Teal Season 2021

[Darren]

Sat 9-11-2021 Teal Opener
Delacroix lease - south pond
Johnny, Phil and I with Harry
NE winds 5-10+, clear, low 70s; stellar Sept weather


News of yesterday’s survey numbers being so high in SE La was promising but as I noted, doesn’t make any difference if they’re not within your periphery and I saw none yesterday morning prepping this blind. This morning was basically same story, got our first group of 6 birds at 7:30a, didn’t see a duck of any kind from LST 6:12a till then. Overhead shot skirting by, none killed. Next a pair skirting, one fell waaayyy off and a valiant search in the jungles by Harry couldn’t find him. A single worked in as pretty as he could without landing, damn near came into the blind with us, and he flew away unscathed. The worst cumulative shooting on a hunt I’ve seen in recollection. 5-6 birds should have come home with us but not a one found the strap, pitiful. And having one birds to straighten the barrels out makes it sting even more.

0 teal


Saw zero other teal other than those scant few notes above. With tide rising on east winds opted to head for a change of scene on Publix stomping grounds and saw a few in an old favorite hole we’ll try tomorrow. Will reported very few birds in an area usually pretty good for teal, killed the only one he fired on.

[Darren]

Sun 9-12-2021
SE La public marsh
Johnny and I with Harry
ENE winds 5-10+, low 70s, pt cloudy, still really nice for the calendar date

Got set up in an area that’s usually good for a few and sure enough had a few sightings early, two groups of 5 burning by. Didn’t see another teal after maybe 15-20 after LST, unfortunately, and never thought about shooting. A few groups did a little shooting here and there but overall pretty quiet. Packed it up early and headed in empty handed again. A DNS hunt wasn’t really the remedy for yesterday’s ugly showing we had in mind.

DNS


We’ll keep poking around this weekend, not enough birds around to justify a weekday outing.

[Ericdc]

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[Duck Engr]

Did Dave see you sometime this off-season and transfer the bad juju he’d had going the last few seasons???

[Ducaholic]

Tough weekend D. Been there and done that.

[MARSH BEAR]

Sorry no ducks. I am surprised you have reports of ducks in your area after Hurricane Ida, our area never has ducks after a big storm.

[Deltaman]

Bummer on the lack of birds Darren, and I hope your luck changes on your next try. We had a few birds ion our local marsh, but there were more people than birds, and was not worth fighting the opening weekend crowd for me. Will try to take a few days next week around the full moon.

[Darren]

Yep a tough one to swallow this weekend, gents.

Corresponded with Larry a bit this morning (and glad to hear he had a good hunt himself on Saturday), and he noted just how concentrated the SE La birds were. Note, plaquemines parish is still under a curfew and they are being really strict about it. One of the most well known outfitters in the area was at home on his porch for Saturday's opener watching the sunrise, first one he can recall missing.

With the hurricane's rain, the birds are loving the shallow sheet floods in ag fields off the Miss. River, and we've seen that before, doesn't bode well for us as it's superior habitat to our marsh for the early teal. Worst of all, usually when they're in that type of habitat, they aren't pressured.

[DComeaux]

I hope things turn around for you, soon. No hunting in Bunkie?

[Darren]

I hope things turn around for you, soon. No hunting in Bunkie?

Nah, nothing on the farm floods (to our knowledge) for Sept. Note their first crop is much later than SW La standards so figure that plays into it.

[Ducaholic]

I hope things turn around for you, soon. No hunting in Bunkie?

Nah, nothing on the farm floods (to our knowledge) for Sept. Note their first crop is much later than SW La standards so figure that plays into it.

That may change with the tropical activity.

[Ducaholic]

I hope things turn around for you, soon. No hunting in Bunkie?

Nah, nothing on the farm floods (to our knowledge) for Sept. Note their first crop is much later than SW La standards so figure that plays into it.

That may change with the tropical activity.

[Darren]

Look the front making it down next week:

Capture2.JPG

In the meantime, this fizzling tropical storm/depression/whatever it is has our marsh tides way up from the easterly winds, and whole lot of brand new sheet water across the region.

Sure doesn't give me a good feeling for my prospects this weekend.

[MARSH BEAR]

I feel your pain - I am thinking the same thing - but I am going anyway.

[DComeaux]

I hope I have some decoys left in the marsh. We're going regardless. There should be north winds there for the next couple of days pushing the water out.

[Darren]

Had a rice field hunt near Morse lined up this morning with a buddy but said buddy reported in early this AM that he'd been up sick with an apparent bug most of the night. Called off for all involved. Only report I got from home marsh was two different blinds each taking one bird.

[Rick]

Only report I got from home marsh was two different blinds each taking one bird.

That's the same report as this morning's for our two Welsh field spots. (As well as what our Morse farm did only time it's been hunted: the opener.) Wonder how JohnC is faring...

[Darren]

Had the whole family loaded up in the truck yesterday afternoon headed down to the camp for the night so I could hunt this morning only to quickly get a low tire pressure warning and find a lag screw in my tire. Got home to swap to wife’s car and the FEMA contracted debris truck (I was happy to see) then blocks my driveway to pickup my piles. Sometimes just too many signs you shouldn’t go, so didn’t. Tough to swallow no hunts this weekend but just wasn’t in the cards.

Will had good hunt with his solo 6 yesterday down there but just 2 this morning, said a fraction of the birds from yesterday were seen today.

Front coming in mid week should help get our water down and hopefully stir the pot, and we’ve got tentative plans to hunt Friday and Saturday down at the camp.

[Darren]

Front looks to be legit!

Capture2.JPG

TONIGHT
Southwest winds 5 to 10 knots. Waves 1 foot or less.
Dominant period 4 seconds. Slight chance of showers and
thunderstorms early in the evening.

TUESDAY
West winds 5 to 10 knots. Waves 1 foot or less.
Dominant period 4 seconds. Chance of showers in the morning.
Chance of thunderstorms through the day. Showers likely in the
afternoon.

TUESDAY NIGHT
West winds 5 to 10 knots becoming northwest 10 to
15 knots after midnight. Waves 1 to 2 feet. Dominant period
4 seconds. Slight chance of showers and thunderstorms.

WEDNESDAY
North winds 15 to 20 knots. Waves 2 to 4 feet.
Dominant period 4 seconds. Slight chance of thunderstorms until
late afternoon. Slight chance of showers through the day.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
North winds 15 to 20 knots. Waves 2 to 4 feet.
Dominant period 4 seconds.

THURSDAY
Northeast winds 15 to 20 knots. Waves 2 to 4 feet.
Dominant period 4 seconds.

[Deltaman]

C'mon cool weather!!!!!! Hate you missed a hunting weekend at the camp with family Darren, but like you said, sometimes it is best to take heed of the bad signs when they keep popping up. On a bright note, had a friend in Venice over the weekend, who sent pics and he said there were plenty of birds, and very few hunters. Said they spent the weekend on a houseboat with no power, but it was worth it. With the oppressing humidity over the weekend, I do not think I could've said the same thing Assuming most are still cleaning up from the storm, but glad to hear a positive bird report.

[Darren]

Fri 9-24-2021
Delacroix lease - south pond
Johnny, Phil and I with Harry
NE winds 5-15, clear, low 60s; stellar Sept weather again

After nearly a two week hiatus from the blind, was nice to get back down to the lease behind another unusually stout September cool front. Unfortunately, really no change since opening day here, saw all of 8 teal via a skirting wide pair and a 6 pack a little high overhead. Never thought about shooting. Stellar weather, but again the log's insistence that stellar September weather yields the poorest results proved on point yet again, just like on opening day two weeks back.

DNS


As far as positives, we had a great time in the blind and I can't help but get more and more excited for the regular season's prospects with the amount of food I saw in the pond today and around the lease. Also nice to see fair handful of mottled ducks around us as well so glad to see the storm didn't blow them elsewhere. If we can just dodge the remainder of the hurricane season, we might be in good shape.

We're short on any better options than today's location, so we'll try it again tomorrow and hope weekend marsh activities stir the pot. Will reported maybe a dozen birds seen and killed the only 2 he fired on.

[Darren]

Sat 9-25-2021
Delacroix lease - south pond
Johnny, Kyle and I with Harry
NE winds 0-5, clear, upper 60s, still stellar Sept weather just not quite as cool as last two days


Short on options for something more promising just tried our lease blind again. Was basically a copy of yesterday. Saw a few little flights in the area, even took safety off once for a single I thought I had committed before I lost him behind the roseau forest. Other than that, never thought of shooting. Did start our morning getting to talk a lone mottled drake into lighting into our spread as beautifully as it gets and saw fair many others in the area so hoping it bodes well for November. Maybe saw 12 teal today in total and don’t think we heard a shot fired.

DNS


Will said he saw all of 4 teal, heard very few scattered shots despite plenty hunters in the area. This front was just all too typical of history in teal season, causes more loss than gain as far as migrators. Report from an outfitter a little bit south of us toward Buras notes a lot of teal down but also a whole lot of early pins.

[Darren]

Sun 9-26-2021
Klondike area fresh marsh
Johnny, WFF Rick and I with Marsh
E/NE mostly 0 to < 5, clear, 60s to start, lingering big moon

Really hoped our season could be salvaged by the trek west, and at first seemed like we'd packed along the juju but turned out really nice. As morning got later and our ops presented, usually made the most of them. Took us to the closing bell at curfew but scratched and clawed our way to a full strap. Also got to watch some pintails and spoons out and about among the local woodies and mottleds. Once we'd had a good few ops even took the time to try my hand with the 20g O/U and managed just a bird or two with it before going back to the 12, just not shooting that short little gun as well as I'd like to be.

16 BW teal, 2 GW teal

IMG_3824.JPG

IMG_3827.JPG

IMG_3844.JPG

IMG_8101.JPG

As always, hospitality was top notch, great visit all around and ran into some hunters from my hometown who were first time visitors enjoying it as well. Super sweet closing to what's been a bitter two weeks, thanks uncle Rick.

The teal decoys are put away, the grays are organized in their place, and the skeet choke replaced with my usual light mod.....countdown to November rolls on.

[Darren]

**Amendment to Log from today's entry**

Upon further inspection when cleaning, found it to be 15 bluewings and 3 greenwings, instead of 16 & 2.

[Darren]

Made note of it in Rick's log but wanted it here as well for discussion. Has seemed, anecdotally, to be a higher take of green wings in the region than average leading up to yesterday's hunt. Sure enough, three found the strap as logged above, but also came across the note below from local ag land outfitter doing teal hunts:

greenwings count.jpg

drought monitor 9-23.JPG

Would seem the above two items connected given the green wings tend to range further north for breeding than the blue wings. So it would seem plausible that given the now fairly substantive dry conditions across the bulk of the flyway, that perhaps there's some bypass effect going on at least to some degree.

Time will tell how this plays out in the coming couple of months as other migrators get going. Could make for an improved season on the southern end where precip has been anything but a shortage. Sure wish we could bottle it up and bring it to the Dakotas.

[DComeaux]

I remembered taking green wing early in a teal season one year and found that we had (3) on the strap opening morning for the 2017 teal season. We took one's and twos during the entire teal season and ended with one on the last day with a band. The regular season hunts that season were pretty good for us.

[Rick]

If you'd asked me prior to when I started logging species, I'd of told you greenwings were a lot more common than it's turned out. Maybe they once were, but more likely an attention deficit.

[jrock75]

So it would seem plausible that given the now fairly substantive dry conditions across the bulk of the flyway, that perhaps there's some bypass effect going on at least to some degree.

I hate that it is so dry in the Dakotas, but wish nothing but dust for Oklahoma, Nebraska, and North Texas. Way more green wings killed by our group this year as a % than is typical. And we have seen more pintails.

[Darren]

I hate that it is so dry in the Dakotas, but wish nothing but dust for Oklahoma, Nebraska, and North Texas. Way more green wings killed by our group this year as a % than is typical. And we have seen more pintails.

Same for us, except our list would be more like Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas. Regardless, all six of the referenced states are looking colorful on the drought monitor map. Can't help but be concerned though for bird numbers in seasons to come if there's not significant winter precip this season.

[Deltaman]

Darren, Glad you and Johnny got to finish the season on a high note with Rick