Duck Season 2024-2025

[Ericdc]

Pretty stale conditions this week. I'm going tomorrow for first time since last Monday. Slept in today instead of going solo.


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[Darren]

Pretty stale conditions this week. I'm going tomorrow for first time since last Monday. Slept in today instead of going solo.
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Yea with forecast I saw, figured I'm best off putting in some time around the house than going sit in the pit this week. I do like Sunday's forecast for field, but prob will be in the marsh.

[Darren]

Sat. 1/4/2025
Shell Beach, LA marsh
Miles B., Johnny and I with Harry
Winds NE 10-15+, heavy clouds, 50's to start

Rested this location since last Sunday but didn't matter, was dead all over the marsh today. Took a pair of skirting grays, and lost one long off crip gray to an iffy op of 7 or 8 grays committing, but not, as they (so) often do. Not even the buffles were out and about save for one I let pass behind me.

2 grays


Will scratched out 3 gw teal and a dosgris on the lease, said he saw very few others but with big new south wind tomorrow, we're headed in that direction for tomorrow unless we wake up to pouring rain. Reports were two decent hunts in the bunkie field blind last two days, I think tomorrow and Monday are actually the days to be there.

[Darren]

This morning the water gages are telling me the marsh is full of mud flats. Headed down with hopes to ride to the lease but with the low water, that may or may not happen. We should be closing this weekend, or at very latest, next weekend.

If its available, we may opt to field hunt on Sunday, as after Sunday's big blow there will be no water in the marsh for sure.

[Darren]

Sat. 1/18/2025 - LA West Zone THIRD split opener
Shell Beach area marsh
Johnny & I with Harry
winds SW/W 5-10, cloudy and eventually steady rain, 60's

Saw a few grays in this area yesterday from the bay boat, but they mostly were absent today. Most of what little we did see were divers, no teal at all, very few grays or mottleds. Shot what came for the most part. One blind a bit to our south did quite a bit of shooting but I have to figure it was divers coming in off the lake based on their location. Harry had nice, easy hunt, including clutch recovery in marsh on north side of pond for crip dosgris.

We packed things up at the marsh camp, will field hunt rest of the remaining season including tomorrow.

(5) 2 dosgris/scaup, 2 buffleheads, 1 gray


Rounding up crip dosgris

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Well at least one of the scaup/dosgris was handsome

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Will had nice hunt on our lease, taking 4 grays and a scaup solo, and lost one more gray that would have been his 6th bird. Water was too low for me to scout there yesterday but was temporarily back up this morning only to be falling hard in tomorrow's big northwest winds.

[Rick]

"Blackhead."

[DComeaux]

Look at that head!

[Darren]

Sunday 1/19/2025
Bunkie area ag land
Johnny & I with Harry
Winds NNW 15-25+ rippin, clear skies, started around 40 deg and fell a good few degrees, cold in all that wind

Blind scratched day before but with the weather change we wanted to go see for ourselves. Sure enough, 15 mins before shooting time started a show of ducks I'd not seen in a very long time, and into legal time it continued for much of the morning, off and on. Absolute train loads of geese, and big wads of pintails, spoons, other misc. big ducks, though strangely very few teal of any flavor. While duck watching was unreal, getting them to shooting range proved tough, probably too many decoys out bobbing. Same on the specks, they would stop just before you were confident in going up with the gun, but overall geese of all types were staying lower than usual as they plainly have been using this area of the farm. Lost one downed woodduck, sat till 11a and when we thought it was over, Johnny said a wad of spoons burned over him as I had just headed down the levee to get the bike.

Also was not properly gunned with my usual late season tighter choke and #1's, and that hurt us on a few iffy ops.

(9) 5 shovel ducks, 2 pin ducks, 1 ring duck, 1 wood duck + 1 snow goose

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Love the late season bull spoons, and they were out and about today

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Nice to see it how it should be this time of the year with such weather in play. Will had good solo hunt with a limit of 3 BWT, 2 grays, 1 mottled in our marsh lease's West Blind and got out before the falling tides stranded him. Said overall, though, didn't see many at all.

[Rick]

Harry's got his snow camo on.

[DComeaux]

Nice

[Rick]

I met Jack Boyer this morning when he brought a pretty strap of mallards, mottleds and pintails to our cleaners. Told him you'd seen something similar in a snow day photo from their camp, and he was curious whom/where it came from. But best I could do was fuzzy memory of your FIL's connection to their camp and couldn't even recall his name, much less connection. Told him I'd try to fill in those blanks.

[Darren]

I met Jack Boyer this morning when he brought a pretty strap of mallards, mottleds and pintails to our cleaners. Told him you'd seen something similar in a snow day photo from their camp, and he was curious whom/where it came from. But best I could do was fuzzy memory of your FIL's connection to their camp and couldn't even recall his name, much less connection. Told him I'd try to fill in those blanks.

So FIL Mike (who you know) has a younger brother (Henry C.) whom married a Boyer. One of his two son's (Mike's nephew), Sam, was in the photo I was provided. Chol's (pronounced "Shoal") & Boyers from Lake Charles are tied, as such.

I also understand Mike and Henry made a hunt before the weather that was pretty good as well.

[Rick]

Got it, thanks.

[DComeaux]

So FIL Mike (who you know) has a younger brother (Henry C.) whom married a Boyer. One of his two son's (Mike's nephew), Sam, was in the photo I was provided. Chol's (pronounced "Shoal") & Boyers from Lake Charles are tied, as such.

I also understand Mike and Henry made a hunt before the weather that was pretty good as well.

Reading that made me think of this.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1583727992533458

[Darren]

Bunkie blind had a good one yesterday, Johnny made the hunt with the crew, I held out for today to help pick up and take bike home, hoping birds show. From videos sent to me, crazy duck show yesterday afternoon over the field.

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Yesterday afternoon:

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[Darren]

Sun. 1/26/2025 - LA East Zone Closer
Bunkie field
Phil, Johnny, Ryan, Owen and I shooting, plus couple of young boys watching, & trusty Harry
light to mod SE winds, heavy clouds, started in 40s but warmed, occasional rain shower

Per post above, tons of birds in the area right now, particularly pintails. From dark before LST till we left to go home, pintails by the hundreds swarmed the area swinging this way and that. It was pretty, but not all that productive. Spoons and teal were more apt to work, but it was 90% pintails over us all morning. Still haven't learned our lesson to pick up bulk of the decoys before this closing weekend to give them a different look so we played hell getting birds to the guns. Lost couple long off crips, missed a few chances when things went from dead to chaotic too quick, but great time with a good crew to close it out. I was last one out to the pit with the bike to grab last decoys and other gear, made double sure the lids were on this time, and also took a few mins to just sit, watch and listen to the pins in the air, heck of a sight.

(10) 6 spoons, 2 pintails, 2 GW teal

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[Deltaman]

What a fine show to watch!!!! Pintails in flight are mesmerizing, and the most graceful of them all as far as I am concerned.
Great reports and pics Darren, Thanks!

[Darren]

Crunched numbers, season data provided below:

1st split:
43 ducks on 11 hunts, averaged 3.9 ducks/hunt

2nd Split:
93 ducks on 12 hunts, averaged 7.75 ducks/hunt

Season total:
136 ducks + 4 geese on 23 hunts, average of 5.9 ducks/hunt

Species breakdown below:

34 Green Wing Teal
21 Blue Wing Teal
24 Grays (only slightly up from the 21 of prior season)
21 Spoons (8 in prior season)
5 Pintails
1 Mottleds
4 woodies
2 redheads
3 dosgris/lesser scaup
1 ringneck
20 buffleheads (ZERO for prior three seasons, prior season high mark was 16 in 2018-2019 season)

1 specklebelly goose
3 snow geese

Capture2.JPG

We had fun, made plenty memories. It wasn't great, but it was noticeably better than the prior season. Wish my son could have made a few more hunts but given how young he is, he's still way ahead of most kids his age. Troubling to see grays so low, saw so relatively few over the course of the season in the marsh, while plenty are being harvested in ARK and MO from photos streaming the social media realm. In consideration of such mild October and November weather, I can only guess they were slowed in their advance southward early on, then simply stayed (mostly) put when more intense weather prevailed later.

Green wings, widely reported to be a hardy bird for cold temps, continue to show in Louisiana, and continue to get harvested in huge numbers. Even though I didn't really have them, some not far from us in SE La salt marsh had them by the swarms and capitalized given absence of grays. They have habitat I don't, shallower stuff the GW's love.

Harry had a very strong season all the way to the end. Time will tell if he's up for it come September.

[jrock75]

Troubling to see grays so low, saw so relatively few over the course of the season in the marsh, while plenty are being harvested in ARK and MO from photos streaming the social media realm. In consideration of such mild October and November weather, I can only guess they were slowed in their advance southward early on, then simply stayed (mostly) put when more intense weather prevailed later.

Hope the cause is a record warm November and this isn't the start of a larger trend for gray's to stay up north. We really missed having them in the marsh this year. We shot more than last year when they were almost entirely gone because the drought prevented any SAV growth, but even with what looked like pretty solid SAV we still harvested a fraction of what we typically do. Our area saw no new grays before or after the freeze.

Makes me think that I should manage for super skinny GWT water levels next year which is hard when it isn't raining regularly as evaporation was killing us during the first split.

[DComeaux]

[Deltaman]

Neat, close up video Dave, Thanks!

[Darren]

With the West Zone still open through tomorrow, lease partner Will made a solo trip this morning to one of our ponds:

"Limit in short order, 4 GW teal, 1 gray, 1 scaup"

He's trying them again tomorrow to hopefully close it out on a high note.

[13051305]

Dem ducks love that corn!
IMO corn grown,left standing and then flooded is a major factor in short stopping the natural migration.
When the NABT of 1918 was changed in1998 that allows folks to hunt in , over flooded corn,we have 25 + years of imprinted migration short stopping.
Those in the Mississippi a and Central Flyways NORTH of the Manson/Dixson line like the change.

[Ericdc]

People been hunting over flooded corn long before 1998.


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[SpinnerMan]

I was curious so I looked.

https://www.ducks.org/conservation/waterfowl-research-science/changes-to-us-migratory-bird-hunting-regulations-on-baiting-laws

Further clarification and strengthening during 1935 and 1936, however, led to a regulation that stated:

migratory game birds may not be taken by the aid of baiting, or on or over any baited area baiting shall mean the placing, exposing, depositing, distributing or scattering of shelled, shucked, or un-shucked corn, wheat or other grain, salt or other feed so as to constitute for such birds a lure, attraction or enticement to, on or over any area where hunters are attempting to take them;

Specific regulatory language, however, clearly defined permitted methods as:

Nothing in this subparagraph shall prohibit the taking of such birds over standing crops, flooded standing crops (including aquatics), flooded harvested crop lands, grain crops properly shocked on the field where grown, or grains found scattered solely as the result of normal agricultural planting or harvesting.

Seems to say that hunting over flooded corn remained legal in the 1930's when they ended baiting, so it's been going on for a long time.

[DComeaux]

People been hunting over flooded corn long before 1998.


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I'm concerned with today's interpretation of the law and the amount compared to back then. When duck numbers are down it will surely make a difference.

[Ericdc]

I was curious so I looked.

https://www.ducks.org/conservation/waterfowl-research-science/changes-to-us-migratory-bird-hunting-regulations-on-baiting-laws

Further clarification and strengthening during 1935 and 1936, however, led to a regulation that stated:

migratory game birds may not be taken by the aid of baiting, or on or over any baited area baiting shall mean the placing, exposing, depositing, distributing or scattering of shelled, shucked, or un-shucked corn, wheat or other grain, salt or other feed so as to constitute for such birds a lure, attraction or enticement to, on or over any area where hunters are attempting to take them;

Specific regulatory language, however, clearly defined permitted methods as:

Nothing in this subparagraph shall prohibit the taking of such birds over standing crops, flooded standing crops (including aquatics), flooded harvested crop lands, grain crops properly shocked on the field where grown, or grains found scattered solely as the result of normal agricultural planting or harvesting.

Seems to say that hunting over flooded corn remained legal in the 1930's when they ended baiting, so it's been going on for a long time.

Exactly


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[DComeaux]

I was curious so I looked.

https://www.ducks.org/conservation/waterfowl-research-science/changes-to-us-migratory-bird-hunting-regulations-on-baiting-laws

Further clarification and strengthening during 1935 and 1936, however, led to a regulation that stated:

migratory game birds may not be taken by the aid of baiting, or on or over any baited area baiting shall mean the placing, exposing, depositing, distributing or scattering of shelled, shucked, or un-shucked corn, wheat or other grain, salt or other feed so as to constitute for such birds a lure, attraction or enticement to, on or over any area where hunters are attempting to take them;

Specific regulatory language, however, clearly defined permitted methods as:

Nothing in this subparagraph shall prohibit the taking of such birds over standing crops, flooded standing crops (including aquatics), flooded harvested crop lands, grain crops properly shocked on the field where grown, or grains found scattered solely as the result of normal agricultural planting or harvesting.

Seems to say that hunting over flooded corn remained legal in the 1930's when they ended baiting, so it's been going on for a long time.

Well, it needs to change.

[Duck Engr]

I think the only difference is when it snows and freezes. Standing flooded Corn sticks up above the snow and ice. Rest of the time it doesn’t make a difference in regards to migration due to corn on the ground throughout the Midwest other than maybe locally encouraging night feeding.

[DComeaux]

Neat, close up video Dave, Thanks!

If you're on a PC go to full screen.