I blame Darren for setting the precedent of a teal season wrap-up last year, but there are a few things I'd rather not be lost to the haze the regular season becomes, so I'll take the rap for continuing the practice:
Date: September teal
Time: Hunted every morning but not nearly as many afternoons as some of our camp's crew did, in part by virtue of getting most or all of my birds in the morning more often than most.
Location: All of my morning hunts but one were at my marsh "Mudhole," a shrinking pothole in floating marsh to which I become more attached each season and for which I am most grateful:
(That being about as far into it as Marsh was allowed to swim from the blind, before that, too, was curtailed.)
All of my afternoon hunts were on a new ag land lease where volunteer duck salad was drawing most of the area's ducks away from miles and miles of flooded rice:
Cloud Cover: If memory serves, we only hunted in rain one morning - but that rain dumped 2 3/8" while we hunted.
Wind Direction and Velocity: Next to no northerly wind of much significance and "North 0 mph" one such morning.
Temperature: Varied from hot to miserable most mornings with afternoon breezes being the salvation of some late afternoon hunts and only a strong late flight saving others:
Moon phase: A full moon did coincide with some of our slowest hunting, but those were also mid week days, when marsh hunting without weather is generally slow due to little hunting pressure in the rice.
Special Notes: "Historic" flooding had the marsh high and far, far more ag land feeds flooded than normal.
Waterfowl Activity: The September survey flown just before the season found the second fewest teal on record, with just two big concentrations spotted in our part of the state. Between the flood conditions and low bird numbers, hunting pressure was relatively low in our area, as reflected by both shots heard around and teal seen over our marsh.
Were, however, plenty of wood ducks in the marsh to help keep us entertained and on our ID toes:
Waterfowl Responsiveness: Low bird numbers over the marsh forced a change of attitude toward the high teal flights I've generally written off as unstoppable in the past - or, even more frustrating, most apt to slide off following the more open water behind my isolated pothole to more favorable marsh if they did decide to break for my gadgets or calling. I became desperate enough to hail and holler like heck at the "too high" birds and found keeping on them loud and long enough didn't just break many down but swung them around and back towards the little Mudhole. Had been experimenting with an initially disappointing replacement Daisy Cutter insert and set it to imitate particularly squacky hens, like grays and pins, as well as teal, and it's proven quite the ticket for the later. It's a skosh lower pitched and scratchier than the bored out MVP with a teal-cut reed and out-preformed it in the marsh repeatedly throughout the season.
Perhaps oddly, the teal-tuned MVP still held sway on ag land hunts. My theory being that the brasher DC was the better breaking call for a place like the marsh where birds weren't as locked into settling into a set location, and that the more accurate MVP was better for finessing birds that were set on settling somewhere into the farm's duck salad into doing so in front of our guns. Have no way of really knowing, but expect to carry both calls again next September.
Hunters: Teal season is a time when the great majority of our hunters are local, and local interest varies greatly with the first weekend's reported success or lack thereof, which leaned strongly to the later this year. So business was off, and even those of us with stronger places had a good bit of "family and friends" time:
And I was absolutely blessed with the quality of camp guests I took. All super nice folks and mostly keen shots who often made their own hunts, perhaps because generally poor conditions had culled the hunter pool of casual guns.
Guns:Malfunctions: The only notable one I recall was an Extrema II that was hinky until it blew its magazine cap off on the last teal of the hunt. But to say that particular gun has been shot a lot would be wild understatement.
Dog(s): We're seeing a changing of the guard this year, with my dear but deaf old friend, Peake, settling into retirement from working pay hunts and our young gun, Marsh, taking over those duties. Just how ready for prime time Marsh may be remains to be seen, but he's had a pretty good teal season, becoming both more adept at hunting on his own and trusting my direction when need be. Peake, on the other hand, has made it pretty plain its time for him to retire to play hunting with me and perhaps a few close friend. Even ate a teal to prove the point.
Special Equipment: Ran both standard and teal spinners on opposite ends of the Mudhole and paired a standard with dove spinners on two ag land hunts, with one on either side of a levee the wind ran down, and there was no question the birds favored the standard in both venues. Also ran a Mallard Machine modified to splash, as well as dip, and found it useful for both drawing attention from the blind when birds power dove over us and helping put them front and center on low or final passes.
Curses: Just the flood related hassles and the effect of a generally pee-poor season on business.
Kudos: I made some new friends, enjoyed hunting with some old ones and passed a mighty fine time.
Birds By Species: 271 bluewing teal (no greenwings or bands)
Photo Ops: Probably took more photos of our wood duck friends than anything else:
Lagniappe: From a personal standpoint, by far the most significant, and bittersweet, thing about our September season was watching my old partner, Peake, ease into retirement:
and my new partner, Marsh, charge into his new profession:
Hope I've the sense not to judge Marsh by the size of the tracks Peake has left on my life.
by DComeaux » Sun Sep 25, 2016 5:02 pm 
