Ran my 2015-2016 waterfowl numbers

[aunt betty]

392 ducks killed Nov. 21-29 and don't feel like adding it all up. (did first split)
Did not hunt there this year but I still look at the totals. Those guys HAMMER the ducks.
96 on opening day.

[Rick]

96 on opening day.

That's at the very least 16 guns. John's taking about three or less...

[aunt betty]

Yeah. Two blinds with 8 guns a piece. Carnage.

[Rick]

With eight guns in the blind, I'd hope to howdy they could fill on the opener.

[Rick]

John, to a guy coming off by far his sorriest speck season since first hunting them in '83, that sounds mighty good.

[Darren]

John, to a guy coming off by far his sorriest speck season since first hunting them in '83, that sounds mighty good.

Yea at end of the day, 125 bar bellies on the ground is a nice haul for sure. Thanks for crunching numbers and sharing your thoughts on the season

[Rick]

Thanks Rick,

Dad was pleased and I am trying to digest and mentally note what changes I need to make to improve things

I would be lying if I was not confident about our future---Less birds to work with,crawfishing gone wild,milder winters,and what numbers we do keep around locally, seem to leave earlier each year

But Dad,being retired and not able to drive due to severe macular degeneration,talks about specks all year---so as long as his fire burns we are going to keep after them

Given the commitment you've plainly made to your calling, I can't imagine your not striving to improve the other elements of success. The planing and later experimenting are a big part of the fun. (Had a call setup for this season that I thought the absolute bomb until the birds showed decided preference for something else. But I still had all the fun of thinking I had something special for however many months and that of renewed confidence in a past favorite.)

And good on your dad. I had the pleasure of hunting a fellow from Illinois a couple years ago who was very nearly blind from MD and told me he had no business making the trip with his friends but couldn't imagine not. Guys who brought him told me he has a camp and farm in Illinois that he maintains to continue to enjoy the hunt largely through his friends. Great fellow.

[aunt betty]

Dad is very old school,would still shoot his Winchester Model-12 if we did not fear that steel would eventually tear up the barrel. He has finally gone to a beretta 391 ,after retiring a 30 year old 870 with worn old shell stops. And yes,he still carries the bird strap with the birds out of the field,at 40 years old,you'd think I would have graduated to that task by now. He WILL NOT use any other duck call then the old blue label Faulk's CA-22 cane call. HOWEVER,he does let me do the calling now.

The number ONE question when I pick him up to go is,"You got your goose calls"---Not you got your license,shells,boots,gun,phone,etc...I get a kick out of that when I look back on it

One of his biggest kicks now is getting out of the truck and hearing geese roosting---oh he gets excited---and I do too,for me knowing that birds are at least around,for him knowing that the birds have returned once again,another year to use the land.

He loves to hear an old boss mallard hen sound off while we are at the truck getting ready to make the walk to the blind,although that is few and far between now,but you get the point

AND notoriously when working or starting to work geese,ducks inevitably appear in the hole,BUT I always know the answer before the question is even raised---"Which ones do you want to shoot,the ducks or the geese" It is the geese EVERY time

One of Dad's favorite sayings is "A speck is worth 100 greenheads to him." I came along after the duck glory days on the farm. 10 point pintails on the point system,only shooting pintails and mallards. My grandfather would not even recognize the existance of a GADWALL---the days of high powered 7.5's or 6's on ducks and 4's and rare 2's on geese. 30 "Fixed full choked guns,2 3/4 " chamber was recognized as all one needed----those days are gone

This was my 40th season. Your dad is right...a speck is worth 100 greenheads. Nothing gets me as excited as when I hear specks or even just one because one turns into two real quick and then it's 60....oh boy. Been in the woods way too much the past few years. Will be in fields next season again. Friend has leases and want me to go. It's months and months away and I'm excited about maybe killing specks again. Keep posting brother. You write very well.

[aunt betty]

The first calls my father and I used had reed reeds like in a clarinet. Tuning up one of those old calls was magic. These days it's easy.

[Rick]

Start putting money aside to maybe purchase a nice 20 gauge autoloader to shoot a speck with,one of my goals,would really like to harvest some with a 28 gauge,but that is a tall order---I'd like to find an old 1100 magnum 20 with a fixed modified barrel,the ones with the white diamond on the stock---for nostalgic reasons

to be honest,we try to shoot only decoying birds that are "right" BUT conditions are not always favorable for that luxury,so I try to get them straight over the top to increase our chances on limited opportunities

I doubt you'll find a 20 all that much more challenging unless you adopt the attitude Mervis copped when I teased him about his 10, "I shoot 'em where they is." Been doing it for just over a decade when specks show during a duck hunt. Mostly a matter of hitting the handle instead of the duster. Though I don't mind admitting I'll usually take the 12 when expecting to goose hunt unless it means driving out of my way to pick it up.

Whole lot of stuff in your last post I can identify with. Though the mallards have long since gone to seed, I still hunt some circa '70s G&H pintails and teal that were part of my first spread, and was among those who spent the then ungodly sum of $36 a piece for some of Big Foot's first (and then abandoned for several years) run of specks - only to find that the birds didn't finish as well over them as the standard G&H shells that were then the decoy gold standard. Put out (and picked up daily) 1,000 to 2,000 pieces for my first ten or twelve seasons with Doug's and got to where I almost hated geese and absolutely craved ducks before getting to back off and only occasionally work big spreads. Finally hauled 2,000 rags, 1,200 windsocks, 800 plastic cones and a wild assortment of kites, flyers and flags to the Klondike dump site in The Great Decoy Shed Purge of '04. (Still have a butt load of G&H light goose (with self painted imatures and blues) and speck shells I can't bring myself to part with.)

Even have Mud Lake memories, as it was one of the first places I hunted here. I was writing then and Tom Bagget, a Lake Charles dentist who had Cameron WIldlife before selling it to German and Faulk, invited a bunch of us for teal to promote his outfit. I was the youngest, so he asked me if I'd mind hunting with a kid who was a little wild at the tiller, and I assured him I'd raced SCCA and would be fine. But I wasn't so sure after all when a young Kevin Broussard (who's dad, "Cajun Phil," had a little fishing show) and I hit Mud Lake in the dark and white pipe channel markers were ticking past.

[Rick]

Don't recall Millers and wonder if the "E" in E&M's was Ed Reed, who I now know but didn't when he had his store.

My earliest memories of Gene weren't associated with More Mileage, a sporting goods store that would probably tickle most now on a couple of counts, but with his Lab, Cajun. I then lived in Lafayette and guided for a now gone camp in the island of oaks just west of the Niblet driers, and on my way home I'd encounter him working dogs in new places along the back routes I favored often enough that I eventually stopped to talk and learned the importance of exposing field trial dogs to as many differing scenarios as possible. Thought his commitment to that sport a neat thing, but not as neat as learning that he hunted Mr. Herman Teitje's famous Coteau Platte blind, where they shot their specks daily with 7 1/2s.