Regular Season 2025-2026

[Duck Engr]

Here it is nearly Christmas and I haven’t made a single post. This is the least I’ve hunted to start a season in recent memory. Mainly because I’m lacking the first half of the equation in waterfowl hunting, water. Which leads to lacking the second half of the equation, ducks. All my ponds here locally are dry as a bone and my spots that I travel to are also mostly dry as well. We did make a trip with the kids the weekend before thanksgiving. I’ll report that below, and that’s all I have to report unfortunately.

[Duck Engr]

Template shamelessly pilfered from Rick

Date:

Time:

Location:

Cloud Cover:

Wind Direction and Velocity:

Temperature:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity:

Waterfowl Responsiveness:

Hunters:

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Curses:

Kudos:

Birds By Species:

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

[Duck Engr]

Date: 11/22/25 opener

Time: morning

Location: river

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: zilch

Temperature: hot. Mid 50s. Swattin skeeters.

Moon phase: dunno

Special Notes: opening day trip west of the Mississippi with my son, Beau, friend and his son, and a second friend and his 10 year old son. Has become an annual trip we look forward to.

Waterfowl Activity: scouting Friday evening was spooky quiet. Knew we had to be in ducks is ducks mode from the start Saturday.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: pretty good given the conditions. Couldn’t make enough of them finish.

Hunters: 5 adults and one youth shooting. 2 youths observing.

Guns:

Malfunctions: I turned into a chauffeur before daylight due to my friend’s tiller handle snapping a bolt on the drive out there. Ran 24 miles before 515 am in my boat. Wasn’t pleasant.

Dog(s): June who did well except for getting tripped up on a blind by a downed tree in the river. Seasoned veteran Mae picked up her slack.

Special Equipment:

Curses: several but mostly the broken boat severely adjusting our plans.

Kudos: good to be back at it, and we were the big hunt when compared to most everyone else I know out that way.

Birds By Species: 1 mallard, 3 wood ducks, 6 teal.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

[DComeaux]

Good way to start it out, duck wise, anyway.

[Duck Engr]

Date: 11/23/25

Time: morning

Location: river, but much farther north, closer to ramp. I was still playing chauffeur and wasn’t about to make the same runs I did the morning before.

Cloud Cover: heavy early with some peaks of sunshine

Wind Direction and Velocity: light all morning

Temperature: upper 40s

Moon phase: dunno

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: sparse. Not much even at callable height

Waterfowl Responsiveness: none

Hunters: 3 adults one youth shooting, well we had guns in hand anyway, and two youth observing

Guns:

Malfunctions: ducks didn’t get memo.

Dog(s): bored

Special Equipment:

Curses: no ducks!

Kudos: kids still had fun

Birds By Species: DNS

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: woke up the next morning to rain on the cabin roof. Asked Beau if he wanted to go hunt and he said no, he wanted to sleep so that’s what we did. Tired 7 year olds and 46 degree rain don’t mix. Headed back home after a good breakfast and stopped at bass pro in Memphis for an hour or so of fun.

[Duck Engr]

Date: 12/23/25

Time: morning

Location: local river channel since water was so low

Cloud Cover: heavy, foggy layer above trees

Wind Direction and Velocity: light

Temperature: 50s

Moon phase: dunno

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: sparse

Waterfowl Responsiveness: had a group of 4 come over from behind us and dip in. Got lucky and killed one.

Hunters: me shooting Beau observing

Guns:

Malfunctions: just the aiming

Dog(s): June made a nice retrieve past a log jam around a bend in the river.

Special Equipment:

Curses: none

Kudos: Beau had a good time

Birds By Species: 1 wood duck

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

[Duck Engr]

Date: 1/4/26

Time: morning

Location: low water local river. Bouncing off stumps I didn’t know existed.

Cloud Cover: foggy. Could barely see treetops.

Wind Direction and Velocity: light

Temperature: 50s

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: better than it had been. I think a few were lost in fog

Waterfowl Responsiveness: had a few groups get right but was chasing my first downed pair with June and a swift current

Hunters: me shooting. Beau observing, which was key.

Guns:

Malfunctions: just missed ops chasing downed birds

Dog(s): June got beat by a cripple on the pair that I shot early in low light. Killed one stone dead in decoys and another chipped but flew 40 yards upriver. June marked the cripple so I sent her. It dove on her and she never got back on it. I was standing on the bench of my boat watching June and trying to see the bird when Beau excitedly told me it was swimming down river through the decoys. Sure enough, that duck just had its bill and tail feathers above water swimming past us. No chance we find that bird if Beau didn’t see it. I barely could see it once he pointed it out to me. I finished it off and by the time June got back to it, it was past a log jam and into an eddy under a stump. Took some hunting around but June finally sniffed them out.

Special Equipment:

Curses:

Kudos: Beau is starting to earn his keep more often than not instead of just being a bump on a log.

Birds By Species: 2 wood ducks.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

[Rick]

Bet saving the day made Beau's.

[Duck Engr]

Bet saving the day made Beau's.

Indeed. He was as proud as proud comes.

[Duck Engr]

Date: 1/24/26

Time: morning till 645 by creek. Set up goose spread from 8-9.

Location: farm. Still no water in either duck pond. Hunted a hole on the creek early then the pond to try about 20 Canadas thatd been coming in.

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: northeasterly 5-10

Temperature:upper 40s

Moon phase:

Special Notes: I was scheduled to go hunt the big freeze out west but Beau decided he wanted to be a goose hunter and I fought a fever all week. ten degrees plus a fever doesn’t mix.

Waterfowl Activity: more than expected along the creek, but mostly pass shooting. Only 4 of the 20 geese showed but they got a little too close.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: not the best. Geese knew something was awry. Probably my horrendous calling. Or the two squirming kids. Or both.

Hunters: friend of mine and his son plus Beau and I. Beau isn’t ready for pass shooting yet, so he was only gunning for geese.

Guns: had Beau’s little Rossi .410 with a red dot

Malfunctions: bent barrels from our guests along the creek. It was so bad that my buddy asked me to come shoot after he and his son burned up more shells than he’d care to admit.

Dog(s): June found our lone chipped wood duck 150 yards over a hill in sage brush after a 5 minute search.

Special Equipment: 6 borrowed Canada floaters and a Canada goose call I only have to make turkeys gobble.

Curses: none from me.

Kudos: fine morning spent playing in the mud and dirt. Boys were doing their best to dip their waders in the pond. Found a snapping turtle in the process.

Birds By Species: 1 Canada goose. 1 wood duck.

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe:

[Duck Engr]

Date: 1/31/26

Time: early morning. I hunted till 8 before I had to leave for Beau’s basketball game. Other guys stayed till 930

Location: local draw impoundment in refuge.

Cloud Cover: heavy with snow flurries. The weather (some) duck hunters dream of.

Wind Direction and Velocity: howling from the NW

Temperature: 28

Moon phase:dunno

Special Notes: our local refuge, like many around the country has been decimated. We now have zero full time employees after this year’s wave of retirements.

Waterfowl Activity: better than I expected, but still pitiful compared to even just a decade ago. Several groups of canvasbacks stirring off the lake.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: surprisingly good. Had 3 dozen mallards and pintails out with mojos on timers. 1 second on, 8-9 seconds off.

Hunters: 3. Myself, my boss, and boss’s friend who was actually the permit holder.

Guns:

Malfunctions: oh boy. Did something I haven’t done in a decade or more. I fell in. And not just a little bit. Water line stopped somewhere between my nose and eyes. Poured at least 3 gallons of water out of my waders at the end of the hunt.

Dog(s): June. Lost an early cripple that dove and I suspect got hung underwater. Otherwise did fine.

Special Equipment: aforementioned mojos on timers.

Curses: falling in that freezing arse water.

Kudos: fun to hunt in the snow.

Birds By Species: 3 canvasbacks, 2 gadwall, 2 wood ducks

Photo Ops:

Lagniappe: I just finally thawed out last week.

[Rick]

"Temperature: 28"

"Malfunctions: oh boy. Did something I haven’t done in a decade or more. I fell in. And not just a little bit. Water line stopped somewhere between my nose and eyes. Poured at least 3 gallons of water out of my waders at the end of the hunt."

"Time: early morning. I hunted till 8 before I had to leave for Beau’s basketball game."

Second hunt in a row Beau saved your bacon. But still sounds miserable.

[Rick]

"mojos on timers. 1 second on, 8-9 seconds off."

Meant to comment on your spinner timing, as that's the sort of "flirt" mode I plan to experiment with next season: couple seconds on and several off, with the on/off toggle still allowing me to tease at will.

[Duck Engr]

"Temperature: 28"

"Malfunctions: oh boy. Did something I haven’t done in a decade or more. I fell in. And not just a little bit. Water line stopped somewhere between my nose and eyes. Poured at least 3 gallons of water out of my waders at the end of the hunt."

"Time: early morning. I hunted till 8 before I had to leave for Beau’s basketball game."

Second hunt in a row Beau saved your bacon. But still sounds miserable.

Haha that’s a good way to look at it! Luckily, I had taken my fleece jacket off before daylight, so I removed all wet clothing from waist up and put that on. Just let everything marinate from waist down. Wasn’t as miserable as I imagined it would be after I got over the initial shock but have had warmer hunts, that’s for sure!

[Duck Engr]

"mojos on timers. 1 second on, 8-9 seconds off."

Meant to comment on your spinner timing, as that's the sort of "flirt" mode I plan to experiment with next season: couple seconds on and several off, with the on/off toggle still allowing me to tease at will.

First time I’ve used that arrangement but was tickled with the results. I did place them over in some taller sesbania to further obscure the fact that they were phonies. Did that matter? I don’t know but certainly did not hurt. All our shots were taken at decoying birds save one of the wood ducks.