Preseason '26-'27

[Darren]

About right to kickoff preseason happenings with a thankfully-weak storm in the Gulf, with landfall imminent near Venice, La. So far north winds have dominated at Shell Beach so water has risen a bit but largely kept in check so far. We got the bay boat out Monday morning and duck boat was already out from a weekend spent at False River dragging tubes and kneeboards.

221145_5day_cone.png

Johnny then took it to work with him Monday for a full shakedown on the motor for scheduled maintenance.

Interesting note below for Arky rice, not sure what this year's figure is for La rice but assume it too is on the lower end:

Despite a rice reference price increase from $6.30 to $7.60 per bushel under the One Big Beautiful Bill, Arkansas farmers planted less than one million acres of rice for the first time since 1989. Low commodity prices, rising input costs and global conflict contributed to less acres.

https://uaex.uada.edu/media-resources/n ... eport.aspx

[Darren]

Update, jogged north to make a landfall at the camp:

Screenshot 2026-07-22 135609.jpg

Currently blowing 25-30+ kts from the north/NW down there on scene.

[Darren]

Water levels back down significantly overnight, should be done with this one on our end thankfully.

Screenshot 2026-07-23 075741.jpg

Guessing we got a foot or two over the dock, maybe a foot over much of the slab under camp. Hopefully drifted away more debris than brought in for us to clean up.

[Darren]

Big fan of the pellet count high density shot has brought to my patterns, 4s and 5s resulting in much less crippling than my old days of 2s and 3s steel. Ballistic performance upgrade, sure, but regardless of that, a sheer cloud of pellets seems to be dispatching birds cleaner and I'm spending less time chasing in the marsh.

Interesting analysis here from Boss. As an engineer, I err toward trusting numbers so these kats speak my language whether its sales propaganda or not.