First split-coastal zone
 

Well, rate your first split.... Was it average, good, etc. Just curious about the blind or lease. Not asking where. Our lease did well. We were very fortunate in the hunts we had, and the birds we killed. This is based off of just conversations about hunts during the split. We hunt marsh and killed a varsity of species. Happy with the first split.

I've hunted in 8ish days in the first split in GC south of 82. So far I've killed limits every time and just about everyone that has hunted in the blind with me has limited or should have as well. Although yesterday someone hunted the same blind had only had 2 at 8:30.

I would say 90% of what we killed were teal, 5% grays and 5%other. Usually its the other way around, I guess the teal loved the extra foot of water.

We did Okay. Not our best year ever but not our worse either. We where only skunked a time or two. Most days we would get between 4 to 8 birds between 2 people. We had a few limits but very seldom. I did get to spend more time at the camp than I have in a long while.

Two words come to mind: poo poo

I can honestly say, so far this is the worst duck season I have had. Granted, I wasn't able to hunt near as much as I had in most years. We just didn't get the birds, and everyone around is saying the same thing. Hunting rice fields in central Evangeline parish.


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Hunt Dulac area. Ended up with 3.5 birds per hunter per trip. 45 greys and 19 teal 1 mottled 2 scaup. Over the last 5 years we have average about 3 birds per hunter.

South of hwy in GC. One of our better seasons with most hunts having limits of mostly teal and a few greys mixed in. Sat was good but Sunday saw a hunt of 9 birds mostly teal. Hope the greenwing stick around the second season.

Hunted fields in Lacassine area. Geese are finally showing up more in the area. Ducks were hit and miss. Average was 4 birds a person. Teal, greys, spoons. Where I hunted was devided by hwy. The east side had a way better flight of birds.

Started great, ended horrible. Killed mostly teal with a few greys mixed in. Beat the Hell out of "honey-do's" on the weekend though!

My experiences

Coastal (Rice fields in S. Central LA): First year hunting it hard, very very very slim pickins
W. Zone (Red River area NW LA): Slower than usual, too much water and about 1/2 the ducks
E. Zone (Tensas River area, rice fields NE LA): Much slower than usual, about 1/3 of the ducks

I suppose lack of colder temps up north to blame for lack of birds in E and W zones for me. All of my spots in these zones are full of food, some with too much water, but altogether were set up for birds. I think we just never got the weather to push em down.

Teal Teal and more Teal. Didn't really see a lot of mallards until the last two weekends of the first split. Shot mostly teal in the first few eeks of the split. The season started way to early. Most birds haven't even started their migration yet when the season started. Hope it starts freezing up north soon!

Hunted Sabine, Little Chenier, and 4 mile square area. Teal, Greys, Mottle, to make the few good bags we had. Very weak first split, one good front brought in some birds for a few days but we shot them out fast. Really hoping for a better 2nd. More skunk days than any season that I can remember, looking back 20 years.

Best season we have had in the last 5 years. 83 ducks in 8 hunts, 74 of which were BWT and GWT. No Hybrids though;) HA

Unfortunately, buddy went yesterday and didn't see a bird.. if the Teal left, we screwed!

Our season in SW La. rice field started great, but didn't last long. The ducks left after the first week. Specks lasted longer, but the last week was slow.

Worst 1st split in 15 years. Hunt east side of pecan is.

I quit and went back to deer hunting. Worst first split for me in over 30 years

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Worst ever for ducks. Decent for geese. Good thing DU got all that land up north for the spring return trip... wait... guess if they never make it the don't gotta return.

1st week was good. After the 1st week terrible. This reminds me of the 1st split of 2013.

Compared to last year, down about 100 ducks, even with the earlier start..
High water killed us in the marsh.. I'd rather have warmer weather and 1ft of water than 4 ft

Averaged over 3 per person dogs, ringers, and ruddies. A couple goldeneyes and a bonus surf scoter for the wall. Coots seem to be a little scarce but maybe they will come on down for second split

Started great, Opening weekend was on fire.. Ended horrible. Killed mostly teal with a few greys, woodies, mixed in. Worst that I remember... No weather..

First split-coastal zone
 

Hunt in Plaquemines parish on east bank and it's been worst year I've had out there. The high water is awful and majority of our bag has been teal. However have killed a few pintails and a couple mallards. We are around 80ish, in a good year we should be easily double that. Waiting on some west winds and a legitimate front. Unfortunately I think lousy winds and warm temps are here to stay with this strong El~niño or whatever you call the pacific driven winter weather that's forecasted.

Aside from the opener the best hunt I had was Tuesday and it was zero wind and 100 degrees, but the water levels were normal.


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Worst I can remember in a long time if not ever. High water but tons of food. Had a couple decent hunts and just as many poor. The best hunts were on days I couldn't go. Saturday six of us hunted three of our best blinds. Beautiful day to hunt and we shot two teal between six hunters. Took the girlfriend for a ride sunday afternoon. Road thousands of acres of marsh and I jumped 5-10 birds. All singles, and they all looked lost. I'm hoping something changes in these two weeks or I'll be hanging it up and going fishing early.

It had its ups and downs, but more ups than downs. The high water killed us in the marsh it had the ducks spread out. On the upside our duck ponds are full of vegetation for the ducks just were under 3' of water. I think that will actually prove to be a blessing once the ducks show up and find the food in the marsh.


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Johnson Bayou (south of 82) started out strong with full limits on youth and opening wknd. Have killed one bird since. Snow geese are starting to show up now.

Great all the way up to the Friday after Thanksgiving. Hunted south of Lake Arthur on rice and fresh water marsh.

Had plenty of ducks on location but somebody turned the switch off when it got warm on black Friday!

41 specks and 57 ducks, 32 of the ducks being opening weekend (two 3 mans), speck hunting is being consistent south of welsh, just having to work for them

Hunted Bellcity holmwood area. My family has been there for about 100yrs. Worst yr ever on record. We didn't even kill a 1/4 of what we normally kill. Not sure why. We have lots of food. Nothing is different. Only thing that comes to mind is no cold weather. According to biologist the northern states are just now getting mallards.

Really frustrating. Second split not looking any better. Oh well. Glad we opened season a week early. Not that it would matter right now anyways.


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Killed around 140 ducks and 60 specks thornwell area, started out awesome with ducks they left quick though. Killed 1 snow goose all split which we don't make point to go after but usually kill 50 or so a split

South of Kaplan, 132 ducks, 3 geese verses last years fiirst split, 70 ducks and 13 geese. Our opening weekend of the first split was good and then our numbers naturally declined, but we closed out the last day with a 2 man limit. That certanently left me eager for the second split to get started. I agree with all that speak of the lack of cold fronts. The freeze line simply isn't dipping down enough to push down our wanted numbers.

Like most the first part of the split was good with limits or near limits in the first 7 hunts (Greys, Teal mostly but shot 8 different species) followed by Scratch, Scratch & 2 in my last 3 hunts. Even though we were getting limits early I did notice that there were not as many birds compared to past years and during the lase 3 hunts I was not seeing 50 birds total and I hunted to 11 am on the 2 scratch days. Not even seeing high flight birds. Driving around between Kaplan & PI where I normally at least see birds I am seeing nothing. It is a strange year, I think the high water combined with the mild temps have a lot to do with the lack of birds.

Pecan Island: Always saw birds, which is criteria #1 for enjoyment. Probably averaged 4-5 birds/hunt, 90% BWT. Kind of a slow start. Last week of first split had 2X's more BWT and limited easily the last hunt. Seeing some Spoonies and Green heads, will target them more the second split.

Went to the marsh today to do a little work on the blinds. One good thing all the extra water is out the marsh and water levels are back to normal exposing all the grass in our ponds. We also popped up quite a few ducks out of our marsh while going to blinds. Looks like it's going to be a good second split opener with these two cold fronts should push more ducks down


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Cameron Parish is a Buffet Waiting to be Devoured
 

Awesome, high water was killing us. Cameron Parish is a buffet waiting to be devoured when the water drops and ducks come down. What area u hunt?

Our place was the same way lots of food but had a extra two foot of water on it. I hunt just east of intracoastal city north of the icy canal.


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I imagine we have more water now.. Our last weekend the water was slowly going down. It seems to hold water a better than it drains at our place in Cameron parish

Has anyone been out to marsh or fields, I haven't been able to wondering if any new birds are around?

Didn't go deep into our marsh yesterday, BUT, pulled my boat around to the launch and saw a handful of teal. Looked out into the marsh itself and didn't see anything flying. This was at noon. It was blowing a solid 18 mph. Kind of disappointed....

Had some buddies hunt in Arkansas this past weekend and pretty much strummed them. They CLAIM the birds are there in full force. Not to mention, killing about 12-15 specks a hunt. Would be nice to have a 3 bird speck limit, but hey, our opinion doesn't matter.

NE Arkansas
 

that is a 7 man limit of ducks and specks

The geese are there. Massive bodies of blues and snows.

I saw it with my own eyes,no false claim

We did really good. 55% ringnecks though. They taste like puddlers, so I can't hate.. Average about 5.5 ducks/hunt at one spot and 4.5 ducks/hunt at another. I was fortunate enough to whack some whistlers in Port Arthur. We lost our goose lease, so I focused on ducks. I called it a good first split but I am easily satisified.

From what we have been seeing with our vets is the spec's came out to play. But all we killed is Blue wing teal or a Blackjack when we went duck hunting . I hope the 2nd split is better.


Anyone know how the spec hunting is on the north side 335 in cow island/ Kaplan ?