Regular Season

[jrock75]

Date: 10/26

Time: Morning

Location: Blind #14

Cloud Cover: Mostly Sunny

Wind Direction and Velocity: Very little initially 5-10 NW as morning progressed

Temperature: 70s-80s

Special Notes: 2025 Youth Weekend

Waterfowl Activity: Much slower than I expected. I was at the farm on Wednesday getting the blind ready and we had hundreds of mottled ducks in this field plus teal everywhere. We had two big lines of thunderstorms roll through Friday and Saturday nights dropping 2" of rain. Birds must have left for the new water. Only saw one group of non-mottled "big ducks." Hopefully the front this week pushes some down or opening weekend will be Teal Season 2.0.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: The blue wings we did see played it right. If the dads were shooting we could have made a pretty nice pile.

Hunters: 4 dads with 4 boys (11-13); me, David, Alex, John and Grant, Jack, Hughes, and Oakes

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake

Special Equipment: 2 spinners

Curses: None

Kudos: None

Lagniappe: It is really nice to have a hunt solely focused on the boys.

Birds By Species: 14 bw teal

Youth Hunt.jpg

[Darren]

Hard to beat that !

[Rick]

Thank goodness for blue-wings.

[Darren]

Fearing weather coming is going to blow out a lot of holdover blue wings the southern end of flyway is hanging on to, sure hope some others backfill.

[Deltaman]

Looks like the boys had plenty of action despite the big duck blowout! Congrats dad

[jrock75]

Date: 11/1

Time: Morning

Location: Blind #14

Cloud Cover: Sunny, then Cloudy, then Partly Cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE 5-10

Temperature: 60s

Special Notes: 2025 Opener

Waterfowl Activity: Slow except for mottled ducks which are off limit in Texas the first week of the season. We lost our ducks at the farm. Apparently to the marsh as our marsh blinds, which had a poor teal season, all did really good.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Not good. We couldn't get the big groups of teal to come in right to get the boys good shots. They would swoop in out of nowhere behind us but that was it. No landing, no banking and coming back, etc.

Hunters: 6 (Me, Grant, Will, Steve, Jack, Mark). Mix of dads, sons, and grandson.

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake

Special Equipment: 2 spinners

Curses: We need to make a larger hole behind the blind so that the ducks have an easier approach on a north wind. I intended to do so 2 weeks ago, but stuck the tractor and roller in another field and am now gun shy about putting it in this unit which has our worst soil. We can use the marsh master, but at 8' wide and 3 mph takes forever to do a hole of any size. Also I hit a deer on the drive in late after Trick-or-Treating. Truck is drivable but barely. Hate the idea of it sitting in the shop for most of the season. May just cut off some pieces and deal with it in February.

Kudos: Really nice weather. Dry north wind. Cool temps. No mosquitoes

Lagniappe: None

Birds By Species: 4 (3 BW teal, 1 Spoon)

[Duck Engr]

“Cut off some pieces and deal with it in February” man if that’s not a duck hunter’s line, I don’t know what is!

[Darren]

Love that attitude toward the truck situation but hate to hear you've got that to deal with. What came of the deer?

Did the marsh presumably bang on blue wings? Saw some straps that had green wings in some parts of Texas.

[jrock75]

Love that attitude toward the truck situation but hate to hear you've got that to deal with. What came of the deer?

Did the marsh presumably bang on blue wings? Saw some straps that had green wings in some parts of Texas.

Both blues and greens though the pics and piles I saw had more blue than green. They also had some gadwall and pintail in the mix. We saw way more big ducks (mainly gadwall and high pintails) than we did last weekend during the youth hunt but we just couldn't get them to give us a look. Hopefully they get banged on in the marsh all week and find our farm a nice spot to rest until the weekend.

I don't know the outcome of the deer, but I centered it going at least 50 mph so I doubt it survived. I didn't look around for it in the dark. I have never seen a deer out there on the road or dead in the ditch. I am always worried about the hogs as you see them dead all over the place.

I am unemotional about cars/trucks. Just tools to haul me and my junk around. I just got this one last year after having the one before it for 16 years and the one before that for 12 years. I apologize to everyone for being a cause of high insurance costs: truck this year and a tree on my SUV and wife's car last year during the hurricane.

[Darren]

I apologize to everyone for being a cause of high insurance costs: truck this year and a tree on my SUV and wife's car last year during the hurricane.

Can't be doing anything worse than so many of Louisiana's drivers, that's life unfortunately. Just hate to hear of the hassle for ya now during this critical time we plan for all year. Hoping the birds show where you want and the truck matter irons out.

[jrock75]

Date: 11/15

Time: Morning

Location: Blind #14

Cloud Cover: Partly Cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Very little until late morning

Temperature: 60-70s

Special Notes: None

Waterfowl Activity: Lots of ducks flying early. Huge numbers of ducks got up off the roost (~100 acre field to the north of this blind) and headed south before shooting time. Refuge hunters to our south started shooting 5 minutes early and it was hard to keep everyone from grabbing their guns as we were swarmed from all directions early

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Good responsiveness with regards to making a pass but with no wind they came from all directions and didn't work all that well after the first pass.

Hunters: 7 (Me, Grant, Will, Ryan, Ryan's friend Q, Steve, Jack)

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake

Special Equipment: 2 spinners

Curses: None

Kudos: Grant shot a coot at >50 yards.

Lagniappe: None

Birds By Species: 17 ducks (mix of whistling ducks, teal, pintail, spoons) + 2 coots

2025.11.15 - Me and Grant.jpg

[jrock75]

Date: 11/16

Time: Morning

Location: Blind #12

Cloud Cover: Partly Cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Very little until late morning

Temperature: 60-70s

Special Notes: None

Waterfowl Activity: The huge numbers of ducks that were on the roost the day before were not there or did not move. Activity was slow but steady.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Good responsiveness.

Hunters: 6 (Me, Grant, Will, Ryan, Ryan's friend Q, Rob)

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake

Special Equipment: 2 spinners

Curses: I suddenly lost the ability to hit anything

Kudos: Grant shot well again. This is the first year he is putting it all together.

Lagniappe: None

Birds By Species: 12 ducks (mix of teal, pintail, spoons)

[jrock75]

Date: 11/22

Time: Morning

Location: Blind #12

Cloud Cover: Thick fog early that finally lifted around 9:00. Partly cloudy thereafter

Wind Direction and Velocity: Very little until finally around 9:00 5 mph W-NW

Temperature: 70s and the most miserable humid weather of the year including teal season until the wind picked up and blew out all the fog. The day before was 88 degrees in Houston, the latest it has been that hot in the last 50 years.

Special Notes: None

Waterfowl Activity: Lots of ducks before shooting time. Thick fog had them right over the blind. After that it was slow but also steady. Kept us entertained until we got our last bird and left around 10:00.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Ducks wanted into this field but many wanted to land ~30 yards outside the decoys

Hunters: 2 (Me and Grant)

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake

Special Equipment: None

Curses: I get the bad guide and dad award. Had a pair coming straight towards us. I said "Grant you shoot the one on the left and I will get the one on the right." As they got close to the blind they started to veer left around it and I called the shot. For some reason I jumped up and shot the one on the left. Grant wasn't happy with me and neither was I.

Kudos: Grant shot well again. This is the first year he is putting it all together.

Lagniappe: None

Birds By Species: 12 ducks (7 spoons, 2 mottled, 2 gadwall, 1 pintail)

2025.11.16.jpg

[Rick]

Makes no sense to me that when our mottled limit was cut from 3 to 1, it was blamed on mottled habitat loss in Texas, and now we can't shoot them for the first 15 days but Texas can.

[jrock75]

Makes no sense to me that when our mottled limit was cut from 3 to 1, it was blamed on mottled habitat loss in Texas, and now we can't shoot them for the first 15 days but Texas can.

They only ban us from "dusky" ducks the first 5 days. Across SE Texas there appears to have been quite a strong hatch of mottled ducks this year. Very nice to see given we had two pretty bad consecutive droughts in 2022 and 2023 that I felt did a number on the population in our area.

[jrock75]

Date: 11/26

Time: Morning

Location: Jackpot Blind

Cloud Cover: Partly cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: NNE 10-15

Temperature: 50s-60s. Really nice weather. Felt so good to step out and feel the strong cool north wind. Not a mosquito to be found anywhere.

Special Notes: First hunt with Dad this year. With Mom's illness and some travel obligations he missed teal and big duck openers he usually makes.

Waterfowl Activity: Lots of ducks before shooting time. Slowed materially once the time came. Then the activity was relatively steady all morning. Mostly singles, doubles, triples except for a few massive groups of teal. Ducks were very thick on the "roost" pond north of us on the refuge. They didn't move much though so we had to wait them out until 10:30 to finish the bag.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Did not behave as I thought given the sun and wind. They wanted to land behind the blind which was upwind. The massive groups of teal just wouldn't do it right like they so often do here. I am probably being too picky though. Given the bag we left with, we clearly had plenty respond to our satisfaction.

Hunters: 5 (Me, Grant, Dad, Will, Ryan)

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake - Made some very nice long blind retrieves. Handled well with the whistle even while a long ways upwind

Special Equipment: None

Curses: I forgot Jake's shock collar. I only really use it while hunting to nip any breaking in the bud before a habit forms. Of course a relatively new blind to him and a lot of shooting activity had him jumpy. Had to resort to the leash. Grrr. Thought I was past that with him but I know better.

Kudos: Just a really nice morning with great company

Lagniappe: None

Birds By Species: 30 ducks (13 GWT, 8 Gadwall, 5 Wigeon, 2 Spoons, 1 Pintail, 1 BWT)

2025.11.25 - Strap.jpg

2025.11.25 - Pintail.jpg

[jrock75]

Date: 11/29

Time: Morning

Location: Blind 14

Cloud Cover: Mostly cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: SSE 10mph

Temperature: 60s-70s. Humid and warm but the strong wind kept the mosquitoes at bay and made for a fairly pleasant morning

Special Notes: None

Waterfowl Activity: Wow it was slow. Nothing was moving except for pairs of mottled ducks which wanted nothing to do with our decoy spread. Snow geese showed up and were thick in the roost field to our north. Without the geese to watch, we would have likely left much earlier. Had thousands of teal on one of the idle fields in the middle of the farm but they never took to the air.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Mottled ducks didn't respond and there wasn't much else flying

Hunters: 6 (Me, Grant, Dad, David, John, Oakes)

Malfunctions: None

Dog(s): Jake

Special Equipment: Two Mojo teal

Curses: Slowest hunt that I can remember at this blind. What a difference a day makes. A big storm and front blew through that night and the next day this same blind shot 4 limits and a pile of geese.

Kudos: None

Lagniappe: None

Birds By Species: Zero! Grant took a shot at a teal on the water at the edge of the decoys but other than that there was nothing to shoot at.

[Darren]

30 birds is something any day, but for me the 8 grays and 5 wigeon is the sweet spot!

Would have to dive deep into the log to find last time I had 5 wigeon for a morning.

[jrock75]

30 birds is something any day, but for me the 8 grays and 5 wigeon is the sweet spot!

Would have to dive deep into the log to find last time I had 5 wigeon for a morning.

First time in several years that we have had lots of grass in the marsh. Gadwall and wigeon are back. Hopefully they stick around.