2024 Prep work and training

[DComeaux]

She is a good looking dog
Keep on Keeping on

Thank you.

[Deltaman]

Congrats Dave, and i know it's gotta be a great feeling to watch her training progress and start falling into place. Good Luck with the force-fetching!

[Darren]

She's looking great !

[DComeaux]

With just a little cooperation and the release of funding we can start to rebuild the coast. So much red tape to wade through, and the lack of common sense is astounding.

This shoreline project stops just east of my duck lease. I would love to see it extended westward all the way to the Mermentau river jetties.

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[DComeaux]

I can' t have Ellie out when I'm training Remi so I get to hear the old gals hoarse bark every now and then. This morning, I had her out alone and we did a few close retrieves. Shes fed Purina pro plan high fat/ protein dry and wet food and can't seem to put on any weight. I guess it's her age. She got a whiff of one of my bumpers wrapped with a duck wing and you would have thought I had passed some smelling salts across her nose. Her eyes went wide, and she tried to snatch the bumper from my hand. I'm going to sure miss her in the blind this year.

[Rick]

Heart warming and breaking all at a time. I'm soft as can be for the old ones.

[Duck Engr]

Heart warming and breaking all at a time. I'm soft as can be for the old ones.

Same here. Cried harder when my last one passed than I have for most humans. Liked her more than I do most humans too, so likely some correlation there.

[DComeaux]

Liked her more than I do most humans.

That is how I feel as well. I say that often.

[DComeaux]

Bill and I made a trip to the blind this morning and gave Remi her first boat ride. She took in all the sights and sounds, and also took a dip in the pond. I wish I didn't have to worry about gators.

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As you can see in the picture above, we have a good stand of widgeon grass in every bit of water out there. We have just a little work to do on the boat hide and the usual bailing of the blind. The water is a bit too high at the moment, but I was told by a good source that they'll leave it high for good growth and it'll be drawn down as we get the first north winds. I'm praying that we don't get a major salt surge this year.

This is a cut into our east pond.

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Our boat-hide needs attention, as suspected. The high water allows for waves carrying the heavy wet widgeon grass to crash into and cover the brush around the blind island. Hopefully they drop the water soon. As I mentioned above, all ponds have beautiful, lush widgeon grass, and the pond bottoms are for now still hard and walkable. Things are looking good for the fowl wanting to hang around down there.

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[Rick]

Good to see Remi enjoying such adventure. And the wigeon grass.

[BGkirk]

When’s the last time ya had wigeon grass like that ?


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[DComeaux]

When’s the last time ya had wigeon grass like that ?


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The year before we started hunting this place, 6 or 8 years ago. I remember finding small dead pieces of grass draped on the push pole that year.

[Darren]

Wigeon grass looking good!

Not so, though, on the boat hide......

[DComeaux]

http://www.ducks.org/ducknumbers

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[Mike Jargon]

There’s always wigeon.

[Duck Engr]

Am I remembering right that below 2 million pintails will trigger closed season?

[DComeaux]

Am I remembering right that below 2 million pintails will trigger closed season?

"federally mandated population floor of 1.75 million pintails. If the population hits that threshold, adaptive harvest management protocols prescribe a closed season on pintails in every flyway the following year."


We had this in 2023
https://www.ducks.org/conservation/waterfowl-research-science/pintails-on-the-brink

and this pushed ahead in 2024
https://thesportinglodge.net/three-bird-pintail-limit-on-the-table-for-2025-2026-season/

Like welfare, duck hunting is to big to shut down or regulate properly.

[Duck Engr]

Yeah I didn’t quite get the logic in that move, other than $$$

[DComeaux]

Remi is progressing nicely and we've moved on to our next phase in training, and she's loving it. This video is just a beginning snippet of what we did yesterday afternoon. Not working her in water after her brief introduction sometime back I worked her slowly out to longer distances in the pond. We worked in and out of water, with long retrieves in tall grass. She was AWESOME with casting during either overruns or left and right corrections, it gave me goosebumps too see everything come together.

My son and I did some shooting over her last week and she was steady on the first shot. She broke on the second but returned immediately to my side after a NO correction. The third shot was steady. I have her training lined out for the next couple of months which will be actual hunting scenarios. We'll also work on blinds in tall grass with marked locations so the trainer doesn't forget where he placed the bumpers. She'll be with me, as she was this weekend, at the camp through teal season but I will not take her to the blind due to the presence of gators. There was a six-footer at our boat landing on Friday afternoon.

[Rick]

Sounds like her handling may be farther along than Call's. My fault, though, rather than his, as I'm the one who hates drills.

[DComeaux]

Sounds like her handling may be farther along than Call's. My fault, though, rather than his, as I'm the one who hates drills.

I don't care for these drills either but surprisingly I withstood the monotony with Remi, which I didn't with Ellie. I kept these drills to 10 minutes per session, always trying to end with a good result. After 8 months of daily sessions she and I are both bored with this, and I think she has a good understanding of what I tried to teach her to move forward. I can always back up to correct any unwanted behavior as I see it. I'm going deeper and polishing what I hadn't with Ellie, that on every hunt I wished I had.

Remi has matured a bit mentally and it's getting easier for both of us. She is always waiting anxiously for our next outing. She's still wound tight, though.

[Deltaman]

She's looking good Dave

[DComeaux]

She's looking good Dave

Thank you!!

[Ducaholic]

Sweet!

[Darren]

Looking great Dave, congrats


Threw some dummies with my ol fella yesterday and he was looking good, trying to keep the load light while still so hot. Maybe Sunday morning we'll get a bit heavier with it but his weight appears to be under control for this point on the calendar.

[Rick]

Seems odd to hear Harry called an "old fellow" already, but time can pass in a blink.

[Darren]

Seems odd to hear Harry called an "old fellow" already, but time can pass in a blink.

He'll be 10 in December

[DComeaux]

No hunting for us this weekend. We're going to get all of of stuff back down there on Saturday morning and we'll see what those that do hunt bring out of the marsh. Our water is and has been extremely high, so I really don't care to hunt in those conditions. Our blind Island is washing away.

This duck hunting and camp stuff is beginning to wear on me something awful, and to think I actually pay money for the privilege to do this crap. I've been doing some pretty serious thinking about this expensive hobby of mine. I'll have to see how I feel about things when we come out of the other end in January.

[Darren]

.........but that new doggy's gonna want to hunt!



Glad this one veered away from you, for sure.

[5 stand]

Remi :
" She was AWESOME with casting during either overruns or left and right corrections, it gave me goosebumps too see everything come together."