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Date: 11/18/23

Time: morning

Location: river

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly with a more westerly component than forecast

Temperature: upper 30s

Moon phase: dunno

Special Notes: opening day. Nearly didn’t make the trip due to low water, but got to looking at my schedule and figured I better go when I can. Walked 7 miles the day before. Found 15 ducks.

Waterfowl Activity: less than expected for opener.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: very poor save a few teal and pair of mallards.

Hunters: Jason, Taylor, me

Guns:

Malfunctions: I nearly sunk my boat getting it off the trailer. Didn’t clear my retractable strap from the hook and didn’t double check. Boat also has developed a leak

Dog(s): Scout and June on her maiden voyage. “Needs improvement” would be her report card.

Special Equipment: none

Curses: LOW water. Lowest I’ve seen it in my years of traveling out there.

Kudos: felt good to be back. Shot my first band in 25 years of chasing these birds.

Birds By Species: 2 mallards. 8 teal. One of the mallards was banded in Arkansas by Paul Link in February of 2020.

Photo Ops:

June and I with the prize of the day. It’ll be headed to the taxidermist.


Lagniappe:
A couple days before we left Jason texted the group chat saying he’d bring some bags in case we wanted to get any ducks mounted we shot. It’s a very common ribbing point that I’ve never been the trigger man on a band, so I jokingly sent back that he should bring me one because I plan to kill a banded Greenhead for June’s first retrieve. Lo and behold, it happened. (Yes I did buy a lottery ticket and yes I do still have to go to work Monday).

Second oddity was that I saw Paul Link had banded that bird. Went to message him on instagram (though I don’t think he uses it anymore) and found our conversation from 11 days before he banded that duck in 2020, with me asking how I could donate to his telemetry work. Guess the duck universe was paying me back somehow.

Little surprised it was banded up there in Feb of 2020, as I'm pretty sure I was still banding with him down here in early Feb that year. Probably lucky for you, as I might have let that one get away between net and crate.

That is awesome...
I'm not able to zoom in on the photo, but it looks like it might be stainless steel?
Congrats buddy, I like the photo of you and June...

5 stand wrote:That is awesome...
I'm not able to zoom in on the photo, but it looks like it might be stainless steel?
Congrats buddy, I like the photo of you and June...

Thank you! Believe they’re aluminum.

Rick wrote:Little surprised it was banded up there in Feb of 2020, as I'm pretty sure I was still banding with him down here in early Feb that year. Probably lucky for you, as I might have let that one get away between net and crate.

Maybe he snuck off on you to see another banding site behind your back.

Duck Engr wrote:

Rick wrote:Little surprised it was banded up there in Feb of 2020, as I'm pretty sure I was still banding with him down here in early Feb that year. Probably lucky for you, as I might have let that one get away between net and crate.

Maybe he snuck off on you to see another banding site behind your back.

Had that same thought...

Wouldn't blame him for going where the numbers are, but banding in Arkansas doesn't do pecans for his coastal mallard study. Maybe gave up on it...

Maybe so. Seem to recall he received some private funding from a group put together by the farm where he banded this one for a telemetry study, hence my message to him around that time since it was in the general area I like to hunt.

Cason Short (Bill Byers' Hunt Club) has been very helpful with his speck work, and mallards may have been by-catch.

Yep. That’s where this duck was banded.

That is a cool story. Congrats......

Congrats on the band!!!!!!

Date: 11/19/23

Time: morning

Location: river

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light and variable

Temperature: around 40

Moon phase:

Special Notes: had seen so few low ducks at the previous morning’s location we decided to get a change of scenery. I’d scouted this area the day before and saw a pretty impressive show in the late twilight.

Waterfowl Activity: even less than the day before and almost all teal high low or otherwise. Were able to discern we were about a mile too far north of a pretty decent flight line.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: had a tough time pulling birds off of a private oxbow onto the river channel but were able to get a couple groups to do it

Hunters: 3

Guns:

Malfunctions: boat still leaking

Dog(s): June and Scout. I was working June after the hunt on some of the birds and Scout decided he’d wander over and act like he was going to take one of June’s birds. Next thing I knew, June had Scout by the face and was shaking him like a rag doll. She dropped him immediately when i yelled at her but Scout learned a painful lesson. I think June was exacting some revenge from and earlier scenario where Scout was harassing her while she was tied up.

Special Equipment:

Curses: low water and not many birds.

Kudos: at least we had some to play with. Know of a lot of guys who zero’d.

Birds By Species: 6 green wing teal, 5 of which were taken from a group of 20 as they landed in the decoys.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

Don't mess with Junes birds.

DComeaux wrote:Don't mess with Junes birds.

No kidding. I’m going to have to watch her closer in the future. I think her issue is with male dogs. She’s never tied up a female. Is actually a little submissive to them. But she doesn’t take any crap off of a male.

Date: 11/20/23

Time: morning

Location: different river, but still on the channel since that’s about where all the water was.

Cloud Cover: heavy with big t storms rolling in that chased us back to the trucks.

Wind Direction and Velocity: was supposed to be from the east but had a more southerly component than easterly.

Temperature: around 50

Moon phase:

Special Notes: had considered going home after the previous day’s hunt due to lack of ducks but had an invite down with a friend and his daughter we don’t get to see a lot, so we decided to go be social.

Waterfowl Activity: more ducks than we’d seen all trip moving ahead of the front, but most were mid height to high, and absolutely not responsive to calls at all. Noticed the ducks looked to be getting up and getting organized as they flew over. June and I set out to find their origins around 9 am but were chased back by lightning after a few hundred yards.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: worst I’ve ever seen for an opening weekend. Had one group of 20 gadwall working but one buddy was looking at a different group of ducks and blew them out.

Hunters: 4 adults and one yute.

Guns:

Malfunctions: couldn’t break ducks.

Dog(s): June and Jax.

Special Equipment:

Curses: Need rain!

Kudos: nice to see and hang out with friends we hadn’t in a while.

Birds By Species: 2 teal, 1 gadwall, 1 wood duck.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

Date:11/25/23

Time: morning. Hunted for 30 minutes.

Location: local river

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil

Temperature: 40

Moon phase:

Special Notes: stopped in at the in-laws for thanksgiving after my trip and finally made it back home Friday. Was laying in bed Friday and had a thought of hey, the boats already hooked up, might as well go hunt in the AM, as it was the second day of Alabama’s first “split” (two days).

Waterfowl Activity: eh marginal. Saw more divers than anything.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: didn’t call

Hunters: solo

Guns:

Malfunctions: hit a deer doing 60 mph on the way to the ramp. Lucky for me she stumbled right as I hit her, so she hit lower on the bumper and not up in the grill area. Didn’t notice any damage other than a mangled bumper, so continued on. Discovered a transmission fluid cooler leak once I got back home. Turned into more of a job than it should’ve, as no one makes the specific transmission cooler anymore for my model truck, so I had to fab and fit a new mounting bracket.

Dog(s): June. Made an easy retrieve on a single out in front of the boat. Her first out of the boat, so it was an adventure, but she gladly did it.

Special Equipment:

Curses: just the damn deer.

Kudos: got a rep for young June, which was the purpose of the exercise.

Birds By Species: 1 wood duck

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: probably should’ve stayed in bed.

"probably should’ve stayed in bed"

Nah, ask June...

Should have dressed that deer and took it home.

DComeaux wrote:Should have dressed that deer and took it home.

I hit it pretty much at the end of a coworkers driveway. Sent him a text and he drove out to the road and picked her up after daylight.

5 stand wrote:"probably should’ve stayed in bed"

Nah, ask June...

Ha June certainly would disagree.

Boat update. Put a little water in it and found my leak. I hit an absolute crater of a pothole running 70 mph a couple of trips ago and watched in my rear view mirror as my battery ripped all of the rivets out of the holder, flew up 2 feet, then slammed back down on the back edge of my false floor, where it’s turned down to the bottom of the boat between the ribs. The battery pushed that turned down metal into the boat bottom and cracked it. Going to call a welder on Monday.

That sucks.

Took June to stand by the creek on our timber farm Sunday morning. Zero ducks seen. Both locally and where I travel to hunt the story is the same. NEED RAIN! Our creek was hardly flowing. Duck pond is about 1/4 full of water. Impoundment has zero water. Glad I didn’t plant anything this year or I’d be really sore. Need to get some ducks killed for my pup (who just stole a grilled cheese sandwich from the kitchen table as I type). May try a relatively local lake later this week.

Had my boat leak welded up and they did an “ok” job. Leak is stopped by they ended up chasing some secondary cracks and didn’t file the weld bead on the bottom like they said they would on the front end. Might not look like much, but a weld bead sticking down will mess with keeping my prop in the water and “lift” the back end of the boat. Good for an outboard. Bad for surface drive. I have wanted reverse for a while. Debating selling this rig and getting a tall transom hull with a motor that has reverse. Would be a pricey upgrade though.

"May try a relatively local lake later this week."
Sounds like a good idea to me... When June gets done with her sandwich ask her...

Glad you found the leak DE, got it welded, and sounds like you might need to do a little sanding/grinding to smooth out. Too bad you aren't closer to the coast, my stepson welds aluminum and stainless, and is damn good at it.

Deltaman wrote:Glad you found the leak DE, got it welded, and sounds like you might need to do a little sanding/grinding to smooth out. Too bad you aren't closer to the coast, my stepson welds aluminum and stainless, and is damn good at it.

Yep I wished I still lived down there as soon as this happened!

Date: 12/22/23

Time: morning

Location: local river

Cloud Cover: mostly cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: very light at my back, enough for me to smell June’s big dump she took right when we got there for most of the hunt

Temperature: 40

Moon phase: ?

Special Notes: filling time until I get water elsewhere and trying to get june repetitions

Waterfowl Activity: scarce. Saw but a handful

Waterfowl Responsiveness: wood ducks couldn’t be bothered.

Hunters: me

Guns: m2

Malfunctions: none to speak of. Welds on bottom of boat held water tight.

Dog(s): June. Made a nice search and recovery of a duck that fell in a swamp beyond an adjacent tree line.

Special Equipment: none

Curses: lack of game, but to be expected.

Kudos: made one of the better shots of my life, which isn’t to say much as I don’t consider myself a crack shot. Pair came behind me overhead at treetop level. I didn’t see them until just after they’d passed me. Still managed to make an immediately lethal shot.

Birds By Species: 1 wood duck

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: of the 3 groups hunting the area, I was the only one to pull the trigger.

"Wind Direction and Velocity: very light at my back, enough for me to smell June’s big dump she took right when we got there for most of the hunt"

Made me spit coffee with that remark