WaterfowlForum.Net

Date: October 18 (Opening Day)

Hunters: Myself and Jesse

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 3

Weather Conditions: Lightning on the horizon and radar showing we are going to get shellacked at shooting time. 65 humid, little wind, and heavy overcast at sunrise to partly later.

We hustled to get the decoys out and seek shelter in the blind. But the nastiness on the radar either evaporated or went around us. Nothing but a few drops of rain.

Waterfowl Activity: Lots of wood ducks while it was still dark. Slowed a lot once it brightened.

Very hard to pick out of the dark background. Quite a bit of snap shooting. Not a lot a lot of hitting. If we had just a touch more light, we would have done better. That's my excuse anyways. We each got a woodie.

Curses: It was nice to have things go my way for a change. The rain skipped us and we had a beautiful morning.

Birds By Species: 2 wood ducks

Photo Ops:
Jesse heading out to hunt his woodie that fell in the brush with a rainbow in the background.

Not sure why your woodie hunt resonated with me so, but I swear I could smell the small waters I once hunted them on.

I should have added a note that I missed having a dog. We passed on some geese that would have fallen into an area I did not want to go to try and recover them.

Also we had a woodie zoom in on us low and was probably 15 yards max when Jesse pulled up quickly and missed. It popped up over the brush for an easy shot and I called him off the shot. He asked me if it was something he should not be shooting at. I asked him if he wanted to go retrieve it from over there. He thanked me.

I passed on one other shot because of where it would fall if I hit it.

When I had the dog, I didn't have to worry about this. Although all the buckthorn and other nastiness, she would occasionally come back with a bloody nose from going into the jungle.

Glad the rain didn't materialize, and y'all ended up with a few birds for the pot!
Thanks for the report Ed!

Date: October 25

Hunters: Myself and Jesse

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 15G

Weather Conditions: Cool, calm and cloudy

Waterfowl Activity: Very little, but enough to feel like we were hunting with a surprising lack of geese which was particularly problematic since we set up for geese.

Malfunctions: I took a single shot at some passing wood ducks. Couldn't get a shell into the magazine I go to cycle the shells. No shell in the chamber Shell cycles from the magazine. I reload. Go to unload to pack up. Shell sticks in the magazine again

Birds By Species:

Date: November 1

Hunters: Myself, Mike, and Steve

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 8G

Weather Conditions: Cool, calm and sunny

Waterfowl Activity: I didn't actually see a duck. My blind partners saw about a half dozen. Low numbers of geese.

We didn't see a lot of geese. We had a couple that looked like they were responding to me but somebody shot. I think skybusting at those geese, but maybe something I didn't see. I had another one looking like it was going to come in perfect and then it just landed way short and kept calling. What I didn't see was that it was a pair and it's mate dropped dead and it landed with it. So we got one goose without firing a shot. I guess we didn't get skunked or did we. I'm confused.

Birds By Species: DNS, but still got 1 Canada Goose

How you do dat ?

don novicki wrote:How you do dat ?

One of the nearby blinds shot at a pair of geese. The pair flow to within about 60 yards of our blind when one of them bled out and dropped dead.

I probably could have added a curses line. The three blinds closest to us all did a good bit of shooting. I know the blind behind us got 6 geese. I don't know what the other two blinds did. We were in the right area, but just not quite the right spot.

Date: November 8

Hunters: Myself and Matt

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 8

Weather Conditions: Almost chilly, light north wind and cloudy

Waterfowl Activity: Saw some distant ducks not too much going on. Surprisingly low numbers of geese

Matt and I had a good time chit chatting with an occasional interruption to call at ducks or geese. Matt took a crack at some flybies after the blind to our north shot a suicide single making it likely to be the only chance on that small group.

Birds By Species: 0

Date: November 16

Hunters: Myself

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 10

Weather Conditions: Chilly, moderate north wind and not a cloud in the sky

Waterfowl Activity: Saw about 10 ducks. Surprisingly low numbers of geese again

Really not much to say other than it was a beautiful morning to be outdoors.

Birds By Species: DNS

Lagniappe: A pair of absolutely gorgeous big mature bald eagles came over. They were soaring in circles around each other letting the north wind push them on their southward migration.