2018-2019 Season Log

[Rick]

How old are these 'sons"?

Guessing 14ish and not really expecting problems, just didn't want to pass that potential on to Isaac's little brother Joe, who'll be filling in for him. Believe we'll have a fine time.

[Duck Engr]

Rick I expect the ducks you saw today to be the leading edge of your reinforcements you’ve been looking for. The ducks went POOF in the area of our lease from before the big front to after. We had more show up yesterday only to pull the Houdini on us this morning.

[Rick]

Date: 11/21 Wed

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: northeasterly moderate

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: 94% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Far fewer ducks than yesterday, and a spoon was the only little duck we even thought about having a chance at. Nursed a scratch for the first hour, while those to our east poked at mostly jacks. But there was a strong goose flight out of the deep marsh that included a lot more specks what we've seen headed south would have suggested. Also saw a couple flights over Klondike after.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had a few "locals" tease us before landing close by, but better luck with what few were flying at altitude.

Hunters: 2, young guns, Tanner and Ryan

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh's longest track was of a tipped blue-wing seen in the boat trail near Clyde's blind on our way out. Little rip took him downwind farther than I could hear the chase, but when I got worried enough to whistle Marsh back, he had the bird.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: I'd say just the lack of birds, but Ryan's farts can't be ignored. Horrendous, even from my upwind end of the blind. Plus allergies were tearing him up.

Kudos: Never saw a hint of whatever Isaac was complaining about (unless Ryan was farting yesterday, too), and Tanner's a fine young hunter who's shooting helped save their day. Then, too, there were the pintails the boys were so hoping to shoot that showed up pretty much literally at the last minute.

Birds By Species: 4 gadwall, 4 mallards, 2 pintails and 1 spoon (Plus Marsh's blue-wing, which we can't take credit for.)

Photo Ops: Money bird:

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Two boys, Ryan and Tanner, with a nicer strap of dead day birds than most adult parties would have mustered:

044a.JPG

[Darren]

Very nice! Scratch and scrape at 'em, even when it's stinky!

[DComeaux]

Hahahahaha! Nice hunt Rick.

[Bud]

Sure is great seeing a young man taking a picture of a pintail instead of texting. Nice hunt and strap.

[BGkirk]

Sure is great seeing a young man taking a picture of a pintail instead of texting. Nice hunt and strap.

trust me he was texting or snapping it soon after taking that pic


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[Rick]

Lie swapping has become intra-blind in the cellular age, but knowing their dads' guide as I do, I was confident in assuring the boys they weren't sitting on the pile of big ducks being claimed.

Two eleven-year-olds today: one of my grandsons and Doug's great-grandson who are classmates. Sure hoping Thanksgiving morning hunters push a few birds around for them...

[Rick]

Date: 11/22 Thur

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: Cloudy to clearing

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE moderate

Temperature: around 50

Moon phase:

Special Notes: Thanksgiving hunt we're grateful for.

Waterfowl Activity: Very little moving around, but some of each.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had a couple mallard ops I wished I could have made more boy-sized, but given the givens, we were blessed.

Hunters: 2 eleven-year-old classmates, one my grandson, Preston, and the other Doug's great-grandson, Cole

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh stayed after a blue-wing Preston made a tough shot on and couldn't be swayed into expanding his search until he eventually dug it out from under the flotant - right where his nose had been telling him it was.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Would have liked to show them more chances, but thankful for what there was.

Kudos: The boys were both safe and well behaved - and hit some birds.

Birds By Species: 2 blue-wings, 2 gadwall, 2 green-wings, 2 mallards and 2 shovellers

Photo Ops: Preston and Cole (and birds papaw's going to pick, but that lesson's coming...)

004a.jpg

Lagniappe: Wondered how it might go with two such young guns, but the pairing was a good one with no bickering over who shot what and good company for each other between much too scarce birs.

[DComeaux]

Awesome!

[Ericdc]

Happy turkey day

[BGkirk]

Date: nov 22 happy thanksgiving

Time: left at 9:30 due to lunch plans and flight was over too

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clear by sunrise

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm to very light NE (not enough to help work big ducks)

Temperature: 37 and warming up quick

Barometer:

Moon phase:big full moon, should have taken a pic

Special Notes: beautiful morning other than no wind, felt like we would have got 4-6 ducks had we had any wind

Waterfowl Activity: dead for first 30-45 minutes until goose flight, followed by a big duck flight from south from 8-830 then nothing

Waterfowl Responsiveness: specks were very responsive to calling even when mixed with snows, gads were being gads with no wind and circled and circled

Hunters: my brother Ryan and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: 2 mojos on remote

Kudos: broke and finished my highest speck ever flying in small mixed flock

curses: just my 3rd hunt in a row with no wind

Birds By Species: 1 speck

Photo Ops:





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wrong log brooo


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[Ericdc]

Sure enough


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[Ericdc]

My fault Rick, you can delete


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[Rick]

Ain't botherin' me.

[Rick]

Date: 11/23

Time: Morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: initially broken but mostly heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: moderate to light easterly

Temperature: comfortably cool

Moon phase: pretty dang full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Wasn't as much moving as hoped with holiday hunters, and too much like the day before. Maybe the moon? Maybe just few birds.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: I could break 'em, but couldn't get many to the mess in the blind.

Hunters: 2 1/2, now papaw Gary, Clay (who I'd hunted as a little boy, now 9' tall) and Clay's six-year-old, Fisher

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh did a sweet job on a greenhead tip way up the run.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: A duck blind was not the place for Fisher to be after about the first hour, and he was standing on a platform higher than the seat with his very tall dad, who didn't seem to want to be there, either, while birds tried to work. Nice folks, but holy cow what a circus and consequently long morning.

Kudos: No one got shot or spanked.

Birds By Species: 4 bw teal, 2 mallards and 4 shovellers

Photo Ops: Our Gang:

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Lagniappe: Dads, if you want to take young kids hunting, it's best to make the outing the childs. IE: with plenty for them to do besides try to shoot ducks - and short.

[Darren]

Still, ten ducks with that crew is quite the accomplishment. Got a taste of hunting with young kids the other day, "dad I'm bored" with few birds flying. Good on you getting them into double digits

[Rick]

Waaay too many big ducks were educated in the making of that adventure.

[Rick]

Date: 11/24

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: all morning ground fog

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil

Temperature: t-shirt

Moon phase:

Special Notes: guess we're lucky this was our first such fog of the new season

Waterfowl Activity: Seemed to be both specks and blues overhead all morning, but nothing will to come down into the fog, not that I often tried after determining that what sounded like it was close wasn't - and wasn't apt to get closer. Saw exactly two big ducks and not a whole lot more little ones.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Whistled for an hour or so to little appreciable effect, but most thankfully had much better luck kacking when teal were actually spotted. Only big ducks seen or heard from were a pair of grays that spun to the call and came pretty - except the two pairs of most important hands were still in pockets when I gave the go-ahead.

Hunters: 2, Bruce who hunted with me some years ago and was now quite frail and teenage grandson from Chicago, Reese, on his first duck hunt.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Unlike our fortune with my grandson's dug-in duck the other morning, Marsh couldn't recover Reese's first blue-wing from under a marsh hole that proved too deep for my hip boots to help kick it out. Even after rooting so deep that he tore his velcroed vest off for the first time ever.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Not at all the kind of morning that my pair needed, and Bruce never came close to killing anything.

Kudos: Reese did eventually get a bird anchored and, maybe-kinda-sorta, a second.

Birds By Species: 4 bw teal and 2 gw teal

Photo Ops: forgot my camera

Lagniappe: When we got back to the camp, Bruce gave me a couple cases of shells plainly dating back to our earlier hunts, if not beyond. Which pretty much confirmed my suspicion that we were making a last hunt. Sure wish he could have killed a few and thankful as can be that he got to see Reese's joy when succeeding at something it was important for Bruce to share.

[Rick]

Date: 11/25 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: initially fairly strong southerly to nil to mod westerly

Temperature: warm

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Had a big bunch of green-wings early that made us think south wind was doing its teal thing, but that wasn't the case, as they were much fewer and farther between than expected all morning. As were big ducks.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Teal were fairly evenly mixed between those that knew us and those that did as bid, but most big ducks would break for the call, see where it came from and go on. Some of which was likely crowd control, but most seemed to know me.

Hunters: 2, cousins or brothers, Brian and Darren, who get to hunt a lot on their nearby farm (and limited in yesterday's fog).

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh did a fine job.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just the generally disappointing big duck response.

Kudos: Pretty sure we were the only ones to finish, thanks entirely to dropping our birds in bunches, including a few whole herds - albeit small ones of five or fewer.

Birds By Species: 6 bw teal, 3 gadwall, 7 gw teal and 2 mallards

[Darren]

That'll work!

[Rick]

Was sweet to have good shots in the blind for the first time in what seems a while. Now if I could just have a party that both shoots and hides well - and a few birds...

[DComeaux]

Nice hunt , Rick. This weeks weather will be interesting. Read many reports on the interweb of migrating ducks seen this morning. I'll be back in the blind thursday morning, and hoping the north wind blows some water out....we have way too much.

[Ericdc]

Was sweet to have good shots in the blind for the first time in what seems a while. Now if I could just have a party that both shoots and hides well - and a few birds...

Need Corey and I to come back


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[Rick]

Naw, I said "good" shots.

(Honestly don't recall pecans about your hunt. Would like to blame it on being a teen in the '60s, but can't remember them, either.)

[Ericdc]

Naw, I said "good" shots.

(Honestly don't recall pecans about your hunt. Would like to blame it on being a teen in the '60s, but can't remember them, either.)

Hahaha we did fudge on some pintail right off the bat but recovered nicely, think we had 22 or 23 and passed on spoons and divers.


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[Duck Engr]

Rick, going a little off topic here but the wife is after me to figure out a Christmas gift for her to give me as she likes to be finished with her shopping December 1 (Im more of a dec 23 or 24 guy).

Anyway, what color acrylic is your go-to deceiver? I’d like to send her to Allan’s website to order one but think I remember reading way back somewhere, don’t think it was here, that some folks believe the color of call can affect volume and tone. I’m looking for “ear-bleeding” loud to try to help me break traffic ducks over our pit. The RNT mondo cutdown has been a great loud call for breaking ducks when hunting in the woods but sounds like a fart in the pit.

[Rick]

Unless something's changed very recently, Alan is no longer making calls (told me "indefinitely") and only the used market remains.

As for color: some argue that black, ivory and mallard green are denser than other acrylics. Hard to believe enough so to make a discernible difference, but nearly all "main street" contest calls at least were one of those colors. But my MVPs and Daisy Cutters have all been one or two of those colors - just in case...

[Duck Engr]

Thanks Rick! That’s what I thought I remembered as far as density-color relationship, but wanted to make sure.

Looks like I’ll have to go to scrounging through classified ads if I want to add one to my collection.

[Duck Engr]

Oh and if you ever decide to part with one of the deceivers in your collection, shoot me a pm.