2025-2026 Season Log

[DComeaux]

Looks like two weather changes this week. Might give a a stirred pot.

[SpinnerMan]

Looks like two weather changes this week. Might give a a stirred pot.

I hope so. If not, Sunday was my last day hunting for the season and I'm going to end he entire season with 1 wood duck My late season goose club hasn't even had a person hunting in a long time. We got the cold we need coming, but I don't know if we are going to get the snow we need.

[Rick]

Date: 1/13/26

Time:

Location: 3

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to very light ENE

Temperature: 40ish

Moon phase: waxing rescent

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Green-wings were back in droves that drove on by at high rates of speed, and they were about all that came over our corner of the marsh.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Pintail and few squealers to come by came right.

Hunters: 1, Greg

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call was again blowing off whistle and hand signals and may or may not be starting to trust my handling again. Even passed on the upwind side of a dead teal to return to the distant spot in the marsh where be finally caught a pintail a couple days ago. An ADHD spaz attack if ever there was one.

Special Equipment:

Curses: Just Call's regression.

Kudos: Finished quickly on what could have been a long morning thanks to Greg's good shooting.

Birds By Species: 5 black-bellies, 1 blue-wing, 3 green-wings, 1 pintail, 1 ringneck and 1 shoveller

[Rick]

Date: 1/14/26 Wed

Time:

Location: 3 and 5 (for BBWDs)

Cloud Cover: parttly

Wind Direction and Velocity: west

Temperature: warming

Moon phase: waxing crescent

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Little enough of anything at 3 that we abandoned it with 11 birds at 9 to go fill with black-bellies at Neil's before finding 5 loaded with them en route.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: good enough

Hunters: 2, Jeff and David

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): I didn't send him where i'd have to handle to avoid further breakdown before we do more land work.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just how quickly what initially seemed a promising morning at 3 dried up and the near complete lack of west wind black-bellies there.

Kudos: David's was a hot gun.

Birds By Species: 8 black-bellies, 1 gadwall, 3 green-wings, 2 pintails, 2 ringnecks, 1 scaup and 1 shoveller

[Rick]

EDIT FOR WORD; forgot to note that Greg shot a banded black-belly on 1/13

[DComeaux]

EDIT FOR WORD; forgot to note that Greg shot a banded black-belly on 1/13

INFO?

[Rick]

EDIT FOR WORD; forgot to note that Greg shot a banded black-belly on 1/13

INFO?

Can only hope he reported it.

[Rick]

Date: 1/15/26 Thur

Time:

Location: 3 and 5

Cloud Cover: partly to clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW moderate

Temperature: 40s?

Moon phase: waxing sliver

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: 3 was dead, so we left for 5 and black-bellies at 8:30-something with 5 little ducks in hand.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Even the black-bellies were reluctant to come near obvious hunters.

Hunters: 2, T and S

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning, as 5 isn't dog friendly and most there were chauffeured retrieves at hunt's end.

Special Equipment:

Curses: I flat gave up on trying to get the "veteran hunters" to try hiding - and lost interest in their success.

Kudos: Got to quit educating birds at 10:00.

Birds By Species: 7 black-bellies, 2 blue-wings, 1 green-wing, 1 ringneck and 1 shoveller

[DComeaux]

Frustrating.

[Darren]

If it wasn't so darned pervasive/all-too-commonplace, it might almost be funny. Know for sure I'd have a hard time with it day after day. Good work at least still getting them on some birds despite their best efforts to the contrary.

[Rick]

Date: 1/16/26 Fri

Time:

Location: 3 and 2 (Neil's blind)

Cloud Cover: mostly clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to light southerly

Temperature: frosty

Moon phase: waxing sliver

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Aside from a few early groups of teal too fast for my guys, even deader than yesterday, and after seeing the swarm Neil raised when he left I got his OK to move there for action more our speed.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Veteran black-bellies only teased us and literally stood on the flotant around Neil's blind watching us shoot the uninitiated, which tolled well to distress calls and fussing chatter.

Hunters: 2, Ashton, who was the more experienced but deferred to his guest, Colby, who appeared brand new to the game.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Still haven't managed to regain Call's confidence in my handling while swimming.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just how little we've been seeing at my blind.

Kudos: Guys had a big time with the black-bellies.

Birds By Species: 17 black-bellies and 1 ringneck

Lagniappe: After the hunt, I went to 5, the nearest blind with resident black-bellies to mine and redid it to be more guest and dog friendly than we found it a couple mornings ago as a backup plan - but still hoping tomorrow's new wind brings new birds to 3...

[Rick]

Date: 1/17/26 Sat

Time:

Location: 3

Cloud Cover: partly to light rain on our way out

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE moderate

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: new?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: No teal, but just enough others to have excellent shots back in the boat by 8:30

Waterfowl Responsiveness: As it should be.

Hunters: 2, Ashton again and Moose

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call still isn't handling on swimming water blinds and I'm still not pushing that issue. But he was aces on birds well back in the grass.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: None

Kudos: Ashton was plainly sandbagging for Colby's benefit yesterday, and he and Moose may have been my best duo of the season.

Birds By Species: 13 black-bellies, 1 (huge) mallard, 1 pintail and 3 spoons

[Rick]

Date: 1/18/26 Sun

Time:

Location: 3, 5 and 2 (Neal's)

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW light

Temperature: frosty

Moon phase: new

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: A few big ducks came by early, as well as a few too fast teal, but no nearby black-bellies at my blind and even they were slow returning to 5 when we settled in for them there, so we took advantage of Neil's quick finish to get my guys some shooting.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Every other blind in the marsh was upwind of us and banging away. Had two single pintails, a small group of same and eight or ten grays all banged out on final by all the other blinds' squealer shooting, so we went in search of some of our own.

Hunters: 2, Joe and Damian

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): pretty well wore Call out swimming for long chips.

Special Equipment: SOS at my blind and tease with other blind's spinners by flicking them on and off to distant birds.

Curses: Just the frustration of not being able to finish pretty ducks.

Kudos: The guys were tickled to get into the squealers and started getting the hang of hitting them.

Birds By Species: 17 black-bellies and 1 ringneck.

[Rick]

EDIT FOR WORD 1/18: one BBWD was banded (4th shot by the camp yesterday)

[Rick]

Date: 1/19/26 Mon

Time:

Location: started at 5 and moved to 2 when Neal finished

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to light easterly

Temperature: frost

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Moved a lot of BBWDs going into 5, but the returning and new birds nearly all stayed over floating marsh and were hard to pull over 5's bigger water. Neal called at 7:30 and we moved to 2, where birds weren't moving like yesterday, but still much more inclined to work over his smaller open water.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Poor at 5, good at 2.

Hunters: 2, "Worm" and Joe

Guns:

Malfunctions: Joe's extended choke vibrated out in the boat but I found it before the gun was fired.

Dog(s): Call found Bella's shortcut through Neal's boat hide and saved himself some swimming.

Special Equipment:

Curses: Was disappointed by what I thought a more viable option in 5

Kudos: Nice guys had a big time after having to listen to others shoot like crazy early on, thanks to Neal.

Birds By Species: 17 black-bellies (1 banded) and 1 blue-wing

[Rick]

Date: 1/2026 Tue

Time:

Location: 3

Cloud Cover: partly to light overcast

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly nil to quite light

Temperature: 40 and rising

Moon phase: 4% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw a very teal and spoons and just one big duck, a beautiful sprig we'd rather not talk about.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Neal called to offer his blind at 7:30, but the relatively few black-bellies in our corner responded to the herding dog whistle so well we were out by 8:30 without moving.

Hunters: 2, Chad and Brett.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call is handling in water again. (Knocking wood and not pressing my luck on really long blinds.)

Special Equipment: Just teasing at distance with the spinners.

Curses: Just the lack of teal and big ducks - and that sprig...

Kudos: Saw more BBWDs in my corner than has been our recent case.

Birds By Species: 18 black-bellies

[Duck Engr]

Rick is your marsh ground zero for black bellies in the area or are others having their bacon saved by them as well?

[Rick]

I've seen it called the biggest concentration in the state, but can't recall the (official sounding at the time) source. Can say it seemed as though it might be smaller early on this fall, but they've plainly called in reinforcements. Perhaps to the point that they're expanding into more marginal areas in terms of the largely open floating turf they prefer to stand around on, which I'm hoping is what pushed them toward my corner earlier in the day.

'Course, given our recent need to roam for them, today's quick hunt may well have been an anomaly.

[Rick]

Date: 1/21/26 Wed

Time:

Location: 3

Cloud Cover: overcast

Wind Direction and Velocity: ENE moderate

Temperature: 50s

Moon phase: 9% waxing

Special Notes: My guys partied too hard to hunt, so Call and I went with the intent of shooting a single big duck.

Waterfowl Activity: Mostly barren sky, aside from a flight of green-wings that came as we wish they all would and a few mottleds passing high and/or wide. Even the black-bellies were late in showing against the east wind.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Did manage to eventually pry a shooting op out of two mottled pairs that joined forces to work me out, but I lacked the heart to kill one.

Hunters: Just Call and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easiest morning of the year - though he may not have appreciated it.

Special Equipment:

Curses: Not a one.

Kudos: We headed in a little after 8 and found everyone else had quick black-belly shoots, so it was good that I'd not had hunters to disappoint.

Birds By Species: DNS

[DComeaux]

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Did manage to eventually pry a shooting op out of two mottled pairs that joined forces to work me out, but I lacked the heart to kill one.

I feel ya.

[Darren]

Got report from a few blinds hunted Tuesday at Oak Island, each blind had about 1 bird.

[Rick]

They use our pluckers and what I've seen have been small strings of teal - though not as small as my straps might be if teal were all we shot were teal...

[Rick]

Date: 1/22/26 Thur

Time:

Location: 3 and 2/Neal's

Cloud Cover: dense ground fog

Wind Direction and Velocity: theoretically NE

Temperature: warm

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Lost black-bellies swarmed us for the first hour or so, but then got settled in before we filled, so we ran to Neal's for our last three, which took about as many minutes there in the middle of a favored area.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Lord knows they responded a whooooole lot better than we shot.

Hunters: 2, Chris and Lawrence

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call had a big time with the fly-off cripples .

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: The guys shot SIX boxes of shells.

Kudos: Finally got dialed in and killed their last three with just three or four shots.

Birds By Species: 18 black-bellies

Photo Ops: "Go to work..."

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[Ericdc]

Beautiful dog


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[Darren]

Beautiful dog
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Definitely, sure is handsome fella


and SIX boxes, goooood night

[Ducaholic]

Six Boxes

[Rick]

Beautiful dog

Definitely, sure is handsome fella

Proof that one needn't be ugly to be crazy,