2025-2026 Season Log

[Rick]

Date: 12/24/25 Wed

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: densest fog of the season until after our hunt

Wind Direction and Velocity: light SE

Temperature: warm

Moon phase: small waxing crescent when last seen

Special Notes: Christmas Eve play hunt

Waterfowl Activity: Little of anything, other than lost squealers, appeared through the fog.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: thankfully good

Hunters: 2, JJ and Mark

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call wasn't handling well or much at all in swimming water.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just how badly the fog shut us down.

Kudos: Nice to be hunting with old friends. And when we declared squealers fair game at 9:30, we filled with the next three bunches to show. (Got to show the guys how well they respond to distress calls.)

Birds By Species: 12 black-bellies, 2 blue-wings, 1 canvasback, 1 green-wing and 2 woodies

[Rick]

Date: 12/25/25 Thur

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: heavy ground fog

Wind Direction and Velocity: light SE

Temperature: warm

Moon phase:

Special Notes: Christmas

Waterfowl Activity: A little bit better than yesterday, probably because the fog finally broke while we were out.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Best part was that Preston did much of the calling and worked a pintail to its demise.

Hunters: 2, grandsons Preston and Ethan

Guns: Ethan was shooting his dad's blankety blank ported gun.

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call did well.

Special Equipment: SOS, replaced the broken rheostat but had trouble programing the new timer.

Curses: Aside from the fog, none.

Kudos: Kids passed a good time.

Birds By Species: 9 black-bellies, 2 blue-wings, 3 green-wings, 2 pintails and 2 ringnecks

[Duck Engr]

Very nice, Rick! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

[Rick]

Date: 12/27/25

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: ground fog broke early enough to allow a good hunt

Wind Direction and Velocity: light SW

Temperature: warm

Moon phase: 41% waxing

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Little of this and that came by, which was a good thing, as squealers were AWOL.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Thankfully excellent. (Other than the jacks, of course.)

Hunters: Marsh owner Laura and her husband, Brian

Guns:

Malfunctions: Brian's A5 wouldn't reliably eject the BOSS shells he brought but did fine with the emergency Kents I kept in the blind box and boat.

Dog(s): Call made a new friend with Laura and did a fine job for her.

Special Equipment: SOS now both with spinners having intermittent timers again. Have been killing them for teal, as well as big ducks, once they've shown interest in us.

Curses: Not a one.

Kudos: Laura's a sweetheart and enough of a Tomboy to be great in the blind.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellies, 1 blue-wing, 5 gadwall, 5 greenwings, 3 ringnecks and 1 shoveller

[Rick]

Date: 12/27/25

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: party cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: SW nil to light

Temperature: warm

Moon phase: waxing pushing half

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Tried to wait out big ducks and teal for a bit too long as both were sparse and late arrivals, so we ended up cheating on that notion a bit.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Better than ours, I'm afraid.

Hunters: 1. just Dub, who's joined my favorite octogenarians and I this morning

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call's still stacking good mornings, to include handling on the long water blinds that had so long been iffy.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: I cost us a pintail that apparently snapped a chipped upper wing and fell like a stone way the hey out in largely open water behind the blind where he couldn't be watched without climbing atop the boat hide and sat head-up but stationary long enough that I went ahead and climbed down and jumped in the boat with Call to head his way without a hint of the bird's intended escape route. Big mistake that left us searching 360 around my last mark on him with the boat and Call tearing up the reasonably nearby open water cattail patches and what passes for shorelines without hitting scent. Had he not fallen so hard, I'd have thought he flew off. Should have given him more time to show his hand before breaking line of sight to get the boat out. Grrr...

Kudos: Dub's very pleasant company, and we covered a lot of ground between our slow day shooting ops.

Birds By Species: 1 black-belly, 1 blue-wing teal, 1 green-wing teal, 5 gadwall, 1 redhead and 2 ringnecks

[Ericdc]

Thoughts on the incoming front?

I'm keeping my expectations moderate at best, but 5-10 years ago the next few days would produce pretty straps at my place, especially at this point of the season.


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[DComeaux]

One pintail escape I haven't forgotten happened at the Marceaux farm. It was a transfer from Ellie to me at the blind. It was alive and when it hit the ground it slithered off very quickly and disappeared under the water and vegetation along the blind levee. I just about uprooted everything in the area and Ellie never did pick up scent on the levee or surrounding area. I'm still perplexed to how it disappeared without a trace when it was so close to hand.

[Rick]

In my experience, pintails have the highest propensity for and been the most adept at hiding below the water in thin cover with little more than their nostrils exposed without moving until plainly spotted.

[Darren]

In my experience, pintails have the highest propensity for and been the most adept at hiding below the water in thin cover with little more than their nostrils exposed without moving until plainly spotted.

Saw a hen do just that impressively the other day in bunkie field, awfully slick.

[Rick]

Date: 12/29/25 Mon

Time: morning

Location: #3

Cloud Cover: cloudy

Wind Direction and Velocity: Screaming out of the north.

Temperature: cold and colder

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Really disappointing. Few teal, same ringnecks that have passed wide all season, surprisingly few big ducks and our squealer ops didn't last as long as needed to dial in.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: What big ducks I broke were plainly seeing us.

Hunters: 2, father Matt and teen son, Trigger, whose last hunt was probably with me last year.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call was good.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: I couldn't put what little came by where nice folks could beat the wind to them. Felt cursed.

Kudos: They took it better than I did.

Birds By Species: 6 black-bellies, 1 gadwall, 1 green-wing, 3 ringnecks and 2 shovellers

[Rick]

Date: 12/30/25 Tue

Time: morning

Location: Zero

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: northerly strong

Temperature: plenty cold in the wind, which were in Zero's platform blind

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Plenty of too fast teal ops for my, somewhat hungover, guys. But big ducks kept getting banged out by the three squealer blinds upwind of us. One of those "impeccable timing" days when we couldn't catch the breaks we needed.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Two of our three teal were killed on the water, but few that came by held still enough. Big ducks wanted to work but couldn't.

Hunters: 2, William and John

Guns:

Malfunctions: Boat wouldn't go far without dying. Checked choke, fuel line connection to tank, and fuel pump which was running. Reminded me of when a tiny in-line filter at the carb had collapsed, but that was long gone. Limped down the run by manually pumping the bulb and opted to hunt a close open blind, rather than risk the hunt on being able to make the long run to my blind that way. Perhaps a bad decision, given that we made it back post hunt with just a bit of initial pumping. Motor was, however, still running rough, so I dumped the remaining fuel before making a test run to my blind and back without a stutter.

Dog(s): The way Zero is set up, every retrieve was an awkward "blind".

Special Equipment: opted to leave the camp spinner off.

Curses: After consecutive sucky mornings, I was already feeling cursed when a party on my blind's end of the marsh came in with 6 mallards, a mottled and filled out with teal to confirm it. Said they'd wondered why I wasn't bothering the mallards seen headed my blind's way.

Kudos: Nice guys were pleasant company, even given our givens.

Birds By Species: 3 green-wings and 1 mallard

[Darren]

Curses: After consecutive sucky mornings, I was already feeling cursed when a party on my blind's end of the marsh came in with 6 mallards, a mottled and filled out with teal to confirm it. Said they'd wondered why I wasn't bothering the mallards seen headed my blind's way.

Well son of a B!

[Duck Engr]

That hurts my feelings and I wasn’t even there.

[Rick]

Date: 12/31/25 Wed

Time: morning

Location: #3 and Clark's

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil to light west

Temperature: frosty

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Not much moving at my blind after the early squealers passed, and every time we got something going, they'd be banged out by busier blinds. Guys got a text suggesting a move to Clark's blind, which we did and took advantage of stirring among squealers settled in much nearer than at mine, but we saw precious few other ducks there. Might should have stuck with mine?

Waterfowl Responsiveness: We suffered horrible timing of others' shooting, time and time again.

Hunters: 2 Roy and Chad

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call had another too easy morning.

Special Equipment: SOS at my blind, and I left Clark's spinner off.

Curses: I remain cursed. Would be looking forward to the new year, but our New Year's Day friends and family play day was cancelled this morning in order to host a corporate hunt for one of our owner's businesses, and I'm tasked with a said to be huge second time hunter with health issues who's their CFO.

Kudos: Enjoyed the guy's company

Birds By Species: 9 black-bellies, 1 blue-wing, 1 shoveller and 1 wigeon

[Rick]

Date: 1/1/26

Time:

Location: 3

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: none

Temperature: 40 and up

Moon phase: big

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Saw a several big groups of high pintails and grays, but next to no teal and just enough squealers for our purposes.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Most everything that started high got run off by others shooting or our shenanigans.

Hunters: 2, Newly minted hunter, John, with his wife, Cameron, observing

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): easy morning

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Just that we stayed caught by the pretty birds.

Kudos: Nice folks had a big time.

Birds By Species: 7 black-bellies, 1 green-wing, 2 pintails and 1 shoveller

[SpinnerMan]

I enjoy your posts, but it seems like the camera is broke The pictures help me live vicariously, especially this season where I have only got out a few times and shot just 1 wood duck almost 2 months ago.

[Rick]

I enjoy your posts, but it seems like the camera is broke The pictures help me live vicariously, especially this season where I have only got out a few times and shot just 1 wood duck almost 2 months ago.

Been missing it, myself, but my chances to sneak photography into other people's hunts is much more limited in my new situation. Still ought to at least try more often.

[Rick]

Date: 1/2/26

Time: morning

Location: 3

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: SW moderate

Temperature: warm

Moon phase: full

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: No new teal came to my corner with the new wind, and early squealers were even absent, but as the morning wore on, this and that presented periodic ops. And big bunches of pintails were moving into or out of the marsh as we were finishing up.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Very good until they got over the blind which I'd opened up more than usual to allow a father and young son, closer contact for shooting instruction.

Hunters: 2, father, Brian, and young son, Cody, who was good in the blind even though he opted not to shoot his .410 yet. Dad was good about pushing it, which I applauded.

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Call did a fine job.

Special Equipment: SOS

Curses: Nope.

Kudos: We all had a pleasant morning.

Birds By Species: 4 black-bellies, 3 blue-wings, 2 fulvous, 1 green-wing, 1 mallard and 1 shoveller

[Rick]

Date: 1/3/26

Time:

Location: 3

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: "10 mph west wind" must have doubled that.

Temperature: Thankfully warm, as it was a wet ride across the bottom of the body.

Moon phase: full, no doubt

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Not at all what I'd hoped, as a late start saw the early west wind morning black-belly flight into the marsh ending as we settled in, and real ducks were in very short supply.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: About like our "flight".

Hunters: Brian and Cody again

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Wind was sweeping birds away so rapidly that his and my marks were often off, and he began losing faith in my handling at distance.

Special Equipment: SOS eventually just shut the spinners off as it took so long for them to roll to a stop in the high wind.

Curses: Our miserable chances were such that Cody again opted out of trying his hand. (Really needs another year or two.)

Kudos: Dad didn't push it, and shot better than most himself.

Birds By Species: 5 black-bellies, 1 gadwall, 1 green-wing, 4 ringnecks and 1 shoveller

[Darren]

Nice couple of mornings for a new hunter to observe, good on you and his dad both.

[Duck Engr]

Good on dad for keeping the right perspective. I try to remind myself every time I take my son that I likely can’t make him fall in love with it forever in one day, but I certainly can ruin it.

[Rick]

Good on dad for keeping the right perspective. I try to remind myself every time I take my son that I likely can’t make him fall in love with it forever in one day, but I certainly can ruin it.

There it is.

[Rick]

Date: 1/4/26 Sun

Time:

Location: 3

Cloud Cover: heavy

Wind Direction and Velocity: NE moderate

Temperature: 40s

Moon phase: big

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: Few teal, jacks or squealers in our corner, but big ducks and spoons took up their slack. Not a "lot," but very nearly enough - even for us.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: Much better than ours, in large part I'm certain, because my new waterfowler had two masks in his pack and talked his buddy into wearing one with us. Really sweet not staying caught on a morning when everything had to come from way up.

Hunters: 2, new hunter, Justin, and debilitatingly hungover, Conley

Guns:

Malfunctions: Justin fought his new 870 over ejecting shells most of the morning. Op error??? Giving him 2 3/4" shells initially solved the issue, but he later managed to shoot some 3" shells without further issue, as well.

Dog(s): Call was aces.

Special Equipment: SOS (killed for most everything)

Curses: The shooting was much better than the hitting.

Kudos: Had a big time, regardless.

Birds By Species: 2 black-bellies, 1 gadwall, 6 mallards, 1 mottled, 6 shovellers and 1 wigeon

Photo Ops: The star of our show...

thumbnail_PXL_20260104_153759584.jpg

[Ericdc]

Good hunt? New ducks? Better wind? Better hunters?


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[Rick]

Good hunt? New ducks? Better wind? Better hunters?

Right wind and masks most folks are too cool for.

[Ericdc]

Northeast just like the mud hole?


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[SpinnerMan]

Right wind and masks most folks are too cool for.

I get new folks not understanding how well birds see and how you need to cover up, but at our club, we have some members that have been hunting there for a long time that break off the grass covers to see better. If I ever figure out who I will give them hell. Today when I was driving to the blind I could see three giant black holes from a mile away. Yep, somebody had snapped off the grass leaving gaping holes. First thing I did is as try to fix them as best I could.

Nice photo

[Duck Engr]

6 mallards?!? The curse is over!

If there is ever a year for south LA to get mallards, this is it. Record drought to your north. Fairly cold December, for recent memory at least.

[DComeaux]

WOO HOOOO!

[Rick]

Northeast just like the mud hole?

No other spot will ever be "just like the mud hole" for me, given the amount of sweat equity I had in it, but NE winds have generally favored both.