| Opening of 2nd Split Duck Season 2002 More Redfish! |
| The 2nd split of the 2002 duck season in Southeast Louisiana opened on Saturday, December 21st. Dick, Joe and I met at Gary's at 1000 on Friday. Well, actually all three of us were early and we had the boats packed and we were on the road by 1010. It was a nice sunny day and we were all excited about going back to the marsh for a weekend of duck hunting and fishing. Joe brought his faithful golden retriever, Annie. |
| The trip to Venice was pretty uneventful other than I forgot to stop at the usual gas station to fill the boats so we gassed up in Venice. While stopping for bait and ice, I noticed a bulge in one of the tires on the trailer for the flatboat I was towing. We inspected it and decided to ride it until it blew. I'm happy to report it made it all the way to Venice and back without expiring. We launched without incident and drove both the mudboat and flatboat to the campsite. A drilling rig had been moved in and was drilling a well in Red's pass. Other than that, the marsh was basically the same as we left it the previous month. Along the way I spotted a coyote sitting on the side of the canal leading to the campsite. It's the first time I'd ever seen a coyote in the marsh. It was quite big and looked healthy and I was appreciative that there was such wildlife still in the marsh. We set up the campsite and decided to go fishing. The Gulf was a little rough so we stayed inside. The wind was blowing pretty good so we packed it in for the day and headed back to camp. We knew Saturday would be the day to fish because of the weather pattern and we knew the wind would lay down. Not good for duck hunting, but great for fishing. The weather back in November for the opening of the duck season was not ideal for duck hunting and this weekend would prove the same. With sunny skies and temperatures reaching into the 70's, we anticipated the ducks would not be flying in great numbers. And we were counting on Saturday to be a great fishing day. Back at the campsite, Joe fixed some awesome hamburgers over the fire for dinner. We drank a few toddies, then went to bed. Unfortunately Joe forgot the pump to the big air mattress so we were all forced to sleep on the hard ground. |
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| Packing the boats at Gary's for the hour drive to Venice, LA. |
| Page 2 - Saturday's Fishing and the evening hunt! |
| Back to Don's Duck Page |
| We got up around 0430 Saturday morning. Dick fixed coffee and we headed out to the blinds around 0530. Joe dropped me at the teal spot on the back canal. Dick and Joe would hunt with Annie in the main pond. We still had a north wind Saturday morning which was good, but there was no water in the pond Joe and Dick were hunting. I had no water in my pond either, but we had anticipated this the day before when we set out my decoys and we had placed all of them in the canal. I had the first shot just before it got light when a single teal came in over the decoys. I had singles come in that morning, shooting four but missing on at least 2 others. I had no big ducks come over me, but I was happy to see the teal. Last month we didn't see hardly any teal and it was cause for concern. But on Friday when going to put out my decoys we scared up a very large flock of a couple hundred teal, so we knew they were there. Joe came to pick me up just before 0800. They had shot only two gray ducks but could not get to one of them because there was no water in the pond. It wasn't a great hunt, but our thoughts were on the fish. |
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| Joe enjoying the warmth of the fire and a toddie as the moon rises over the marsh. |