WaterfowlForum.Net

Date: 9/10 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light easterly

Temperature: pleasantly cool

Moon phase: waxing big

Special Notes: teal opener

Waterfowl Activity: What we saw seemed more representative of my survey than the state's 23% increase. Began normally enough, as in slow, but we never did see the big, high and hauling swarms heading south out of the rice that usually come next. Still, plenty of small, scattered, multi-directional flights around for us to finish around 8.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Excellent.

Hunters: 2, new to me nice guys, Steve and ?

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh broke from the boat on a crip that half flushed and paddle-wheeled across the west run. Got read the riot act loud enough to put the fear of God in he and any gator that may have thought about it.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners and the modified mallard machine, known hereafter as "SOS"

Curses: Not a one, other than the bug's aforementioned indiscretion.

Kudos: Nice hunt for some super nice guys.

Birds By Species: 18 blue-wings (W had 17 drakes and 1 hen, also looked through Bryce's 24 from the back blind, of which only one was a hen.)

Awesome news! Now I’m really upset that I’m on call.

Ratio seems to confirm porkchop’s observations that the mommas are still taking care of babies up north.

Date: 9/10

Time: afternoon

Location: 10-footer

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly light

Temperature: not too terribly warm

Moon phase: big

Special Notes: Was supposed to hunt elsewhere but was a communication screw-up between another guide and the farmer on what to buffalo.

Waterfowl Activity: Tons of hunters in the area, but ours were the only shots, so we weren't the only ones looking at nothing.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: What came by was anxious for company.

Hunters: 5 1/2, long time opening afternoon regulars, Mike, John, Wayne, Lance and Ryan

Guns:

Malfunctions: Just the location screw-up. Not that the difference would have mattered.

Dog(s): Marsh and I bumped heads over his handling on a long fly-off blind.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners: teal and standard

Curses: Barren sky - until the mosquitoes came out

Kudos: Good guys still had a good time and even eventually hit both of the lost little singles that tried to land with us.

Birds By Species: 2 blue-wing teal (drakes)

Date: 9/11 (still hate typing that)

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light NE

Temperature: pleasant

Moon phase: full?

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Had more working birds early than normally the case, but still no impressive high flights. Saw more mottleds than yesterday and scads and scads of squealers.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Couldn't possibly have been better all morning.

Hunters: 2, Matt and Brad on the latter's first duck hunt.

Guns:

Malfunctions: Just those of inexperience and old, rusty reflexes. Well, those or bent barrels.

Dog(s): Nearly everything finally fell outside the pond, and we flat wore the bug down to the very nub fighting dense canouche and thin flotant.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Shooting was enough better than the hitting that they were literally down to their last bullets.

Kudos: Nice guys had a big time.

Birds By Species: 18 blue-wing teal (15 drakes and 3 hens)

A guide friend’s favorite phrase of “ my goodness we worried that one down” comes to mind.

My most oft spoken the past two days has been, "Kill him again."

Poor Marsh is so plainly spent that I almost hope nothing flies this afternoon, as my afternoon guys (yesterday, today and tomorrow) are also notorious cripplers. And I fear tomorrow morning's other half of this morning's group will be as well...

Great seeing some hunting success!!

May I copy/use your log format?

PorkChop wrote:May I copy/use your log format?

Most of us didn't ask

Bunch of damn plagiarists, the lot of 'em.

Of course you can, PC. Don't know that you couldn't come up with a much better format, just know it's been easier for me to "fill in the blanks" than wing it most days.

Rick wrote:Bunch of damn plagiarists, the lot of 'em.

Of course you can, PC. Don't know that you couldn't come up with a much better format, just know it's been easier for me to "fill in the blanks" than wing it most days.

Thank you I just usually wing it and probably give people information they don’t care about and leave out the information that they do care about.

PorkChop wrote:

Rick wrote:Bunch of damn plagiarists, the lot of 'em.

Of course you can, PC. Don't know that you couldn't come up with a much better format, just know it's been easier for me to "fill in the blanks" than wing it most days.

Thank you I just usually wing it and probably give people information they don’t care about and leave out the information that they do care about.

Great hearing about the positive results so far.

Date: 9/11 Sun

Time: afternoon

Location: 10-footer

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly variable

Temperature: not too warm

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Better than yesterday: heard three area blinds shoot a volley each and enjoyed four ops, ourselves. But birds were still mighty far and few between.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had one little bunch act like they knew us, and be very tough to finish but, otherwise, excellent.

Hunters: 4, Mike, Wayne, Ryan and Lance (gout liked to killed John getting in and out of the spot, so he passed this one)

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh was better about taking my advice than the afternoon before.

Special Equipment: 2 spinners

Curses: Still slow enough that we backed their third afternoon off until Friday.

Kudos: Thankful for what we had, given the givens, and glad the guys were clipping (if not killing cleanly) more than one, or none, per op.

Birds By Species: 10 blue-wing teal (7 drakes and 3 hens)

Photo Ops: The bug with a pair. Been too long since I've tried to get the focus right on a running dog:

Thanks for the reports Rick!!!!!!

Date: 9/12 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear to overcast

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly moderate

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Yesterday's steady parade of "low hanging fruit" was over, but there were more big high flights that we'd see to date.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Screaming tealized "contest hails" were the ticket.

Hunters: 2, Doc Beau and Brandon?

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh spent another morning fighting thick canouche (paille fine/maiden-cane) and thin flotant with relatively little going down in the pond.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just the shell-to-bird ratio.

Kudos: Nice folks had a big time.

Birds By Species: 18 blue-wing teal (15 drakes and 3 hens)

You on a roll

Wonderful!

Date: 9/13 Tue

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly moderate to nil

Temperature: long-sleeve T

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: The little cool front seemed to be a negative, as we saw far less birds and most blinds struggled.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully still good.

Hunters: 1, annual regular, Bruce

Guns:

Malfunctions: Lost the operating handle out of Bruce's Beretta

Dog(s): Marsh had an easier day, but was a pain to get to leave a spot where a crippled bird flushed and handle to where I dropped it.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Only the relative lack of game.

Kudos: Beautiful morning in good company.

Birds By Species: 12 blue-wing teal

Date: 9/14 Wed

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: calm

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Not fast and furious but appreciably better than yesterday.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Couldn't have been better.

Hunters: 1, Bruce again

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning except for a chipped bird that gave him fits diving in a tiny hole.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: none from me

Kudos: Another beautiful morning in good company, Bruce got dialed in and even seemed some promise of new birds.

Birds By Species: 12 blue-wing teal (9 drakes and 3 hens)

And the beat rolls on!

Sounds like the teal are still hanging around your area, I plan to hunt Friday, Saturday and Sunday, hoping our teal are still around.

MARSH BEAR wrote:Sounds like the teal are still hanging around your area, I plan to hunt Friday, Saturday and Sunday, hoping our teal are still around.

We've been blessed. Hope they cover you up - and wouldn't mind if they did us, too.

Bruce and I had talked of me joining him one morning this visit but obligations piled up on me....glad to see he's having a sweet one. We'll see you closing Sunday

Darren wrote:Bruce and I had talked of me joining him one morning this visit but obligations piled up on me....glad to see he's having a sweet one. We'll see you closing Sunday

Though I "Nicely done!" Bruce a couple times today, I've been afraid of putting the gris gris on him with too much of it.

Date: 9/15 Thurs

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: negligible to light?

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: big

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: What good was done in our marsh was done pretty early.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: As we would wish.

Hunters: 2, Buckley, who was with the camp when I got there, joined Bruce on his last morning

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Easy morning.

Special Equipment: sos

Curses: zip, nada, none

Kudos: Buckley is one of the best shots we host, and Bruce shot well to boot, so they made good on our chances.

Birds By Species: 18 blue-wing teal (13 drakes and 5 h3ns)

Date: 9/16 Fri

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: calm to light easterly

Temperature: warmer

Moon phase: big

Special Notes: Scads of hunters out this morning, so I thought birds would be stirred.

Waterfowl Activity: Thought wrong, the bottom fell out. Isaac shot several volleys before our first, but the other blinds did much worse than we. Perhaps in part, though by no means in large part, by being more easily discouraged and leaving well before our 9:30 curfew.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Seemed about half of what we saw pushed off from the known spot or spinners - or us? And we didn't see much.

Hunters: 3, JJ, Mark and Jeremy

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Solid as usual.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Little activity, and I lacked presence of mind to kill the spinners and amp up my calling as soon as birds shied. (Blaming it on this being the first day stale birds were an issue.)

Kudos: What came fell in multiples, and a fine time was had.

Birds By Species: 20 blue-wing teal

Nothin' wrong with that!

Will be on the lookout for shying from spinners this weekend. As it is I'd already cut down to a single full size spinner, trying to let the egrets do more of the talking.