Season Log 2024-2025

[MallardBay]

My guys asked me how to ID the off limit Mottled yesterday AM. I told them if it looks like a mallard in the air then it's probably not a shooting opportunity. How the world has changed. My log book shows our camp averaged 10 mallards a morning/blind the first 4 days of the season in the not so distant past. Hopefully not the path of the Greater Canada geese here in the early half of last century, gone today.

The Chessie experience is exactly what you described. More mouthy than any lab or other breed for that matter that I've been around. More vocal too. Happy growls while returning from play retrieves.

[Rick]

My guys asked me how to ID the off limit Mottled yesterday AM. I told them if it looks like a mallard in the air then it's probably not a shooting opportunity. How the world has changed...

Yep, checked the camp log and confirmed there were no mallards killed yesterday or today.

[Rick]

Date: 11/10 Sun

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: light cloud cover

Wind Direction and Velocity: east light

Temperature: hot

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Fewer and farther between than yesterday but enough given today's better shots. Saw a small flight of specks I hoped to work, but the guys forewent that chance to pop a teal.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Had good luck with most everything.

Hunters: 2, Charles and Robert

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s):

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Hating the mottled ban, not for saving mottleds but early LST might--be-mottleds that aren't.

Kudos: Nice guys and blessed with a pleasant morning.

Birds By Species: 6 blue-wing teal, 3 gadwall, 7 green-wing teal, 1 pintail and 1 redhead

[DComeaux]

REDHEAD! Send those south.

Yesterday I waited on a pair I couldn't identify in low light thinking mottled ducks which ended up being gadwall. When I called the shot, they turned hard north which would have me shooting over the other two in the blind. Earlier Blake had shot at a live bird on the water with bills gun and hadn't reloaded. Bill heard the click and was the only one with a shot. One turned more east, and I was able to get a shot off and downed one which we lost.

[Rick]

REDHEAD! Send those south.

Was a lone hen that came in low of her own accord, plopped down in the middle of a decoy cluster and refused to move for repeated "Get up!"s and even a warning shot before eventually slowly crossing open water to check out other decoys, which was her undoing. Perhaps the only ducks tamer than dos gris (which another of our guides thought she was), though cans might give them a run for it.

[Rick]

Date: 11/11

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clouded up right at LST

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly moderate

Temperature: still too dang hot.

Moon phase: waxing 69%

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Lots more squealers seen than the past two mornings and Saturday's spoons are back. Still plenty of teal.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Still as good as we could ask, though the big ducks still aren't blind.

Hunters: 2, Dustin and Drew, younger and quicker guns than the weekend's

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call's still far from a finished product, but becoming more responsive to handling in water. Knock wood...

Special Equipment: SOS. Spinners on for teal and off for big ducks.

Curses: Still way too warm to be comfortable sending Call to much of the pond.

Kudos: Nice guys and a quick shoot.

Birds By Species: 6 blue-wing teal, 4 gadwall, 6 green-wing teal and 2 shovellers

[DComeaux]

Lovely!

Good to have you back in he saddle.

[Rick]

Certainly not taking it for granted, I've been blessed.

[jrock75]

Nice start to the season. Glad to see the new spot seems to be working out!

[MARSH BEAR]

Great job Rick, hope the ducks keep coming for you

[Rick]

Date: 11/12

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly light to moderate

Temperature: little cooler than it's been - but not much

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Not as many teal as we've been seeing, and the squealers we wanted today seemed to know we did.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully good, though we ran a lot off by forgetting to hide or telegraphing our punch by getting up early.

Hunters: 2, super nice couple, Mickie and Janelle, who were new to watherfowling and in street clothes with borrowed guns.

Guns:

Malfunctions: Hammer quit falling on Mickie's 391, so he shot my gun until I knocked whatever was gumming the works out of his.

Dog(s): Call did well to include digging through the thicket and deep slop of the blind island for a couple crips falling there.

Special Equipment: SOS and I had my best luck drawing distant squealers by flashing the spinners on and off for greater(?) attention getting than a steady flash.

Curses: just the stuff that comes with learning a new game

Kudos: Great folks who tried hard and got themselves hooked on waterfowling.

Birds By Species: 9 black-bellies, 1 blue-wing teal, 3 gadwall, 2 green-wing teal, 1 pintail and 2 ringnecks

[Rick]

Date: 11/13 Wed

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: misting with threat of heavy rains (that just missed us to the east)

Wind Direction and Velocity: NW moderate

Temperature: cool mist felt good

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: NW wind put my blind under a major flyway for black-bellies returning to the body. Also plenty of other (too fast) ducks moving, but the guys elected to shoot squealers and beat the predicted rain to camp.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Squealers didn't seem to mind 6'6" Mickey again standing bolt upright in the blind.

Hunters: 2, Mickey again and Zack

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call had a relatively easy morning.

Special Equipment: SOS, only never killed the spinners.

Curses: Made the last bird Mickey's and after a few misses noted he wasn't getting the gun shouldered. Two days of that must have hurt.

Kudos: Nice guys, quick hunt.

Birds By Species: 16 black-bellies, 1 gadwall and 1 green-wing

[Darren]

Standing bolt upright in the blind

I'm sure that went over swell with ya; in any case glad the birds obliged for them and sent them with smiles.

[Deltaman]

Great reports Rick, and glad to see that you are settling into your new home!!!!!!!

[Rick]

Standing bolt upright in the blind

I'm sure that went over swell with ya; in any case glad the birds obliged for them and sent them with smiles.

Bless the squealers, favorable wind and mist for making it work without more strain on any of us.

New, due north, wind and clear skies this morning, should make it a big duck day for a new party, but "we'll see..."

[Ducaholic]

Rick did you avoid shooting the whistlers over the weekend or was it that you just shot what came first?

[Rick]

Rick did you avoid shooting the whistlers over the weekend or was it that you just shot what came first?

There's still a stigma to them that makes them the target of last resort for many folks. Yesterday's group had a pool for which each species was allotted so many points, with the point value on squealers being "0". But my guys just wanted out quickly - well, with their limits, of course.

[Rick]

Date: 11/14

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: north moderate to light

Temperature: upper 40s

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Not a "lot" of anything (even squealers), but enough of both teal and big ducks to make a sweet hunt, given more experienced hunters who'd hide and shot pretty well.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Very good.

Hunters: 2 Will and Paul

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Crazy as Call can be in other situations, he's a rock while game works and better about taking direction on non marks every day. Knock wood...

Special Equipment: SOS and same drill: on for teal, off for big ducks

Curses: Not a one.

Kudos: Just an all around fine morning in fine company.

Birds By Species: 4 blue-wings, 6 gadwall, 6 green-wings, 1 pintail and 1 wigeon

[Darren]

Rick did you avoid shooting the whistlers over the weekend or was it that you just shot what came first?

There's still a stigma to them that makes them the target of last resort for many folks. Yesterday's group had a pool for which each species was allotted so many points, with the point value on squealers being "0". But my guys just wanted out quickly - well, with their limits, of course.

So what point value on a spoonie, if the absolute best eating bird in the marsh was given a ZERO?

[Ericdc]

Rick did you avoid shooting the whistlers over the weekend or was it that you just shot what came first?

There's still a stigma to them that makes them the target of last resort for many folks. Yesterday's group had a pool for which each species was allotted so many points, with the point value on squealers being "0". But my guys just wanted out quickly - well, with their limits, of course.

So what point value on a spoonie, if the absolute best eating bird in the marsh was given a ZERO?

I rate them below some of the puddlers because they don't pluck well. Meat is good, but I'd prefer GWT if I had my pick in the marsh.


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[DComeaux]

Good on Call. I'm anxious to get Remi going.

[Rick]

So what point value on a spoonie, if the absolute best eating bird in the marsh was given a ZERO?

I wasn't in on the pool, just know my guys said squealers got zip and they didn't care.

I rate them (squealers) below some of the puddlers because they don't pluck well. Meat is good, but I'd prefer GWT if I had my pick in the marsh.

We eat more green-wings than squealers, but only because they're a lot more fun to shoot.

[Duck Engr]

A fine strap!!

[Rick]

Good on Call. I'm anxious to get Remi going.

She's gonna love it.

[Rick]

Date: 11/15

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: zip to very light NE

Temperature: coolest to date, wore an uninsulated shell over my shirt for the boat ride

Moon phase: still full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: First two mallards of the season were shot, but not by us. Not a lot of anything moving where we were, but we made hay when something (eagle and boats leaving north blinds) stirred them.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Everything was so distant that the loud-assed LA-cut Singleton cutdown had a couple chances and did some big duck good. Had to flip spinners off and on to get distant squealers to pay attention to them, but as in the past, that worked.

Hunters: 2, Will again and Robbie

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call met a nutria en route to our chipped spoon and lost track of his bird. Either I'll have to shoot it, or he'll have to wear an e-collar until "it" can "bite" him. Did fine otherwise.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just the lack of birds on a morning we need in early for a conference call(?)

Kudos: Nice guys had a nice time on a beautiful morning.

Birds By Species: 11 black-bellies, 1 blue-wing, 1 gadwall, 2 green-wings, 1 pintail, 1 ringneck and 1 shoveller

[DComeaux]

Heard a flock of black bellies last weekend at the blind early morning. Sure wish they would have showed up over the decoys.

[Rick]

Date: 11/16 Sat

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: clear, cloudy, partly, cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: light to moderate easterly

Temperature: 50?

Moon phase: still big

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Seemed gosh awful slow, but perhaps just because there was virtually no squealer movement on our end of the marsh, which surprised me. More jacks that didn't give a flip about us than teal that might offer hope.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Didn't mind the jacks blowing by, but a lot of the other stuff seemed to know - or see - us.

Hunters: 2, Brian and Todd

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call had a really fine morning. Is starting to trust my handling in action as much as in training. And when I get him downwind of of a bird in the water or well back in the weeds, that's it's ass. Knocking wood, of course.

Special Equipment: SOS, but off was much more important than on this morning.

Curses: Wish we'd shown more respect for the bird's vision.

Kudos: Nice guys who shot better than most this season.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellies, 5 blue-wings, 4 gadwall, 2 pintails, 1 ringneck, 3 shovellers and 1 speck (camp's first)

Photo Ops: Call's first speck:

thumbnail_PXL_20241116_132805686.RAW-01.COVER.jpg

And a fly-off hen (no idea why it's slow-motion)


Re: the e-, I'm not smart enough to collar train, strictly a breaking tool (just snake killing, so far) in my hands and a hopeful bit of insurance against the alligators that are still out and eating this hot fall.

[Rick]

Date: 11/17 Sun

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: partly

Wind Direction and Velocity: east moderate

Temperature: t-shirt

Moon phase: big

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Had squealers early, then not, as all were well out in the body. Dribs and drabs of this and that later.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Still seemed like most knew or caught us.

Hunters: 2, father, Andrew, and young son, Cliff

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call had an easy morning.

Special Equipment: SOS on, off and sideways

Curses: Cliff started off great, but went to bitching when the shooting slowed.

Kudos: Cliff shot our first mallard, a four-curled beaut Andrew's going to have mounted for him.

Birds By Species: 9 black-bellies, 1 blue-wing, 2 gadwall, 1green-wing, 1 mallard and 4 shovellers

Photo Ops: Cliff's trophy:

thumbnail_PXL_20241117_132149521.RAW-01.COVER.jpg

[Darren]

Had to be sweet to call in and down the camp's first speck of the season.

[Rick]

Just getting to work them is a much too rare treat in the marsh.