2023-2024 Season Log

[Deltaman]

How do you spell relief??????
Glad y'all finally got some significant rainfall!

[DComeaux]

I just saw that it was raining pretty good, had no idea it was that much...


I can just hear it now, that dang rain has spread out the birds, the few that we had, are gone...

Split closes this weekend for two weeks. What fell in non hunted areas will be obsorded and or drain quickly.

[Rick]

I can just hear it now, that dang rain has spread out the birds, the few that we had, are gone...

Better to have them spread out and finding safety over a large area than banged out of a small one and out of the country when they get here. Have always thought of sheet water as a blessing that lets birds settle into the area and then feeds the guns in a more sustainable fashion as it drops.

[DComeaux]

I can just hear it now, that dang rain has spread out the birds, the few that we had, are gone...

Better to have them spread out and finding safety over a large area than banged out of a small one and out of the country when they get here. Have always thought of sheet water as a blessing that lets birds settle into the area and then feeds the guns in a more sustainable fashion as it drops.

I feel the same way. I told somone yesterday that we needed it for the ducks that are here, and those that are coming. They do need a place of rest and feed. I just want to sit in a blind and play in the water with my surface drive.

[Rick]

Just came back from giving puppy Call his first real chance to play in the water, albeit not swimming water but rip, roar and cut flips when you hit where the ditcher passed sheet water. He had a blast but remains far from worn out. Brother Marsh, on the other hand, had to take some breaks getting back to the truck and is crashed - but I'm thinking he had a fine time, too.

[Duck Engr]

Glad y’all have some water to play with!

[Rick]

Date: 12/2 Sat

Time: morning

Location: AW's and Daniel's blinds

Cloud Cover: fogged in most of the morning

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW light

Temperature: t-shirt

Moon phase: ?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw more squealers than anything else at AWs, perhaps because they wanted to pass on them.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: I teal whistled in the fog with occasional success. Squealers at Daniel's ate chatter and teasing with spinner up.

Hunters: 2, once a year Jim and much the same Ian

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: Daniel had pulled his spinner wires off their light switch and was apparently tapping them together for contact when wanted. Know that's what I did, same as I'd run my modified mallard machine splasher.

Curses: Wouldn't hide and couldn't hit and had next to no chance of killing more than another bird or two at AWs, which the big, slow squealers had abandoned before my guys decided to try shooting them.

Kudos: Daniel saved my bacon with a call to say he was done and his blind was loaded with squealers.

Birds By Species: 16 black-bellies, 1 gw teal and 1 shoveller

[Rick]

Date: 12/3 Sun

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: thick ground fog all hunt

Wind Direction and Velocity: westerly light

Temperature: comfortable

Moon phase: 'bout half

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw no "big ducks," few teal, a good many too fast passing jacks and a mess of squealers - mostly early when the guys were still wanting to pass on them.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Squealers responded well, teal poorly and jacks not at all. Lone lost Ross tolled to speck floaters and a couple barks - before requiring three, count 'em 3, "Shoot that"s." to convince the guys it was game.

Hunters: 2, Max and Andrew the former of which was trying to learn the game.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: spinner

Curses: Freakin' fog. And guys didn't want to move when we had the chance, not that it might not have worked out the same.

Kudos: Super nice guys seemed fine with it.

Birds By Species: 4 black-bellies, 1 gw teal, 1 ringneck and one Ross

[Rick]

Date: 12/11 Mon

Time: morning

Location: AW's and Daniel's blind

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light NE

Temperature: low 30s

Moon phase: waning 2%

Special Notes: second split opener

Waterfowl Activity: Didn't see pecans before LST, then wild teal everywhere when everyone started shooting. But, as has been the case all along, most nearby activity is over the open flats behind the blind, where I can't see most of them and most of them can't see our spinner, which is very close to the blind and hidden from them by the blind island.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Seemed someone was always shooting when we had something going. Moved to Daniel's blind after a call from him, and the last six we needed came quickly.

Hunters: 2, Steve and Chris

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: Liked Daniel's old style (like mine) a whole lot better than the new Mojos most of the camp is using.

Curses: none more serious than having a speck work everywhere around us but over the ugly island

Kudos: Nice guys shot well and had a big time.

Birds By Species: 5 black-bellies, 6 bw teal, 2 gw teal, 3 ringnecks and 2 shovellers

[Deltaman]

Glad to see you killing birds again, and good on Daniel for the move offer! Did you see many big ducks, or did the teal fest keep them blown out?

[Rick]

Did you see many big ducks, or did the teal fest keep them blown out?

Didn't see many big ducks at all, not even mottleds. Did get to work a very few mallards and grays, all blown out. Clark, however, had five mallards and a few grays and pintails less than 600 yards to my southeast. Said big ducks were everywhere, and may well have been behind me and working the flats in front of him - an area I'm careful not to poach.

[Rick]

Date: 11/12 Tue

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light NE

Temperature: 40ish

Moon phase: new?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Much less shooting in the marsh to make the birds fly crazy this morning, but still lots of teal and a few big ducks around, as well as an early squealer flight.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Teal behaved by far the best they have to date, and a lonesome young Ross tried to land on my speck call.

Hunters: 2, Matt and Lee

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: Pulled the camp's little spinner with no adjustments from the shadow of the blind island and installed one of my own bigger ones that will stop white down and with speed control for varying light conditions in a place where it's readily seen by low teal over the flats normally fly behind us yesterday afternoon. Sure seemed to make a big difference, as has the MMM splasher with nearby teal.

Curses: Zip, none, nadda.

Kudos: Matt and Lee were great company and shot well enough for us to be first out by a half hour or so.

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal, 1 gadwall, 14 gw teal, 2 shovellers and 1 Ross

[Duck Engr]

Very nice Rick! Glad you’ve been able to get your gadgets in place. Sounds as if it’s paying dividends already.

[Rick]

Very nice Rick! Glad you’ve been able to get your gadgets in place. Sounds as if it’s paying dividends already.

We'll see. This morning may well prove an anomaly.

[Darren]

Gunning the 15 teal was surely a hoot, and sweet payback now that you've got your long-proven, customized gadgetry in play.

[Rick]

Gunning the 15 teal was surely a hoot, and sweet payback now that you've got your long-proven, customized gadgetry in play.

Also had just swapped out the teal-tuned and trashy sounding Daisy Cutter that's been on my lanyard for the past however-many regular seasons for the cleaner but super loud teal-tuned Stanley Deceiver I've been using the past few Septembers and suspect it's been a help, as well. Don't know if it's possible to try too hard to pull teal from their favored lanes.

'Course, a single fast shoot is a mighty small sample.

[Rick]

Saw a SWLA public land string photo from Wed with 14 mallards, 4 banded.

[Rick]

Date: 12/15 Fri

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: clear to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: ENE strong

Temperature: chilly until the sun got up

Moon phase: waxing 10%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Reports from the past two days had been mostly poor, but we saw what should have been more than enough teal and spoons along with a smattering of big ducks and geese. Opted not to shoot squealers early, but didn't see many.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Better than ours, as we didn't do the best job of hiding or shooting. Finished a trio of reluctant pintails with purrs (and let a big group pass after adding a gray hen I thought was a hen pintail.). Also did our best to run off a trio of mottleds that came like mallards and a single mottled I'd have liked Ray Charles' odds on. Very nearly got a string of blues close enough with voice calling before they pushed from the duck rig and have no excuse, whatsoever for letting three specks get out.

Hunters: 2, Daniel and Blair

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: had trouble getting the spinner to stop as quickly as I would have liked in the wind and left it off until teal were targeted.

Curses: Either lost three teal or mis-clicked the pitch counter

Kudos: Guys might have been more interested in networking than killing, but fine company.

Birds By Species: 1 gadwall, 6 gw teal, 2 pintails, 1 ringneck and 5 shovellers

[DComeaux]

Nice!!

[Rick]

Date: 12/16 Sat

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: Heavy early and rain for most of the hunt

Wind Direction and Velocity: East mod to NW strong to NW mod

Temperature: thankfully fairly warm

Moon phase: waxing 18%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Just a very few birds moving until it had rained for a while - and none of the squealers we'd agreed to shoot to help avoid the rain until late in the hunt.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Teal flew crazy, as is their custom in rain.

Hunters: 2, Jason and ?

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: More than a few bunches plainly bumped from the spinner, but we drew more with it on. Can't see over the boat hide behind the blind where most of the low action is without standing on the seat, so I'm sure the spinner was drawing lookers I'd otherwise not have even known were there.

Curses: Shooting was much better than the hitting, but I ain't kickin', as ? was hitting some, even if he was into my shell reserve when we finished.

Kudos: Super nice guys.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellies, 2 bw teal, 13 gw teal and 1 spoon

[Duck Engr]

Can’t hit ‘em unless ya swingin!

[5 stand]

Glad you're back hunting...

[DComeaux]

Send those GW south.

[BGkirk]

Saw a SWLA public land string photo from Wed with 14 mallards, 4 banded.

My goodness. Would like to put my eyes on this photo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rick]

Send those GW south.

Ain't like we're not trying. Hit my 12ga reserves again.

[Rick]

My goodness. Would like to put my eyes on this photo.

Knowing the "boys" (one's about to become a first time father) who shot them, they'd probably rather I'd not even mentioned it. But they've hammered mallards in that same spot, while the rest of us are teal dependent, for several years without competition due to the labor involved. One of those places where anyone can, but damn few will.

[Rick]

Date: 12/17 Sun

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW fairly strong

Temperature: chilly

Moon phase: small

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: A lot slower than hoped with fewer teal and no squealers. But much as expected with NW, instead of NE.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully pretty good.

Hunters: 2, Barrett (from the same area I went to high school in) and Jess (born and raised in Grand Chenier and once guided at the Big Pecan Island camp yet had never shot a pintail)

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: spinner on for teal and off for big ducks (IE: SOP) and MMM

Curses: Filling out would have been nice but was far from necessary.

Kudos: Great morning in the blind with super fellows and plenty of common ground. And, as I was foolish enough to predict, we broke Jess' pintail curse.

Birds By Species: 2 bw teal, 2 gadwall, 6 gw teal, 1 mottled, 3 pintails and 2 ringnecks

[DComeaux]

Love it!

[Rick]

Date: 12/18 Mon

Time: morning

Location: AW's and Neal's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm

Temperature: 40s?

Moon phase: smallish

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Very little moving where we started, but lots of squealers around Neal's.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: What little we saw at AW's worked well, even the mottled.

Hunters: 2 Justin and Randy

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: spinner and MMM

Curses: Zip.

Kudos: Only had 6 ducks when Neal called to offer his blind after they filled on squealers, and Randy shot well.

Birds By Species: 12 black-bellies (all from Neal's), 1 gadwall, 3 gw teal, 1 mottled and 1 pintail

[Deltaman]

WOW, another Squealarama hunt, awesome!!!!!
Glad to see your reports Rick, and it sounds like you may get more goose chances in this area as opposed to your old mudhole.