2019-2020 species log

[Johnc]

The bad

25 ducks——worst in history of the farm

Spoons—-7
Mallards—5
Bw teal—-4
Gw teal—-3
Grays—-2
Pintails —-3
Mottled—-1

The good

183 geese——third highest to date

106 blues and snows——all called and decoyed shots—-most blues ever

73 specks—-good not great but good. 100 for me and dad is great

4 ross

40 hunts—-4.58 geese per hunt avg

[Rick]

That's stout.

[Darren]

That's stout.

Indeed, at end of the flyway with the smartest specks/blues around.

[Johnc]

I learned more about snow calling as in what works for me. Getting more confidence instead of just wandering around throwing sound out there and sometimes getting a bite

Speck wise—-I don’t think I ever really got on the call hard,a few times in big wind or trying to break real far stuff—- the most aggressive I got I guess was when I would see or hear them in non responsive flight blues. Pull the specks out

Mainly really accurate finesse—moral of that is they can hear really far and pray to God not too run them off before any hard commitments are made

I used to call them the whole way with little silence—-game is way changed now

Ducks. All ducks just came to the call. No earth shattering sounds. Get a commitment and not scare them was the goal

Did run into working blues pretty hard and having specks with them get fired up or specks come join them—- then it turns into which call to run—— normally I would say stay on the blues and don’t worry with the specks because they’ll be another speck chance—-well this damn sure isn’t Arkansas and there may not be another speck chance

Tried to keep the decoys on the higher ridge of the cut. No landing zone. Just long linear spread. Decoys way above water line. No duck decoys

It’s non traditional but I have hunted that same blind since put in around 1992-93. We have learned what seems to produce,when it changes will have to revisit tactics

[Deltaman]

Congrats on a good season John, and glad to see that your changed tactics paid off!

[Johnc]

Thank you

Next year I think I am just running the whole goose spread together as in not specks on both sides of the blind

The specks mix with blues so much more now and always finish over the blues. So I am gonna run the whole spread together and see what happens

[Darren]

Thank you

Next year I think I am just running the whole goose spread together as in not specks on both sides of the blind

The specks mix with blues so much more now and always finish over the blues. So I am gonna run the whole spread together and see what happens

Ours were mixed most of the season and we had success. On the one hunt someone moved all the specks to other side of the levee from the blues, we couldn't get them to finish.

I never see them separated like that on side of the road on way home, don't know why we'd do any different on our field. Not really intermixed, but adjacent and right along side one another, looked great.

[Johnc]

Old school train of thought was that specks were very segregated especially after being here a few weeks. So mixing was a mortal sin

However things have changed,just as with the calling

Most of the time either mixed or together with specks along a side usually down wind because snows are the more aggressive feeders

I do think specks know duck decoys are not safe,it’s coming. Especially for all those big flat water fields in Arkansas. Combo hunts will become almost impossible

All that easy speck talk is total BS. There are no easy specks anymore and the way they are being hammered in Arkansas ,fixing to get just as tough there

I am no longer considering ducks down here. We are going strictly geese over very thin water. On “duck” days if any around they will come close enough with the call

[MARSH BEAR]

Great goose season. We are just the opposite of you - I did not shoot at a goose this season, we saw or heard very few flying. 20 years ago we would see thousands of geese in the mornings, but not any more. We only have some ducks, but we have been lucky to have some ducks to shot at.

[Johnc]

Thank you

Dad and I enjoyed it very much even though void of ducks. That’s just the way it’s going to be


No blaming anything just try to get better at what is available and when that’s gone then move on

[Ericdc]

John, it has changed a ton just in the last 6 years. I wish I could have called in 2009-2015 like I can now.

There’s no doubt in my mind we would have killed 100 plus specks a year.

Best season I have ever had was 16-17 when we got 90 specks. They were everywhere that year and I finally learned how to make a decent cluck.

This year I got a lot better on my yodels, the one u taught me back in March, specifically.

Had to be pretty easy with em this year once I broke them, but I usually finished what I broke as long as nothing flew within 50-60 yards of my neighbors to the north .


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[Johnc]

Competent speck calling now includes breaking from 300 to 500 yards with certain sounds to super finesse to finish and the ability to adapt if planned approach fails

There are no easy specks here,there are days when they act better then others but not easy

Same comments from all my serious guide friends.

[Ericdc]

Competent speck calling now includes breaking from 300 to 500 yards with certain sounds to super finesse to finish and the ability to adapt if planned approach fails

There are no easy specks here,there are days when they act better then others but not easy

Same comments from all my serious guide friends.

I still get some easy ones that come low and only need to make one swing, but for the most part it’s breaking passers like you mentioned. Last Saturday of the season was especially fulfilling, broke some birds from way off.


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[Johnc]

That’s when you know you have arrived. Break and harvest far birds

Not just happen to be under low birds or in the flight

Not pass shooting at 50 yards

Making the birds
1—hear the sound at extended range—-good realistic long range chains
2—keeping that sound going long enough to break them off a predetermined flight plan
3—transitioning into midrange
4—transitioning into low finesse and not blowing them out and just enough to position for the gun

If you are not hidden forget any of the above—ain’t going to happen

Once a man can consistently do this that’s the pennicle.

[SpinnerMan]

I would add one more. When you pull them from an extended range over other blinds and get them to finish feet down.

Pull them off and keep them focused even as others are trying to change their mind. I prefer to hunt with nobody else around, but there is a certain satisfaction when the birds come right over them and into you.

Although two years ago, I was in the less desirable blind. One blind about 400 yards south that the birds prefer and one huge spread to the north about 600 yards. I broke quite a few birds for them. I'd break singles from distant flocks and then the other guys would start calling and they'd suck into one of the other blinds Good callers in a better place spot. It was a frustrating day.

[Johnc]

Yes nothing you can do about that. Breaking geese for somewhere else they naturally want to go

Here,it’s gotten to where if you get geese coming pretty seriously,you can’t mess up anything ,the opportunities are extremely limited

[Rick]

Went way the hey beyond "extremely limited" over my end of the marsh this year. A wasted op on the last morning (where I'd called from the boat hide and ended up begging, "Somebody please shoot them.", while my younger hunter waited for his 88yr-old buddy to shoot and that octogenarian waited for he and the Lord only know what and neither did until the birds had bumped off that mess and were too far gone) saw us scratching for the season on specks.

Finally took the Canada/blue call off the lanyard this year, could be the speck calls are next...

[Johnc]

I found out recently some of my friends that had what once were good goose blinds are jumping ship and heading around bunkie area

Something how it’s changed so quick

Speck wise the population is good, our part of that overall population is the issue.

I have never seen specks alarm call before a note is attempted on the call. Goes more along with my theory. We get an early push of specks ,limited. Then it’s the same PH.D birds the whole season. There never was new birds. I can tell when new birds show,touch the call with something reasonable and big response. I had to learn to call super super light. And convince myself that yes they can hear that subtle calling further then I realize. I have better luck with the immediate response from far once the pairing starts. Loud mid range toned yodels. Not the clucking. Early year,subtle cluck after the break

That low end scratch murmur—- useless to me

Double cluck. Useless to me,comp calling fault. You tube ruined the effectiveness

[Rick]

Believe it or not, there was a time when no one else I knew clucked at all. And I wouldn't do it with in-state folks in the blind or others within hearing. Then came the morning when I heard good clucks from across a big protection levee, initially thought it birds and that no one was hunting the blind Scott Turner and/or Cleve Vincent sometimes hunted there and thought "It's on!" Until the next set of clucks was followed by loo-looing and knew it was "game over".

No telling how many others had been hiding it under their hats or for how long. But it wasn't too much later that fall that I walked into Shop-A-Lot and Clark Cormier (who owned it) couldn't wait to show me the new speck trick Cleve showed him. And so it went snowballing down hill from there...

('Course, before the season you can still voice cluck 'em into range while wearing an orange vest and dragging a deer down a grass road. Or at least you could two Octobers back.)

[Johnc]

Bryan Harris tells that story about way back in the late 80’s

He got to go to the plant and I think it was Mac mcelven or maybe Doug,anyway , primos shaved reed

He told Bryan,see that speck ,I am going to make it lite right in front of us

He single cut clucked ,and it lit right in front.

Me and dad hunted sweet lake ag in 86,87 thru early 90’s..PS olt predators. Didn’t know what a cluck was—- killed geese over flambeau shell decoys. Didn’t know any other way. I don’t think big foots were out or known of,I don’t know

We knew speck hunting took a way elevated awareness of being hidden. We knew prime time wasn’t always early morning. We knew if you got them coming,let them come.

No internet. No you tube. No Facebook videos. Different world. Not so sure I didn’t like that better. Big bore speck calls have ruined it.

[Johnc]

Bill Daniels tells me every time we are together that we ruined it by making the calls and on my part making video’s of calling instruction

He is joking of course but it’s kind of true

I had a guy last night message me that never touched a speck call until September and is now running pretty well

Says he watches or has watched all my little videos——-grrreeeaaattttt

I can’t knock him ,I did the same thing years back trying to learn. Although no computer. Used a cassette recorder. Had little idea if I was going right or not. Then there was mervis and his vhs video. Studied it. Went to his house.


Then met Nathan Wright. He said forget all that. 20 years worth of muscle memory hard to change. Painful. Lots and lots of failure

The failure is why I can dissect what not to do so well. Maybe not cool to say but I know how not to mess up from many years of messing up

Finally got competent and the geese no longer come,that’s life.

Now I mess with duck calls and rarely even use one in reality.

[Ericdc]

Better to teach folks the right way to do things for the sake of the future of the sport.

Like nfl coaches have a coaching tree, you have a calling tree and I’m proud to be part of it.


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[Rick]

I don’t think big foots were out or known of,I don’t know...

I don't remember the year Big Foot first made specks, just that I hurt myself to the until then unheard of tune of $36 per at the Thornwell Warehouse and was lucky as can be that Big Foot decided they were too much trouble to make more than that initial run of and couldn't sell me more. Bad as I wanted that investment to pay off, those over-sized full-bodies wouldn't finish birds nearly as reliably as the standard G&H shells that had been my staple. Presumably because their size made it easier to see they were manikins. Stuck with the BFs way longer than I should have before going back to the shells.

Then Hardcore came along and really did change the game.

[Johnc]

I don’t think big foots were out or known of,I don’t know...

I don't remember the year Big Foot first made specks, just that I hurt myself to the until then unheard of tune of $36 per at the Thornwell Warehouse and was lucky as can be that Big Foot decided they were too much trouble to make more than that initial run of and couldn't sell me more. Bad as I wanted that investment to pay off, those over-sized full-bodies wouldn't finish birds nearly as reliably as the standard G&H shells that had been my staple. Presumably because their size made it easier to see they were manikins. Stuck with the BFs way longer than I should have before going back to the shells.

Then Hardcore came along and really did change the game.

Man I liked those hardcore specks. The originals. We had a good many,they were stolen out the field when they got our original spread

[Johnc]

Those original bigfoots were hell. We had 2

I literally had to take a shovel and shovel mud onto those giant orange feet in the flooded field to make them stay. And they were just so damn unrealistically large.

We killed with but I don’t know if made a bit of difference ,that was during the magnum and super magnum phase of flambeau mallards and canadas. I get it. They can see from far but what about when they get close?

The only thing we immediately knew was bad was the first and only time we ever put out a spinner. Immediate alarm call every time a speck got remotely close to that field. Lasted 1 whole hunt lol. All the hype. All the talk of teal trying to land on and ducks just falling into decoys with that thing. Which probably was true,we never got to prove. After that big flaring of interested specks ,done. We even got out the blind to see if someone drove on the farm,put mirrors out,we didn’t know what the hell happened. I vividly remember that

That’s why to this day,I think it was sinful that they actually made a spinning wing speck decoy. Not the cloan,a regular speck decoy mojo

My thinking was why would they knowingly make something they knew was a deterrent?