Duck Season 2016-2017

[Darren]

What I wouldn't do for a strap like that these days. Even with 4 of us in the blind.
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Keep after 'em! Hoping our few don't get pushed out with the front without refilling behind it for the closing weekend coming up

[Darren]

Lil wad of green wings lighting us up on Nov 13, 2016

[Rick]

Raining teal - or not...

(More low ducks than we saw all morning.)

[Darren]

Raining teal - or not...

(More low ducks than we saw all morning.)

Got a couple or three, Raymond's gun apparently knocks him and his head mounted GoPro back into the bushes. Also the video captures ray's gun barrel sticking up the whole time while working birds....grrrrrrrr

[Darren]

Sat. 12-3-2016
Delacroix
Beau R., Ryan M. & I
E/NE wind 10-20, 50's, cloudy

Hoped to show Ryan what Beau had been bragging about but wasn't in the cards. With the seemingly ideal conditions thought we'd be shooting early and often but I didn't put eyes on a duck for first 30 minutes at least, just no low working grays in the area as we had been enjoying. Ended up getting a few sporadic ops but unfortunately didn't down them in the pond as we should have so ended up with two long off crips. Other blinds on the lease fared about the same as us. Overall ended up seeing a fair many birds but lots were staying high and not willing to work down too readily. Better shooting could have yielded probably 7 grays, no teal working us until we were on boat headed out of course. We had a nice time and shooting ops came just frequent enough to keep us from snoozing

(3) 3 grays

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Debating on whether to try tomorrow; water is high and wind rippin' outside from the NE, waiting to check radar and see what local weather folks have to say about tomorrow morning's prospects.

[Darren]

Saturday evening ended up calling off Sunday's hunt with the water already high and tide steadily rising, along with me being under the weather as well. Smart choice, woke up Sunday morning to rain storms, floods, zero wind, and feeling pretty bad.

That said, could hear gun fire in all directions from the camp so those that went apparently had some action. Neighbor described the entire Biloxi Marsh area as just "one big lake," but they got on some grays and GW's anyway. There had to be at least a foot in our blind.

East wind floods

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Tallied up numbers for the 1st split, didn't take long with the limited number of species we're seeing:

59 grays
17 GW teal
2 BW teal
3 redheads (opening day only time we saw any)
1 dosgris

82 ducks on 8 hunts I made, all from same blind in Delacroix

Total tally for that blind on all hunts was 108 on 11 hunts.

Though was puzzling slow on Saturday, we look forward to opening back up on the 17th. Haven't been able to tie in weather or tidal conditions to our success or failures, as we had big hunts on "good" conditions with ideal winds but also under poor conditions like calm, clear, etc.

[Darren]

Sat. 12/17/2016 2nd Split Opener
Delacroix
Johnny, Phil A., & I with Harry
Wind S/SE (5 to later 20-25 as forecast, unfortunately not till late in hunt), 60's, mostly cloudy, big moon


Scary slow early though others not too far from us were doing good bit of shooting, just wasn't seeing the usual traffic around us. Slowly got some chances and did "OK" with them though could have put a few more teal on the strap. Stuck it out till 10:00 and eventually had 18 birds down, 16 on strap. Two long off crip grays settled down on their own power a good few hundred yards to our west. Harry did well with everything in pond including a couple grays diving on him, and found everything in the grass. Overall ended up seeing solid numbers when boat traffic ran 'em up. Chances were there for limits by 9-930 or so with ace shooting. Our other blind on lease struggled with just two birds

(16) 9 grays, 7 GW teal

one of the aforementioned lively crip grays from the pond

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Johnny and harry coming back with another gray

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Good to have Phil back in the blind with me after a couple years' hiatus

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Out for tomorrow, planning to try 'em again early in the week

[Darren]

Raymond & friend Doug hunted our blind this morning. 3 grays, 3 dosgris, 1 GW teal in super nasty conditions, fog/mist, rippin' wind, low visibility, low 30's. Said they should have had closer to 10 or so. NWS reported "light snow" in Slidell, La (north of our grounds) when I pulled up their site this morning

Post-hunt rode around a bit and saw good numbers sitting in the area. Ray and I planning to head down to the camp this evening to try tomorrow morning, good NE winds and clearing skies in forecast so we'll see if anything wants to move after today's big winds

[Rick]

...good NE winds and clearing skies in forecast so we'll see if anything wants to move after today's big winds

Whether it moves birds or not, a more moderate wind will be welcome.

[Darren]

Tues. 12/20/2016
Delacroix
Raymond & I with Harry
Wind N/NE (10-15+), cloudy, hazy, fog in area, upper 30's and about as cold feeling as I've felt down that way with air so damp

Camp was rockin from N/NE wind yesterday evening on arrival but slowed overnight and was just about right this morning for us, nice ripples on pond. Unfortunately didn't really matter because we just don't have much traffic over us right now, very different from first split. Literally had 8 ducks work the pond, killed 5 of them, should have had all 8.

Saw maybe a dozen grays during entire hunt but then saw hundreds on boat ride out within a quarter mile of us, and even a good pile of them in our north blind on lease no one hunted today. They're just holding in canals, coves, and even flats along main bayous (low water today so feed along shore is matted on surface). With it being so nasty there was no boat traffic in area so birds were stacked up in areas that they'd otherwise be bumped out of by fishermen. Saw plenty more throughout our travels heading in, piled in places they hadn't been in first split, including some wide open unhuntable flats.

(5) 2 grays, 2 GW teal, 1 mottled

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nice to get a mottled finally; pair about took our hats off right at LST and lit wide on Ray's side who had yet to load his gun. Harry was clutch rooting her up in some thick grass as was too early to get a decent mark myself and she was in full self-burial mode

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sunshine seemingly everywhere else but foggy/hazy/hvy clouds down there today, sun never broke through

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Sure hope they find us again or could be a long home stretch of season down that way. I'm on hiatus before heading west mid-next week.

Merry Christmas

[Rick]

Fog might of screwed the hunting but made a neat visual.

[Darren]

Wish I could blame the fog for our slow hunt but really wasn't bad down by us at the blind. Was a noticeably darker sky toward the north. As we got back into "town" it looked as-pictured. Did indeed make for neat pics and I just happened to have my camera handy

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Cross is part of a Katrina memorial

[Rick]

So the trip was a success.

[Darren]

A group hunted our north pond this morning, the one we saw good pile of grays in Tuesday.......total take 2 GW teal and 1 mottled. Maybe saw 15 ducks all morning, no wind, no boat traffic about. They are undoubtedly sitting nearby in good numbers

Since I'm out the blind for a good few days, figured I'd document some other in-season observations going on right now.

December survey just came out, with apparent very high numbers, highest Dec survey since 1999 reportedly. That said, and as the comments at the bottom of this article can attest, not all are having a proportional record season:

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=10377

Full survey from LDWF found here:
http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/sites/defa ... er2016.pdf

What is encouraging, though, is near even distribution of birds between SW and SE Louisiana, when we've had more seasons of SW La dominating the numbers in recent years. Also, as we'd expect with the recent severe cold north of us, divers have shown in droves for Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne (record!) in our area. I get regular reports from friends driving the causeway across Lake P of "ducks as far as you can see the entire drive".

[Darren]

Passing this along from a contact on FB, said to be from Paul Link:

Specks make quite the journey once down here, something it seems many are starting to catch on to when seeing them one day but not the next.

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[DComeaux]

WOW! Thats amazing. The term "Lost like a goose" would apply here.

[Deltaman]

Passing this along from a contact on FB, said to be from Paul Link:

Specks make quite the journey once down here, something it seems many are starting to catch on to when seeing them one day but not the next.

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Very cool info Darren, Thanks for sharing!!!

[Ducaholic]

That's incredible!

Thanks

[Darren]

Thurs. 12/29/2016
Doug's HC - Klondike, La
70's to 60's, fairly calm with mosquitos to rippin from north 25-30+ when front passed at 8:15, mostly cloudy
Mark L. and I with Isaac W.

Excited we could bring a weather change to town with us and the hauls from the blinds showed the weather shake up paid off. Were treated to a pair of working specks right at LST that we took at decent range but likely would have been gimme range if not for some distant shots, great way to start! Was fairly calm with only a light SW breeze with some teal and ringers moving around and we took a few on the chances given. Front passed about 8:15 and it ripped from the north/NW for remainder of hunt. Tough to work some big ducks with all the shooting going on but did manage to get a foursome of mallards in tight and a wad of about five grays to do the same and capitalized. Also managed a solo triple on a trio of working green wings; we shot well all morning. Finished up about 8:30 with our 18, really nice morning out there, great to be back in the blind.

(18 ducks) 2 specks, 4 mallards, 3 ringnecks, 2 wigeon, 4 grays, 4 GW teal, 1 BW teal

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Try 'em again tomorrow here, hope to not spend all my money at G&H before then.

[DComeaux]

Very nice!!!!!!!!!...and I'm chomping at the bit right now.

[Darren]

I will be hunting Holly Beach tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, hope our luck is as good as yours.

Good luck! Hoping to find them a few hundred yards over tomorrow with Rick at the mudhole.

[Rick]

Hoping to find them a few hundred yards over tomorrow with Rick at the mudhole.

Made me look: it's 1,085 yards. You were in our marsh's honey hole this morning. Back to reality tomorrow.

[Darren]

Mudhole was far from quiet this morning, and could hear your calling a fair bit. You may be at 1,000+ yards but Ed was, comparatively, in my blind bag. Lookin forward to it, Johnny as well

[Rick]

We had Ed's blind for a few years before we had the whole marsh, and it was mine for a season and a half. The fellow then running the marsh hunted Issacs, and while I bent over backwards not to work anything from his direction that hadn't already bumped off of his spinner and anemic calling, he flat hated having me there. Killed the pee out of mallards and specks while his folks watched and shot little ducks. But on days they didn't hunt, I wanted to go turn on his spinner as a scare crow, because that's where scads of birds landed when not disturbed by hunting activity.

Would guess you were hearing Matt yesterday. Anyway, we'll see how it goes today.

[Darren]

Fri. 12/30/2016
Doug's HC - Klondike, La
40's, Wind northerly 5 to closer to 15 later on, mostly cloudy
Johnny L. and I with Rick

Hoped to keep the good fortune rolling after we brought the weather change to town and turned out just fine for us again today. Not many teal around this morning, especially compared to yesterday, and really not a whole lot of anything early so took what we had, including our share of spoons that were working beautifully. Enjoyed seeing Peak's successor Marsh operate at the Mudhole, and he did great job rounding up what we dropped all around the pond. Didn't miss all too much and took our 18th bird, a spoon, from yet another wad diving in, only needing one more to close us out almost to the 9:30a curfew. That wraps up my annual trip over this way with plenty birds, the usual great food, and met some more nice folks in addition to the regular faces. Thanks again, Rick. Hope to be back in our marsh soon and also may be starting to head north to Bunkie area, haven't been in a few years.

(18) 4 mallards, 6 spoons, 5 GW teal, 2 grays, 1 wigeon

Mudhole green

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Another pretty strap photo op on the dog platform

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Bonus shot of Marsh from parking lot at the camp as I was making the rounds with the hounds

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[DComeaux]

Awesome hunts Darren!

[Darren]

Took these while out and about in the greater Gueydan area; though most were just down the street from Doug's camp:

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On the way out of there Friday there was a big body of snows just north of the camp, then also saw some big bodies between Gueydan and Morse, and also south of Crowley.