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Rick, I hope you don't mind but I stole and modified your log sheet.

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Date:

Hunters:

Cloud Cover:

Wind Direction and Velocity:

Temperature:

Waterfowl Activity:

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Birds total and by Species:

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

Teal Season 2019

Date: 9/14/2019 Opening day

Hunters: Blake and I

Cloud Cover: Clear

Moon Phase: Full

Wind Direction and Velocity: Light to breezy NNE

Temperature: mid 70's to start the day

Waterfowl Activity: Ocasional 20 to 30 bird flocks coming high from the north on afterburners until 8 AM.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: What was low enough came to the decoys and spinners.

Birds total and by Species: 2 bw

Lagniappe: It was comfortable in the the northern breeze and no mosquitos.

The first teal taken by Blake came in as a single. The next bird broke from a 12 to 15 bird group and I stayed locked on it thinking the rest would just continue on south, I had saw no hint of them following that bird. It flared over the decoys and it fell on my second shot of the season. It was on the water when Blake shot in the opposite direction. Confused I turned to see that the entire bunch had broke and had been making there way to the decoys.
Blake looked at me and said the entire bunch had dropped and did there signature wings out hard turn with the patches showing. The wind was in our face looking at the decoys so I should have paid more attention to the bunch. Early season mistake and will probably not be the last.

Our view of opening morning. We put out in the morning darkness what turned out to be a bakers dozen of teal and two spinners.



Blake and his first bird of the new season.


I spent three hours throwing a 6' net to get these, but it's was worth it. Fresh is tasty. 25lbs

Date: 9/15/2019

Hunters: Me and Bennett

Cloud Cover: Clear

Moon Phase: Full

Wind Direction and Velocity: NNE light early to breezy

Temperature: Mid 70's to start

Waterfowl Activity: Less high flocks seen this morning

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Birds total and by Species: 1 BW

Lagniappe: Another comfortable morning with no bugs


One group of three came over the decoys and Bennett got one. I chipped another that bounced off of the water and was back airborne for another 100 yards. We didn't get that one.

I had to take a picture of what I'm sure many got to see this weekend. The Harvest Moon

I envy the cast netting lagniappe. That's a good haul.

MallardBay wrote:I envy the cast netting lagniappe. That's a good haul.

It sure made up for the lack of birds to play with.

Date: 9/19/2019

Hunters:Me and Blake

Cloud Cover: Overcast and rain (Tropical Storm Imelda)

Wind Direction and Velocity: Light SSE

Temperature: mid to upper 70's (seemed warmer in a rain jacket)

Waterfowl Activity: Quite a few low flocks coming from the north.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Blowing till dizzy didn't work. We had one good bunch break and work and I screwed that all to hell. Part of the group came in front and center and I was going to let them land waiting on the remainder to finish. That first group didn't land and I called Blake off of easy shots. The other part of flock came in right to left about 10 yards out from the blind side and Blake took the one bird we have. I thought for sure I had seen two drop when I shot but we didn't find any others. That was it for working fowl other than mottleds. We had those land on separate occasions and watched them swim around.

Birds total and by Species: 1 BW

Photo Ops: None...Rain

Lagniappe: Another limit (25lbs) of shrimp in the all day rain.

25lbs of shrimp is still a pretty nice consolation.

(Pro'lly need a louder call.)

Love your back up "shrimp" plan Dave There is a 25lb limit on castnetting shrimp in LA?

Deltaman wrote:Love your back up "shrimp" plan Dave There is a 25lb limit on castnetting shrimp in LA?

25# on the refuge near our lease, and 100# in state waters during open season.

Date: 9/20/2019

Hunters: Me and Randall

Cloud Cover: Overcast light rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: Light SSE

Temperature: mid to upper 70's

Waterfowl Activity: Not much seen this morning

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Birds total and by Species: 2 BW

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: 20 lbs of shrimp today. I'm done with this for a while.

Blake couldn't make the hunt this morning so I took off alone. When I got to the boat shed the guy that runs the lease was alone and asked me to hunt with him, so I did.

Rick wrote:
(Pro'lly need a louder call.)

On Thursday's hunt (yesterday) those flocks were low and very near our location. All but that one bunch had no interest in what we had to offer.

Ut, oh! Might be you. Or you might want to try bigger spinners and decoys. Think an awful lot of folks hurt themselves for teal with "teal" decoys and spinners.

Rick wrote:Ut, oh! Might be you. Or you might want to try bigger spinners and decoys. Think an awful lot of folks hurt themselves for teal with "teal" decoys and spinners.

You're correct. I lost the spark that always ignited the need to change and adapt and I'm trying to get it back. We've had enough teal fly by this season to work with.

I got this in the mail this weekend and it looks like I'll need to request additional forms to finish the season.

Date: 9/28/2019

Hunters: Me and Blake

Cloud Cover: mostly clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE 5 to 10

Temperature: Hot and sticky

Waterfowl Activity: Saw a fair amount of flocks moving around.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: POO POO

Birds total and by Species: Didn't fire a shot

Photo Ops: HA!

They just pass by with their beaks turned up.

Date: 9/29/2019 Last day of Teal Season

Hunters: Me and Blake

Cloud Cover: Mostly clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE lighter than yesterday

Temperature: Hot and sticky, again

Waterfowl Activity: No as many seen as yesterday,

Waterfowl Responsiveness: One of the two taken actually turned hard to the call.

Birds total and by Species: 2 BW


Each came as singles and Blake took one as a passing shot. Blake and I discussed next years strategy while sitting on our buckets this morning. We both agreed that we've had enough teal in our area over the last three years to play with and we'll put in a little more effort and see what happens. The plan will involve a LOT of decoys. The worst that can happen is it won't work and we'll have a little extra labor.

The water in our marsh is extremely high right now.

DComeaux wrote:Blake and I discussed next years strategy while sitting on our buckets this morning. We both agreed that we've had enough teal in our area over the last three years to play with and we'll put in a little more effort and see what happens. The plan will involve a LOT of decoys. The worst that can happen is it won't work and we'll have a little extra labor.

Just as easy to make it a lot of mostly big ones. And if your spinners aren't already big ones...

Rick wrote:

DComeaux wrote:Blake and I discussed next years strategy while sitting on our buckets this morning. We both agreed that we've had enough teal in our area over the last three years to play with and we'll put in a little more effort and see what happens. The plan will involve a LOT of decoys. The worst that can happen is it won't work and we'll have a little extra labor.

Mostly big ones I'd hope. Just as easy to make it a lot of mostly big ones. And if your spinners aren't already big ones...

Yes, most definitely. I want the pond to look like a fed refuge congregation. Spinners are big. They're all I have.

DComeaux wrote:

Each came as singles and Blake took one as a passing shot. Blake and I discussed next years strategy while sitting on our buckets this morning. We both agreed that we've had enough teal in our area over the last three years to play with and we'll put in a little more effort and see what happens. The plan will involve a LOT of decoys. The worst that can happen is it won't work and we'll have a little extra labor.

Are you sayin the good ole days are back in your area? For teal at least?

Duck Engr wrote:

DComeaux wrote:

Each came as singles and Blake took one as a passing shot. Blake and I discussed next years strategy while sitting on our buckets this morning. We both agreed that we've had enough teal in our area over the last three years to play with and we'll put in a little more effort and see what happens. The plan will involve a LOT of decoys. The worst that can happen is it won't work and we'll have a little extra labor.

Are you sayin the good ole days are back in your area? For teal at least?

HA! Not exactly. We'll just have to put in a bit more effort with the little we get. At least we'll try.

I’m not preaching to anyone but I know when I wake up knowing I’ve only got 6-8 days to hunt teal and 20-25 out of 60 for big duck , the last thing that’s gonna decrease my chances of killing will be effort.
And for me this applies mostly to public land days, on the night before the hunt when setting my alarm. “ do I really need to be leaving by 1am to ensure I get to hunt plan A spot “


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We'll see how that holds up to Dave's advanced age. 'Course, Dave does have his faithful beast of burden, Blake...

More seriously, I don't know but what they just gave September teal a lick and a promise this go-around, but I can assure you those two used to work a whole lot harder than most to hunt the neglected ag land they leased from us.

BGkirk wrote:I’m not preaching to anyone but I know when I wake up knowing I’ve only got 6-8 days to hunt teal and 20-25 out of 60 for big duck , the last thing that’s gonna decrease my chances of killing will be effort.
And for me this applies mostly to public land days, on the night before the hunt when setting my alarm. “ do I really need to be leaving by 1am to ensure I get to hunt plan A spot “


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The area we're hunting now is not and has never been known (IMO) for it's great teal hunting. It's always been hit or miss, and until I hunted AG land I did not hunt the teal seasons. The work involved to hunt the marsh for teal season wasn't worth it for me, especially at other marsh leases I've had with more complex logistics, and the threat of hurricanes with the rush to get everything out made it even more unattractive. That is one thing I'm going to look at next year before putting out a large spread, hurricane forecast and activity. The spur of the moment mid week scramble to secure the camp is enough to deal with without throwing in a boat trip to pick up a large spread decoys. This is not something I/we care to deal with.

Over the years this marsh we're in has degraded through neglect and continues to do so. It's not a place the birds really want to be but is a flyover spot and we've taken notice. There's some near us that have spent and continue to spend a LARGE amount of money to manage their marsh so it keeps a few around, not to mention the refuge just a couple of miles to our east. The plan is to deploy a LARGE mixed spread next year to see if we can coax a few of those flocks we've watched into gun range. I'll just have to keep telling myself that it'll be worth it. I'm really curious and motivated at the moment.

Rick wrote: 'Course, Dave does have his faithful beast of burden, Blake...

My beast is weary, as of late.

DComeaux wrote: I'm really curious and motivated at the moment.

Glad to see it. I don't know that extreme numbers of decoys is the golden ticket, but would think multiple large spinners and aggressive calling your best bet. Also you had mentioned something about being tucked in protected waters......did that result in reduced visibility of your spread?

For me....For regular season or teal season, I want nothing to do with a cove unless under extreme frontal conditions. Given anything else, I want to be set up on points, or anything that juts out a bit and makes my spread wide open for vis at all angles. Just my preference.

Will hopefully be enjoyable for you to kick it around next summer given you apparently had ample traffic to motivate you to get to tinkering.

Darren wrote:

DComeaux wrote: I'm really curious and motivated at the moment.

...... but would think multiple large spinners and aggressive calling your best bet.

Had this, did that.

Darren wrote:Also you had mentioned something about being tucked in protected waters......did that result in reduced visibility of your spread?

Not at all. Actually, we were more open to traffic then we would have been at the blind. That's one reason I picked that area.

We've also discussed a spread layout for the regular duck season at the blind that will put some groups out of shooting range but much more visible than those tucked in our cove. We're hoping to set it up to get approach shots on turning, cupped birds. This is something I'm going to experiment with heavenly this season. We will also start out with spinners away from the blind and elevated for attention. They'll be on ground where we can walk and remove them if they become an issue with flaring birds.

Are you seeing greenwings on the ground/water around you in regular season? What are they using locally that the bluewings aren't, if anything?

Darren wrote:Are you seeing greenwings on the ground/water around you in regular season? What are they using locally that the bluewings aren't, if anything?

Good question, and that's been on my mind. Maybe some plant seed hasn't dropped just yet. Don't know... The mottled's aren't even hanging around. Plenty of shrimp, crabs and fish lounging in our marsh, though.

DComeaux wrote: Plenty of shrimp, crabs and fish lounging in our marsh, though.

That counts for something. Yea if you can find the mottleds, that would be the ticket.

Darren wrote:

DComeaux wrote: Plenty of shrimp, crabs and fish lounging in our marsh, though.

That counts for something. Yea if you can find the mottleds, that would be the ticket.

They're around. We've seen plenty go by low level looking for better, some we played with. I'd need a few passes with a crop duster loaded with corn to hold anything at the moment.