2022 - 2023 DUCK SEASON

[Rick]

Our teal were largely AWOL this morning, hope they went you way.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Tuesday, Nov 22, 2022

Hunters: William, Matthew, Hayden and me

Temp: 47 degrees, wind NE, 8 - 10 mph

It was clear with a decent wind but the ducks never showed. William and Matthew hunted in a different blind than Hayden and I, but it did not matter

Totals: Hayden and I - 1-Pintail drake

William and Matthew - none, they only shot once each.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Wednesday, Nov 23, 2022

Hunters: William, Matthew, Hayden and I

Temp: 55 degrees, wind zero to 6mph, NE

Again little to nothing flying. The NE wind is getting old. William and Matthew were the only blind to shoot.

Total: William and Matthew: 2 - wigeon, 2 - greenwing teal, 1 - gadwall

Hayden and I - did not shoot

[DComeaux]

This is the first time I remember you guys taking so little. I hope things turn around for you.

I remember when I had a blind along mud lakes southern end just north of Holly beach years ago, and I would dread heavy rainfall events. All of the birds were in the local, normally dry cow pastures until the sheet water was gone.

[5 stand]

That is a bummer... Surprised the Northeast wind would affect you that much, but I'm no permanent blind Hunter, so I don't have a clue...

[Ricky Spanish]

Cussing about an abundance of skinny water isn't unique.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Friday, Nov 25, 2022

Hunters: Buddy and me with Abby

Temp: 55 degrees wind NE 10 - 15 mph

Plenty of ducks moving this morning, I was pissed because only a few days earlier with the grandsons we had no ducks.
Early groups of teal did not slow down coming thru the decoys, made it quite sporting. Most of the ducks were flaring off the spinners so we picked them up after about an hour of hunting and ducks did decoy better.

Totals: 2 - Pintail, 3 - Gadwall, 7 - Greenwing teal

[MARSH BEAR]

Saturday, Nov 26, 2022

Hunters: Buddy, and I with Abby

Temp: Mid 50s, rain, rain, rain.

I decided Friday night I was not going hunting on Saturday, 100% chance of rain all morning. 4 of the members said they were going to brave the rain and hunt. I woke up Saturday morning to find all the members sitting at the table - it was raining too hard they said.
We had a fix up project in our old garage area we have been putting off, so this morning would be a good day to work on it. We got about 1/2 way thru the project when Joey got a phone call from a friend that hunts in our area and he said the clouds were thinning and ducks were on the move. We dropped everything where we stood and quickly changed clothes and loaded our gear. We got to our blinds at 10:30, all hunting on our lease must stop at 12:00. There were some ducks moving, but not the amount I expected, but it was better than working in our garage.

Totals: 5 - Bluewing teal, 1 - Gadwall

PS - got back to the camp cleaned ducks then finished our fixing up project.

[MARSH BEAR]

Sunday, Nov 26, 2022

Hunters: Buddy and I with Abby

Temp: 58 degrees, wind SW 10 mph

I thought the SW wind would get the ducks moving - wrong. There was some shooting to our SW on another lease but almost nothing in our area. Abby slept a lot.

Total: 1 - Gadwall

After the hunt we were picking up stray decoys along the bank and we saw a group of about 25 greenwing teal buzz thru the decoys, as we watched them depart another group of 25 teal buzzed the decoys, then another group of 25, then another group of 25, then another group of 25 teal. A total of 5 groups flew over the blind in just over 1 minute. Hope they are still around for the upcoming weekend

[Duck Engr]

As Rick likes to say, chamber of commerce birds.

[Deltaman]

Never fails.......Murphy sneaks in when you get out of the blind, or have to take a dump, birds just appear (and yes, I've shot ducks with my pants down before ). Had to be awfully frustrating to watch it happen 5 times in a row after a slow morning in the blind. Thanks for the report MB

[Rick]

As Rick likes to say, chamber of commerce birds.

"Y'all come back, now."

[Ricky Spanish]

Never fails.......Murphy sneaks in when you get out of the blind, or have to take a dump, birds just appear (and yes, I've shot ducks with my pants down before ). Had to be awfully frustrating to watch it happen 5 times in a row after a slow morning in the blind. Thanks for the report MB

Way back when I was in college I had a double shit shot where it was so cold my dog grabbed both by wing and hauled them both in before I'd finished crappin.
It never fails so put a sling on your gun.
Last trip I filmed "not shooting" at a wood duck because my head was under the lid grabbing the duck I'd just shot.
Watching it ...hurts.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Friday, Dec 2, 2022

Hunters: Joey and I with Abby

Temp: 58 degrees wind NE 5 - 10 mph mostly clear

Did not see a lot of ducks, but the teal that buzzed the decoys were in bunches of 20-25. We did not shoot at anything but teal, don't remember seeing a Grey duck.

Total: 12 - Greenwing teal

[Ricky Spanish]

Date: Friday, Dec 2, 2022

Hunters: Joey and I with Abby

Temp: 58 degrees wind NE 5 - 10 mph mostly clear

Did not see a lot of ducks, but the teal that buzzed the decoys were in bunches of 20-25. We did not shoot at anything but teal, don't remember seeing a Grey duck.

Total: 12 - Greenwing teal

I'm always happy to shoot teal.
Tasty.
I usually grill mine up with jalapeño cream cheese and bacon wrapping. Side of crawdads sounds good

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Saturday, Dec 3, 2022

Hunters: Donnie and I with Abby

Temp: 70 degrees, wind Zero, Fog

This was the worst fog I can remember trying to hunt in. To get to our blinds we have some large open water we have to cross, we have these marked with some form of reflective material, but it was so bad I could not see the markers. I got lost 200 yards from the boat landing and went down hill from there. I putted around looking for a marker or any land mark that would give me a location of where I was for 1/2 hour, finally found a marker and I knew where I was and proceeded to the blind. The fog did not lift any until 11:00, when the wind picked up to a whopping 2-3 mph.

Totals: 4 - Greenwing teal, 2 - Gadwall, 1 - Spoonbill

I would love to have a gps trail of where I went Saturday morning, because I have no clue how I got to the markers we found.

[MARSH BEAR]

Date: Sunday, Dec 4, 2022 - last day of opening split

Hunters: Donnie and I with Abby

Temp: 62 degrees, wind NE 10 to N -10

It is great to be able to see ducks moving. We heard a lot of shooting in our area early but we were not seeing many ducks. After 8:00 some ducks finally decided to pay us a visit. Poor Donnie had a bad day shooting, and most of the ducks were on his side, I think he shot well over a box of shells.
We had one other blind hunting today, they had a group of teal buzz them and they dropped 3 ducks - 1 - scaup, 1 - greenwing teal 1 - bluewing teal.

Totals: 9 - greenwing teal, 1 - bluewing teal, 2 - spoonbill

[Deltaman]

Glad to see y'all had some birds! Damn fog can bamboozle anybody when it's that thick. No compass can get you back on track?
You prob don't have cell service in that area, but if you do, you can use google maps and use the satellite (google earth) option in it, on your phone. It will show your location as a blue dot, and has saved my bacon more than once.

[Ricky Spanish]

Glad to see y'all had some birds! Damn fog can bamboozle anybody when it's that thick. No compass can get you back on track?
You prob don't have cell service in that area, but if you do, you can use google maps and use the satellite (google earth) option in it, on your phone. It will show your location as a blue dot, and has saved my bacon more than once.

Fog...I use an actual.gps. I've got where I use it a lot.
Was worth the big loot too.
Learning curve was steep but once I figured out how to save and manage tracks it got real easy to find a timber hole real quick.
Just follow the blue line.

[Darren]

My experience is trust the GPS in the fog, no matter what. Every time I've sworn it was misleading us, it wasn't.

Nothing is more difficult to navigate in than fog, big water or small. Given the rigs yall are using, MB, probably not equipped with electronics since not usually needed.....until it is!

[Deltaman]

"My experience is trust the GPS in the fog, no matter what. Every time I've sworn it was misleading us, it wasn't."

Ain't that the truth, and I have even questioned a compass at times

[Duck Engr]

Fog will make your head spin!!

[SpinnerMan]

Nothing is more difficult to navigate in than fog, big water or small.

I had to row 70 yards northeast to cross a small lake to the blind in crazy thick fog in the dark. I've hunted this lake 30+ times and fished it a number of times. I know it well. After about 30 yards I hit shore on my right, I was so confused. I was convinced I was heading the right direction because I knew exactly how to head from the launch and should be in the middle of the lake. After convincing myself I could only be on the south shore I eventually find my way to the east shore and the blind. Then I set about setting the decoys. I wanted the furthest decoys about 30 yards out and the closest about 10 yards off shore. When the sun came up enough to somewhat see through the fog, I don't think I had a decoy further than 15 yards from shore

[Ricky Spanish]

I've hunted the same cove 100s or maybe 1000s of times it's easy. Launch and drive towards the flashing light up high. It's on the power plant dome.
One night it was foggy as hell. I drove til I saw a light and headed towards it. D'oh.
That's the marina. Wrong side of lake get out the GPS dummy. Before you laugh....we moved and my dad would go to the wrong house after every hunt and I'd have to tell him "wrong house again dad".

[MARSH BEAR]

Going to the camp this afternoon - we need to pump out the blinds, and put new brush, and there are always decoys that need to be untangled. I think all 10 of our members will be hunting this weekend, but not all 10 will be helping in the marsh tomorrow, there are always some that have an excuse to prevent them from working
Good luck to all this weekend

[Deltaman]

Good luck MB!!!

[Darren]

Good luck! Goin brush up heavy tomorrow afternoon in the marsh

[DComeaux]

Good luck! I'll be out tomorrow afternoon doing the same. Have a gumbo ready for tomorrow evening, with baked sweet potatoes.

[MARSH BEAR]

Saturday, Dec 17, 2022 - opening day of second split

Hunters: Buddy and I, no Abby she did something to her hip on Thursday and was limping badly

Temp: 44 degrees, cloudy to clear to cloudy, wind NNE 10 mph

We had a lot of teal moving most of the morning but decoying teal were banged out by surrounding blinds, also we were caught a few times looking at ducks in the distance when a flock flew through the decoys. After a few blinds limited and left we were able get some decent shots. We hunted an open water blind and were able to find all our ducks against the bank.

Total: 7 - greenwing teal, 2 - bluewing teal, 2 - pintail, 1 - gadwall

[MARSH BEAR]

Sunday, Dec 18, 2022

Hunters: Buddy and I

Temp: 40 degrees, clear, wind NNE to ENE 10 - 15 mph

We hunted another open water blind, but today the wind was stronger and I think the wind was a little strong for our open water.
I guess Buddy and I are just getting old, but we were caught looking the wrong way on multiple teal flights, the teal were not decoying it was all pass shooting, not 1 flight came over the decoys into the wind, all were with the wind or at 90 degrees of the wind.
We have very few Gadwall left in our area, thankfully the teal are still around.

Total: 11 - greenwing teal, 1 - gadwall