2007/2008 Louisiana Duck Hunting Thread

[Coot]

I made a lazy hunt yesterday (Sunday 11-25-07) and slept in. I didn't launch until after 7 am. I did a little scouting first and was hunting by 8 am. We hunted from 8 to 10 with decent success. It wasn't fast and furious by any means, but the few ducks we saw worked very well.

2 man blind = 10 ducks (all greys)

[Coot]

Well, The 1st split has come to an end. How did some of you LA boys do this year?

I only made 6 hunts this year (about 50% less than I normally make for the 1st split), however they were all very good hunts. My boat averaged 5.58 ducks per hunter per attempt this year which is awesome, however I am still not seeing the amount of ducks down that we usually see in years past. The best thing about this year's 1st split is that my 5 year old boy joined me for his 1st duck hunt. He actually went on 4 out of 6 of my hunts with me and he is absolutely hooked enjoying the thrill of the hunt!

I ended the split with a hunt yesterday with two good friends and my son. We shot our limits and it was a very nice day to be in the marsh. I took today off from hunting due to the heat and to head to the Saints game with my son.

3 man blind & one 5 year old = 18 ducks (9 greys, 6 gw teal, 2 buffle heads, and 1 spoonie).

[castnblast]

Great Sat. 2 man limit. 8 grays 1BW 1GW 1 Buffy and 1 spoon. It turned out in be a ducky day with 12MPH wind and some cloud cover. Finished by 10 and on public land.

[BoatDR]

Originally Posted by Coot

Well, The 1st split has come to an end. How did some of you LA boys do this year?

Have had a great season thus far. Made 11 hunts and limited out on all but 2 (which shot 9 on one and 10 on the other, in 2 man blind). So far I have been fortunate enough to hunt with a bunch of friends and a couple customers too, so other than opening weekend I have been letting my lease rest peacefully......but next weekend that is all going to change.

And last weekend I ended up the season with a treat, got an invite to go hunt the Atchafalaya Delta with a customer. Got down late on Wednesday but hunted on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (unforunately got fogged in Sunday), limited out all 3 days and the theme of the weekend was variety as we shot 13 species of ducks. The 3 day count was: 4 canvasbacks, 4 mallards, 2 pintail, 2 redheads, 5 wigeon, 2 bw teal, 10 gw teal, 1 greater scaup, 2 ringnecks, 1 buffle head, 1 gadwall, 1 mottled, and 1 spoonbill.

Here's Friday and Saturdays limits:

[deadbird8]

Originally Posted by BoatDR

the theme of the weekend was variety as we shot 13 species of ducks. The 3 day count was: 4 canvasbacks, 4 mallards, 2 pintail, 2 redheads, 5 wigeon, 2 bw teal, 10 gw teal, 1 greater scaup, 2 ringnecks, 1 buffle head, 1 gadwall, 1 mottled, and 1 spoonbill.

The Smorgasbord Hunt! Nice.

[Coot]

Boat Dr.

Nice Cans and Wigeon in that bag!

[CJ1]

Close out hunt for the first spit. A mixed bag, some of Castandblast's birds in there too. He got called in to work and we cleaned em and froze em. And yes that is my oldest little boy and his dog Moxy.

[muddydawg]

Nice stringer!!!

[Coot]

CJ1!

[cupping83]

I'm jealous

[NIP]

[BoatDR]

Had one of the best hunts of the season thus far. 83 degrees, 0 mph wind, and after loosing a pint of blood to the skeeters someone flipped the switch which turned the ducks on and it was hot and heavy from 8:30-9:30 and had em circling the pond the whole time were were picking up birds and decoys. 3 man limit (another smorgasborg hunt): 1 green head, 2 red heads, 8 greys, 2 bw teal, 1 gw teal, 3 dogris, and 1 smiling mallard.

And unfortunately we did have 1 major problem. My buddys dog is out of commision recovering from a broken foot from the last weekend of the first split. We didnt think it was going to be an issue recoverng birds with having no wind so we left him at home. So all the birds we shot we just left lay until we could count 18 on the water and of course we lost track of who's birds were who's. And wouldnt luck have it one of the dogris were banded!!!!!

[muddydawg]

Nice string doc...going in the morning. hoping this front will push em on over here to FL!

[CJ1]

Nice Doc,
I'm on a short leash this weekend seeing as I was in north Mississippi during the break. Hunted at Little Mossy lake outfitters with Rocky Leflore. Weather did not cooperate. Wanted freezing instead got 83 degrees every day. No biggie, got family responsibilities out of the way this weekend. Will hunt next weekend and then to San Francisco to visit family for the holidays.
Once again nice hunt Andy, is Jr. whining or is his lease still holding birds?
CJ

[BoatDR]

Originally Posted by CJ1

......is Jr. whining or is his lease still holding birds?

Those birds were taken off his lease, as well as we spooked up quite a few on the way out too.

[muddydawg]

Guess that front pushed em through like I thought.....me and my fiance had a good morning

[Coot]

I Didn't Hunt Saturday, but on................

Sunday is what these mud boats and motors were made for! - Very Very Low Water, Mud Flats Everywhere, Lack of Open Water Anywhere, 25-30 knot NW winds and Ducks that wanted in bad if you could find some open water to hunt.

Man I love hunting this type of weather when many won't venture out. :Banane34:

We shot a 2 man limit in less than 45 minutes (7 grays and 5 gw teal). I shot a triple (3 green wing teal) with 1 shot at 15 yards which was awesome to see. The amount of large flocks of 50-100 gw teal buzzing the marsh was ridicolous. We could of limited out on teal in 15 minutes, but decided to wait for some big ducks to fly.

[Coot]

I made a hunt this morning expecting to see a lot of ducks flying prior to the thunderstorms and squall lines moving through the area today. Well, I saw the least amount of ducks for the entire year today, however the few flocks of greys we saw worked very well. We had our opportunity to limit out, but some very poor shots were made. We had two large flocks (30-40 birds) of gw teal buzz us so fast that we were barely able to get any shots off and of course none of them dropped. Despite the SE winds, the water was actually very low with most ponds being mud flats b/c of the 1.92' tide range with low tide at 10:00 am. We hunted till 9:15 am which is when the rain started to put together a half way decent bag of ducks.

3 man blind = 14 Ducks (9 grays, 3 gw teal, 1 dosgris, 1 buffle head).

[Coot]

2 grown men and a 5 year old boy with his BB Gun whacked and stacked them today. Not fast and furious by any means, but steady. Back at it in the morning!

2 man blind = 12 ducks (11 grays & 1 gw teal) and 3 mergansers for duck sausage.

[Ronbow]

Great Lookin Young Hunter There Coot, You Guys In La Are Blessed With Great Waterfowl Hunting,very Spotty This Year In Ga.

[Coot]

I took my 15 year old nephew and my 5 year old boy hunting this past Thur 12/27/07 and it has slowed down a lot. Not many birds flying with the cloudy skies and mild temps. We have a few birds, but they don't want to fly unless spooked. My nephew did have some good shooting opportunities as he shot almost 2 boxes of shells. This was only his 3rd ever duck hunt and I did let him do most of the shooting today. My 5 year old boy said he shot 4 ducks today with his BB gun! LOL!

2 man blind = 6 ducks and 3 mergansers (3 gw teal, 2 grays, 1 spoonie)

How are the rest of you LA boys doing?

PS - Before anybody says anything about litering, the empty shell box which fell in the water in the picture was picked up after the hunt!

did really good this morning. we were finished in 15 mins. 12 birds 16 shells. not too bad.


did good all year, hunted every weekend and didnt limit out twice

[Coot]

Good Job Draggin

It's been really slow for me the last two days. The area I am hunting is holding plenty of ducks, but they just aren't flying. They only get up when I run the marsh with the boat and then they quickly go down.

On Saturday I hunted from daylight to 9:15 to shoot 1 gray duck.

Today I tried a mid morning hunt from 8 to 11 to only shoot 3 gw teal.

I will give it a try again NY's day with the 25-30 knot winds forecasted with a strong artic front coming through in hopes of new birds or in hopes the old birds will fly during day light hours.

[RPS]

We're singing the same song on the west side in my marsh. Tons of birds in the marsh but not flying. No wind the last couple of days.

[Coot]

Happy New Years Ducks! :Banane49:

Back to a limit today by slowly picking at them. The ducks were certainly flying a little better today with the 25 NW winds and clear skies, however for the most part the ducks are still sitting tight in the marsh unless spooked. I didn't notice any new ducks in the area except for a group of canvasbacks and I saw the first set of red heads I have seen this year.

2 man blind = 12 ducks (5 gw teal, 4 greys, 1 pintail, 1 mottled duck, 1 red head)

[brandon]

You guys just east of us seem to be doing good. Maybe I can hook up with someone and try the Louisiana Marsh before the season ends. Cause we can't seem to shoot them over here in Southeast Texas

[Coot]

Brandon, I am hunting in SE LA, however I hear that the boys in SW LA are doing better than us.

[Coot]

We knocked down our limit today, but lost one teal in the grass. Not many birds flying today, but enough to put together a decent bag of birds by hunting late. We hunted till 9:45 and should of limited out by 8:30 if we would of shot better.

2 man blind & 1 Five Year Old Boy = 11 ducks (5 grays, 5 gw teal, 1 dosgris)

[DUCKSHOT]

Me and a buddy had 2 sets of birds fly over until we stopped at 1000.
1 Gray
1 Teal

[Coot]

Duck Report 1-6-08 - HUNT LATE AND HUNT SMART!

1st - Pay attention to the tide tables and make sure you are hunting a spot that will still have water at 10 or 11 am.

2nd - Hunt Late!

Today started off extremely slow. I brought my 5 year old boy and my neighbor brought his 12 year old boy. Both boys armed with BB guns, they didn't have too many ducks to shoot at.

From daylight to 7:30 we never fired our guns. At 8:30 we had 2 teal to show for and I was about to call it a day and my worst hunt of the year until................. we dropped a pair of greys that bombed into the dekes. At that point we said lets give it a few more minutes. Then we dropped another pair. Then a sucide single grey fell dead into the spread. Then the highlight of the day with the exception of poor shooting was watching a flock of 30 greys work the spread. They came in perfectly and I actually let the whole flock come in and land 35 yards in front of the blind and then I shouted to spook them up for us to shoot them and we only dropped one. WTF? We dropped a couple more teal between the greys. Wow, those green wing teal are fast and hard to hit! And then at 10:00 sharp 4 greys came in and we dropped two for our limit.

If we didn't stay late we would of never had our limit. At 9:30 we had 6 ducks and I told my partner that this is best I think we will do today. From 9:30 to 10:00 we put 6 more ducks in the bag. It has been very slow with hardly any birds flying, but I have been fortunate b/c the grey ducks are working my spread well. I am hunting the big open water, setting up in the middle, and hunting a spread of 3 dozen grey duck decoys.

2 man blind = 12 ducks (8 greys, 4 gw teal)


The Future of Our Sport.


Teach Em' Young!