Regular Season

[Duck Engr]

Heck of a pm hunt. You had it all, water control issues, stuck utv, wrong shells, and ducks!

[Rick]

J- I'm surprised you guys can shoot mottleds when we can't for the first 15 days, in large part because when they cut us from 3 to 1, we were told it was because Texas mottled numbers had fallen off so badly. Thought we were in the mottled boat together.

Dave, I don't know if nutrias cur rice levees. But muskrats sure tunnel and den in them.

[DComeaux]

J- I'm surprised you guys can shoot mottleds when we can't for the first 15 days, in large part because when they cut us from 3 to 1, we were told it was because Texas mottled numbers had fallen off so badly. Thought we were in the mottled boat together.

Dave, I don't know if nutrias cur rice levees. But muskrats sure tunnel and den in them.

Yap, my mistake. It's the other rat.

[jrock75]

J- I'm surprised you guys can shoot mottleds when we can't for the first 15 days, in large part because when they cut us from 3 to 1, we were told it was because Texas mottled numbers had fallen off so badly.

For whatever reason our mottled duck restrictions have only been the first 5 days of the season.

[jrock75]

As was the case last year, I have fallen way behind in journaling my hunts. As a whole we had moderate to good hunting through Christmas day. Mainly driven by the fact that one of our rest fields held the teal, pintail, and snow goose roost all of December. Unfortunately since the New Year all our properties have become duck deserts. I have never shot fewer ducks in January. The last cold 2 weeks ago brought zero new ducks and blew what few locals remained. I was hoping we would have a multi-day stretch of big south winds and get some full plumage blue wings moving back up, but looks like that is not in the weather cards for the rest of the season. Hopefully we get a push with the front this weekend, but I am not optimistic.

[jrock75]

Date: 1/19

Time: Morning

Location: Blind 14

Cloud Cover: Sunny and clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: Fierce NW 20+ all morning

Temperature: mid-upper 30s

Special Notes: none

Waterfowl Activity: There were not many ducks simply traveling around. Groups were sporadic and typically in larger numbers. The wind was absolutely brutal and didn't let up all day. Saw a couple of big groups of green wings fluff up from the roost field only to go right back down.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Vast majority of the ducks we saw came from the south, which is unusual for this blind as all season we had been feasting off the ducks in the roost field directly to the north. Ducks were interested into our field but wanted to hug the wind sheltered north and west banks so they would come over the blind sailing and then loop back around only to land across the field. Tough shots for the boys over the back and top of the blind as they cant see over the back at all. I spent too much time looking north out of habit and inside the blind to get out of the wind and had several groups sneak us. I knew this was a poor choice for the wind, but it has been our most consistent blind for seeing birds and I wanted a place for the boys to be able to get down out of the wind. If just me, I would have sat on a marsh stool on the northwest bank of the field and probably done quite well.

Hunters: 4 - Me, Grant, Vince and his son Ben

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake

Special Equipment: 2 mojos

Curses: Lost a pintail drake that Grant wounded. Jake took off at it but stopped short of the 200+ yard distance it sailed before it landed with lots of life. With the wind howling in my face I couldn't get him to hear the whistle and go further back. Then Walked across the field to the north bank and kicked all the patches of vegetation with Jake to no avail.

Kudos: Vince and his son are top tier guests. He always brings good food for the night before (typically steaks), but his chicken sauce piquant this time was the best yet.

Lagniappe: Nothing

Birds By Species: 9 ducks (4 spoons, 2 pintails, 1 gadwall, 1 bw teal, 1 gw teal)

2025.01.19.jpg

[Deltaman]

Glad some birds played, and know the boys ate it up, despite the frigid wind!

[jrock75]

Date: 1/26

Time: Morning

Location: Blind 14

Cloud Cover: Cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: ESE 10 mph

Temperature: 50s

Special Notes: Closing day of the 2024-2025 season

Waterfowl Activity: Hundreds of mostly spoonbills that wanted in our field but also wanted nothing to do with our decoy spread. This was somewhat similar behavior to last weekend, which I attributed to the hard NW wind but clearly there was another driver. GW teal were in the roost field and not moving.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Groups avoided the decoy spread worse than I have seen this year. At this blind we put out a big spread and leave it, only taking it up for the split. Next year I think we leave it out for first split and then take up every day during second split. Or at least after Christmas when birds traditionally get really stale.

Hunters: 2 - Me, David

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake

Special Equipment: None

Curses: None

Kudos: None

Lagniappe: Nothing

Birds By Species: 3 ducks (1 canvasback, 1 spoonbill, 1 gw teal)

[Darren]

Really like the idea of going to fewer decoys, but put them out and pick up each day, especially for last few weeks of season.

[jrock75]

Really like the idea of going to fewer decoys, but put them out and pick up each day, especially for last few weeks of season.

Yes, smaller spread. No way I am picking up 20 dozen decoys after every hunt.

[Darren]

Agreed; in the pursuit of trying to look different, I think there's also merit in just a few decoys, just the same as a whole lot. My own bet for my hunt Sunday would have been that they'd have eaten up just a few quality decoys with quiver butts in the middle of them, instead of a wide swath of motionless decoys of widely varying quality. Maybe one day we'll actually try it.......