Season Log 2024-2025

[Deltaman]

Mr. Consistent! Glad to see that you are stacking them up again this year Rick, and hope some new birds refill your marsh!

[Rick]

Date: 9/24 Tues

Time: morning

Location: Aw's

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil

Temperature: still HOT

Moon phase: still bright

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Getting fewer and farther between, finished but took nearly until 10:00

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Good, except that I struggled to get them to come straight in from the front, where calling shots early would stand them up in front of Franklin's 87yr-old gun mount. And when I called it early on approaches from the side, they'd flare behind us, where the tall boat hide obstructed him.

Hunters: 2 Franklin and JJ

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Tougher morning than I wished for Franklin kept us out there in the sun so long.

Kudos: Long morning gave us more time for JJ to question Franklin about his life in the marsh and on the Gulf - which both plainly enjoyed.

Birds By Species: 18 bw teal (13 drakes and 5 hens)

[DComeaux]

Good times.

[Duck Engr]

That’s the good stuff.

[Rick]

Date: 9/25 Wed

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: still nil

Temperature: still hot

Moon phase: stilly pretty big

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Not a "lot," but enough for a couple limber guns.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Not "great," but good enough for said guns.

Hunters: 1, Ed

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: SOS (been having to kill the spinners for a high percentage bumping off them this week)

Curses: Nope

Kudos: Pleasant morning with a fellow who used to guide with us.

Birds By Species: 12 bw teal (8 drakes, 4 hens)

[Rick]

Date: 9/26 Thur

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: North moderate

Temperature: finally a cool morning

Moon phase: waning 31%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Flight day! Really impressive high flight early and lots of birds working the marsh.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Excellent

Hunters: 2, SIL, Tim, and his buddy Jarrod

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: zip

Kudos: Tim's only half-way recent hunting was a youth/veterans combo with me a couple years back, and Jarrod was guessing eight years back, so it was exactly the morning they needed.

Birds By Species: 18 bw teal

Photo Ops: Jarrod and Tim with our fat cats' sign:

PXL_20240926_131438847.jpg

[Deltaman]

Great report Rick, and glad to hear that you got some new birds in the marsh!!!!!

[Duck Engr]

Love to see “flight day” in the log! Makes me regret not toughing it out and going this morning in the light rain from the incoming “septembuh gayuhl” (in my best southern drawl.) Let a sore throat hold me down.

[jrock75]

New birds! Hope some hit the gulf and headed west!

[Rick]

New birds! Hope some hit the gulf and headed west!

Don't know what they did when they got there, but quite a mess of them were way the hey up there and headed toward the 20-? mile distant Gulf.

[Rick]

Date: 9/27 Fri

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light NW

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: waning 22%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Turns out that yesterdays big move wasn't in but out. Was slow.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Too much of what was around plainly knew the drill

Hunters: 2, Franklin and Mark

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: Had to kill spinners to get much of what we shot back after they plainly bumped from them.

Curses: Just the disappointment of having more birds apparently move out than in.

Kudos: Still a pleasant, if slow, morning.

Birds By Species: 14 bw teal and 2 gw teal

[Duck Engr]

Man I’ll take that “slow” any day of the week!

[Rick]

Man I’ll take that “slow” any day of the week!

"Everything is relative." And I know I'm spoiled. Just not so spoiled as I once was.

Did feel bad about pumping my guys up for what turned out "Should have been here yesterday."

[Rick]

Addendum: 9/27 Birds by species should have read "16 bw teal and 2 gw teal".

[Darren]

Addendum: 9/27 Birds by species should have read "16 bw teal and 2 gw teal".

Oh it was slow, but to clarify, we didn't miss a limit.

[Rick]

Oh it was slow, but to clarify, we didn't miss a limit.

My lack of mathematical prowess is legendary. Still struggling with how many apples Jimmy has left when he gives 2 of his 18 to Jill. But, with the help of Mickey's big and little hands, I'm pretty sure 9:40 comes well after 7.

(Addendums like that in my log here are an attempt to get it correct when transcribed to Word.)

[Rick]

Date: 9/28 Sat

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: westerly light

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: waxing 18%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Weekend shuffle provided what should have been plenty of opportunity.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Lit more than any day prior, but flushed them out of the decoys and tried them in the air.

Hunters: 2, grandson, Ethan, and his dad, Warren John

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Not at all like video game targets, so we were educators today.

Kudos: And dang good at that.

Birds By Species: Threw in the towel with 12 bw teal

[Duck Engr]

Keeping the Olin Winchester heirs comfortable.

[Rick]

Keeping the Olin Winchester heirs comfortable.

Those Ivy League schools ain't cheap.

[Rick]

Date: 9/29 Sun

Time: morning

Location: AW's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to light NW

Temperature: cool

Moon phase: Smiling crescent I took to be a good omen.

Special Notes: last day of September teal

Waterfowl Activity: Not a whole lot moving where we were, but plenty.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Much of what came by either stayed wide or pushed off known trouble, but enough did as bid.

Hunters: 1, just Franklin and I this morning.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Thought about making a just-Call-and-I hunt today, but didn't take him. Pretty sure Call would have tracked down the one that got away in the grass, if we'd brought him. But wouldn't bet he'd not have run others off with a manic fit. Know the gators didn't get him at the house.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: N/A

Kudos: As noted, I thought about closing out September teal by giving Call a go at being out there and making some of the shortest retrieves when it was just the two of us, and I could shut the hunt down if he acted up. And I thought about taking young guns, Preston and Cole, again so the boys and I could "do it right". But in the end, there was no question it should just be Franklin and I, so he could shoot on his schedule and not his company's. And what a sweet choice that turned out to be.

Birds By Species: 11 bw teal (5 drakes and 6 hens)

Photo Ops: That smiling moon, albeit exaggerated by my phone's camera...

thumbnail_PXL_20240929_095917984.jpg

Lagniappe: On the drive home, Franklin allowed, "You know, this may have been my last hunt." Then he smiled and added, "Or yours." There it is.

[DComeaux]

Good closing weekend. Good to see you in the blind again.

[Duck Engr]

Haha that’s a sense of humor right there

[jrock75]

Lagniappe: On the drive home, Franklin allowed, "You know, this may have been my last hunt." Then he smiled and added, "Or yours." There it is.

No doubt. We are all very fortunate to be able to enjoy the time we have in the field!

[Duck Engr]

Good catch. Hadn't realized I mis-titled the thread. And have no idea how to do the mod thing, but if DE can, I'd appreciate it.

I'm a little late to the party on catching up with this but should be fixed up now. Did not take the time to go back and edit every previous post, however. Should be corrected on posts going forward though.

[Rick]

Much thanks, DE. Now if you could just help me remember why I came in here...

[Duck Engr]

Haha I have a hard enough time remembering that for myself!

[Rick]

Date: 11/9 Sat

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: increasingly cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: easterly moderate

Temperature: too hot for long sleeves

Moon phase: waxing 47%

Special Notes: regular season opener

Waterfowl Activity: Didn't see nearly as many squealers as during the week, but lots of spoons and teal, as well as some grays and a couple or three big pintail flights (which we refused to hide from, grrr)

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Two of three big pintail bunches worked all the way down to be moon-faced out of finishing, third just teased me. Grays all came just as we'd wish everything would, with little or no, in one's case, circling. Teal were mostly tough to turn once they power-dived past, and what seemed as often as not when I said they should be coming back around this side or that, they didn't. Tall boathide precluded seeing just when or how I lost them..

Hunters: 2, Dennis and Brent

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call's first day on the job was an odd one. I'd put a lot of birds in his face this week and he was unfazed by that part of it and the volleys of gunfire, in large part because nothing was falling so much of the time, much less where he could see it. Finally had a teal fall crippled and splashing where he could see and retrieve it when sent, after which he broke for a long gray he saw go down. After that, it was on. But his handling on blinds sucked until he'd expended his own notions.

Special Equipment: SOS: two spinners and my modified mallard machine

Curses: Only Call's handling - which is on his trainer, moi.

Kudos: Nice guys had a big time.

Birds By Species: 5 blue-wing teal, 5 gadwall, 7 green-wing teal and 1 spoon

[DComeaux]

Nice hunt!

[MallardBay]

Any mallards killed in the CR camp this AM? First time in my memory our camp didn't kill a single mallard opening morning.

[Rick]

Any mallards killed in the CR camp this AM? First time in my memory our camp didn't kill a single mallard opening morning.

Our shooting/hitting woes had us last in, so I didn't see what others killed, but didn't hear of mallards killed, or seen. Will try to remember to check the camp log in the morning.

Do know the only "maybe mallards" I saw were mottleds when they got to us.

Been thinking on your puppy text, and it eventually dawned on me that Call still shows more tendency to want to mouth hands and such than any other I've had. We avoided that taking a destructive turn with virtually no puppy chewing damage, but he does seem to want to experience the world through his mouth. Don't know if that's a Next Generation thing or just happenstance.