Gulf Coast Alabama Opener

Carl

Carl

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Well, I didnt get a chance to hunt the opener of our two day first split. So my regular partner hunted my blind. They did great, his Dad, his son & my buddy shot a 3-man limit of 5 redheads, spoonies, teal, ruddies and gadwalls. Reports from my co-worker biologists/wardens is that most guys shot a good mix of birds on the opener.
I was pretty excited to get out on Saturday. Got to the dock really early to beat the crowd and found a pile of trucks & trailers already there at 3:45am. We headed to my blind only to find that that the strong SE wind had pushed a ton of water up into the bay. Water that should have been 2' deep was 5' deep. Most of my blind was underwater, leaving us pretty exposed. We set up anyway and put out the decoys. Then chased decoys around for the next hour as floating mats of grass carried them off. Think I lost a couple.
Daylight rolled around and some birds were moving but definately not what was described from the day before.
First bird in range was a ringneck, 1st one I have killed in around 7 years.
View attachment Nov26_11-Ringer.jpg
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Next birds to come in were a pair of greenwings, what they were doing in 5' of open water, I dont know. But I dropped a beautiful drake.
View attachment Nov26_11-GWTeal.jpg

Things were slow for the rest of the morning. But I was shooting well (for the most part) and managed a ruddy, a spoonie and a drake buffy before calling it quits. A real nice mix of birds, should of had a gadwalls to add into the bag, but I missed what should have been an easy shot. Also missed another drake buffy doing 90 knots. Those two misses plus the ones I shot were all the birds that visited the spread. Did see a number of other birds going to shallower areas, they were getting the attention of the guys set up there.
View attachment DucksNov26-2011.jpg



Got back to the dock and talked to my co-workers again. They said over the last two days, they checked more spoonies, redheads and ruddy ducks than ever before. They saw tons of gadwalls in there pre-season survey but they didnt check many. Seems like the warm weather and deep water had the gaddies rafted up on the open bay, sitting things out.
The boy managed to get in one shot at a sitting ruddy, but he shot low. We'll see how he does when we re-open Saturday.
 
Carl, I was wandering when you were getting out. Good shooting. Now come on, I don't believe them buffies can fly 90 knots. Maybe 35. HeHe Nice variety of birds.

Gary March
 
Looks like you had a great hunt despite the conditions. I'll bet you are already thinking about your next hunt, Carl.
Al
 
Gary,

We just opened up on Friday, we start late and end late. Its good to be on the south end of the flyway!

90 knts may be an exageration, but not by much!! That bird was smoking, shot behind him all three times, just couldnt catch up.
 
Oh yeah, we'll be out early Saturday! Good thing is I can see my blind from the road and will windshield scout every day. But the real debate is weather to go after puddler or head out to the big water to target all the redheads, buffies and scaup we have down already.
 
Trip,
She is stable as can be and the open floor is fantastic. I did have to make some mods to the blind when we got home but that is to be expected.
Now that I figured out how to prime it, the Merc starts on 1/2 a pull, even cold. Runs fantastic. :)

I do have one problem: The boat planes out really flat, bow level. Which is fine in flat water, but in a chop it was kind of a wet ride at speed.
She also cavitates if I try to get on plane really quick a/o blows out in turns at times.
I am beginning to think I need a different prop for this motor/hull combo or i need to make some other change in how the motor is setup.
Any advice from all your motor guru's????

The other thing is picking up decoys with such a deep hull is mighty interesting, especially for me driving and my boy trying to snag them at the bow seat.
Had to make him a short stick to snag them but the decoys tend to disappear under the curve of the bow at the last moment. We both have some to get the hang of it!
 
She also cavitates if I try to get on plane really quick a/o blows out in turns at times.
I am beginning to think I need a different prop for this motor/hull combo or i need to make some other change in how the motor is setup.
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Carl,

Different prop and/or motor mounted too high.
 
The cavitation plate is below the hull, so I think its mounted the right height. I think I may try to lower it one more knotch and see how she does next time.
 
Until you get that issue resolved as Dave says, just slow down a bit. You might also want to put your pin on your motor mount out 1 and see what that does. That would tend to lift the bow some. As for picking up decoys, get 2 decoy poles or one and a notched paddle. Your boy can grab with the pole without having to lean out of the boat and you can grab with the notched paddle. Two pulling at once will speed it up. As with my boy now (16) we have worked out a pretty good system and can knock out that chore in no time. That is unless it is icy, spitting snow and the wind is blowing like crazy - you know, a perfect duck day! Anyway, good luck and shoot some pics of your set up now. Also, how is the new pup handling the ride/retrieve from the new boat? Trip.
 
Your boy can grab with the pole without having to lean out of the boat and you can grab with the notched paddle.
Click to expand...

That is our system exactly!

THe pup is not hunting this year. I have not had the time to get her ready. She has the go fetch part down but she has had little hand signal work and I have not exposed her to gun fire yet. SHe's not afraid of loud noises, so I dont see any problems. Just need another year to get her ready. I am also going to need a ladder, the sides are too steep to pull her in.
 
I've already had a net in the boat for years! The crab net is great for picking up birds.
 
Since we don't have crabs up here, for years I've used a cheap Wally World net with a long piece of cane pole shoved in the handle to extend the reach. It works great for picking up birds and keeps your gloves mostly dry. I've tried the net on decoy retrieval, but had decoys flip out of the net numerous times due to the line/weight hanging down. Trip.
 
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