Gotta lay de blame at my feet,could NOT drop dem ducks today,truth be told de brutal WSW winds did NOT help!!De Nuck and Futz Duo made yet another fairly low-water hunt today(my trick is one CAN safely and relatively easily walk pirogue to ponds in certain areas we hunt)!Got us a later-than-typical start(sorry Nuck-did NOT specify my departure time from Mandeville)as I scoped out incredibly accurate Wunderground site and saw where rain was supposed to cease around 5:00am and I arrived at launch around 4:45 am,got us to our spot around 5:10 or so and it was indeed a chore getting to where ducks have been consistently wanting to dive bomb de plastic parades(been thinning out dem parades lately,so cricital for later season ducks)!Yesterday,Wifey and I snagged 4 huge palmetto branches while we were in Kenner and they were essential and I strategically placed de thicker ones on W side of my Chapman pirogue blind and they helped immensely.First ducks to show up were a pair of fine mottled ducks,lined one up and busted him,hit him three times and unfortunately,he made a miraculous escape!!!Hurt dat the water was riduculously low and woulda been tough to catch up with this fine specimen!!Kinda bad omen and de story today was dat it was tough getting ducks in close and even close shots did NOT guarantee dropping em like stones!!Next on deck was solo grey dat damn near hit me but after taking just one shot at him,he caught wings full of WSW wind and was gone in a flash,followed by PAIR of mallards dat totally surprised both Nuck and I and I saw where one of my shots nailed the breast of drake but again WSW winds swirling totally screwed my pattern!!!Finally had four greys come in,dropped one kinda high and he dropped,put another prayer of a shot on him and he had enough paddle-power to get to S side of extremely low-water pond and I could tell he would easily out-paddle me!!!Had I cashed in today,coulda easily had pair of mallards,mottled duck and drake grey plus possibly have gotten one or two outta flock of four dat came reasonably close.Guess operative word is 'reasonably close' as only mallards were reasonably close,everything else long shots and if first shot did NOT fold duck,second and third shots prayers as best!!!Think time to shift gears,climb into deer stand and hit stand while low-water conditions offer no hope with fronts only lowering low water and bringing ZERO ducks,at least in areas we hunt!!
Mandevillian
Mandevillian