Duck Season 2025-2026

[DComeaux]

Blake an I had a pair of spoons land near us Saturday and we got to observe them for a while. The drake was dressed the the nines. The hen began to sift through the shallow water, followed almost immediately by the drake. They zig and zagged across the pond heading away from us, then left for greener pastures. I have no doubt they found nothing to eat. We saw a lot of true pairs this weekend. We hunt too far into the cycle of waterfowl life.

[Darren]

Something to keep an eye on for rest of the week and preparing for weekend......models are in remarkable agreement this morning for ice storm potential this weekend.

[Darren]

Something to keep an eye on for rest of the week and preparing for weekend......models are in remarkable agreement this morning for ice storm potential this weekend.

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[DComeaux]

That sucks.

[Rick]

"We'll see..."

We will have decades long camp regulars this weekend, and that could be their last chance for a small taste of how it once was.

[Darren]

Models this morning mostly keeping frozen precip above I-10 which really is about what that graphic was showing yesterday.

But my cousin was hoping to come down from Dallas on Thurs and return Sunday......doesn't look too promising for that at the moment.

From same local Met this morning:

A HIGH IMPACT weather event is coming to Louisiana this weekend. The approaching winter storm is likely to produce an ice storm that will shut down everything for several days, knock out power and make for some dangerous cold weather.
Multiple things need to be addressed here. We have high confidence this is going to happen. Some of the small details need to be ironed out like how far south will the freezing line get? Ice potential could extend down to I-10 in portions of Louisiana.
This is not going to be fun. This is not going to be a big snow day. Ice is dangerous, especially this level of ice accumulation. If I live along the I-20 corridor, I would prepare like a hurricane is coming. Expect to lose power, expect to lose it for several days. That means no heat for days while temperatures dip into the teens. Trees and power lines will likely break and fall due to the weight of the ice.
You will NOT be traveling this weekend. From Texas to the Carolinas and everywhere in between, this will be a large winter storm. If you stay far enough south, maybe you can still go about your travel plans but going north will NOT be happening.

[Darren]

Will got a quick solo limit of 4 grays/2 GWT this morning in our West Pond, dead calm conditions. He then made a pass by my South Roseau hole on his way home and said they were in there for sure so that's my plan for Friday.

[Darren]

Fri. 1/23/2026
Delacroix HBFC South Roseau Blind
David B and I shooting, my son supervising, Harry on the stand
Winds 5-15 NE, moderate fog, 50's

Seemingly ideal conditions with the fog and even some wind to go with it and thankfully the birds showed. Got new dog stand installed and some other blind work, better brushing, etc. before LST while David put out decoys. Teal were working early, though oddly just singles for the most part, and teal in general today were sketchy other than one nice group that worked beautifully. Grays were largely MIA other than one pair that did just as we wished they all did. Over before we knew it, great outing.

(12) 10 GW teal, 2 grays

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My guy worked hard again today in the shallows

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Having hard time justifying changing blinds for tomorrow with similar conditions but TBD. Will got another solo limit in our West Pond, 4 GW teal, 2 grays.

[DComeaux]

Nice hunt, Darren.

Seems from the repots I got on our end today we've got an influx of GW. Blake and I will give it a go in the morning then pack up and call it season. I want to be home before this artic blast hits. Hopefully the rain holds off long enough for us to get in a hunt and lets us run the crab traps for the last time.

[Duck Engr]

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! That and "don’t try to guide the guide” are what I try to live by.

Glad to see Harry still getting it done.

[Darren]

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! That and "don’t try to guide the guide” are what I try to live by.

Glad to see Harry still getting it done.

Works for me, going back to same blind in the AM. Only one way to find out......

[Darren]

Sat. 1/24/2026
Delacroix HBFC South Roseau Blind
Johnny, Beau R. and I shooting, my son supervising, Harry and Indy on the stand/in the blind for 1st time
Winds 10-15+ NE, 50's, heavy clouds, storms coming later today associated with winter storm Fern


Other than giving A51 a try, couldn't think of another option I liked better than simply returning here today. As we saw a couple of weeks back, though, with weather anticipated later, seemed like birds just mostly sat for first couple of hours of morning, had just 2 teal to show for first few hours and contemplated calling it but little by little saw some chances. Teal were again very skittish and apparently decoy-averse, total change from all season but maybe these are stale veterans of the area. Pairs or groups, they just wouldn't get right so took what we could. Grays that came were likewise skittish/stale, would drop but not do anything resembling finishing, and didn't see many overall. Lost two long off crips, and had a third just get up and fly off on Harry's approach. Sat till nearly noon given it was our last hunt of season and birds seemed to show better as it got later, really enjoyable time with very old friends and my son. Ace shooting and little better luck we probably get limits but we were happy with our take given calendar date. A few groups north of us had a good many absolutely monstrous volleys, plainly seemed to be teal ops instead of grays.

11 GW teal

Dogs all over at camp last night (+ Will's Loki)

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New era begins, Graham ditched me for Beau when he learned Indy would ride with us

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Lingered at the blind a bit while others got decoys, flat smitten with this location in the canes. Perhaps it reminds me a lot of Rick's old honey hole the way the birds whip around the canes.

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Indy showed a little surprise with the first volley or two, but after that seemed to start getting into the game and even quickly pursued a bird I downed in the surrounding cane after watching it fall. She swam the pond at a pace I don't know I've ever seen out of Harry, was like a jack rabbit when out in the marsh, and was a pro in the pirogue......lot of promise seen in her today. Will got a quick solo limit at A51, all GWT, made most of two early wads decoying perfectly, I'm told. He buttoned up that blind for us, removed the BlindGrass installations, and even dropped them off in my boat on his way back to the ramp, big help!

[Darren]

Will closed out the season for our marsh club today with a solo limit ahead of the weather/cold blast. 4 GWT, 1 bufflehead, 1 mottled drake in our Heart Pond.

[Duck Engr]

What a year! Congrats to you guys.

[Rick]

Indy showed a little surprise with the first volley or two, but after that seemed to start getting into the game and even quickly pursued a bird I downed in the surrounding cane after watching it fall. She swam the pond at a pace I don't know I've ever seen out of Harry, was like a jack rabbit when out in the marsh, and was a pro in the pirogue......lot of promise seen in her today.

Sweet to end a season with a pup's new beginning.

[Deltaman]

Great reports Darren, and loved seeing the late show of Green wings!

[Darren]

Indy showed a little surprise with the first volley or two, but after that seemed to start getting into the game and even quickly pursued a bird I downed in the surrounding cane after watching it fall. She swam the pond at a pace I don't know I've ever seen out of Harry, was like a jack rabbit when out in the marsh, and was a pro in the pirogue......lot of promise seen in her today.

Sweet to end a season with a pup's new beginning.

Really excited to have that initial introduction out of the way and put my gun-shy fears to apparent rest. Look forward to taking her out in the marsh all off season to further acclimate but she sure seemed to have been a fast learner for this one outing.

[Darren]

Thankfully after such an abysmal teal season, the regular season to follow took some crunching with numbers as shown below.

grays 57 (highest since 2020, and is right about the historical average on the log)
GW teal 137 (highest on record, 3X the long term log average)
BW teal 15
spoons 24
pintails 5
dosgris 7
buffleheads 2
specklebelly geese 1

247 ducks on 23 hunts
This is the second highest duck tally on record (since 2005), second only to the tremendous 2011-2012 season. That said, the 2011 season had 5 more hunts, so the 2025 season's per-hunt average of 10.7 is the highest on the log. God bless those little green wings, love to hunt them, can still hear the peeps about in the darkness when we arrived at the South Roseau Blind closing weekend.

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We started the season off red-hot with quick hunts of green and blue wing teal, scattering of grays and spoons, it was just the start I'd hoped for given the timely weather leading up to it that proved impactful, and further supported why we need to be opening in the Nov 13-15 timeframe, and no longer in the Nov 7-9 timeframe. The grays eventually grew in numbers and we really got into them for remainder of first split. Though I saw a bunch of them the day before the 2nd split opener, we DNS the next morning then largely kept after the green wings as we got later in the season. We could have shifted gears a bit and hunted smaller water the grays were using but opted to ride the traditional holes, and it was working just fine.

Really enjoyed the move on the A51 blind to the southeast corner of that hole, paid off absolutely in spades with easier shots, cleaner kills and drastically fewer crippled birds. As a result, our losses for the season there were negligible compared to recent years. That blind averaged nearly a limit (5.7) for each hunter effort there, staggering, and 11.4/birds per hunt, 114 overall.

Though excited about that change, its the new South Roseau Blind that's got me fired up for next season (averaged 10.6/hunt) and will be putting some work into this spring to further stabilize the blind (its on a slight slope) and tend the roseau into hopefully growing how we can best use it. As I've made mention before, the way the birds work around (and even through) the cane reminds me of a special spot I used to go to for a number of years some of you also have been to.

I know many had tough seasons, some had banner seasons, and next year may be my turn to struggle, but we're going to enjoy this one and make plans for the next regardless, because after all, see note below from those on the forefront of it:

From Osborne Lab's IG post 2-days ago, "As soon as we think we know, the ducks show us that we don't. Migration is a fascinating yet complicated phenomenon with so many confounding factors that drive individual variation."

[DComeaux]

You had a good season. I want to get back to those numbers again.

[Rick]

Log sure suggests you're getting that lease dialed in and not just a fortunate year.

[Darren]

Log sure suggests you're getting that lease dialed in and not just a fortunate year.

Feel like the strategy is there of at least being able to make the most of what's there, be it swarms or trickles. Having texted a good bit with the (new) neighbor, he's sure high as could be on his prospects moving forward, really did well with the grays all the way to the end. He had no blinds, though, and prefers really getting after them in the small waters and as a result has some phenomenal gray duck footage and hefty straps. He moved nearly every hunt, and even on lightly hunted the hole he never missed a limit in. Makes for a good neighbor for us, indeed.

While there was a time for that in my public days, the blinds give me offseason fulfillment as much as seeing stringers hung from their posts. With my son likely starting to shoot before too long, I need a stable platform for him and not sitting down in a pirogue.

[Darren]

Here's the per-blind stats for our marsh club of three members. Will nearly exclusively hunts solo, J exclusively hunts with me...poor guy.

A51 Blind - 10 hunts
Total Avg/Hunt Avg/Person
114 11.4 5.7


Redhead Blind - 2 hunts
Total Avg/Hunt Avg/Person
10 5.0 5.0


Heart Pond - 4 hunts
Total Avg/Hunt Avg/Person
25 6.3 5.0


West Blind - 10 hunts
Total Avg/Hunt Avg/Person
79 7.9 4.6


The Puddles - 5 hunts
Total Avg/Hunt Avg/Person
27 5.4 4.5

South Roseau Blind - 5 hunts
Total Avg/Hunt Avg/Person
53 10.6 3.8


Left out a few of our other holes that only had a hunt or two.

[Darren]

Lil man and I took miss Indy for a ride yesterday out to the lease for some blind work and dog work. As usual, he conveniently fell asleep on the boat ride down to the lease (under the pirogue) and I was 15 mins into work at the West Blind before he stirred to ask how long we'd been there. Biggest miss, though, was missing out on the throngs of ducks I enjoyed on the ride down and especially around the lease. Thankfully there were plenty more he got to see, including hundreds and hundreds of divers we ran up on way to working at Redhead Blind then on to A51 where we jumped 30 grays and a mottled pair out from in front the bare blind.

Spent time mostly removing this season's brush to allow for new growth to come in, and at A51 and South Roseau installed 8 ft (7 ft goes in the ground) storm anchors to resist the buoyancy that comes with summer storm tides, knock wood. On west end of lease on way out ran up hundreds and hundreds more, mostly divers with misc others mixed in, and thankfully the breeze kept the gnats halfway at bay. It's prime gnat season and this warm weather is prime gnat weather. Grand ol time working on blinds watching ducks while listening to LSU baseball game radio feed on phone in my waders/in boat, hard to beat.

West Blind from the 2025 opener fame keeps its one naturally growing bush but otherwise stripped down, needs a new floor for sure but the rest of her frame isn't too promising either

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South Roseau got a bit of floor leveling and a storm anchor, note if you look close some new (green) roseau is already coming in, some of it 3-4ft tall already

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Indy's first marsh training alone, Harry relaxed at camp. Note from the spillway area and elsewhere, alligators were out in force this weekend in our travels

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He ran us all the way in learning to use the GPS, as I texted with DComeaux. Ducks had him getting a little off course at times, told him that challenge doesn't go away with age/experience.

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Recent marsh fire just south of town, rejuvenated marsh already growing back

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[Rick]

You're making me miss the marsh.

[DComeaux]

Blake and I have a trip planned next month to transplant some grass around the blind. We did as you and left our blind naked to let the dirt grab some sunlight. Blake and I had tasted the water the weekend we picked up and found no trace of salt, which is a good thing.

[Rick]

Blake and I have a trip planned next month to transplant some grass around the blind. We did as you and left our blind naked to let the dirt grab some sunlight. Blake and I had tasted the water the weekend we picked up and found no trace of salt, which is a good thing.

Thought wigeon grass liked a little salt, as I don't know that I've ever seen it in water that wasn't brackish.

[DComeaux]

Blake and I have a trip planned next month to transplant some grass around the blind. We did as you and left our blind naked to let the dirt grab some sunlight. Blake and I had tasted the water the weekend we picked up and found no trace of salt, which is a good thing.

Thought wigeon grass liked a little salt, as I don't know that I've ever seen it in water that wasn't brackish.

I've seen mentioned the ideal numbers are in the range 0 to 10 PPT, with some found in as high as 70 PTT. We had straight sea water last year in the breach of between 26 to 35 PPT or higher, so obviously the 70 PPT mentioned is a rarity. I would imagine the soil still contains enough salt to maintain a healthy growth.

On what is called the east end of the refuge, bass and redfish coexist and the widgeon grass is thick most years. That "east end" is, for the most part, sealed off from major salt intrusion by tall levees and control structures. These structure's do seep a bit and one is opened occasionally for flood control and aquatics management. The control structures at rollover are another source of saltwater infiltration for the east end. That east end is mainly fed from the north by Grand Lake through the superior canal. A perfect scenario!

[Rick]

Thickest I've seen it was one summer on the Tiger Island school section above Joseph's Harbor. Completely matted the open marsh hole north of the old tank battery.

[Darren]

I have a tough time predicting wigeon grass propensity to flourish, as we've seen a lot less of it lately in what were our strongholds of it. Had relatively high salinities summer 2024, didn't have much, more normal salinities in 2025, still didn't see it boom. Hard to say, but do understand it likes brackish above just fresh marsh.

[DComeaux]

I have a tough time predicting wigeon grass propensity to flourish, as we've seen a lot less of it lately in what were our strongholds of it. Had relatively high salinities summer 2024, didn't have much, more normal salinities in 2025, still didn't see it boom. Hard to say, but do understand it likes brackish above just fresh marsh.

Water clarity and depth have a big part in it, as well as a sustained low salinity level.