Duck Season 2023-2024

[Darren]

Sat. 11/4/2023 - LA West Zone Youth Weekend Day 1
Delacroix lease
Johnny and I chaperoning my two kids, Harry along in hopes of some action
Low 60's, N/NE winds 5-10, pt cloudy, big tide range so water was teal season high

Had forgotten how chilly a pre-dawn boat ride in the low 60's can be, but thank goodness only ol dad was underdressed. Not much to see early on, felt and looked a lot like teal season but even the mottleds were largely MIA, save for one pair cruising by. Ended up seeing fair many dosgris and a good few wads of teal along with the standard flights of hooded mergansers burning about. Grays were mostly MIA but did get two good chances that adults would have made easy work of, and sure enough one bird gave us just enough chance for my daughter to line up as it landed. Hunt-made. Packed it up at 8:30 with gnats buzzing, and no more flights of grays to keep us interested.

1 gray

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Will's father is a vet and they tried out our new-to-us west blind (#3) for first time. Had some similar action and took a couple of birds so that was a success as well. Holding hope for a front late next week that keeps showing, really could use some more weather and get the tides down. Have to figure that's got our birds scattered.Also new-to-us is a handed down 28 gauge auto that we brought along this morning, super sweet. I’m looking forward to toting it along myself on future marsh outings.

[Rick]

Kids are smiling, dog's smiling: all is well with the world.

[5 stand]

I couldn't agree more, Rick...

[Darren]

Kids are smiling, dog's smiling: all is well with the world.

Yea ol dad was smiling for sure and they're now telling everyone about their outing.

Wind's blowing 10+ kts NW down there this morning, hoping bringing birds and getting that high tide in check.

[Ducaholic]

Good Job

[PorkChop]

That’s the good stuff right there!

[Deltaman]

Good stuff dad

[Darren]

Wasn't but a few grays, but what came, came right, so dad's ready to shoot! We're excited to head down Friday afternoon for sure.

Weather not looking very active for a while. Small front trying to get through for this weekend but not much in way of cold plunges showing thereafter.

[Darren]

Sat 11/11/2023 LA West Zone Opener
Delacroix lease
Anthony, Johnny and I with Harry
Winds N/NE 10-15, heavy clouds with occasional sprinkles, water a bit high, 60’s

Small frontal passage over night had the winds just about perfect this morning. Wasn’t expecting much coming off the dismal survey results and sure enough didn’t see a duck for first 30-40 mins probably. Eventually saw some grays and dos gris, few mottleds. The grays were acting like mid- to late-season birds, very skittish and think I turned them off of us with too many decoys for their liking, they wouldn’t finish after circling and circling, eating up the call for the most part. Pulled some decoys and got a group of 6 to finish pretty and we were thrilled to take four, one being a long off crop that made it to Will’s nearby pond to finish off for us. Also gave a single mottled a pass that likely would have been a gimme.

Reports were pretty tough around here overall in the region, though there were some bright spots with some nice hauls and we did see some flight birds late in hunt and on boat ride in. Seemed like a few blinds a couple miles to our NE did quite a bit of shooting….but who knows at what.

4 grays

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Try em again tomorrow in same blind

[Darren]

Sun 11/12/2023
Delacroix
Johnny and I with Harry
NNE winds 10-15+, heavy clouds, mid 60s, tides still on high side to start but falling during hunt

Back to same blind in hopes of seeing more traffic and definitely did see migration in action. Band after band of divers, some grays and even 4 snows that refused the speck call. Low birds gave us our chances today and the decoy changes from yesterday had us in the game, but shooting was brutal. Lost two long off chipped grays, and worst of all botched subsequent ops while I was out and about hunting said crips with Harry adding insult to injury. Took home but two birds but easily should have been a 8-9+ bird hunt.

1 gray, 1 dos gris

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Definitely saw more grays around the lease on our way in so hoping it bodes well for future trips. Will had some luck at our new southernmost blind with a couple of grays and red head. Tides are about to come way up down there with strong east winds next few days so who knows where the birds will scatter to.

[Rick]

All God's children miss some.

[5 stand]

So true, Rick... Confidence kills birds don't let today get you down, you killed them before and you'll do it again...

[Darren]

Probably most frustrating on my end is I easily take the more difficult birds (passing awkwardly, etc.) but when the feet are down out front, think both Johnny and I both are getting lazy with the gun mount and just not putting them down in the pond like they should (easily) be.

It's indeed raining today so we're waiting to see what that might mean for Bunkie field and this weekend's East Zone opener. If a no-go, we'll head back to the marsh, where I do like our prospects on the forecast sunshine after much of this week likely to be cloudy/dreary.

[Deltaman]

Thanks for your reports Darren, and you know it's not always the birds we kill that keep us up at night

[Darren]

Hearing no water for the weekend up at the farm blind, so we'll plan to head to the marsh Friday to hunt the weekend that looks to have some sunshine. Water is way up down there as this little low pressure system spins offshore of Venice but should be headed in right direction in coming days.

Farmer saying next week is a possibility, and looks like good chance of rain statewide on Monday so maybe weekend after Thanksgiving will work out.

[Ducaholic]

Hearing no water for the weekend up at the farm blind, so we'll plan to head to the marsh Friday to hunt the weekend that looks to have some sunshine. Water is way up down there as this little low pressure system spins offshore of Venice but should be headed in right direction in coming days.

Farmer saying next week is a possibility, and looks like good chance of rain statewide on Monday so maybe weekend after Thanksgiving will work out.

Farmer doesn't have well?

[Darren]

They do, but still working to get well water on the crawfish fields, and ours isn't going to be fished this year. Hoping for rain to fill the bayou so they can go back to pumping from there instead of from the wells.

As an update on weather, looks like finally going to see some weather happenings next week and beyond with fronts and cold temps, rain events, etc., or at least a whole lot of signs that the pattern has finally flipped.

[Darren]

I'm sure the birds we (had) are having a good ol time down by the camp with all this water around. Mother Nature and her jokes; we've got dried up marsh in SW La, and mega-flooded marsh in SE La. Grrrrrrrr

This low spinning offshore would be a named storm if it happened a month or more ago for sure.

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Normal tide would be 5-6 ft on this gage

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Normal tide would be 0-1.5 ft on this gage

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[Darren]

Sat 11/18/2023
Delacroix lease
Johnny, Phil and I with Harry
N/NW winds 5-10+, 60s, pt cloudy to heavy clouds and back, coming off of very high water

Looks like the floods this week moved our grays out, but saw a whole lot of divers and some teal, just not much passing close enough for us. Only gray that came looking bumped off the dog on retrieve in the pond. Very few others seen. Will adjust tomorrow to another blind on the lease so as to at least look at something different.

2 dos gris


Bored on their phones

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Pretty afternoon for fishing yesterday at least

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[5 stand]

You and Harry made me grin... To me that's one of those keepsake photos Rick was talking about...

[Darren]

Sun. 11/19/2023
Delacroix lease
Phil, Johnny and I with Harry
Winds N to NE 0-5-0, low 60s, clear skies

Thought we’d had ourselves talked into changing blinds but gang voted to just ride the hole and hope it got better as the waters receded. Thankfully a few grays showed and were on some promising patterns, got us a few chances. Also had first bunch of green wings work the pond in I don’t don’t how long, at least two years, though they didn’t quite get right for us. Better shooting doubles our take (or more) but we still saw today as an improvement over yesterday for sure.

3 grays, 1 green wing (and one other long off barely-chipped gray)

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Working in our jungle marsh, more dense and tall than I can recall.

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Did break my own brand-new rule and took off after a closer chipped gray that seemed to fall hard with a good mark, thankfully finding him. And of course, four other grays came looking with me out the blind but I’m told untimely calling from in the blind bumped them off, not seeing me.

Watching front line to see if we can get back out there Tuesday morning and stay relatively dry.

[Darren]

Tues 11/21/2023
Delacroix lease
Ella, Graham, and I with Harry
Winds mostly 0-5 from SW to W, heavy rains just passed through with cold front, 70 degrees, heavy clouds

Shoved off from the launch in lingering sprinkles that thankfully ended on way to blind as I’d promised my crew. Got set up probably 10 mins after LST and thankfully had prioritized putting shells in my gun in the scramble to get set just as my son pointed out birds landing in decoys. Sure was nice to start off with three grays in hand off the bat and ended up getting my last three at a nice pace. Winds of the front weren’t getting going until boat ride in. Didn’t see whole lot of birds, seemed like most were sitting, but what came was the grays on the usual pattern we’ve long been accustomed to. Harry had easy morning working only amongst the decoys for a nice change.

6 grays

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On way out bumped a nice mess of grays out of a hole Will had been watching on our south end of lease so he and I have plans to (hopefully) spring that trip tomorrow morning.

[Ericdc]

I wish I could get them to decoy like they do in your marsh. They are super contrary for us right now.


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[5 stand]

I can just hear that BB gun-toting- son when he gets home, hey sis we got six Gray ducks today...

What a mighty fine, family outing...

I'm going to call it a "keepsake" hunt...

[Rick]

Ella have any interest in shooting or just likes being out with her boys?

Talked to Robert A about the Oat Island marsh her dad married(?) into and learned their weeks of pumping put enough water in the runs, but they have to walk the boats through the ponds to the blinds. Said the booger is try not to break an ankle or go down when feet get caught in the cracks.

[Darren]

Ella have any interest in shooting or just likes being out with her boys?

Talked to Robert A about the Oat Island marsh her dad married(?) into and learned their weeks of pumping put enough water in the runs, but they have to walk the boats through the ponds to the blinds. Said the booger is try not to break an ankle or go down when feet get caught in the cracks.

She’s done some shooting in the past and has no qualms about drawing a bead on a bird, but this was mostly as a chaperone effort for Graham, and as photographer which yielded some great pics for the album. Plan for her to shoot our new-to-us 28g on a future hunt.

Have not gotten any hunt reports but FIL Mike did note that they’d invested pretty heavily in the camp’s interior this off season so his brother and other members were extra bummed to not have water initially.

[Darren]

Wednesday 11/22/2023
Delacroix lease - Pond 1a
Winds rippin behind the front from NNW 15-20+, chilly 50s, pt cloudy, water finally down to a more typical semi-low level
Will E and Loki joining up with Harry and I

Had grand plans to spring the trap on those birds I jumped out of this hole yesterday but apparently almost all that loved it blew out elsewhere overnight because everything that came looking today wanted no part of it. Wasn’t a ton of birds but what came did so in scrutinizing groups and could not be pleaded with to finish after they made umpteen swings indicating the contrary. Scratched down but two of those on an iffy op, but otherwise the grays wanted even smaller holes to our north and east.

Loki, like around the camp, has stellar discipline around the blind and kept to herself, but I felt bad all our (scarce few) birds fell on Harry’s side. She seemed not too worried about it though, super sweet lab. Always glad Harry got some work and hopefully still working on shedding a few pounds.


2 grays, 1 GW teal


Harry bringing stud gray to hand after we trekked to search for it, only trekker for the day thankfully

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Sure enough, after we couldn’t buy a gray to commit to the hole, a pack of four dove right in just as we paddled back to the boat. “Chamber of commerce” birds indeed. Hope to make one more hunt this weekend somewhere. Happy Thanksgiving, all.

[Darren]

Will has been hunting all over the lease since the above hunt without much to show for it. Even sat in my favorite blind in the rain solo yesterday and came out with but 1 gray to show for it which bums me. Said just dead all over in that area right now.

Not liking the wind forecast for late this week into the weekend at the moment, so not exactly getting fired up to plan hunts.

[Darren]

Sun 12/3/2023
Delacroix lease, A51
Winds NW 5-10+ then back down later in morning, mostly cloudy, 60s with gnats when wind fizzled
Johnny and I with Harry


Hadn’t been to lease since before Thanksgiving but minor wind change with small frontal passage had us game to just go see before it closed today. Still was much the same game of not seeing whole lot and nothing in between your ops but by the time we’d packed it up at 10a felt we’d about had chances to bag our 12. Got four teal (AND a wigeon) from nice wad of green wings that bit for the call and did us right. Missed few other ops and had couple near-ops go unlucky for us but pleasantly surprised that we were seeing some activity. Passed on a bufflehead and a spoon, also lost a lively chipped buffle that dove and likely went a looong way under water. 28 gage’s reversed safety cost me a gray or two on one op, and I figured that was inevitable today but enjoyed trying something different today.

4 GW teal, 1 wigeon, 1 gray

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Other than the lively buffle, Harry had easy morning in the pond. The 28 is on its way to Johnnys in-house gunsmith to see if he can swap back the safety to the right orientation. Will and his dad managed to fill their 12 with 8 teal, 2 grays and 2 buffles in our big southerly pond. Definitely noticed an apparent migration arrival of buffles and white pelicans. Will crunch first split numbers soon but can’t imagine that will take very long unfortunately. Nice outing nonetheless to close out the split.

[Rick]

Seeing that shiny new barrel bluing out in brackish marsh reminds me that I need to go slather my old rusty one in Kroil Oil. CR's now brackish water is playing hob like I've not seen since after Ike's storm surge.