Duck hunting Reports!

[DoeNob]

Didn't see any, so I thought I'd start a thread for you to tell us all how you did if you spent time in the blind recently. I have 2 waterfowl leases this year, one east and west of houston, so spend a lot of time out there and will post up what I'm seeing. It will mostly be bemoaning a) the lack of good duck weather b) the lack of birds or c) my lacking shooting ability. ;D

Anyhow, hunted east today, we got goose egged. Seeing lots of geese, saw a total of 4 teal, 2 mallards and 7 pintails, couldn't get anything within shooting range. All the other duck hunters I'm hearing from in this area are having a tough time. After a great start to the beginning of the season and an awesome teal season, the action has really slowed down. 10 day forecasts of bluebird skies and highs in the mid 70's don't help, so don't look for this situation to change any time soon for da dux. Good luck huntin!

I'll be hunting east bay around crystal beach all next weekend for ducks and if this weather doesn't get any better after that, I'm hanging up my waders to go try and smack a deer or two until the weather cooperates.

[DoeNob]

Hunted East bay public marsh areas the last two days and man, it was tough hunting. Sunday we had a north wind rolling in at 20-30 mph, so we opted to walk in since the tide was so low, we were afraid of getting stuck on a mudflat in a canal and having to drag the boat in knee deep mud. Saw a lot of pintails, shot one gaddy, saw a few widgeon, but overall not a lot of ducks moving. The hike out about killed me and I remember now why I quit doing those hunts. Punching through the grass into knee deep mud with 60 pounds of dekes shells and gun on your back makes it hard to keep your balance, I think I only fell over about 6 times!

Sunday we went to another spot, shot 2 teal early on, and saw very few big ducks out at all. Tons of geese moving both days on the coast though. Saw a few other hunters when trailering up, 2 groups had shot one, the other group had about 5 birds, but that was 1.2 BPM for their party. Birds just were not in the area, they appear to have left. One guy told us they were shooting 3 man limits by nine o clock 3 weeks ago and it has died off rapidly since then.

On the way back drove by Jenkins place and he didn't even have very many birds out there which is unusual.

So here it is the beginning of December, no birds on the prarie, no birds on the coast, I'm wondering where they are? Maybe its time to resume deer hunting until it picks up again.

[sbe12g]

well we hunted out in Lissie on sunday. seen lots of geese and even more ducks.......pintails lots and lots of pintails. we shot 1 canada and pick up a cripple speck. that was the extent of our sunday morning. cant wait for pintail season to open........you know where i will be!!!!!!!!

[ICMCumin]

Had the good fortune to have lunch with two guides from Kary/ Eagle Lake Outfitters plus the local game warden today. Lots of geese and sandhill cranes on the Katy prairie and around Eagle Lake.

According to these guys, there is better duck hunting west of Houston than around Anahuac this year. They shot two mallards in Eagle Lake this AM, among other kills......

[DoeNob]

Hunted South of Sealy today on a lease I'm looking at for next year. Lots of pintails and bootlips and didn't see much else. Ducks seemed to want to work real well about 15 yards outside shooting range and then sit down 75 yards away in the middle of the field. Got rained on early and as soon as it stopped you could feel the temperature plummeting as that artic air rolled through, got cold quick, I was glad we were hunting one man pits sunk into a levy. It was nice to finally shoot a pintail, hope to do it again tomorrow.

[DoeNob]

Hunted some sweet private land in the vicinity of Sargent this morning. With the 6 inches of rain they got last night, the whole marsh was one giant pond. Made recovering cripples impossible, they just keep swimming. Also - no place to sit, so we just sat down in 6 inches of water, but it made a great low profile and none of the birds we saw ever had a clue we were there. My host got a banded mottled, I should have shot that bird first, but waited till it got to where we could both shoot at it, and darned if I didn't whiff my first shot and then he crumpled it. Good mix with some GWT, grey ducks, the mottled and a bootlip. Good lookin duck weather today, tomorrow will be blue skies and a north wind.

[NechesBobcat]

One of the places I hunt is a swamp in Silsbee, Tx that is 100 yards wide and about a mile long. Last year it was home to about 1,000 wood ducks 50 hooded mergansers and a handful of mallards.

The begging of this season was the worst I have ever seen but at the end of the season I saw more ducks than I have any other year.

I took one trip to Toledo Bend this past season to a spot that me and some friends took a few banded birds last year (mallards and wood ducks). We might have seen 30 ducks on the whole lake. There was no water and I have heard that the water level will be dropping more due to a water pipeline that will run from Toledo Bend to Dallas.

I also made a trip to the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. I got one Mallard, one blue wing drake, and 2 greenwings. My friend got a cinamon teal. We went on a clear day without a cloud in the sky. The mallards were flying all day long and we saw them and teal by the thousands and saw about 10,000 geese (blues, snows and specks).

I shot a MONSTER Mallard drake and an green wing at Lake Limestone early in the season.

Altogether I had more fun than I had ducks. It was nothing like last year.

[ICMCumin]

Nice woodies and hunmpback Browning too!

The more I see posts like this, the more I see the need to buy a good duck boat..........

Now, if I just had some $$$$$

[NechesBobcat]

All that is is a pirogue built buy C&D Enterprises in West Monroe, LA. I got that as a graduation present. My parents wanted to get my a new truck but I love my old one and would benefit more from a pirogue. I use it in the swamps and back water of the Neches River.

The pirogue is 11' long and I easily load and unload it in the back of my truck. We have loaded it up to 475 pounds including passenger and it does great. They could easily be built by anyone who has an aluminum welding set up and pattern for the boat.

[ICMCumin]

have seen the pirogue's on TV before - guess they are pretty much unique to Louisiana ..........

BTW - is anyone still going after late season geese? a buddy (guide for Larry Gore) says they are still having some success with them.

I ain't going to spend anymore $$$ with those guys for a while.