2014-2015 Season Log...

[Rick]

Date: 1/1/15

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Strong ENE

Temperature: Much too bitter in the damp wind for our guest of honor

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Encouraging mile high flights from the north, as well as a bit of everything (though very few teal) at more manageable height.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Not what I'm used to, but Warren John (an accomplished caller) and I were calling together and were probably muddying each other's efforts.

Hunters: 2, my 5yr-old grandson, Ethan, and his dad, Warren John.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Peake did a jam-up job on a chipped sprig that led him on a merry (sometimes yowling in frustration) chase through broken marsh.

Special Equipment: SOS

Kudos: Was great to have family in the blind.

Curses: Sucked that it was too cold for Ethan to really enjoy. (We shut it down after an hour or so, 'least he be soured on what's been on of his favorite things.

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal, 3 mallards, 1 pintail and 3 spoons

Photo Ops: Quitting time:


Hero shot:


And a bonus bird "shot" on the way out:

[DeadEye_Dan]

That's a pretty action packed hour...you guys see many Eagles?

[DComeaux]

I like seeing that yougin in the blind. It's hard to believe we're so close yet I'm not seeing ducks.

I'll post my mornings outing when I get back from filling my gut at my sisters place.

[Rick]

...you guys see many Eagles?

Thankfully not. The snag I tried to catch him on is over the farm road from our boathouse to the hard road, so he wasn't bothering anything. One flying over the marsh, however, flat shuts it down until it leaves or lands.

[Rick]

I like seeing that yougin in the blind. It's hard to believe we're so close yet I'm not seeing ducks.

Ethan made his first trip to the mudhole at 3:


We were ate up with teal that morning, so his dad shot 6 and we boogied while he was still having a big time. Lot tougher conditions this morning.

All of our rice stuff is struggling for ducks this year. Makes you wonder where the heck they leave the marsh to...

[DComeaux]

All of our rice stuff is struggling for ducks this year. Makes you wonder where the heck they leave the marsh to...

That is what I've been wondering. The few high and low flocks I saw this morning were south bound.

[Rick]

Date: 1/2

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: pea soup fog all morning

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE light

Temperature: pleasant

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Pleasantly surprising number of teal in the marsh and a few big ducks.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Couldn't get the mallards in before others banged at something and ran them off, but teal ate us up.

Hunters: 1, Kevin, soldier from Ft. Polk who decided to take up duck hunting late in life and was on his second hunt.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: SOS

Kudos: Enough action that my man was shooting my "just in case" bullets by 7:30 and finally got hitting the little rascals figured out and finished with a mounting bluewing drake.

Curses: none

Birds By Species: 2 bw teal, 8 gw teal and 2 wigeon

Photo Ops:

[Rick]

Date: 1/2/15

Time: mid morning

Location:

Cloud Cover:

Wind Direction and Velocity:

Temperature:

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: geese were still moving some in the fog, so the coyote and I gave them a quick try

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Worked a couple specks pretty in a location where I couldn't shoot without boogering birds on the ground. And finally drug a line of blues over low enough in another where I could.

Hunters: coyote and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Kudos:

Curses:

Birds By Species: 1 blue

Photo Ops: Blue's got the blues:

[Darren]

Nice eagle head!

[Rick]

Date: 1/2

Time: afternoon

Location: thornwell

Cloud Cover: hazy to thick fog

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE moderate to nil

Temperature: cool

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Had hoped my afternoon hunters would show up in time to take advantage of the strong goose flight when the fog broke in midday, but it didn't happen, and we got to the blind just as the flight ended.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Worked two bunches of specks that liked the call but plainly feared the spot. Blues just showed up in the fog.

Hunters: 2, Fred the elder and Fred the younger with the later's 8yr-old, Charles

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Did a nice job of hunting up a blue that winged off into stubbles.

Special Equipment:

Kudos: nice folks

Curses: slooow afternoon

Birds By Species: 2 gw teal and 3 blue geese

Photo Ops: Easy money:


Charles and birds:

[DComeaux]

That fog had lifted somewhat around midday, but around 5 this afternoon here at home it came in thick. The wind just picked up a little out of the south and it's now gone.

[Rick]

Date: 1/3

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy, misty

Wind Direction and Velocity: SW moderate

Temperature: warm

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: serious afternoon rains coming

Waterfowl Activity: seemed like everything was waiting on the rain and marsh appeared barren, but every now and then a batch of teal appeared

Waterfowl Responsiveness: thankfully very good

Hunters: 2, the Freds plus young master Charles

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): nice work on a few crips

Special Equipment: sos

Kudos: nice folks and enough birds

Curses: Poor Fred the elder wasn't designed to be a predator, and I eventually went off on him about his inability to follow repeated instruction to watch mallards work from under his hat brim with his face near the front of the blind, instead of cocked back in the blind mooning them.

Birds By Species: 17 gw teal and one mallard

Photo Ops: Freds and Charles:

[DComeaux]

images (1).jpg

[Rick]

Eggzackly.

[Rick]

1/3/15 ADDENDUM to "curses":

Dave's Lab, Diesel, was snake bit on the paw this morning. Dosed with Benadryl and off to vet for more of something similar and antibiotics. Has a very fat foot, but should recover.

[DeadEye_Dan]

Do the snakes ever hibernate??

[Rick]

Don't know if they do here or not. Have found them high up in the grass, apparently trying to soak up some sun, on cold clear days, but they're very lethargic. This morning was a warm one in the upper 60's that made me wish I could get a photo of the wall of mosquitoes in front of the blind attesting to an impressive performance by the Thermocell in it.

[DeadEye_Dan]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1420323948.526153.jpg

This is new today...snakes and skeeters are t really on my mind any more

[Rick]

Looks like wolf weather. Bet they're extra hungry.

[DeadEye_Dan]

Yotes been keeping me up at night...going to go try and thin some of those yellow-eyed buggers later.

[Rick]

Date: 1/4

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear to cloudy as morning progressed (best when clear)

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW moderate to strong

Temperature: cool to cold

Barometer: 30.18 rising

Moon phase: nearly full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: not as many teal as yesterday, but enough that we'd no one to blame for being short but ourselves. Precious few big ducks or geese moving, though.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: worked well, but wind direction still made them tough

Hunters: 2 of my favorites, Todd and his wife, Kelly

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): relatively easy morning with nothing real far

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: just that the shooting was better than the hitting - little jewels are fast

Kudos: Sweet morning in the marsh with old friends who haven't been able to hunt much the past couple years.

Birds By Species: 3 gadwall, 8 gw teal, 2 ringnecks and 3 shovellers

Photo Ops: a gray to-fur:

[Rick]

Date: 1/4

Time: afternoon

Location: Thornwell

Cloud Cover: cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE moderate

Temperature: cold in the wind

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Big body of geese on next farm to south, but few specks leaving it and fewer ducks seen at less than twinkler altitude.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Pulled specks from far and wide, locking and dropping like I was their momma only to bounce off the setup. Had groups of both pins and mallards work pretty, too, but another "guide" bounced the former coming on a 4-wheeler and we flat missed the mallards. Kamikaze mallard finally saved us from a scratch.

Hunters: 2 Bills(?) one of whom used to bring his sons to hunt with me some years back.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Curses: few birds, trashed blind with sorry setup, and my guys brought word that one of my favorite octogenarian hunters passed Sunday.

Kudos: Nice fellows and we managed a good time without the birds.

Birds By Species: 1 mallard

Photo Ops:

[Rick]

Found a couple shots of Billy and his stepson, Julian. This one was from 2008-09 season:


And this from his last hunt with me during the 2009-10 season before health issues took him from the marshes :


Also found this in my log for that day:

Curses: most everything's out-running Billy's gun these days

Kudos: he couldn't care less, and is still the most enthusiastic waterfowler I know

Rest in peace, my friend. Rest in peace.

[DeadEye_Dan]

That a cool memory to have though...

[Rick]

Indeed. His example was a blessing.

[Rick]

Date: 1/5

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong NE

Temperature: cold

Barometer: 30.58 rising slightly

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: They're gone. Saw just two groups of teal all morning and precious few big ducks.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Big ducks either worked well or tried to (two little mallards flights were banged out on final approach and a third had broken down from way the hey up and out only to be bumped by others' shooting), but only one of the two teal flights bought in.

Hunters: 2, long time annual regular father and grown son, Robert and Chris

Guns:

Malfunctions: Robert had an issue with his SX-2

Dog(s): only had to hunt down one teal

Special Equipment: sos

Kudos: Good folks.

Curses: Bad morning.

Birds By Species: 1 gadwall, 2 gw teal and 2 mallards

Photo Ops: Sleeping on his post:

[DComeaux]

That picture of the coyote and his post nap makes me smile every time.

I know that pup is tired. We've hunted a lot over the last couple of weeks and Ellie was still game, but her demeanor was a bit less rambunctious while waiting for go time during the last few days. I liked it.

[Rick]

He's worn out. The deeper into the season we get, the better I feel about starting another pup to afford him some relief.

[Ericdc]

Been very slow up here yesterday and today from reports I'm getting. High pressure today and no wind. Big north wind tomorrow and sunshine, crossing my fingers for some big birds to be moving south.

[Rick]

Date: 1/6

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: none to very light NE

Temperature: cold, but not as much so as in yesterday's wind

Barometer: 30.44 pretty flat

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw even fewer big ducks than yesterday, but enough teal were around to keep it interesting.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: thankfully good

Hunters: 2, Robert and Chris again

Guns: finally left the old 870 in the blind "just in case"

Malfunctions: may not be another, now that we've a spare

Dog(s): lost a lightly tipped mallard well out in the marsh

Special Equipment: sos

Kudos: beautiful day

Curses: would have been prettier with birds

Birds By Species: 1 gadwall and 13 gw teal

Photo Ops: Chris and Robert:


Coyote and I: