Nuttin' But Bad Luck 1 14 21

Guess I should take this as good luck as today,Bayou bob and I were hoping to hit an ole stand-by,were prepared for fairly low water and to our surprise,water level at launch not terribly bad and here is when de fun began!!Launched ole SouthFork put her in reverse and felt what appeared to be steering cable snap(had helm replaced probably about 4-5 years ago)and we were very fortunate that we had that mishap right at launch,got ole gal on trailer and mentioned to Bayou bob dat all I needed to do was stick Chapman into son's pickup,get on line and register for Pearl River WMA and hit wood duck pond.Got home swapped out vehicles,grabbed 6 woodie dekes and Chapman and already had gun and shells and Q beam,good to go and arrived at Pearl just as I saw two hunters doing self-check in(what a waste of valuable time as on-line app free)!!!Got set up,texted Wifey so she would not be worried bout de SouthFork and Lead Sled back home but older son's truck and Chapman rogue missing!!!Foggy conditions greeted me and fog does affect woodies to about same degree as other marsh waterfowl but right after legal shooting fired at pair right at fringe of range(how dey know dat is beyond me).Not long later what appeared to be fine pair of woodies came in,lined em up fired and got em both(trouble was it was doggone pair of common mergansers)!!!Lost one but did get hen merganser,for what dat is worth and spotted otter on way out-bet he woulda tossed mergie back at me and mighta bit me for feeding him trash!!!Oh well,grandson loves watching Paw Paw clean ducks,gotta tell him dis aint a desirable species!!!Got Abita KC meeting tonight and we are raffling off Winchester SXP Defender 12 GA shoot-gun!!!Taking five chances,all of $20 and do not need another shoot-gun but with the way things going,never know when dat weapon might come in handy!!!

Mandevillian

Mandevillian sorry for your bad luck, last Sat. made a hunt 0 ducks yesterday had 4 3 doggres 1 teal not good we have not seeine a gray duck come in in weeks with all that gold up north still no big ducks .

speckle_searcher,Thanks and the positive attitude I try to constantly exhibit led me to de Honey Island Swamp yesterday where all I got was a stinking common merganser hen-think de otter I spotted on paddle out woulda tossed dat fish-eater right back at me and possibly bit me to tossing him turds!!!Got awesome marine mechanic(mobile)dat professionally guided me through few DIY repairs(not all are for the in-experienced,I might add)but I consider myself well above average in mechanical skills and repairs never seem to bother me(unless dey impossible)!!!Gonna get ole SouthFork fixed just in time for Arkansas to freeze up and send us some trophy greenheads(dummy me missed golden chances or I woulda had at least three greenheads so far)!!!Yall probably get very few mallards where ya hunt,we get a fair number and older son and I gonna make lemon daquiris outtta de lemons we got handed!!!Good luck rest of dis rotten duck season-hope yall get some teal and greys and NO SCAUP!!!

Mandevillian

Speckle searcher if you are referring to “gold” as flooded corn I do not think that is the big issue. Something else is going on. Our bread and butter big duck in South LA is a grey duck and grey ducks typically do not eat corn. IMO the weather pattern has changed. It seems like when I was much younger and killed more ducks the wind blew straight out the north when a front would come through. Another thing I don’t see anymore and my dad brought this to my attention is the red breasted robins. When the robins were here the ducks were here, and I don’t see the robins like I used to growing up.

B09031995,Think the short-stopping by numerous forces has 'imprinted' generations of ducks and got a buddy,GB3 on here,with fine place in SE Arkansas and they likewise suffering from duck migrations that unfortunately have been altered.About the only hope for where I hunt(does have fair number of what I suspect are resident,non-migrating mallards-why would they migrate as lotta folks in Carr Drive area feed em as well as feed the black-bellied whistling ducks on Bayous Lacombe and Bonfouca)is when and IF Arkansas freezes up to the point where they pretty much HAVE no choice but to migrate S.As far as robins concerned,have a deer lease with nice golden nuggets feeder that finally works like it should and Browning Strike Force game cam,likewise functional and spot tons of robins and other song birds SO I would not put lotta emphasis on NOT seeing robins as we got tons on NShore BUT very few greys.Bayou bob and I did spot what looked to be decent flocks of greys ONLY after we hunted damn near gale-force winds and shut down our hunts around 9:00.Maybe we should alter our hunts by either delaying our launch OR sticking it out til maybe 10:30(gotta try something different)and I personally LOVE the challenge of shooting woodies,may be our saving grace from yet another stinking,rotten duck season!!

Mandevillian

All the ducks are on the west coast, check it out on refugeforums.com. Looks like the pacific flyway is the hottest place in the country.

Sorry not gold , cold did not see that one lol but with that said feed in a short stopper up north ,