2020-2021 Season Log

[Rick]

First split ends this morning, and, yes, I'm ready for the chance to regroup.

[BGkirk]

First split ends this morning, and, yes, I'm ready for the chance to regroup.

I feel every year that I’m always ready for the split.
But then again our 2nd opener hasn’t been too exciting either


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[Rick]

Date: 12/16 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: intermittent, mostly spitty rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to light west to moderate northwest and back to light west...weird

Temperature: chilly in the wet

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Still pretty darn dead, and didn't see the deep marsh to rice move the rain should have brought

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully a whole lot better than our aim.

Hunters: 2, Tim and Chad again

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): The bug lost a chipped blue-wing he didn't want to give up on, but it was one of two such so I eventually called him off it to recover the other. Also lost a chipped black-belly that flat disappeared without a trace to track.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: The guys went to G&H for super-duper bullets that didn't help a lick, but at least they cost more.

Kudos: Nice guys who still passed a good time.

Birds By Species: 1 black-bellied whistling duck, 2 bw teal, 1 gadwall, 2 mallards, 1 ringneck and 2 shovellers

[Rick]

Date: 12/19/20 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE brisk

Temperature: chilly

Moon phase: nil

Special Notes: second split opener

Waterfowl Activity: Not a lot of shooting anywhere for an opener, but we saw plenty of this and that to have finished before it slowed way down and little but pintails came by (after we had ours).

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Excellent when we'd let it.

Hunters: 2, father and grown son, Troy and Hunter, on their annual duck hunt

Guns:

Malfunctions: lots of op error struggles early on

Dog(s): Relatively easy morning, though he missed his shot at someone else's chipped sprig that lit in our no-fire zone and swam to his stand. I released him to catch it, but it dove as he landed on it and got trapped in the blind's cattle panel and brush, where I grabbed it.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Incredible lot of left feet and thumbs in the blind, and I lost control of my tongue when Troy jumped up on some too tall teal while I had single-quacked mottleds at pond's edge.

Kudos: Nice folks still had a nice time and even hit a few.

Birds By Species: 2 bw teal, 2 gadwall, 5 gw teal, 2 mallards, 3 pintails and 2 shovellers

Photo Ops: The "What the h..." moment, when a sprig lit and swam to the dog stand:

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Clarified by seeing it's bloody nose:

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Troy and Hunter:

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[Darren]

Great job capturing that pintail moment, dont see that every day.

[Duck Engr]

I’d give a lot of money for Marsh’s thoughts when those pictures were snapped.

[Ducaholic]

Very cool!

[Rick]

Date: 12/20/20 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: drizzly early and heavy overcast

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW mod to brisk to nil and back to mod

Temperature: chillier than expected in the wind and damp

Moon phase: n/a

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Nothing but a few super high mostly pintail flights after the first hour, making for a very long and discouraging morning at the mudhole, while even the back blind did at least some better than us.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Great early, but tough, tough, tough to break the super high pintails later. And impossible to get those that did break all the way in before someone, somewhere banged them out.

Hunters: 2, Troy and Hunter again

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): An easy morning for the bug.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Way too few ops, and "took advantage of them" one bird at a time.

Kudos: Hunter ended a frustrating shooting weekend with a sweet crosser on a fast jack, and it was fun to get a speck in tight before someone else shot and screwed that pooch.

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal, 1 gadwall, 1 pintail, 1 ringneck, 1 wood duck and 1 speck

[Rick]

Date: 12/21 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead a--ed calm

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: 40% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Super slow again with most of what was seen being pintails, to include perhaps a dozen drakes dippsy-doodling up, down and around after a lone hen.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Fortunately excellent, other than a woody pair that ignored me.

Hunters: 2 1/2, grandpa, Steve, SIL, Will and grandson, Colin, observing

Guns:

Malfunctions: Steve's 1100 was a single shot until I slicked it up

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: no flight

Kudos: Nice folks and still passed a nice time.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellied whistling ducks, 1 gw teal, 1 mallard and 3 pintails

Photo Ops: Split screen mallard:

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Lady killers' pintail two-fer:

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Will, Colin and Steve:

031a.jpg

[Duck Engr]

Feel good to play with a speck again?

[Deltaman]

Cool pic with Marsh and the Greenhead split!!

[Rick]

Feel good to play with a speck again?

He did it right, which was sweet, but I have, in fact, been giving it some thought, and still prefer ducks.

[Rick]

Cool pic with Marsh and the Greenhead split!!

Spoke to how dang still the morning was.

[DComeaux]

Cool pic with Marsh and the Greenhead split!!

I agree.

[Rick]

Date: 12/22/20 Tue

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead-a--ed calm again

Temperature: cool

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Little more moving, but precious little more.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Excellent when not banged out.

Hunters: 2, who've hunted with me each of the past few years and I was too embarrassed to ask their names again - and too lazy to look through old logs

Guns:

Malfunctions: One's Beretta was only dimpling primers, but he refused to shoot either my 20 or the blind spare 870 12.

Dog(s): They bragged on Marsh, which I warned them about, "Dog you brag on is about to mess up." And, sure enough, he found part of a rotten bird to eat. After fussing him harshly for that, I suggested that he'd then probably do something to redeem himself and make me feel bad, which he did: twice. Dug a tipped green-wing out from under thin flotant and dunked time and again until he caught a sprig that ducked under the boat trail's undercut edge.

Special Equipment: sos, but two or three gw teal bunches bumped off spinners.

Curses: Given the givens, just the above inop gun and dog indiscretion.

Kudos: Nice guys and pleasant morning.

Birds By Species: 2 bw teal, 1 gadwall, 3 gw teal, 2 pintails, 1 ringneck and 3 shovellers

Photo Ops: Our hero with his problem sprig:

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[Ericdc]

Rick I started noticing teal bumping on spinners in past years. Last year i shot a lot of teal and they decoyed very well. No spinners.


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[Rick]

Rick I started noticing teal bumping on spinners in past years. Last year i shot a lot of teal and they decoyed very well. No spinners.

I'd not used a spinner after September, since the first year they were commercially available here until moving into my current pothole. Without spinners we'd see next to no teal that weren't way the hey up or down. Lived that while the more easterly blinds were hammering greenwings until the last week of my first season at the mudhole, when I relented, broke out the spinners and started killing more than a few teal on a good day.

Some have always bumped, albeit most often battle-worn blue-wings, and I've some luck getting them back by killing the spinners and calling like a madman. Today's birds burned through and kept going without working any of the surrounding marsh where I could get their goat.

Put me back in a rice field or marsh blind that's in a more natural teal passer, like the east blind I hunted before we had the rest of the marsh, and the spinners wouldn't leave the shed during the regular season.

[Ericdc]

Yea they have more time to look at em in an open field for sure.

I hope we get some teal tomorrow in the big south wind. I'm going to hunt as late as I can before the thunderstorms hit.


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[Rick]

Date: 12/23/20 Wed

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: SE moderate

Temperature: cool

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: What moved moved early, saw one bunch of green-wings that bounced and one bunch of blue-wings that stayed wide. Also small handfuls of mallards and grays and a few flights of spoons early. Anticipated late high pintail flights were virtual no-shows.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Much, much better than our shooting.

Hunters: 2, Frank and Mike

Guns:

Malfunctions: Watched three greenheads that did it as right as could possibly be fly off after I started our morning with an unloaded gun. Don't get old.

Dog(s): Easy morning other than a spoon that led him a merry chase across the marsh.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Poor flight, crowd control and accuracy.

Kudos: Nice guys passed a pleasant morning, and the spoons saved our day.

Birds By Species: 3 gadwall, 1 mallard and 5 shovellers

[Darren]

Malfunctions: Watched three greenheads that did it as right as could possibly be fly off after I started our morning with an unloaded gun. Don't get old.

1 or 2 years younger, but I darn near did same thing this morning, minus the greenheads though.

[Duck Engr]

Rick I’m a year or 30 younger but forgot my GUN on a hunt last year.

[Rick]

Date: 12/24 Thur

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy to partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: screaming out of the NW (broke the east end of my blind island and was pushing it into the run behind)

Temperature: cold in the wind

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Almost nothing out fighting the wind...

Waterfowl Responsiveness: ...most of what was seemed anxious not to be.

Hunters: 2, grandson, Preston, and his dad, Chris

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning, aside from a green-wing that made it well out before bleeding out

Special Equipment: sos Left spinners off most of the time, because the wind wouldn't let them stop for big ducks.

Curses: Just the lack of bird activity.

Kudos: Preston killed his first greenhead and mottled and the toughest teal - out-shot both his dad and I.

Birds By Species: 1 bw teal, 1 gw teal, 2 mallards and 1 mottled duck

Photo Ops: Preston and Chris:

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[Duck Engr]

Congrats to the young man on all counts!

[Darren]

Glad to hear of the young gun’s first greenhead; also glad/comforting to hear others saw much less flight than anticipated too.

[Rick]

Glad to hear of the young gun’s first greenhead; also glad/comforting to hear others saw much less flight than anticipated too.

Wind was so strong for so long that I really wasn't expecting much to fight it. Expect to learn more in the morning, but won't be surprised if it's still weak.

[Rick]

Date: 12/25/20 Fri

Time: Morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW moderate

Temperature: 30s

Moon phase: 77% waxing

Special Notes: Chistmas hunt

Waterfowl Activity: Not a lot of anything moving...

Waterfowl Responsiveness: ...but what was, aside from mottleds and jacks, came as pretty as could be.

Hunters: 1, grandson Gauge

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning with everything in or near the pond.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: Couldn't begin to think of one.

Kudos: Beautiful morning by any measure.

Birds By Species: 5 bw teal, 2 gadwall, 2 gw teal, 1 mallard and 2 pintails

Photo Ops: The bug with our sprigs:

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The boy with our bunch:

032a.jpg

Lagniappe: Merry Christmas, indeed.

[Johnc]

Damn merry Christmas limit there

[Ducaholic]

Damn merry Christmas limit there

Got that right!

[DComeaux]

Awesome hunt Rick.

[Rick]

Thanks, guys. Gauge has been the luckiest of my grandsons in terms of the days shared at my blind - and often has better hunting on his own or guiding west of here, as well. But we had extra nice just-us time. Or maybe it just seemed extra nice to me, because I got to be the old bull in a duck hunting rewrite of the old bull, young bull bit.

(Well, "just-us time" except for some DComeaux guy's LST text about my truck warranty running out. Or maybe it was "Merry Christmas" that I didn't notice until we were several birds in.)