Duck Season 2017-2018

[Rick]

If you're struggling to get ducks to the guns, I'd be putting duck decoys behind it. Even a dozen or so should improve your duck chances and won't hurt your goose hunting. If specks are going to be duck decoy shy, they'll not care for those in front, either.

[Darren]

If you're struggling to get ducks to the guns, I'd be putting duck decoys behind it. Even a dozen or so should improve your duck chances and won't hurt your goose hunting. If specks are going to be duck decoy shy, they'll not care for those in front, either.

Glad to see your concurrence. In the past we've done the same when water allowed, hope it shows some result. May also tinker with one spinner in front and one in back, both in front or back, etc. Both are on same remote

[Ericdc]

Darren, I’ve found that on days when the wind is like today it’s hard to get ducks right in a field. specks will get in there good though.


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[Ericdc]

Adjusting decoys is always good and my spinners have been off more than on lately. Once the ducks break I kill em unless I give a little flicker on the corners...but they’ve jumped a few times this year on their approach while heading straight at a spinning spinner.


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[Rick]

I'd try plastic corn decoys before I'd separate the spinners enough that the remote might not get them both in one shot; which is to say I wouldn't. As Eric's suggested, the timing can be tough enough getting one off without haven't to do it twice in front of working (or thinking about working) bird. And all the more so on days when they'll want to do a slow roll with the wind before being still.

[Darren]

I'd try plastic corn decoys before I'd separate the spinners enough that the remote might not get them both in one shot; which is to say I wouldn't.

Rick, I would also be worried of this....until I switched to Lucky Duck from Mojo. Can point the remote here, there and anywhere and it works, first time, every time. Haven't found its range limit yet but it's well over 100 yards or more for sure from what I've already tested.

Probably would put the teal and the mallard near one another

[Darren]

Thurs. 12/28/2017
Delacroix - Kidney Blind
Johnny, Uncle Bob B., & I with Harry
Wind N/NE 10-15+, heavy clouds, off and on light rain, 40's to start

Enjoyed my aunt's famous crab and corn soup before a main course of squirrel sauce piquant at the camp last night and listened to the wind blow outside. No one had been here this week so figured we'd give it a shot and not be picky. Turned out nice, with northern hunter's dream flight of dosgris/scaup dark and early. Saw very few grays or much of anything else, just picked away enjoying the time in the blind. Was just telling Uncle Bob about our occasional snow goose sightings and sure enough a trio gave us a pass, with an eaglehead crashing down. Great mixed bag morning, we sat a while, had snacks, enjoyed the company, and picked off a few here and there in the process. Didn't feel like we saw all that much during the hunt but jumped quite a few in our immediate vicinity on the way out. There was just no pressure on them today to move them around, no fisherman or hunters in the area.

(15) EIGHT dosgris, 1 gray, 4 GW teal, 2 buffleheads, 1 blue goose

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He's who put a shotgun in my hands and taught me the way around it, forever grateful. Too rare that we share the blind these days but glad to finally get him down here and have birds cooperate

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Checking weather to see what options we might have for the next few days. Not much wind on tap for Saturday, may try again down here. New Year's Day looking like a wild one, may be a field day.

[DComeaux]

What an awesome hunt! I can't wait to get in the cold wind.

[Ericdc]

They calling for 15 degrees up here Monday morning. That means I’ll hunt the weekend and it’ll be froze up hard Monday through most of next week.


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[Rick]

Neat that you can still hunt with your mentor - especially when he brings corn and crab soup.

[simplepeddler]

Neat that you can still hunt with your mentor - especially when he brings corn and crab soup.

truth!

[Darren]

Sat. 12/31/2017
Delacroix - Kidney Blind
Johnny, Charlie, & I with Harry
Wind Vrb 0-5, cloudy to pt cloudy, 40's to start

Hoped weekend traffic would stir the birds to move but really didn't pan out, though there were birds in the pond on arrival. Had a few dogs and teal trafficking early but it eventually fizzled. Wad of 40+ green wings power dove on to the spinner and caught us by surprise from the back, were lucky to get the three that we did. Later had all three guns whiff on a wad of redheads crossing the edge of the spread, and missed a couple others. Could have been an 8-10 bird hunt but would have had to make most of our chances, and didn't. Still glad to pop a few shots on such calm, stale conditions. Early on there was a fair bit of shooting in the (distant) surroundings, no one hunting anywhere near us today.

(4) 3 GW teal, 1 dosgris

All of the pre-arrival birds departed when we got there, though this pelican in the background stuck around entire hunt. Not sure if he was hurt or sick, swam around just fine but never tried to fly

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Water is low and falling, and next 5-7 days of wind forecast are only going to keep it out

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Got some weather coming in, going to give it a shot in the Bunkie field in the morning before the big freeze of Jan 2018 sets in.

[Darren]

Sun. 12/31/2017
S. Bunkie rice
Johnny and I with Harry
Wind 10-25+ from North, off and on mist/fog, 35 when stepped out the truck (was 50 when I left BR), incoming arctic air today and tonight for the week

"Epic" weather that we hope for hunting up there and sure enough there was plenty of fowl all around us. Noticed right away walking down the levee to the blind it was littered in white feathers, they've been in there at night apparently. First morning with two lucky duck spinners, now adding a GW teal to the mix, programmed to same remote as the mallard. Moved some duck decoys to our north cut and opted to try both spinners there with hopes that any birds checking up on them short would be right over the blind. Seemed to help get us more looks and more activity in range but pins, mallards and grays still really want out in field and to our left. They have to be spending the night in there or something because they all come looking at the same area, dropping in from way up. Shot well with the ops we had to get good mess of ducks together. First speck op went beautifully, though one of the pair led johnny and harry on a merry chase across the field for hundreds and hundreds of yards before succumbing to a water swat. Next was a trio I had on a string just down wind of us and .410 range low, but a miscue on calling the shot boogered it. Get 'em next time

Left specks and pins hanging all over us on our way out, likely traffic all day there in this weather. Nasty weather but worth the trip!

(10) 4 GW teal, 2 BW teal, 1 pintail, 3 woodies, + 2 specks

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Specks came hanging all morning

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Pins like this alllllll morning

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On the way out saw a lot of ducks on side of the road and a tremendous amount of geese of all kinds, more than there had been in recent weeks. Just a whole lot of fowl in that general area right now. With this bitter cold coming in I'm sure it'll be locked up up there for the foreseeable. We'll see which way to head when weather moderates maybe by next weekend. Happy New Year!

[Ericdc]

I think y’all got our geese. Glad you had a good shoot. One guy in my lease went solo this morning and got his 6.




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[DComeaux]

SWEET!

[Rick]

Congrats on the specks. Success builds confidence and confidence builds success. (If someone a lot smarter than me didn't say that, they should have.)

[Darren]

Congrats on the specks. Success builds confidence and confidence builds success. (If someone a lot smarter than me didn't say that, they should have.)

Certainly did help my confidence, especially since I'd darn near began putting the last two on the strap when things went haywire.

[Darren]

Sun. 1/7/2018
Delacroix - Kidney Blind
Wife & I with Harry
Wind E/NE 10-15, pt. cloudy to cloudy, 40's to start.

Water had been super low all week but came in yesterday and last night to make it just right for today, and kept us from pushpoling. Had dogs in the dekes from before LST and sure enough there are still good many of them around the lease. They didn't decoy well unfortunately and often stayed on edge of dekes buzzing across the pond so tough shooting ops usually. Wife put down two that came and lit, I got one on a tough crossing shot that Harry hunted up for us in the grass across pond, and then while I was heading to go pick up the boat she smoked another from a group coming over the back out on to the pond. Super slick shot, dead as a hammer, I was proud! We did whiff on a tough chance from a wad of green wings but other than that not a whole lot decoying. Ended up seeing fair many grays and even a nice wad of pins (others have been killing more of them lately around here), converging on the small bay to our immediate SE. Did also have one wad of snows cruise by out of range.

On way out we rode over there and put up hundreds of mixed ducks along with all kinds of locals....pelicans, gulls, etc. Could try hunting there but fear it would be futile as they'd circle and just land well wide of us in typical late season fashion.


(4) 4 dosgris

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All smiles with the family hound

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Plan to give this a shot again next weekend

[Darren]

From last week, the same buddy that downed the first true black duck I've heard of in our area came home with this rare bird. Looks to be a ringed teal hen from what I can tell, unless someone offers another plausible ID??

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Second from bottom, above the rainbow teal hen

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringed_teal

[Deltaman]

WOW, what an unusual looking duck! Like you mention, prob partially green-wing, but almost looks like a cross between a Bufflehead/Tree Duck, or Bufflehead/Black..........cool bird!

[DComeaux]

Darren, that's the closest bird I can find using just the wing patches for reference. Think it might be an escapee?

[Darren]

Darren, that's the closest bird I can find using just the wing patches for reference. Think it might be an escapee?

Was flying around with green wings, so don't know. Wonder if she tasted a lil different, like with a S. American flair?

Plan for this weekend: Friday rice (weather looks A+), then Sat/Sun marsh.

[Ericdc]

Weather looks A+ for rice Saturday if you like shooting green.


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[aunt betty]

Guessing that the mystery duck is a gwt that's so old it's turning white.

To anyone who reads this:
If you want a duck ID'd post a good picture of it's bill from above and another of it's wing unfolded so you can see every feather.
Bills and wings never lie. My duck ID book never fails. Has settled some heated arguments in the blind quite a few times.

GUIDES!
They said it was a wood duck and it was a hen pintail. You can not mistake the bill of a pintail for a woodie. (no way)
Yeah. I think they were messin w/me.

[aunt betty]

Ah heck I'm awarding Darren with the "aunt betty WFF duck hunting bad-ass of the year award".
It's worth about tree fiddy on the black market.

[Darren]

Ah heck I'm awarding Darren with the "aunt betty WFF duck hunting bad-ass of the year award".
It's worth about tree fiddy on the black market.

thanks!

[Darren]

Fri. 1/12/2018
S. Bunkie rice
Raymond and I with Harry
Wind 10-25+ from NW, 35 when stepped out the truck, frontal passage over night, heavy cloud deck

Had the weather right where we wanted it and the birds showed for us. When walking to blind noticed A LOT more open water than what we had previously all around. Water is up from the rain and the geese have been in there some more apparently. Good flight from the start, had 7 in hand in first 20 minutes but had to pick our ops after that, always seemed to get burned by ducks trying to work geese. At one point lit 5 mallards in dekes with two specks locked in on what appeared to be final approach. Someone waaaayy off fired a few shots, the mallards bailed and the geese followed....grrrr. Never could get specks to finish for us but there is still a ton of them out there, and even a lot of unusually low snow traffic today, but they'd pass the blind wide of course.

(12) 2 GW teal, 1 BW teal, 1 gray, 1 ringneck, 1 mallard, 6 spoons

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Lot more spoons working today, and strap reflected it. They'd been strangely scarce

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Headed down to Shell Beach in a little while to try them down there over the weekend.

[Deltaman]

Reads like a good time, and glad the birds showed for ya'll!!!!

[Darren]

Sat. 1/7/2018
Delacroix - Kidney Blind
Kyle, Johnny & I with Harry
Wind N/NW 10-20, pt. cloudy later clearing, 30's to start

Extreme low water, the USGS gage I monitor online doesn't lie, though it was misleadingly high at our dock. Once we got closer to the hunting grounds it was mudflat city, soon realized any plans to hit one of the three blinds was out. Ended up trying a shoreline in the bay on the lease where birds have been congregating. Had fair early flight working us but later they wanted out in middle. Wasn't ideal but was slightly better than just turning around and heading back in. Did end up seeing a lot of ducks on the way back in post-hunt but they were using places that really weren't huntable, mostly mud.

(3) 2 grays, 1 bufflehead

10-15 yards of mud from the bank had the decoys out further than we'd want. Got some good looks from grays here and there but hard to finish them

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Picked up the boat and gear from down that way and put it away for the season. Will focus on the rice for remaining two weeks of the season, and after Friday's good hunt and the one today, I'm antsy to get back out before this next big freeze.