2023-2024 Season Log

[DComeaux]

Date:

Birds By Species: 12 black-bellies

My, my!....What I would do with those delicious morsels.

[Rick]

...it sounds like you may get more goose chances in this area as opposed to your old mudhole.

There's something of an east/west and vice versa flight across Cherry Ridge that misses what was our marsh entirely. But I'm still on the wrong end of the marsh to catch the south to north flight the more easterly blinds see in both marshes.

[MARSH BEAR]

I am amazed at the number of black bellies y'all shoot. I can't remember anyone in our club killing one.
Good luck - keep up the good work

[Rick]

I am amazed at the number of black bellies y'all shoot. I can't remember anyone in our club killing one.

Cherry Ridge probably holds far more than any other single property in the state. Great hunt savers in slow times.

[Rick]

Date: 12/18 Tues

Time: morning

Location: Aw's and Neil's

Cloud Cover: mostly clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE fairly strong

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Dribs and drabs of assorted ducks at AWs and swarms of squealers at Neil's

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Birds were behaving well at my/AW's blind but not a lot of them so we moved to Neil's when he called to offer and found it much harder to get the body's attention against a wind that muted the whistle.

Hunters: 2, yet another Jason and Shawn

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: spinner and MMM

Curses: not kickin'

Kudos: Neil's call helped fill out nice guys

Birds By Species: 8 black-bellies (1 banded), 3 gw teal, 2 fulvous whistling, 2 pintail, 1 gadwall and 2 shovellers

[5 stand]

Blind hopping,( I'm going to call it), seems to be the berries... Pretty cool...

[Deltaman]

Pretty cool getting both species of the Whistling ducks the same day!!!!

[SpinnerMan]

Birds By Species: 8 black-bellies (1 banded), 3 gw teal, 2 fulvous whistling, 2 pintail, 1 gadwall and 2 shovellers

I love these mixed bags reports. Two species I've never gotten. One I've never even seen in the wild. I'm missing the photo ops though.

[Duck Engr]

Where was the duck banded?

[Rick]

Pretty cool getting both species of the Whistling ducks the same day!!!!

Until relatively recently, we'd never see the fulvous that summer here during the regular season. Hence the "Mexican squealer" nickname.

[Rick]

Where was the duck banded?

I don't keep them, so I've not heard from whichever of the guys ended up with it.

[Rick]

Date: 12/20 Wed

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: ENE moderate

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: waxing 52%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Not a lot of anything, but a little of everything with enough scattered movement that we turned down the chance to swap blinds.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Couldn't have been much better.

Hunters: 2, father, Shawn, and grown son, James.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Maybe the a BIG bunch of pintails broke from a mile high, worked beautifully then caught something and slid behind blind mostly too low to target.

Kudos: Nice guys and James shot lights out.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellies, 1 bw teal, 8 gw teal, 2 mallards, 1 pintail, 2 ringnecks and 2 shovellers

[Deltaman]

Glad to see the Mallards in your bag, and bummer on losing the Pintails before final commit. Thanks for your reports Rick

[Darren]

No pics these days?

[DComeaux]

NICE!!! I'm looking forward to the weekend.

[Rick]

No pics these days?

No dog work to commemorate or need for camp FB marketing hero shots.

[Darren]

True indeed, but some of these sound like some perty straps !

[Rick]

Date: 12/21

Time: morning

Location: AW's and Neil's

Cloud Cover: party

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly moderate

Temperature: chilly

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Much less activity than yesterday with long waits between birds at AW's, but two eagles kept the squealers moving at Neil's

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Fortunately fine.

Hunters: 2, Dub and his grandson, Hayes

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: ain't complaining

Kudos: Neil blessed us with a call when he finished, so we could use his blind.

Birds By Species: 12 black-bellies, 4 gw teal, 1 ringneck and 1 wigeon

[Deltaman]

Good on Neil for the call, and another BB beatdown

[Duck Engr]

Does cherry ridge observe the same curfew Doug had?

[Rick]

Doug's 9:30 marsh curfew was landowner imposed in our lease. Cherry Ridge owns its marsh and hunts until ten, which can sometimes make quite a difference for big ducks or on dense ground fog mornings.

[Rick]

Date: 12/22 Fri

Time: morning

Location: AW and Neil's

Cloud Cover: light/clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly moderate

Temperature: warm

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Next to nothing moving at AW's, and Neil noted the squealers had moved well east by the time they filled and was spot on, but with but three birds, we moved.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully good given our givens.

Hunters: 2, Dub and grandson, Hayes, again

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Had to leave at 9 before filling out.

Kudos: Pleasant morning.

Birds By Species: 9 black-bellies, 2 gw teal, 1 ringneck and 1 shoveller

[Ericdc]

Going to get real tough when your tree ducks leave...if they do.

Buddy of mine who had a pretty good spot in sweet lake area got 1 this morning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rick]

Date: 12/23 Sat

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE moderate

Temperature: warm

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Much better than the past couple days in terms of teal and a number of big ducks around, as well.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Working with a young dog turned out to be our priority.

Hunters: 2, Steve and Will

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Wildrose Kennel's bred and trained British Lab with fine manners but no marsh experience and a handler who wasn't ready to introduce such work.

Special Equipment: SOS, only with our dog man, Steve in the operator's position, so we had more than a few miscues there, as well.

Curses: Only that a greenhead that tolled beautifully was shot at too soon and chipped off far enough that I thought it kept going and Steve thought he had a mark on where it went down, and a long, fruitless search ensued to further deteriorate Pup's faith in his handling.

Kudos: Had a great time with great guys and a nice pup in spite of ourselves.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellies, 7 bw teal, 1 gadwall, 2 gw teal, 2 shovellers and 2 wigeon

[DComeaux]

Glad y'all have ducks.

[Rick]

Spoiled enough that not hunting every day is still eating my lunch, but blessed with good folks (not a sour one in the bunch - yet) and enough birds to keep it interesting. Though "ducks," as opposed to squealers, are in spooky short supply most days with virtually nothing that might be thought flight birds seen all season.

Has been a very little shooting on our old marsh a couple days this past week, first at Gabe's blind and then at Clydes, two of the three the family owning access were apt to hunt when they controlled the marsh. Guessing it's them, but whoever is struggling.

[DComeaux]

I was thinking about that for you. I was also wondering if anyone was hunting that other place.

[Rick]

Date: 12/25 Mon/Christmas

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW strong

Temperature: cool

Moon phase:

Special Notes: play day for guides and their friends

Waterfowl Activity: Apparently a lot more teal on the east end of the marsh, where east winds had nothing but squealers this week. West end of the marsh still had enough ducks to keep us interested, but not enough for us to pass on the squealers pushed our way by the east parties going out with their teal.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Just fine.

Hunters: 1, grandson Gauge

Guns:

Malfunctions: my last party had broken the spinner wiring getting out of the blind and the MMM was also inop for reasons yet unknown. Too windy to pull the trolling motor foot to test at home.

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: MMM inop, but I hillbilly rigged the spinner and fixed after the hunt.

Curses: None from me.

Kudos: Nice hunt with Gauge, who's new job kept him from hunting much less still guiding this year.

Birds By Species: 6 black-bellies, 3 bw teal, 1 gw teal and 2 pintails.

[DComeaux]

Awesome!

[5 stand]

"Hunters: 1, grandson Gauge"

Seems like a mighty fine way to spend a Christmas morning...