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We can only hope the ducks are as plentiful as these were/are this year. We did well this weekend with maybe 10 throws per trip to reach 25lbs. It took longer to launch and load the boat then it did to catch em. I've had as little as 4 throws per limit in the past. Barring a big rain event we should have an awesome time with the redfish this year. We'll set the crab traps the weekend before the season opens and plan to have a shrimp and crab stew with fried redfish for supper on opening day. If we have ducks, what we take will be on the menu for the following weekend.

Yesterday


Today

You're making me miss trips to the deep marsh.

Good stuff Dave, and always a great addition to any marsh trip!

Opening day meal is a real winner.

MARSH BEAR wrote:Opening day meal is a real winner.

Sounds like we'll all be driving in for a meal that day, post-hunt.

Darren wrote:

MARSH BEAR wrote:Opening day meal is a real winner.

Sounds like we'll all be driving in for a meal that day, post-hunt.

Bring it on....We'll have plenty.

No ducks here. seeing a good many migrating monarch butterflies though

That's something I miss from "up home". The butterflies, not the beach. Fireflies, too. How the hell is a kid supposed to grow up down here without fireflies?

Rick wrote:That's something I miss from "up home". The butterflies, not the beach. Fireflies, too. How the hell is a kid supposed to grow up down here without fireflies?

Had plenty here when I was young. Everything is disappearing. I wonder how much the mosquito spraying affects other insects.

That and the ag pesticides, I'd think.

Rick wrote:That and the ag pesticides, I'd think.

Usually a fair many on summer nights here in our neighborhood though we noted this summer seemed to be a down year.

Blake and I started our weekend off in Pecan Island early yesterday morning helping a guy brush two of his blinds. We both thought we were done with harvesting roseau but he was in a bind as his partner had shoulder surgery recently and really needed the help. We made our way back to our marsh to bail the blind and checked and retied a few decoys.


The tides were extremely high with water over most of the land in the marsh. This is a short clip of our ride out to drop the baited traps this morning.




This was what the blind looked like after we finished with it late on Saturday afternoon. The fertilizer we applied this spring seems to have worked. I installed small surveyor stakes around the the blind and pulled the needle grass over with rebar tie wire.


This pick has me in the blind this morning with my face exposed. I'm seriously thinking of wearing a mask. It's hard to follow the birds without exposing yourself. The guy's I hunt with regularly are really good at staying covered, and they do it well enough that they have no idea where the birds are when I call the shot. They spend time trying to find em when they rise rather than shooting. I'll have to get better at keeping them informed.


This leaning back under the cover.


Standing on the front of the boat at the drop point on the boardwalk. I'm going to do some light trimming on the west side of the blind so we can at least see the decoys. It's a jungle in there.


Now all we need are ducks. I saw a few (very few) bluewing, coots and a spoonbill on the refuge Friday afternoon, and two mottled's yesterday while brushing our friends blinds in Pecan Island from before sunrise to noon. This morning we saw only one high flock of big ducks coming from the north while out at the blind for an hour of so. There were alot of people brushing and getting the decoys out for next weekends youth hunts. Two weeks remaining before opening day and all we can do is hope that the next front brings with it the waterfowl and drains the marsh.

Blind looks great.

Rick wrote:Blind looks great.

Thanks Rick.

DComeaux wrote:

Rick wrote:Blind looks great.

Thanks Rick.

Looks outstanding to me. If your parties can't hide in here, face mask or no, maybe they just aren't cut out for this game of tricking ducks.

Darren wrote:

DComeaux wrote:

Rick wrote:Blind looks great.

Thanks Rick.

Looks outstanding to me. If your parties can't hide in here, face mask or no, maybe they just aren't cut out for this game of tricking ducks.

Thanks. I just hope to have some fowl to play with. We plan to put out a larger spread than normal, setting some out of shooting range for visibility. I'll try to create an uncongested landing area in front of the blind trying with the shape of the spread to funnel them into range. I've used a "J hook" pattern in the past with very good results. I haven't really paid much attention to decoy placement as of late, just tossing em out haphazardly, and I'll adjust the spread to their reactions as the season progresses. We will also start out with two spinners away from the blind just to our south, high up on a peninsula for visibility. We can walk to those to remove them if needed. I've convinced myself to put in a little more effort to detail this year to up our odds regardless of our current migration issue. I sure hope it works.

There's always corn. I hear they like it...

Rick wrote:There's always corn. I hear they like it...

I'm not that desperate, yet, but baiting requires having birds to bait.

Your blind looks great, and blends in well Dave

Blinds look great, preseason work paid off for you.
Most of our blinds look like yours, and we will need to cut some of grass so we can see the decoys.
Our water in the marsh is still very high too, don't need any south wind for a couple of weeks.

MARSH BEAR wrote:Blinds look great, preseason work paid off for you.
Most of our blinds look like yours, and we will need to cut some of grass so we can see the decoys.
Our water in the marsh is still very high too, don't need any south wind for a couple of weeks.

We drain slow as it is, so we surely don't need more big south winds. The water had dropped just a tiny bit overnight from Saturday to Sunday.

I’d say ya are hidden just fine, staying hidden is great and all but I’d be frustrated if I didn’t know where the birds were when I’m pulling up.


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BGkirk wrote:I’d say ya are hidden just fine, staying hidden is great and all but I’d be frustrated if I didn’t know where the birds were when I’m pulling up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm doing all I can to eliminate all excuses used for birds not working and this year will be do or die. No hilton hotel boat hide, heavy natural brush at the blind, and more decoys out then we've used in the recent past. The latter we'll adjust as needed. We may not need synthetic or cut brush until later in the season, if at all. If I can get more birds feet down in range I'll be a happy dude. I enjoy that as much or more than killing em.

DComeaux wrote:I enjoy that as much or more than killing em.

Same here. I enjoy winning the chess match much more than pulling the trigger.

We put the pirogue in it's place and the decoys are out. Did a little brush thinning for visibility on the west side of the blind overlooking the biggest part of the decoy spread. We saw very few ducks but did have spoonbill and gadwal landing and working the decoys while we sat and watched, this with the boat pulled up at the boardwalk. Very few shots heard at the camp either morning for the youth hunts.

I'm sure we'll fire a shot or two opening morning and hope the SW ag land blitz gets em moving. We may sit a little longer opening day depending on the early flight. Nothing like like a mid morning flight coming into the marsh after feeding in the rice all night. Well, that's what would happen once upon a time.

A couple of shots from the blind that Blake took while we were out there.

Spoonbill hanging with us just outside the decoys while we were working.


Blake sitting in the blind facing the main decoy spread. We have a baker's dozen in the smaller pond behind us to our east. All of the cover is well rooted and growing. It was all transplanted in October of 2018.


A shot from the inside the blind.

Y'all wearing eye protection of some sort?

Rick wrote:Y'all wearing eye protection of some sort?

It's not so bad, but I'm sure we'll get surprised until we get it trimmed for visibility.

The marsh has been good to us this year so far.

Shrimp and crab stew.

DComeaux wrote:

Rick wrote:Y'all wearing eye protection of some sort?

It's not so bad, but I'm sure we'll get surprised until we get it trimmed for visibility.

Not knocking it, just know with great certainty one of my guests would find an eye with it. Vexing as can be that I can't think of a nonhazardous way to better hide guys who won't or can't help hide themselves from overhead birds passing the length of the blind at iffy range. Usually do it then or forget it when that happens, as someone's almost invariably going to moon them.

DComeaux wrote:The marsh has been good to us this year so far.

Shrimp and crab stew.

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Nothing like fresh seafood Dave, and the sight of your pot of shrimp and crab stew, has my stomach talking