Duck Season 19-20

[BGkirk]

I was not present but we had 1 youth hunt at our place and shot his 6 pretty quick. 1 wood duck, 1 gadwall, 4 bwt. Middle brother said adults could have shot 2-3 limits.
Ready for Saturday, need to clean the gun, been sitting in the corner since last day of teal season


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[BGkirk]

Was in the marsh from 930-2 today putting decoys out and finally choosing our spots where salvinia has either sunk or north winds moved around enough to open up some 3-5ac spots. Saw our local bwt as usual, handful of big ducks flying over. Will have plenty of guns waiting on them if they are around. Will be hunting out of a boat blind backed up against an old levee Tomorrow with a bunch of other brush we cut to put around us and break up the “square grass sheet look”


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[BGkirk]

Date:11-9-19

Time: called it @930

Location: boat blind next to old levee for some natural cover

Cloud Cover-0

Wind Direction and Velocity: NNE 5-8. Perfect

Temperature:40

Special Notes: chose this pond being that is was furthest away from the nearest blind but the other option may have been the better choice

Waterfowl Activity: besides teal, empty blue skies

Waterfowl Responsiveness: blue wings have found slack water closer to the road and are tearing it up. Basically shot the ones that got bumped from there Comfy spots and got a glimpse of the decoys. No response to call.

Hunters: Mike Sam John & me

Guns:

Malfunctions: should’ve chose other pond that was closer to other blind, tried to be courteous but it backfired

Dog(s): Boone, lost 1 crip early that was sneaky and I called him off of it. Had several long marks that I was proud of

Special Equipment: 2 mojos .

Curses: no birds except local bwt.... and had an extremely weak side of blind that included too many “didn’t see them til it was too late and whiffs”

Kudos: other blinds got there limits

Birds By Species: 7 bwt, 1 gadwall, 1 fulvous

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: fulvous made 2 sneaky passes right at LST before catching him on 3rd pass. Gadwall came in while everyone was doodling and looked up just in time.




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[Rick]

Malfunctions: should’ve chose other pond that was closer to other blind, tried to be courteous but it backfired

"No good deed goes unpunished."

[BGkirk]

I didn’t hunt today but 1 blind shot 8 ducks with 2 shooters and 4 guys shot 7 ducks from our new wooden pallet setup that looks over some water that is only kept open by coontail thick enough to hold salvinia back.. guys noted plenty of greenewings , but no wind couldn’t get them to work. More big ducks seen too.

I’ll be hunting Tues. curious to see if the strong winds bring new birds or just get locals moving


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[Darren]

I’ll be hunting Tues. curious to see if the strong winds bring new birds or just get locals moving

Really hoping for both!

[BGkirk]

Date:11-12-19

Time: called it around 945

Location: #4 pond (bushes)

Cloud Cover: heavy early, started clearing around 930

Wind Direction and Velocity: had to have been gusting 30

Temperature: 39?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: blue wing flurry early and gadwall stayed steady

Waterfowl Responsiveness: passing blue wings & exactly what rick and DC experienced, ducks looking for small water and to get out of the wind. Almost every group of gadwall we saw (from 3 ducks to as much as 20) broke and gave us a look and would hang up at 60-75 yards and move on.

Hunters: cousin David and Jakob, friend Kaleb

Guns:

Malfunctions: my bent barrel and uncomfortable setup in the sinking floatant.

Dog(s): picked up all of them, including one we shot early that made it to floatant and he snuffed it out on our way out.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners (shut them off quick after seeing gadwall activity )

Curses: too much wind?

Kudos: friend Kaleb’s 3rd duck hunt ? After a few minutes he said this was the most ducks he has ever seen. Glad he was easy to please

Birds By Species: 5 bwt 2 spoon

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: nice to see gadwall and would’ve been an interesting sit once the sun come out. Salvinia is starting to open up around the actual blind in that pond. Might be able to move decoys by sat and get out of the bushes




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[BGkirk]

Date:11-15-19

Time: finished around 8

Location: #3 Cadillac blind

Cloud Cover: annoying low clouds early and was forecasted to be clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: N/NNW @5-8

Temperature: 40s

Special Notes: hunted with the guy who id say got us (brothers/cousins) started in waterfowl.

Waterfowl Activity: enough to make a hunt and did get to a few more big ducks than opener

Waterfowl Responsiveness: didn’t really do much calling, most came in or passed to close. Gadwalls broke nicely but would go for a smaller hole or drift to our north towards another hunting party who must’ve had more of an attractive setup

Hunters: myself & Big Kev

Malfunctions: I had a “click” on 3rd op, which thankfully was on the water so kev got to do the honors. Ejected shell and firing pin did not strike shell but I chunked it regardless blaming it on shell and not
My gun

Dog(s): Boone.. very good morning as 4 fell Behind the blind that was good reps for hand signals and he snuffed out 3 birds, 2 of which were alive, that made it to a grass patch and we probably would not have found them had he not been there.

Special Equipment: 3 mojos on a Redhead brand “Duck Tree”.. not seen one of those before

Curses: none to speak of except I wish the big ducks would’ve cooperated a little more.

Kudos: 12 birds came in and 12 birds stayed.

Birds By Species: 4 bwt 4 fulvous 2 gwt 2 scaup

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: probably should go back to the same blind but heading for public land birds that we are hoping are there.




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[Rick]

Kudos: 12 birds came in and 12 birds stayed.

Walk proud tee-boy, walk proud.

[DComeaux]

Awesome. Glad you guy's have some to play with.

[BGkirk]

Date:11-23-19

Time: stayed til 11

Location: #3 blind

Cloud Cover:heavy and got a peak of sun around 10:30

Wind Direction and Velocity: NNW @8-10

Temperature:50s.. chilly if not standing behind cover

Special Notes: 7 yr old nephew making his 3rd hunt (first of this year).. unless we were shooting he was “ bored and ready to go”

Waterfowl Activity: local bwt and the gadwalls DC witnessed heading north along with a big mixed bunch of gadwall and pins that broke and faded off to the north.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: good but something to our north looks better

Hunters: brother Ryan and his son Simon

Malfunctions: had another click this morning and it wasn’t the shell. After that no issues. I suspect I didn’t let it slam shut when loading the first shell

Dog(s): Goose (Ryan’s dog, 4th hunt ever and first out of a blind) struggled in every way a dog could.

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Curses: needed another good set of eyes with the blinds close proximity to levees with roseau we got buzzed too many times and almost all greys caught us entertaining Simon and not looking for birds

Kudos: most big ducks seen to date from this location. All coming from south

Birds By Species: 7 bwt, 2 dos Gris, 3 gadwall

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: shot 1 duck at a time til another lease member left and jumped a group of bwt which we got 5 out of which finished our limits.
Once after whiffing on a passing threesome of bwt, we got chastised from young Simon “ come on guys!!” Frustrated with getting burned too many times already and not capitalizing on a good pass shot all I could do is laugh and think oh you just wait.





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[DComeaux]

LOL! NIce hunt.

[Rick]

Or, perhaps he's seen enough to prevent his own bout with a duck hunting affliction.

[BGkirk]

11-29-19
Lease- SW corner bull whips
Have been consistently getting up 20-50 bwt on the way out in some small pot holes so we chose a cloudy east wind day to pirogue in and set up on them and hope they continued the pattern which they did. Except for the birds new “X” was 100 yards south of us we were able to adjust and get in between the flight paths.
Finished with 18 bwt. May try it again tomorrow and maybe we didn’t educate all of them just yet.
We also saw the most big ducks to date, mostly pins staying just below the hazy clouds. Surely not new birds but maybe lost ones? cousin sending a pic to the pirogue dealer for advertisement


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[BGkirk]

11-30-19
Bush whacking in the bull whips day 2. Killed 3 bwt and those were “snuck up on”.
We educated them or pressured them off the lease. They gone. Saw maybe 10 big ducks. South breeze was nice. Couldn’t find another person to make a public land run so had an easy hunt. Won’t be back there til the 21st. And that’s a maybe.

Watching blackbirds


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[BGkirk]

What felt like the worst 1st split in my 6 years on this place was proved wrong after running the numbers last night. 2019-2020 season was 11 birds higher than 2017-2018.
That year, and this one have one thing in common... losing one pond/blind to salvinia. I’d venture to say it costs us anywhere from 50-150 ducks not being able to hunt our best blind. Anyhow the other 2 functioning ponds average 6.6 and 7.9 ducks per hunt.
Top 3 birds :
BWT-140
GWT-21
Fulvous-15 (followed closely by gadwall @14).

As some other guys mentioned our second split is not near as strong. Here’s to the bwt who come back year after year, must something about the ridge we hunt


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[BGkirk]

12/21/19- 2nd split opener

Not a whole lot of traffic on highway on the way in. Was out last minute brushing blind yesterday and Jumped enough teal to give me confidence this morning but the majority were no shows. Shot singles and pairs all morning. Saw 1 big duck which we killed and a little bunch of spoons in the distance. That was it, could not believe how empty the skies were. Myself with friend and his fiancé (first timer). She shot at one on the water then kept her head down rest of hunt. Green wings did nice and all you can do with the blue wings is hope they give a close pass. Mallard was lonely and looking.
Boone sniffed this one from behind the blind and glad he did. Banded August of 2017 and hatched in 2017.
Saskatchewan , near Yorktown.

He deserved a victory dump after his 10 min search. Well deserved


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[Ericdc]

Was really hoping y’all would have a big hunt. Nice band, first mallard for lease?

What did y’all get?

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[BGkirk]

Whoops.... second band for the lease . Both bwt.
4 bwt, 4 gwt, 1 mallard.


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[BGkirk]

12-23-19

After observing quite the show Saturday in a pond in between blinds we decided to bush whack. Water is wonderfully low and makes it nice on me and the dogs.
Myself and brother with both of our dogs. Sporty shoot and I don’t care to admit how bent my barrel was. Saw a foursome of spoons and maybe a pair of gadwall and some local mottled ducks.
Finally tally- 12 bwt.


Water is between ankle and knee deep. I wish it would stay like this as all SAVs are visible and in reach.


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[DComeaux]

SWEET!

[ryan_k]

Brother Ryan and Dog Goose



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[Darren]

Very nice! Way to go to them, paid off

[BGkirk]

12-28
Refuge pond (same as previous hunt) with a more favorable wind this go round. Fog was actually perfect as I think it kept us hid better and once they saw the decoys they wanted in. After 8am fog cleared and blue wings got iffy.
Should’ve been done a lot sooner but the youth that came along could not get a 2nd shot off (his dad sent him with the pump 12 gauge he’d never shot before). Saw about 10-15 big ducks that were lost im sure. Picked up decoys and will let it rest and may do it again next sat.
15 bwt, 1 gwt, 1 spoon. I shot the 18th and it vanished as I’m certain it fell dead but the dogs searched and never did come up with anything.


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[Rick]

Must be blue-wing central of the known universe.

[BGkirk]

Must be blue-wing central of the known universe.

I’m not sure what brings them back, could imprinting be that strong? There are gobs of them on south side of the ridge. Even more so with the water so low


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