both ways for birds before this morning's launch. Pretty sure, though that I've already posted where we ought to be with marks in the face of avian diversions before next season, but here's a clip of his predecessor, Marsh, maintaining focus on his mark amidst a swarm of birds, somewhat like marking what falls from a flight of ducks:


Have gotten away with something similar using short launches beginning with 50yd? fat canvas bumper only partly seated on the launcher, but the first time I launched a real flyer into a mess of bec croix was the first time I took a cold water soaking with Call. Won't try it again until his handling is much farther along.

[DComeaux]

I'll probably get a launcher in the near future. Rimi has calmed just a tiny bit and the need to cut my hands open has eased up. I actually started wearing gloves when handling her to help lessen the number of incisions on my hands. It's painfully slow going right now but I noticed a change this afternoon that seems she may be leaving her wild puppy stage.

[Rick]

I'll probably get a launcher in the near future. Rimi has calmed just a tiny bit and the need to cut my hands open has eased up. I actually started wearing gloves when handling her to help lessen the number of incisions on my hands. It's painfully slow going right now but I noticed a change this afternoon that seems she may be leaving her wild puppy stage.

Was a day of celebration when Call lost his last puppy canine right at 5 months. Still manic at times, but far less often. Don't know if it's his maturing, my sometimes literal steady bind on it or, likely, both. But there's hope!

[Deltaman]

Great video Rick! I still think of Marsh as a puppy, and look forward to watching Call progress as he matures.

Dave, totally understand the use of gloves At our age (you too Rick ), damn crepe paper skin sucks, and I sure wish we healed like we were 16 years old again.

[DComeaux]

damn crepe paper skin sucks, and I sure wish we healed like we were 16 years old again.

Nothing but the truth.

[Rick]

Hate it for you old folks.

[Deltaman]

Yeh, Yeh, Yeh............

[Rick]

Call hit another month mark today, his seventh, but I'm at a loss to report much tangible progress since the last such milestone. Can now fire a bumper into a wad of crawfish thieving cormorants without fear of them leading him astray and my having to wade, but that's about it.

Where two of his predecessors, Blue and Peake, were passing HRC Seasoned tests and working commercially in their seventh months, Call is still untrustworthy on even simple doubles, let alone triples or more in serious cover, and only sometimes taking handling casts correctly, much less consistently and as far as may need be. That, and he's still prone to periodic manic wilding sprees that my efforts and/or his maturing have only decreased in frequency and duration. Gator safe OB? Only sometimes - which ain't gator safe.

So Call remains, as his breeder put it, "a handful," but much of where he's falling short is on me. Need to get over the mindset that we've still six months to right our ship. Need to better organize our time and get after it.

[DComeaux]

I've given up on having Remi ready for this season, and I'm going to only focus on getting each command learned and polished. We'll get there in time. She just began her 5th month of life and is still very much in the puppy wild child stage, although it's dampening some.

[Rick]

Call flushed a pair of blue-wings from the same spot on a farm road levee the past two mornings, so I'd guess they were considering it for a homestead - a bad idea give how much coyote scat can be found along that road. Yesterday they flew off, but only went 40 or so yards before landing this morning, so Call took it upon himself to move them along to hopefully safer ground. Have had to run a few pairs out of similar trouble spots several times before they got the message in springs past.

[Rick]

teal pair was in their spot along a coyote-traveled farm road again yesterday but not this morning, so we, or the migration urge, may have moved them on to a hopefully safer homestead.

And Call was doing short doubles in hinky enough places to display the real, honest to gosh focus and memory that his previous lack of had been worrying pee out of me. Also nailed a long launch into patchy duck potato for good measure. So things are continuing to look up on that important front. Still well behind his predecessors at his age, but his future is looking bright.

[DComeaux]

Glad it's starting to come together.

[Darren]

Shallow ponds on Grand Isle were full of blue wings over the weekend.

[Rick]

Our blue-wing pair, or another with the exact same taste in real estate was back in their spot yesterday, and flew just far enough that Call didn't follow-up before landing - to await our passage? The few others we're still seeing appear to have safer preferences, but it's still much too soon to say if any with summer over.