Gimme B for Bummer S for Staying de Course

First split ended for me,mercifully,but not what I was anticipating!!Bayoubob and I each hit our favorite NShore Marsh ponds and I was de unlucky hunter goofing up and not firing on nice flock of 4 blue wings(thought they were gonna give me one more,closer pass)but dey decided to veer off and only had fleeting chances at one of my least-favorite species,Scaup,and did not cash in and Bayoubob,to his credit,stayed de course even though he was working on string of DNF hunts(those stink,big-time)and he emerged with nice pair of greys.Heard lot more shooting all around us today and saw some glimmer of hope in form of nice flock of mallards working nice treeline ponds.Did a tally of the ducks harvested and on my solo hunts and extracting those ducks I was certain I hit(on joint hunts),looks like I tallied 18 ducks on 11 hunts with only one DNF(Pearl River WMA) and Bayoubob tallied 14 ducks on same number of hunts,all his solo hunts.Adding Gerard(hunting partner on 4 hunts)and tallying up our joint totals,we managed 27 ducks total.Did not extract Bayoubob's species totals but have those for Gerard and I and as follows:7 Greys,7 Green Wing Teal,6 Blue Wing Teal,2 Scaup,1 Wood Duck,1 Mottled Duck,1 redhead,1 widgeon,1 Spoonie.Hope Second Split we fare a tad better and with fronts anticipated,we should see some improvement in our duck hunts!!

Mandevillian

First half was ok for me. I made 5 hunts and bagged 28 ducks, 3 Coots, 2 gallinue, and 2 nutria. A mix of teal, one redhead hen, 2 ringnecks, and 6 scaup. One gwt was banded. Called in the band and they have no info on it lol but oh well still another band for the lanyard. Went Saturday and had my limit in the fog within 20 minutes of shooting time. Was my best hunt this half seconded by the opener hunt. My buddy only managed 1 bwt and he was 100 yards from me. Guess I'm in the right spot. First year ever I didn't get any big ducks in the first half. Hope the 2nd half changes things.

BJ,Ya definitely on de right spot,wherever dat is and we do hear lotta shooting due S of us in NShore Marsh(I guess ya hunting PAC).I like my chances in NShore marsh,especially the ponds I have been hunting last few seasons as they offer nice variety of quality ducks and typically do not have much in de way of competition,though the Openers of both splits are always de wild card,never know who gonna be out there seeking feathered friends!!Looks like ya had much better results than Bayoubob and I!!

Mandevillian

Yeah I have little competition where I am in Pac. Usually it's loaded with grays and pintail but not this season. They should open the teal season in November and duck season December 1st. By the time the ducks come down the season will be over. I've never killed this many teal in one season before. Killed like 20 or so in 5 hunts lol. Last year I hunted the opener and killed 3 teal, 2 grays, a mottled, and 15 Coots. That was my only hunt last year because my daughter was born. Year before I killed mostly grays. I think around 40 for the season. So this is a strange season no doubt. I have family hunting by their camp in dularge and I think between 3 ppl and around 10 hunts each so 30 hunts they didn't even bag a combined 10 birds so I consider myself lucky this time.

BJ,What is insane is the volume of greys I saw just the Wed before Thanksgiving(coulda shot nothing but greys had I been on the proverbial 'X')and after shooting one of my least favorite scaup,moved and literally had my next 5 ducks in no time and one was very mature drake mottled duck,my second-to-last for a solo limit.Went back to exact spot Thanksgiving morning,shot mostly teal and knowing what we now know,coulda blasted a limit of teal and we ended up with 8 teal and a grey,not sure where the greys went and I have some suspicions that they migrated to the potholes N of us as some seemed to kinda stick around,though well-educated by now,hence difficult to fool!!!What is nice about the spots I have been hunting,besides having some early shots at greys,is the variety of ducks that like this area,woodies,mallards,mottled ducks,teal,and whenever the greys wander over and do NOT raft up!!I have a few strategies up my sleeve,took John Manion of Marsh and Bayou and LA Sportsman to nice honey-hole and we had some late-season,in-ya-face shots uncommon late in season just last season and no reason this second split not gonna be carbon copy!!!Hope springs eternal and moving around on Public Land almost only way to get away from DNF hunts or those where you do not spot a duck of any kind!!!PAC is an area that Bayoubob and I hunted and I like where we hunt as so close to home and not that many scaup,at least where I hunt.Might just have to check out de BJ scaup recipe!!!

Mandevillian

Haha it won't let u down. Just baked 5 teal last night mmm can't ask for better. I did manage to knock one gray down last hunt but lost it in the 12ft rosseaus. I was bummed out for sure. Not often I lose a downed bird. This front coming will hopefully freeze the northern fields and push the ducks down. My new spot is a medium size pond that opens up to a large pond and it's really shallow so I think that's why the ducks like it. It's almost completely closed in. I think I will have a great 2nd half in that spot. Hopefully I can manage about 5 to 7 more good hunts.

BJ,I am not only a die-hard but an eternal optimist and love my late-season mid-week hunts when Bayoubob and I typically have the entire Marsh to ourselves and we hunt solo most of the time,giving each of us plenty of opportunities to reflect upon what a treasure we have in our Public Land marshes!!I like having my wife roast different ducks and can tell ya dat widgeons are amongst the best-eating ducks out there and woodies possibly a tad tastier and redheads and ring-necks are quite good as well.The way I strip my ducks,they look like smallish chickens and on ducks with decent wings,like the drake redhead,I strip the wings as well and some of those ducks have decent wing meat.I also clean out the gizzards,livers,hearts and Wifey uses a Dutch oven that is well-seasoned to roast delicious ducks and she tosses in dem giblets,yummy,yummy,yummy!!!Hoping for better Second Split results and we typically start getting some decent fronts,get some in-educated birds typically around those fronts and fun hunts at least for a few days and NOT having tons of pressure certainly helps de cause!!!

Mandevillian