2020 Preseason

[MARSH BEAR]

There are 2 disturbances in the Atlantic with possible headings into the Gulf of Mexico - not good for my part of the world.

[Deltaman]

Tis the season.........dammit!

[Darren]

Standby on those. Our two best models for tropical activity, so far, don't do much of anything with these two. Another lesser known, and historically lesser performing model, however, loves them both.

[Duck Engr]

Teal/dove-wreckers seem to be showing some model consistency, especially for the easternmost storm. No bueno. I haven’t looked at the gulf temps and compared, but if memory serves that western storm is in a similar area with a similar intensity forecast as hurricane Michael. Original forecast for it was a TS all the way to the gulf coast. Missed that one by a few mph. Hope they’re right on these.

Saw something called the fujiwhara effect today that was interesting. It’s where two tropical cyclones get close to each other and begin orbiting one another and moving closer together, ultimately forming one storm. Hopefully these two don’t decide to do-si-do in the gulf.

[MARSH BEAR]

The storm in the western gulf of mexico is expected to reach hurricane strength, and expected to come ashore between Houston and Port Arthur, but each report puts it further east - not good for us.
We hunt 30 miles east of Port Arthur and 3-4 miles from the coast.
We pumped out all of our blinds last weekend - looks like we will be headed back to the lease to pump them full again.

[MARSH BEAR]

Future looks grim for our camp and hunting area. Cat 3 or Cat 4 does not matter much. After Rita and Ike the oil company that we lease from closed our lease - we could not hunt. There were pieces of shrimp boats and stainless steel containers all over - they were afraid we might hit some sunken debris. We could not get back into the marsh until they had a chance inspect the marsh, it was only a couple weeks before regular hunting season that we were able to go back in.
The storm surge is expected to be worse than Hurricane Rita, and there was 3 feet of the water inside the house we bought for a camp after the owners sold it.

[Duck Engr]

That sucks to hear. It was pretty disappointing to see how much it strengthened overnight.

[Darren]

Very sorry to hear it, know you are likely the closest to ground zero from the collective on here. Don't know where you actually live, but hope its not at all close to where you hunt.

[MARSH BEAR]

More great news concerning Hurricane Laura, according to the Weather channel (Jim Cantori is in Lake Charles, LA which is 20 miles north of our camp in Hackberry) they predict the water will be 6 feet higher in Lake Charles than it was for Hurricane Rita - that puts the water 9 feet high inside our camp.
Looks like I will need to become a deer hunter this year - I hate deer hunting.

[Rick]

Could be worse: nearly everything Chereau's daughter's Creole family may have left when it all shakes out is in our spare bedroom and under our carport. And there's no guarantee it will be alright there. Good news is that they're staying with other kin farther east. Hard, hard times ahead for a great, great many.

[Darren]

Hard, hard times ahead for a great, great many.

So terribly sad and true, dammit

[MARSH BEAR]

One of our club members lives south of Sulfur, LA, he planned to stay at home and ride the storm out, but the authorities made him evacuate.
We had a tin roof on our camp it is no longer on the camp. We also have an old one car garage we use for storage and the roof is missing on it also. The garage had a rollup door that has been pushed inside the garage.
We are trying to get to the camp on Saturday morning to put tarps on the roof, but we don't know yet if the authorities will allow us in.
We were more afraid of water surge than wind, because the camp and garage had no wind damage from either Hurricane Rita or Hurricane Ike only flood damage (water up to the light switches). But we did not have any water damage (except from missing roof) at the camp.

[DComeaux]

Nothing went untouched in that area. Wind speed was incredible.

[MARSH BEAR]

Got notification today from the oil company that the lease is closed. They have to inspect the property for debris from Hurricane Laura. This also happened after Hurricanes Rita and Ike. I think it will be 2 - 4 weeks before we can get back to check out our blinds.
We will be working at the camp every weekend anyway. The insurance adjuster comes on Thursday.

[MARSH BEAR]

According to the local weatherman in Baton Rouge, we will get a front thru here late next week. Hope it will bring some bluewing teal down for y'all.

[MARSH BEAR]

I received notification today from the oil company - don't plan on teal hunting during the early season. They have not surveyed the lease yet, and probable they won't for a few weeks.
Hoping our lease fared better than Dave's, but won't know that for a while.
Good luck to y'all this weekend. We are going to the camp Saturday to do more demolition and picking up.

[MARSH BEAR]

We took a break this past weekend on camp construction. A friend asked me to go with him to his camp in central Louisiana. They don't usually have many ducks, but I was ready to hunt. Saturday we had 1 flight of 10 teal come from behind us and they did not slow down, I took 2 shots in desperation but did not hit a thing, that was all the teal we saw on Saturday. Sunday was a little foggy, but the duck show was worse than Saturday, we saw zero teal - did not shoot.

Total teal for early teal season - ZERO

Back to the camp on Saturday for more construction work. We are still not allowed on our lease, and have no idea what damage has been done there.

[Darren]

Hang in there MB! Im sure there will be some birds once yall get squared away with the camp and can at least do makeshift blinds.

[MARSH BEAR]

Finally got permission to enter the lease.
The limestone road we use to get to our boat landing is rough - a 2 mile ride -
4 of our 7 blinds made it with little damage, 2 blinds need to be secured, don't know how they did not get blown away, 1 blind is gone, we think we saw it across the levee about 1/2 mile away.
We will not have youth weekend Nov 7&8, but we should be OK in the marsh for opening weekend Nov 14.
Our boat landing was destroyed, very little left to work with.
The camp is a slow process - we are hoping to have a 2 or 3 bedrooms livable by the end of this weekend.
We did not get the boat into the water until 10:00 yesterday morning - saw about 150 ducks, blue wing, Gadwall and Mottled. Water is about 6 inches too deep, hope the north wind this week will help that.

[Darren]

Wow, maybe a little better assessment than feared? Losing just one blind seems awfully fortunate in that area.

[Rick]

Good to hear it's not as bad as might have been.

[Deltaman]

"Finally got permission to enter the lease."
Glad you were able to lower your anxiety level MB!
It's never easy to "redo" everything, but always room for new ideas and improvements when you do. Good Luck, and I hope your marsh gets back to normal quickly with this front.

[MARSH BEAR]

Only 6 of the 11 club members were at the camp this past weekend. My room mate and I worked on our bedroom and was able to move our beds in on Friday night, still have the locker to put in and hooks to mount on the walls.
Still no flooring in the kitchen and living room, only 1 of the 2 bathrooms functional, cooktop and oven still not in. It will be
barbeque every for opening weekend, but we will have an opening weekend hunt

[Ricky Spanish]

Only 6 of the 11 club members were at the camp this past weekend. My room mate and I worked on our bedroom and was able to move our beds in on Friday night, still have the locker to put in and hooks to mount on the walls.
Still no flooring in the kitchen and living room, only 1 of the 2 bathrooms functional, cooktop and oven still not in. It will be
barbeque every for opening weekend, but we will have an opening weekend hunt

Washing machine? Im very very dirty.

[Duck Engr]

Only 6 of the 11 club members were at the camp this past weekend. My room mate and I worked on our bedroom and was able to move our beds in on Friday night, still have the locker to put in and hooks to mount on the walls.
Still no flooring in the kitchen and living room, only 1 of the 2 bathrooms functional, cooktop and oven still not in. It will be
barbeque every for opening weekend, but we will have an opening weekend hunt

I imagine you’re ahead of most folks down that way!

[Rick]

Math question: 11 members go into 1 bathroom how many times? (The answer being your next project.)

[Deltaman]

Math question: 11 members go into 1 bathroom how many times? (The answer being your next project.)

In this situation, a 5-gallon bucket is your friend
Just make sure the sides are not cracked..........but don't ask me how I know
Glad you are going to be able to hunt MB