2022-2023 Season Log

[Ricky Spanish]

Shy of the mudhole?
That sounds familiar.
Leased an epic field that ...sigh...I got excluded from until it was worn out. For the hell of it I sat there a day watching the flocks go around it.
They burned that field up in two weeks. After that every bird knew it was a nogozone.
Stunk bad.
They hunted it all day every day then moved on to the next thing.
Beware of a pair named Phillip and Jerrod.
They'll shaft yuh good..
You know you've been shafted when you need a pair of bolt cutters to access a lease.

[Rick]

Shy of the mudhole?
That sounds familiar.
Leased an epic field that ...sigh...I got excluded from until it was worn out. For the hell of it I sat there a day watching the flocks go around it.
They burned that field up in two weeks. After that every bird knew it was a nogozone.

Not sure what brought that on, as Sunday's big birds were bumping off my guests' bright ponchos and faces.

As a rule, while local mottleds and woodies soon come to avoid the daily-hunted mudhole (unless tricked into tripping up), we're largely dependent on breaking traffic to points unknown. Well, unless teal take a fit to swarm the whole marsh.

[Rick]

Date: 11/12/22 Sat

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy overcast

Wind Direction and Velocity: Strong NE

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: big

Special Notes: regular season opener

Waterfowl Activity: Scads and scads of, mostly green-wing, teal buzzing the marsh, but saw next to no big ducks during the short time we were out.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Lone big ducks came to the call pretty, but were mostly just shooting little ones coming to the spinners.

Hunters: 2, Darren and young son, Grant

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Marsh got the workout he's been antsy for since last weekend's youth and vets' hunts.

Special Equipment: Let the spinners roll with few exceptions and didn't bother with the splasher.

Curses: Just the lack of big ducks.

Kudos: More than enough birds for Grant to not just get in the game but appear to master it.

Birds By Species: 1 fulvous whistling duck, 10 green-wing teal, 1 mallard, 1 pintail, 1 ringneck, 1 scaup and 3 shovellers

[Anotherone]

Nice mixed strap. Can’t wait to see what your blind pulls in when the wind reverses early next week?

[Rick]

No telling. We'll just take it as it comes.

[DComeaux]

Awesome!

[Rick]

Date: 11/13/22 Sun

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE moderate

Temperature: 30s

Moon phase: waning 77%

Special Notes: ideal big duck weather except...

Waterfowl Activity: Very few big ducks were seen, but scads and scads of teal came through again, as well as quite a few spoons. Had several singles and pairs of dos gris land in the decoys and some jacks buzzing by.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Tried holding out for big ducks, but weren't always good at hiding from what few we did see. As usual, teal tamed as the morning progressed.

Hunters: 2, father and grown son, Ronnie and Ben

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Pretty easy, if cold for a house dog, morning with nothing challenging.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Only the absence of big ducks.

Kudos: Enjoyed a sweet morning in good company.

Birds By Species: 1 gadwall, 13 green-wing teal, 1 mallard, 2 mottled ducks and 1 pintail

[Ducaholic]

Nice!

[DComeaux]

The mud hole is an awesome place.

[Deltaman]

Glad your marsh is still full of teal, and hopefully, the big ducks will follow suit!

[MARSH BEAR]

You complaining because you only have teal - shame on you

[Rick]

You complaining because you only have teal - shame on you

I was reaching for something to bitch about when I wrote that, but really could use some big, slow birds the next couple mornings.

[Rick]

Date: 11/14 Mon

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: ENE brisk

Temperature: Just lower 40s, but the wind made it cumulative.

Moon phase: Waning 64%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Still a pretty strong teal flight, albeit before it was light enough to see them before it was too late. (All the other blinds filled quickly with little ducks.) Did, however, get to see more big ducks by virtue of being out there much longer than the past two mornings.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most tried to cooperate, but we had to hunt standing to have any chance of getting underway and most often got caught.

Hunters: 2, two of my favorite octogenarians, Bob and Joe, who've been hunting together 50-some years.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): The bug got enough of a workout to be out cold at my feet, as I type.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: none from me

Kudos: We were blessed.

Birds By Species: 1 blue-wing teal, 7 green-wing teal, 2 mallards, 1 redhead (flying with spoons), 1 ringneck, 4 shovellers and 2 wood ducks

[Anotherone]

Assortment rocks! Great morning!

[Rick]

Haven't tried to track its frequency, but seven species in a moring seems a fairly common thing when in "dicks is ducks" mode.

[Rick]

Date: 11/15/22 Tue

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW strong

Temperature: mid 40s but seemed colder with wind in our faces

Moon phase: waning 59%

Special Notes: Westerly winds suck at the mudhole.

Waterfowl Activity: Fair teal flight early, when the guys couldn't see them well enough to get underway. And not nearly enough for our purposes once the light was bright enough.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Would have been fine if crowd control weren't totally out of control.

Hunters: 2, Joe and Bob again

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): The bug came up with one long fly-off mottled but never hit on another's track, as far as I could tell at such distance.

Special Equipment: SOS tried running the spinners longer to draw attention from the blind but gave up on that pretty quickly.

Curses: Begged "Somebody please shoot." so frequently yesterday that I promised myself I'd redouble my efforts at patience this morning, but finally lost patience and barked at poor Bob for standing upright, facing the birds and raising his gun before the birds even got to the blind, much less flew over it and got upwind, where he should have been crouched and looking, and he and Joe had a chance of getting underway while the birds fought the wind to get out. Know I hurt his feelings and should zipped my lip and said "Screw it." to myself.

Kudos: Believe Bob and I eventually became friends again.

Birds By Species: 3 blue-wing teal, 4 green-wing teal, 2 mottled ducks, 1 ringneck, 3 scaup, 1 shoveller and 1 wood duck

Photo Ops: The bug with a long fly-off mottled checking out one of the dumbest ducks ever:

005a.jpg

Which he then flushed for the guns and saved a trip retrieving:

010a.jpg

[Duck Engr]

That first photo is a framer.

[Ericdc]

Haven't tried to track its frequency, but seven species in a moring seems a fairly common thing when in "dicks is ducks" mode.

Can't say I've ever been in that mode


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rick]

Good catch...I guess.

[Darren]

Haven't tried to track its frequency, but seven species in a moring seems a fairly common thing when in "dicks is ducks" mode.

Can't say I've ever been in that mode

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Louisiana hunting hasn't gotten to THAT point just yet

Sounded like quite a circus yesterday morning at the mudhole.

[Rick]

Sounded like quite a circus yesterday morning at the mudhole.

I'm afraid poor Bob, who is a hell of a nice fellow, is at the point where he drifts in and out of his own little world. Most thankfully, we parted as dear friends a bit ago Might well be that my bad manners yesterday have literally been forgotten.

[Rick]

Date: 11/16 Wed

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: higher ceiling than the past few mornings, but still cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE strong

Temperature: low 40s and feeling lower as the morning wore on.

Moon phase: 50% waning

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Per usual, what we're seeing is dropping off with each day of similar wind/weather. Fewer teal and what big ducks are around have seen what's up at the mudhole.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Got to educate a few more mottleds and blue-wings are even bumping.

Hunters: 2, Bob and Joe's last morning.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning, except a chipped mottled

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses:

Kudos: Bob and I are big buddies again.

Birds By Species: 4 blue-wing teal, 5 green-wing teal, 1 mottled duck, 1 shoveller and 1 wood duck

[DComeaux]

Sounded like quite a circus yesterday morning at the mudhole.

I'm afraid poor Bob, who is a hell of a nice fellow, is at the point where he drifts in and out of his own little world. Most thankfully, we parted as dear friends a bit ago Might well be that my bad manners yesterday have literally been forgotten.

You're such a mean guide.

[Bud]

Great to see you guys are having fun. Thanks for taking time to share your hunts. Miss you guys and the place.

[Rick]

You're such a mean guide.

Bob and Joe are still in the field at 85, and deserving of a more patient soul than I. But they like me and I like them, and we manage.

[Rick]

Great to see you guys are having fun. Thanks for taking time to share your hunts. Miss you guys and the place.

Bud, we're all tottering around like the old farts we are. Doug had a diabetic coma type scare a few weeks back that led to a bit of pneumonia, still short of breath and had some scanning for circulatory blockages today, but he's no longer wheezing, much less rattling.

Good to know you're still out there. Say "hey" to Elizabeth for us.

[Bud]

Great to hear from you. Hope Doug weathers his storm well. Thought I was an old fart, so I'm keeping up with good folk.

BTW, Elizabeth smiled and said hey back at you guys. Good hunting!!

[Rick]

Date: 11/17 Thur

Time: morning

Location: mudhole

Cloud Cover: cloudy to partly and back

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE mod to strong and back

Temperature: still cold after time in the wind

Moon phase: 'bout half waning

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Less every same wind day, as usual. Lucky to have what we did given how it went for the other blinds, though the east blind did see some mallards.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most thankfully, little ducks still mostly did as bid. Mottleds would break for the call - or just to say, "Hi, Rick."

Hunters: 3, brothers, JJ and Mark, and their buddy, Jeremy

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): The bug had a good day.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: none from me

Kudos: Unlike the past few days, birds fell in bunches of up to 7

Birds By Species: 5 blue-wing teal, 2 gadwall, 12 green-wing teal, 3 shovellers and 2 wood ducks

Photo Ops: My traditional shot of the brothers' traditional tailgate shot (to be sent to the brother that didn't come):

002a.jpg

[DComeaux]

I so don't want to be in this office!

[MARSH BEAR]

Dave, I know the feeling, but I am leaving this afternoon to hunt Friday, Saturday and Sunday