Duck Season 2023-2024

[Darren]

Spectacular!

One of my camp neighbors made a hunt this morning down in Chenier and scratched. The ducks haven't made it down there.

Rick & Dave, got report from cousin-in-law from SW La yesterday morning...."empty skies, scratched." Not sure if he was at Oak Island or at Sweetlake, as he goes to both, but nonetheless......

[Darren]

I'm jealous as can be. Didn't get to hunt today and won't again tomorrow. Lordy do I miss Doug's: would be out there with the grandkids when the paying guns wussed.

With the sun out this morning after this weather passed.....Mudhole day if I ever saw one.

[Darren]

It looks like Duckaholic and I should have been in our blind to your east this morning.

Nice straps for a tough year in our area!!

Big Hutch

Yea probably so

Also got this report from contact that hunts a few places in that same general area, said “in the woods.”

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My displaced-to-Dallas cousin’s Paris, TX place had been uncharacteristically slow so far this season but turned on with the last storm system that came through end of week.

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[Rick]

With the sun out this morning after this weather passed.....Mudhole day if I ever saw one.

Had to settle for taking Call to look for woodcock and only found one, but the woods was loaded with ground-bound, blow-down-hugging white-wing doves plainly trying to stay out of the wind.

[Darren]

Report via text yesterday morning was "farm was slap full of birds, more than some have ever seen on it" per those that went.

Sunday looks open to go but wondering if it might freeze, and thus wondering if I may instead sneak out on the warmup Monday AM.

[Deltaman]

One of my brothers hunted here yesterday and scratched. Said if any birds are coming, they haven't gotten here yet.

[Darren]

Have a crew of 4 kids, 3 adults, and a golden retriever headed to the bunkie camp this evening to hunt tomorrow, J to also meet us in the AM. We'll be riding it out in the storms this evening and hope to see a few birds as we close it out in the morning. Curious as to what kind of flooded, muddy mess awaits us......but it'll be fun.

[Deltaman]

Full crew, and enjoy building memories with the young'uns!
Seems odd for it to close on a Saturday. Ours closes Sunday, but doubtful I will go again, just not enough birds here.
Take plenty of snacks, and I hope y'all end it with a bang

[Darren]

Full crew, and enjoy building memories with the young'uns!
Seems odd for it to close on a Saturday. Ours closes Sunday, but doubtful I will go again, just not enough birds here.
Take plenty of snacks, and I hope y'all end it with a bang

Technically closes tomorrow but we were just doing today and wrapping things up for the most part. I think another family member may be trying it tomorrow morning and hopefully picking up remainder of the decoys.

[Darren]

Sat. 1/27/2024
Bunkie farm
Phil, Johnny, Chris R. and I with Harry, + 4 of our combined kids all under age 8 not shooting
Winds WNW 10-15, mostly cloudy with peaks of sun, upper 50's and not warming up, heavy storms yesterday and overnight

Body of snows and specks plus quite a few ducks covered the cuts around the pit on arrival yesterday afternoon, heck of a site to see and listen to. Eventually a close by lightning strike seemed to finally run them off in the evening storms. Ice had moved our decoys way out so they had to be rounded up.

Good flights off the bat, totally different that last few hunts in this blind. LOT more water all around us and presumably that had the birds actually (finally) using this end of the farm. Teal mostly worked pretty, though didn't kill them in the numbers we should have, and the spoons were back to diving in on us as well. Managed the kids and the snacks and scraped together a solid hunt, can only blame ourselves (and not the kiddos!) for not filling out. Lost one long off crip spoon that dove on Harry and never came up, also let a sprig over the (fairly distant) decoys get out unscathed. Tons of snow and speck traffic but we weren't nearly covered (or still) enough to be in the game with the specks. Strong goose hunters set up for doing just that would have sunk a truck to the axles in geese.

(18) 4 spoons, 2 grays, 12 GW teal

Diving crips in the now almost knee deep water made for a lot of work on my ol fella and he was noticeably struggling at times to keep up with some lively paddlers

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Spent a long few minutes in thought here with him post-hunt before we headed back to the trucks. His struggles today reminded me that he can't go forever and indeed his days are numbered. Having a hard time with that thought already.

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Tons of birds, camp memories with the kids and buddies, can't beat it for a sweet close to the season.

[Ducaholic]

I know how it feels...my already retired 12 year old did her thing one last time a few weeks back.

[Rick]

Mighty nice way to close it out, even if bittersweet thinking on Harry's age.

[Duck Engr]

What a great finish!!

[5 stand]

What a great finish!!

No kiddin, enjoyed reading that, and the pictures were the icing on the cake...

[Deltaman]

Reads like a great hunt for all involved, and the smiling faces confirm it! Glad the birds showed up for y'all!

[Darren]

Funny what can happen when winter actually shows up:

The January 2024 duck estimate for northeast Louisiana’s Mississippi Alluvial Valley was 471,000. This was an increase of 184% from the December estimate (166,000) and an increase of 144% from last January’s survey (193,000). Dabblers made up 90% of the duck estimate and increased 193% since December. Mallards showed the largest monthly increase (500%) followed by green-winged teal (261%), pintail (210%), gadwall (96%), and shoveler (91%). Divers increased 127% since December, mostly from the rise in ring-necked ducks (189%). Canvasbacks increased from less than 1,000 to 7,000.

Geese were counted both on and off transect throughout the region and totaled 299,000. Goose estimates increased 205% from December (98,000) and 968% from January 2023 (28,000). Goose species composition included 244,000 light geese (snow and Ross’) and 55,000 white-fronted geese.

[DComeaux]

Awesome hunt, Darren!

[DComeaux]

Funny what can happen when winter actually shows up:

The January 2024 duck estimate for northeast Louisiana’s Mississippi Alluvial Valley was 471,000. This was an increase of 184% from the December estimate (166,000) and an increase of 144% from last January’s survey (193,000). Dabblers made up 90% of the duck estimate and increased 193% since December. Mallards showed the largest monthly increase (500%) followed by green-winged teal (261%), pintail (210%), gadwall (96%), and shoveler (91%). Divers increased 127% since December, mostly from the rise in ring-necked ducks (189%). Canvasbacks increased from less than 1,000 to 7,000.

Geese were counted both on and off transect throughout the region and totaled 299,000. Goose estimates increased 205% from December (98,000) and 968% from January 2023 (28,000). Goose species composition included 244,000 light geese (snow and Ross’) and 55,000 white-fronted geese.

From what I've heard, this cold weather has made no significant difference in bird numbers in the Chenier marsh area.

[Ericdc]

Funny what can happen when winter actually shows up:

The January 2024 duck estimate for northeast Louisiana’s Mississippi Alluvial Valley was 471,000. This was an increase of 184% from the December estimate (166,000) and an increase of 144% from last January’s survey (193,000). Dabblers made up 90% of the duck estimate and increased 193% since December. Mallards showed the largest monthly increase (500%) followed by green-winged teal (261%), pintail (210%), gadwall (96%), and shoveler (91%). Divers increased 127% since December, mostly from the rise in ring-necked ducks (189%). Canvasbacks increased from less than 1,000 to 7,000.

Geese were counted both on and off transect throughout the region and totaled 299,000. Goose estimates increased 205% from December (98,000) and 968% from January 2023 (28,000). Goose species composition included 244,000 light geese (snow and Ross’) and 55,000 white-fronted geese.

From what I've heard, this cold weather has made no significant difference in bird numbers in the Chenier marsh area.

From what I've gathered, there's no food in those areas. My brothers lease in little Chenier really struggled that last week of season and my friends in pecan island. The PI guys had no food this year due to drought.

Seems like places that had something to offer did really well, especially in northeast Louisiana.

Our neighbors on farm had a very nice 4 man limit Saturday. None of our guys hunted the weekend.

It was very encouraging to see birds come, as late as they did.


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[Rick]

Think most of Cherry Ridge had it's best big duck hunting of the season the last two days, but only 9 and 8 hunters in the camp, so I had to sit out. Went to my blind Sunday afternoon but felt more like picking-up than picking ducks, so only worked a few bunches without shooting before starting on that.

[Deltaman]

Rick, no plans for a youth or Veteran hunt?

[Rick]

Rick, no plans for a youth or Veteran hunt?

Our zone had theirs the the first weekend in Nov and Cherry Ridge doesn't observe it.

[DComeaux]

Funny what can happen when winter actually shows up:

The January 2024 duck estimate for northeast Louisiana’s Mississippi Alluvial Valley was 471,000. This was an increase of 184% from the December estimate (166,000) and an increase of 144% from last January’s survey (193,000). Dabblers made up 90% of the duck estimate and increased 193% since December. Mallards showed the largest monthly increase (500%) followed by green-winged teal (261%), pintail (210%), gadwall (96%), and shoveler (91%). Divers increased 127% since December, mostly from the rise in ring-necked ducks (189%). Canvasbacks increased from less than 1,000 to 7,000.

Geese were counted both on and off transect throughout the region and totaled 299,000. Goose estimates increased 205% from December (98,000) and 968% from January 2023 (28,000). Goose species composition included 244,000 light geese (snow and Ross’) and 55,000 white-fronted geese.

From what I've heard, this cold weather has made no significant difference in bird numbers in the Chenier marsh area.

From what I've gathered, there's no food in those areas. My brothers lease in little Chenier really struggled that last week of season and my friends in pecan island. The PI guys had no food this year due to drought.

Seems like places that had something to offer did really well, especially in northeast Louisiana.

Our neighbors on farm had a very nice 4 man limit Saturday. None of our guys hunted the weekend.

It was very encouraging to see birds come, as late as they did.


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Feed was definitely the issue, no doubt. It was void of fowl down there. They came, looked, and left. All we can hope for now is lots of rain like we're having and no storms. I'm contemplating experimenting with a brackish water seed mix that was brought to my attention. I may broadcast a few pounds in early summer to see if it grows.

[Darren]

Same reason my area of the marsh didn't have any birds, no food at all. But just down river from me where a crevasse punctured the MS River levee....."you can walk across the feed, and there's grays for days."






Season tallies below.

Grays 21
GW teal 40
BW teal 9
Spoons 8
dosgris/lesser scaup 3
wigeon 1
pintail 3
mallards 4

specks 4

89 ducks and 4 specks on 20 total regular season hunts.

This is the lowest season total since the 2009-2010 season, and the lowest production-per-hunt season since 2018-2019 (just last season was among some of the highest.)

Other notes:
Didn't kill a mottled duck this season, that after 6 each the prior two seasons, no doubt largely a result of them being off limits the first two weeks of the season in the marsh when I passed on a couple, then didn't hunt down there at all in second/third splits. If mottled harvest reduction was the goal, seems to have worked on me. This is also the fewest hunts I've made since the 2016 season when my first child was born in October (though that season had double the per-hunt success.) With so many NW-oriented fronts coming through, the marsh water got really low, and until the last week or so, the farm just didn't have the birds to warrant the weekday trips I like to make when I like my chances up there even solo.

No doubt, though, we made some big time memories and hopefully planted the roots for some good stuff to come involving the kids, etc. so that is indeed a bright spot for me.

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[Deltaman]

Funny you mention a lack of Mottles there, because they seemed to have been absent here as well, where they are normally taken throughout the season. We've always called them summer Mallards, and see them all year. They built up to decent numbers in the late 70's here, and have always been common, but not so this year, weird!.

[DComeaux]

Funny you mention a lack of Mottles there, because they seemed to have been absent here as well, where they are normally taken throughout the season. We've always called them summer Mallards, and see them all year. They built up to decent numbers in the late 70's here, and have always been common, but not so this year, weird!.

Canard francais, summer mallard, and summer french were some of the names I've heard over the years around here.

[Rick]

Always thought canard Francais referenced mallards, per se, and canard noir mottleds, but Comeaux is a whole lot more Cajun than Hall. And even by time this lost hillbilly showed up in '83, most everyone called them either "summer mallards" or "black mallards," so I've little authentic reference beyond what I've read, and that may have been regional in origin.

[DComeaux]

Always thought canard Francais referenced mallards, per se, and canard noir mottleds, but Comeaux is a whole lot more Cajun than Hall. And even by time this lost hillbilly showed up in '83, most everyone called them either "summer mallards" or "black mallards," so I've little authentic reference beyond what I've read, and that may have been regional in origin.

Black mallards was the name I used in my early years, and the one I've heard the most. I forgot about that one. Summer mallards was also a popular name down here.

[Darren]

Yea summer mallards/french mallards/black mallards, etc. pretty common references.

Whatever you want to call them, I didn't kill any this year. Of course I haven't been to the lease since before Thanksgiving so that didn't exactly help my cause. Hopefully given the light harvest on them this season, we'll have more for next season in that area.

[Darren]

Still pretty high off of our sweet closing hunt complete with overnight spent with the birds. There just aren't that many places around that afford such opportunities.

Finally got most of the mud off the bike, hoping to get the flat boat squared away maybe this weekend or next. It's arguable, though, I'm starting maybe my favorite season of the year, the prep period that spans from spring to fall. Lot less road miles and early wake ups, while still getting to piddle with duck related activities, all with the trip below in mind. It's what keeps us coming back, despite the tough season overall.

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