2020-2021 Season Log

[Rick]

Date: 11/16 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE light to moderate

Temperature: chilly enough for a poly vest and shell

Moon phase: new

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Much better than yesterday's, with lots of jacks, fair numbers of teal and just enough big ducks to make me wonder if we should have given some little ones a pass, instead of filling so quickly.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Everything but the jacks worked much sweeter than my jumpy guys were plainly used to.

Hunters: 2, father and grown son, Wayne and Wayne

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: none at all

Kudos: Guy were good company - and shots.

Birds By Species: 2bw teal, 3 gadwall, 2 gw teal, 1 mallard, 2 redheads, 6 ringnecks and 2 wood ducks

Photo Ops: the Waynes:

001a.jpg

[DComeaux]

Red heads......Did you get a drake?

[SpinnerMan]

Red heads......Did you get a drake?

I hope so. Those drakes are pretty. I got one a few years ago on Lake Huron.

RedheadLOL.jpg

[Darren]

Nice morning! Sunny rest of the week but it's going to get stale on us........

[Rick]

Red heads......Did you get a drake?

Nope, thought he'd be first to fall, but he beat us.

[DComeaux]

Red heads......Did you get a drake?

I hope so. Those drakes are pretty. I got one a few years ago on Lake Huron.

RedheadLOL.jpg

I actually laughed outload.....

Red heads......Did you get a drake?

Nope, thought he'd be first to fall, but he beat us.

Well darn.

[Ducaholic]

Nice morning! Sunny rest of the week but it's going to get stale on us........

Trickle migration next 15 days

[Ericdc]

No hunt today Rick?


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[Rick]

No hunt today Rick?

No internet. Roofers were finishing trim on our new metal one when I got home and had moved a wire that it, it turns out had been beaten raw against the receiver's tree by the storms.

[Rick]

Date: 11/17 Tue

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE light to moderate

Temperature: chilly boat ride

Moon phase: waxing sliver

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Still better than I'd expected for weekdays, given the givens, with fewer little ducks but more big ones seen, mostly early on.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Very good when we'd let them.

Hunters: 3, Brian, George and Jerry

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): When we went for a pintail at hunt's end, marsh hit a track and followed it a very long way before returning with a still lively gray before also recovering the sprig. Must have been one I didn't see go down with our first volley of the morning.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: No one to blame for not filling, but ourselves, as we were doing well on small batches but only killing a bird or two out of the big bunches. (Like one, count it 1, woodie out of a flight of maybe 20.)

Kudos: Nice guys had a big time.

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal, 7 gadwall, 3 gw teal, 3 mallards, 3 pintails, 2 ringnecks and 2 wood ducks

Photo Ops: Poor pic to commemorate a great cold-trailing job:

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A prettier pic of a gimme retrieve:

002a.jpg

[Rick]

Date: 11/18 Wed

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: East moderate to pretty strong

Temperature: still chilly

Moon phase: still small waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Spooky slow early on aside from a single suicidal sprig that Isaac's shooting blew out on final. Feared scratching with an old friend I'd not seen in 10 years in the blind for a good long while before a little of this and that, nearly all big ducks, started showing.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most thankfully excellent.

Hunters: 2, father and grown son, Ted (who used to host a lot of Entergy's corporate entertainment hunts with us) and Eric

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Wore the bug to a nub on a super long chipped mottled he didn't see land in a place where it was impossible to nearly so to establish even brief line of sight between us to handle. Called him back and moved the boat's location twice before finding a spot from which I could at least get him in the right neighborhood to run down(?) the still lively bird.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: As it turned out, I'm not complaining.

Kudos: Had a great morning of catching up and swapping old stories with enough (very good) shooting to make a nice string.

Birds By Species: 2 gadwall, 2 mallards, 1 mottled, 3 pintails, 3 ringnecks and 3 shovellers

Photo Ops: Commemorative (read "crumby") photo of a mottled we'd probably have given up on if not so short on birds at the time:

014a.jpg

Somewhat more interesting shot of a pintail's recovery:

009a.jpg

Ted and Eric:

027a.jpg

[Rick]

Can't recall if it was over the weekend or Monday that the dog was gator bitten on Cherry Rudge, but I saw a pic of the wounds (after being shaven and cleaned up for stitches) yesterday that left no doubt of the culprit. Not a big gator, but big enough to have done much more damage if inclined to.

Kicker being that we took a 10-footer off that blind's island last month and an 11' there two years ago:

075a.jpg

Could have been much worse...

[BGkirk]

Interesting about the gator being that Monday was a chilly day, but can imagine the warm afternoons could make water temps rise pretty quick with the sun out.


One of your comments made me think about my hunt tues where the blind chatter caused us to miss an op on birds who got much closer to us before seeing them than I’d like so we decided to share stories later and sit quiet/hunt.
Ever have to shut anyone off from jabbering?


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[Ericdc]

Interesting about the gator being that Monday was a chilly day, but can imagine the warm afternoons could make water temps rise pretty quick with the sun out.


One of your comments made me think about my hunt tues where the blind chatter caused us to miss an op on birds who got much closer to us before seeing them than I’d like so we decided to share stories later and sit quiet/hunt.
Ever have to shut anyone off from jabbering?


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I have!


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[Rick]

The guessing is that it was a reflex (dog got too close), rather than feeding bite, as the gator was plainly big enough to hang on and drown the dog for dinner had it wished to.

As for shutting conversations down, I haven't. It's their hunt.

[DComeaux]

I shudder at the thought of a gator on my dog.

[Darren]

Some nice hunts; seeing all those woodies get out in the sunshine had to be painful.

[Deltaman]

Glad to see those gads and mallards on the strap Rick!!!!!!

[Rick]

Glad to see those gads and mallards on the strap Rick!!!!!!

Who'da thunk grays would be saving mudhole hunts? Not I, but thankful as can be for them.

[Rick]

Date: 11/19 Thur

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: Easterly light to fairly strong, albeit too late to help.

Temperature: same as it's been

Moon phase: 27% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Slower yet, with an early wood duck seeming the lone scratch saver for a good long time while we thought they were doing much better to our east.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Really good, except a sweet bunch of mallards that locked, dropped and swung to, as if to die without much coaxing, but saw something, bumped wide and could not be tricked into more than a couple more not-quite-close -enough passes. Would have thought them "locals" that knew the spot, if it weren't the biggest bunch I've seen to date.

Hunters: 2 Jeremy and Spencer

Guns:

Malfunctions: Spencer's new A5 suffered a "Benelli click" and also dropped a shell onto the lifter prematurely.

Dog(s): Marsh had a good morning, but lost a thought to be dead greenwing we apparently gave too much head start.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just that it's getting spooky slow, and the strap we scratched out was the "big" one.

Kudos: What came generally fell in numbers, and we passed a good time.

Birds By Species: 5 gadwall, 1 gw teal, 2 ringnecks, 1 wigeon and 1 wood duck

Photo Ops: A wigeon and gray two-fer from a mixed bunch:

010a.jpg

[Darren]

Can you recall when last observed a wad of wigeon? Seems like my only ops on them these days are in mixed company with grays.

But in 2004-2005 seasons back home, we had wads 20-30 strong of wigeon, whistling to be heard from way off.

[Rick]

Been a lot longer than that for me, like 90s longer. Sometimes see lone pairs, but no real groups at all unless it's groups of (usually) grays or even pintails with wigeon in tow.

[Rick]

Date: 11/20

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE nada to moderate

Temperature: warming

Moon phase: 37% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Nothing but a few miscellaneous, mostly jack, little ducks an a couple of mottleds even seen.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Mostly "Hold my beer." fly-byes.

Hunters: 2, Spencer and Jeremy again

Guns:

Malfunctions: Jeremy's A-5 was giving him fits again.

Dog(s): Easy morning.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: No real weather change in sight...

Kudos: The guys saved their own hunts by scoring on virtually, if not, every op.

Birds By Species: 3 bw teal, 5 ringnecks, 2 scaup and 1 shoveller

[Rick]

Date: 11/21 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: Easterly nil to light

Temperature: warmer than it's been

Moon phase: 47% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Didn't look like we would get a weekend activity bump for a while - or all morning - but the final tally shows we did.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Fortunately good. Mottleds fell to single quack series.

Hunters: 2, Jeremy's sons whose names, I'm ashamed to say, got by me.

Guns:

Malfunctions: One son's Stoger acted up, and I eventually learned that its hammer wouldn't let the bolt cock it unless the safety is off. Piss poor design, that.

Dog(s): Wore Marsh to a nub looking for "maybe" birds and one I know he couldn't find, but the boys loved him.

Special Equipment: SOS modified mallard machine's gave out, as they all seem to, so I'm now "hot-wiring" it.

Curses: Only the lost jack that would have filled them out. Well, that, and the reminders that cell phones are conservation tools, in the PETA sense.

Kudos: Good guys had a big time.

Birds By Species: 3 bw teal, 1 gadwall, 1 mallard, 3 mottleds, 1 pintail, 2 scaup and 6 spoons

Photo Ops: My guys, James and dad, Jeremy, with birds from my blind and Isaac's:

038a.jpg

My son, the bug, making his dad happy:

012a.jpg

033a.jpg

[Rick]

Date: 11/22 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly calm to light

Temperature: warming up

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw a couple little bunches of green-wings prior to LST, but little or nothing more for a long time while blinds to our east banged away like crazy. But when that noise abated, we started seeing a little of this and that, with first in being our first black-bellies of the season. (Guess which seasoned professional had no shells in his gun.) Seemed a fairly steady if slow trickle with no long lull once we finally started.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most everything acted as needed to start late and be out at 8.

Hunters: 2, Brian from yesterday and buddy Johnathan.

Guns:

Malfunctions: Brian had his dad's (Jeremy) A-5 and a bit of trouble with it that oil fixed, and we knew what to do when the Stoger he loaned Johnathan also acted up.

Dog(s): The bug had an easy day with no long searches.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Not a one.

Kudos: Fun hunt with nice guys.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellies, 7 bw teal, 1 mottled, 3 pintails, 2 ringnecks and 3 wood ducks

Photo Ops: Brian and Johnathan:

014a.jpg

Wood duck and mottled two-fer:

009a.jpg

[Rick]

Addendum 11/21: Brian's brother's name is Bryce.

[Deltaman]

Nice hunts Rick, and love seeing Marsh doubling up on the birds!

[Rick]

...love seeing Marsh doubling up on the birds!

Lazy dog.

[Rick]

Date: 11/23 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: hazy to clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: Northeast brisk

Temperature: chilly in the wind

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Hoped for flight birds were very few and far between, or too high to see. But low spoons and teal, especially blue-wings were fairly plentiful.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Broke one of the two high, migratory pintail flights seen with the Stanley Deceiver - only to have the 40(?) of them banged out on final by another blind. Most everything lower came to die.

Hunters: 3, Steve, his young son, Dane, and Nick

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning. But you wouldn't know it to look at him now.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just that the perfect mallard weather didn't bring them.

Kudos: We taught young Dane the fine art of skillet shooting without losing any decoys I'm aware of, and nice folks had a big time.

Birds By Species: 6 bw teal, 4 gadwall, 4 gw teal, 1 mallard, 1 ringneck, 5 shovellers and 3 wigeon

Photo Ops: Dane, Steve and Nick:

005a.jpg

[Darren]

Wow great haul, and its not just you seeing bluewings, can confirm theres good many still a bit north of you.