Preseason

[Ericdc]

Rode up to the farm Sunday evening. First time I've had a field full of rice since the fall of 2016.

Good Johnson grass growing around pit

Looking southwest

Looking northeast

Looking west

Dividing levee road looking west from east end of field

Did some trailer shopping at a highly recommended builder. Will go back during business hours at some point this summer. They make nice trailers.



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[DComeaux]

Looking good!

[Darren]

Field and trailers lookin great !

[Deltaman]

Purdy.....

[Ericdc]

Just had a good visit with him one of my lease members.

We are going to go opposite of last year's big spread.

Going to use 5 dozen or so duck decoys and pick them up each day.

Don't know yet how many of the speck silo's we'll use each day, out of the 60 I have, but probably won't use all 60.

The 2 other guys in my lease are in their 60's so it says a lot for them being willing to pick them to each day and try a different route.

Will make end of year cleanup a lot easier.


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[DComeaux]

I would love to pick up every weekend, I just can't build up the courage to do so. On occasion the weather (wind) would make it a chore in our marsh to deploy in the dark and pick up after the Sunday hunt.

[Ericdc]

I would love to pick up every weekend, I just can't build up the courage to do so. On occasion the weather (wind) would make it a chore in our marsh to deploy in the dark and pick up after the Sunday hunt.

It'll be easy for us to hide them in between hunts on the big levee road blind is in, under some camo burlap or something.

Placing and picking up 50-60 duck decoys in our field won't be tough at all.

Just set with the wind each day and see what happens,


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[Rick]

Placing and picking up 50-60 duck decoys in our field won't be tough at all.

Hope not. The realities of commercial hunting always kept me from deploying and picking up duck spreads of any real size on guests' time, but I got in the habit of picking up my goose decoys from flooded ag land duck spreads daily pretty early on. And even with no more than could be fit in two decoy sleds (with their own blind down the levee), I plowed the flooded bottom to misery with my passages across it.

'Course, the ground beneath your floods may be much firmer than ours down here. Dunno.

[Deltaman]

Eric, as long as you don't have bad ruts to trip in, shouldn't be too bad. I hunted a laser-leveled rice field in N. La a few years ago, and it sure made walking out into the decoys easy. Other rice fields I've hunted in N. MS, were rutted so bad, it was unusual not to trip a few times.

[Ericdc]

Yea I've been up here since 2014 and our fields have never been rutted. Our rice is supposed to be cut in early to mid September, so it should be bone dry.


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[Darren]

We aren't quite down to pick-up-able numbers but sure would agree it's an approach worth trying. Other buddy you know of up that way swears by it, said that's all they do these days.

[Ducaholic]

The strategy is worth a try.

[Duck Engr]

I know of several who have moved away from the mondo field spreads to that same strategy Eric. Others continue to employ the same giant spread strategy but have started letting young bucks come hunt their blind for “free” the last weekend of season, so long as they pick up all the decoys at the end of the hunt.

[Ericdc]

We had several hundred decoys last year, so it'll be a big change.


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[Darren]

Picking up a huge spread at season's end is brutal. We usually have a few hands to help out on closing hunt, (though season before last I literally put out every single decoy the evening before opener by my dang self while others tended other last minute chores.)

[Ducaholic]

We had several hundred decoys last year, so it'll be a big change.


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Add that small floating spinner on remote amongst the teal deke's and you will be set. You know you gotta do it DC.

[jrock75]

We had several hundred decoys last year, so it'll be a big change.

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We have tried (and still use) every decoy strategy out there: big permanent spread all year; big spread that gets whittled down over the season; small-medium spreads picked up every day. I can't say that picking them up has really helped other than I like not having decoys blown all over the place after the storms roll through.

[jrock75]

Yea I've been up here since 2014 and our fields have never been rutted. Our rice is supposed to be cut in early to mid September, so it should be bone dry.


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That is surprising. We had one year in Jones that was just awful with the fields a complete mess. At the time I had the tallest lab I have ever seen and he would hit one of those ruts and completely disappear even though the field only had 6" of water. You walked out there slowly shuffling your feet because the geese roosted there and kept the water chocolate milk. Easy way to ruin a morning in the cold.

[Ericdc]

Last year was really really tough from Christmas to the end. We just didn't see or kill 'em like we normally do and I've been on farm since 2014, with a 2 year break in 2020 and 2021.

If we get birds and weather like the first 4 years I was on farm, it won't matter what we do with decoy.

I do think it'll help with specks.

Our farmer says he'll do whatever we want with rice field post harvest, any recommendations?

I was thinking a very light chop to cause some big mud clods

Just glad it won't be plowed to powder.


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[Rick]

For geese and good ducks, I'm convinced rough plowed ground with a very shallow flood and clods showing can't be beat. But that kind of bottom sucks under foot.

[Ericdc]

We'll deal with the tough treading in exchange for looking attractive.


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[Rick]

We'll deal with the tough treading in exchange for looking attractive.

Know I did whenever the choice was mine, but I wasn't deploying and retrieving more than a relative few goose decoys each hunt.

[Ericdc]

For geese and good ducks, I'm convinced rough plowed ground with a very shallow flood and clods showing can't be beat. But that kind of bottom sucks under foot.

Talked to farmer yesterday and that's what we are going to do, weather permitting.

Rice should come off in first week or so of September, then he'll get it ready for hunting.


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[Ericdc]

Hate to see lower pond counts than last year


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[Deltaman]

Wow, as restrictive as Pintails limits have been, it is surprising to see the big decline this year. Bluebills been taking it on the chin for several years now too, never woulda thunk that

[Ericdc]

Pintail didn't decline


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[Ducaholic]

Not a good look....

[Deltaman]

Pintail didn't decline


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Ahhh, sorry, was looking a the -43% LTA

[Ericdc]

Yea, long term isn't good, which is more important than a 1 year bump, but at least they didn't go down again.


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[Ericdc]

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