2022-2023 Season Log

[Rick]

Cool story but what matters is who halfway shot that bouncing mallard. Well?

Already told those with even rudimentary reading skills.

[Rick]

Date: 11/25/22 Fri

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Strong NE wind

Temperature: 60 at LST but damp enough wind to still catch a chill I've yet to shake on the way out.

Moon phase: new

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: This front did what such fronts should and produced by far the strongest big duck flight of the season to date. Would say a blind man on a galloping horse could fill on big, beautiful ducks with a short stick, except my three blind men doing their very best Stevie Wonder act on up and down merry-go-round horses and wielding horrible bent barrels put the lie to it. Absolutely would not make any effort to hide and watch with their faces near the front of the blind or hold still while birds made their way out front where they'd have to fight the wind to get out and make it like popping balloons. Eventually gave up on suggesting it. So thank the sweet Lord for what was also by far the strongest flight of big, slow, naive black-bellies, which they scattered far and wide for poor marsh to chase down.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Woulda, coulda, shoulda had a banner morning on super call responsive big ducks.

Hunters: 3, with names withheld to protect the guilty. But the father and grown son made their first duck hunts with me last year and one was still brand new at it.

Guns: What may have been the new Remington's new "Fieldmaster" still had the big Remington stickers on it but looked enough like an Express that I didn't look for a model stamp.

Malfunctions: Incredibly bent barrels.

Dog(s): Wore the poor bug flat out on chipped squeallers, but he eventually rounded up all I was aware of.

Special Equipment: SOS, but ended up leaving the spinners on more than wise in an effort to draw attention from the circus in the blind.

Curses: Incredibly frustrating reminder that killing ducks is easy, but helping whoever walks through the camp do so makes it a sport.

Kudos: Nice, nice folks I'd be happy to socialize with under different circumstances. Well, aside from needing to suggest to the party's senior member that he'd never catch me dropping my orange peels on his office floor. May have been the only suggestion he followed all morning, but God bless him for getting that strong hint.

Birds By Species: 12 black-bellied whistling ducks, 1 blue-wing teal, 1 gadwall, 4 green-wing teal, 2 mottleds, 3 pintails and 1 shoveller

[Ricky Spanish]

squeallers,

That's a paddlin

[5 stand]

" which they scattered far and wide for poor marsh to chase down"
I know it's not funny, but these new inexperienced hunters, they bring out the best in your writing skills.... Thanks for taking us along!!!

[DComeaux]

Spectacular!

[Rick]

Date: 11/26 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: drizzling mist to steady rain

Wind Direction and Velocity: ESE brisk

Temperature: low 60s

Moon phase: still new, was the darkest trip down the run this season.

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Squealers were still thick, but big ducks absent during our time there.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: I've got the squealers' number with a fighting-over-food chatter.

Hunters: 2, brothers Bryce and Brian

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning with most everything dead on the water

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Only that we lacked the sense to fill on squealers and be out before the real weather made us even less picky.

Kudos: Was the kind of morning I needed after yesterday's circus.

Birds By Species: 7 black-bellied whistling ducks, 1 gadwall, 5 green-wing teal, 3 ringnecks and 2 shovellers

[Ricky Spanish]

The moon set at a bit after 7 Pm and rose at 10 Am. No moon at night pretty much.

[Rick]

Date: 11/27/22 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: gloriously clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: gloriously calm - as opposed to the strong west wind that was beginning to stir as we left.

Temperature: chilly with my crud

Moon phase: nil waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: West winds almost always shut my blind down, but we saw enough and the guys shot well enough to fill and get out ahead of it.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Big ducks were working so pretty that I considered suggesting laying off the teal. Glad I didn't.

Hunters: 2, brothers Brian and Bryce again

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Only the mottled chipped off to open water north of us easy morning, and the bug handled it quickly. Otherwise a very easy morning.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: None at all, aside from the killer crud that's been kicking my old ass the past few days.

Kudos: Nice guys did as bid, shot well and had a big time. (Back to reality tomorrow with 80-somethings that will fail on at least the first two counts.)

Birds By Species: 2 blue-wing teal, 1 gadwall, 9 green-wing teal, 2 mallards, 1 mottled, 1 pintail, 1 shoveller and 1 wood duck

[Deltaman]

Nice reports Rick, and glad to hear of the big ducks making a showing!!!

[Rick]

Date: 11/28 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: zip to variable light

Temperature: 50ish

Moon phase: waxing 31%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Lots of shooting to our east early on, while we saw precious little, but later we had enough dribs and drabs of this and that to keep our attention, and darn near enough for our purposes.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Lots of of initially responsive birds, most of which we ran off through the frailties of age.

Hunters: 2, Al and David, who've been hunting our marsh with its estate's executor since 1964

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): The bug had a fine day with a couple "impossible" retrieves.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Only that age can be be so tough on folks.

Kudos: We were short but couldn't have been blessed with a finer morning.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellied whistling ducks, 4 blue-wing teal, 1 gadwall, 2 green-wing teal, 2 pintails, 1 shoveller, 2 wigeon and 2 wood ducks

[Duck Engr]

A wonderful mud hole variety. Glad your marsh veterans were able to have a good hunt.

[Rick]

Super foul weather predicted for tomorrow morning, so today may well be it for them. Sweet, and bittersweet, in any event. We were blessed.

[Darren]

Sweet strap for sure, glad they got on a few

[Deltaman]

WOW.......that is impressive that they have been hunting the area since 1964, and bet they could tell you some stories!
Glad you were able to put them on a fine strap of birds Rick

[DComeaux]

Wonderful hunt!

[5 stand]

Your kudos: pretty much sums it up...
Mighty fine !

[Rick]

Date: 11/29 Tue

Time: Morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: hazy to rain - but not as bad as initially predicted

Wind Direction and Velocity: mod to strong south

Temperature: t-shirt until rain

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Lots of birds, large and small, high and low.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: The wind finished them straight at us and gave them way too long to spot a fellow who couldn't hide and another who wouldn't.

Hunters: 2, Al again and Glen Jr.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Worked the bug hard enough to put him off his feed. (Will give him another chance later.) Crashed presently.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Certainly could, but not about to.

Kudos: Weather wasn't miserable and enough birds tripped up to end Al's trip on a high note.

Birds By Species: 3 blue-wing teal, 4 green-wing teal, 3 mallards, 2 mottleds, 3 ringnecks, 1 shoveller and 2 wood ducks

[Deltaman]

"and gave them way too long to spot a fellow who couldn't hide and another who wouldn't"
OUCH.........glad you had enough birds and weather to overcome!!!!

[DComeaux]

The Lacassane pool overfloweth with fowl..... Saw pictures from Sunday.

[Rick]

The Lacassane pool overfloweth with fowl..... Saw pictures from Sunday.

Haven't seen the pics but heard about it from their maint guy yesterday morning. Said it's a show, and I sure wouldn't doubt it. (And would anticipate a banding party or two during the split.)

[DComeaux]

The Lacassane pool overfloweth with fowl..... Saw pictures from Sunday.

Haven't seen the pics but heard about it from their maint guy yesterday morning. Said it's a show, and I sure wouldn't doubt it. (And would anticipate a banding party or two during the split.)

I put those pictures in my pre-season thread.

[Rick]

Date: 11/30 Wed

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: cloudy to clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light NW to screaming NE

Temperature: t-shirt to chilly

Moon phase: waxing still small

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Nothing, nada, zippo new riding the front. Went from thinking we could be picky to thankful to fill.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Not worth a flip.

Hunters: 2, Aaron and girlfriend, Dianna(?)

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning with nothing long

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just that we didn't know there'd be nothing with the front and passed spoons, jacks and squealers longer than we should have.

Kudos: Pleasant morning with nice folks.

Birds By Species: 1 black-bellied whistling duck, 3 blue-wing teal, 2 gadwall, 4 green-wing teal, 1 mallard, 1 mottled, 3 pintails, 1 ringneck and 2 wigeon

[Deltaman]

Sweet mixed strap of birds Rick

[jrock75]

Love your high quality mixed bags. Living vicariously through you as we sit in our split.

[Rick]

There are days when I feel like all we're missing is a partridge in a pear tree. Well, that and more mallards. Gone are the days when they were always second (behind green-wings), if not first, in our annual regular season bag.

[5 stand]

Nine different species in one day is special, I thought it was pretty cool...
Are the good numbers for the first split, just for the mud hole, or camp wide (I'm going to call it)??

[Rick]

I'm thinking numbers have to be up area wide - at least by comparison to recent years.

Helps, too, that our northern neighbor, Cherry Ridge is big enough to maintain a largely undisturbed refuge area they call "the body". Birds in the body draw new birds that don't know the drill, so it's like being outside a refuge: you can choose to bitch about birds you can't shoot or focus on the opportunities they do afford those of us in their general area.

[Rick]

Date: 12/1 Thur

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: East STRONG

Temperature: 40

Moon phase: 54% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Quite a few teal and jacks on the east end early, as well as some on ours when the shooting died down. Had perhaps 20 cans cruise over the pond - 5 minutes early. Didn't seem like a whole lot of birds, but enough we passed spoons (except one plucked from a teal flight) and jacks, and I talked them into trying to finish with a greenhead or sprig - neither of which showed during the last hour.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: The birds did as bid when others' gunfire didn't bump them.

Hunters: 2, long time camp regular, Tom, who surgery and illness kept from hunting last season or earlier in this one and Bud, who'd also not hunted in the past couple years.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Would have been nice to fill with something pretty.

Kudos: Such a pleasant morning that we enjoyed watching what we let pass and didn't mind being short one.

Birds By Species: 2 blue-wing teal, 2 gadwall, 7 green-wing teal, 1 mallard, 3 mottleds, 1 pintail and 1 shoveller

[Duck Engr]

Wow, what a nice strap. If that’s the only thing you have to curse, times must be pretty good.

[Darren]

Sounds like a really nice one, and a blind limit of mottleds always something to puff chests about.