Cold Blast Hunts

Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

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When the cold front slammed us a few days go we expected a big push of ducks. Well it didn't happen, at least not right away. My hunch is new birds passed straight through and old birds moved out. But when everything started locking up and open water, other than the middle of the river, got scarce the ducks left around became susceptible.

Christmas morning we tried a popular WMA thinking the refuge next door would be frozen solid leaving just the creek channel open and lots of ducks looking for open water. TVA decided to drop the water a considerable amount, and moving water doesn't freeze, so the refuge stayed open and with it open every duck in 30+ miles was on it like business as usual.

So we decided to put some distance between us and it. Christmas afternoon Thomas and I did some looking and found quite a few mallards loafing on the TN river so we decided to toss out a few decoys. By the time shooting was over we managed to score a mixed bag of four. Confident we had the best thing going Thomas decided to round the troops and go back in the morning. I was pretty tired and told him I'd sleep in and good luck. At 8:30 he called saying 'Dad, get down here now!" I threw on my hunting clothes, hitched the Broadbill, and was at the launch in about an hour. It was steady action until we filled our limits.

We decided to try our luck again. Snow and sleet hit our area last night and roads were closing. Thomas and Patrick got an extra early start and made it to the ramp well before shooting. Myself and another partner caught up with them around 5:00 a.m., meaning I got to sleep in again. The hunt did not disappoint.

Below are a few pictures from the past couple of days. For certain these hunts are burned into the memory bank.

Eric



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Wow!! That?s some great memories right there!
Hunting in the snow in Alabama, who?d Thunk it??
 
Carl

The black ice was AWFUL. I suspect it kept the crowds away. The low hunter numbers and workable ducks sure felt like hunts I've not seen in twenty years.

Eric
 
Eric,
Great hunts for some great people. You definitely have it made now with Thomas going out and taking care of the hunting spot for you to show up later, will be awhile but won't take long until my boys get out by themselves and I hope they call me to come out and shoot a limit of ducks. In fact my oldest is 9 and I think I found the perfect spot for him to shoot his first ducks.

My brother and I secured a Tupelo beaver swamp that only we will have permission to hunt. Went Saturday in the freezing cold and was one shy of a two man limit, probably could have shot another if we stayed longer but had other things to do being Christmas Eve. But the ducks were landing 10 yards from us as we are in the decoys picking up gadwall we shot. So hope my oldest will get out there and have a place where he can take his time to pick an easy shot.

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Ben

I'd rather hunt a good tupelo swamp than just about anything else. I used to hunt several big ones on TVA before alligator weed rendered them useless. Hopefully you don't have it in your area. I suspect you've got coontail growing in the tupes you have permission to hunt. That will keep the gadwall coming back in spite of some hunting pressure.

Eric
 
I don't believe there is any coon's tail in this swamp but I have not gone through all of it. They bust the dam up every spring so it's not always flooded.

One Tupelo swamp I have access was half logged a few years ago and now the alligator weed is taking over that section. Can barely paddle through there with the kayak. But so far the ducks still like it there, even shot a pintail there, but can only hunt there after deer season goes out per land owner requests.
 
Ben

If the water leaves over the summer the alligator weed can't really develop dense mats. If the water is there year round and crotch deep or more it will develop into mats so thick other vegetation will begin to grow on top of it. Our state really mismanaged a large tupelo swamp on Racoon Creek WMA by not keeping the beavers in check and letting water stand year round. The alligator weed mats took off and are now so thick they are biomass that can support cattails and willow trees. The days of wading amongst the trees are long gone and the ducks don't use it anymore because much of the water in the swamp is inaccessible. Those invasive plants destroy good waterfowl habitat. You can keep them in check by getting the water out but left alone nothing good comes from it.

Eric
 
Thanks Eric, for all that information. I'll be sure to let the landowner know to keep busting the beaver dam each year.

As far as the other spot I don't think there is much I can do for it. There are no beavers in there that I have noticed. Most of the water is just there naturally year round, it's been a little worse the past couple years because of log jams where the loggers lefts tons of debris behind.
That also probably explains why there are so many cattails now on one side of swamp. It didn't occur to me that they were growing on the alligator weed and also why the ducks avoid that side.

Is there a control to it? Herbicides?
 
Yes, herbicides can knock it back. You will never totally get rid of it though. Glyphosate works and so does 2,4-d. One of Thomas's closest friends (2nd pic young man on the far right) works full time in the aquatic weed control industry. I really need to get him to come on the site and give some info about controlling unwanted aquatic vegetation. He is an incredible source of knowledge on the subject.

Eric
 
Great hunts for sure! Funny how your trophy bird on top of the pile is a spoony and lots of people around here won't even shoot them. Just depends on your location :)
 
I loved seeing spoonies and taking them! The ones we got in Mobile were just as tasty as gadwalls.
 
Kevin Layne said:
Great hunts for sure! Funny how your trophy bird on top of the pile is a spoony and lots of people around here won't even shoot them. Just depends on your location :)
Click to expand...

It was one of the better spoonies I've ever shot. Its wing is in a manila envelope headed to the USF&WS.

Eric
 
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What a great looking spot to hunt. I will look forward to the day when your sons will be sitting by your side. Congratulations on a very nice hunt.
Al
 
Up here at the northern end of the Atlantic flyway, we've had no cold snap. It's 40 today here and forecast for low 50's and rain tomorrow.


The newspaper is filled with accounts of ice fisherman and snowmobiles breaking through thin ice even in the far north country. I won't be breaking out the auger any time soon.

Our northern and southern zones are closed, and we have a few days left to hunt the coastal. I've been out one or two times a week since early December, mostly in the coastal zone, and it's been very slow. There are birds, but they are not in the spots they usually like this time of year, and also not in the spots they'd usually be in mid-November when we have similar lack of ice in the salt marshes. So far I'm 0 for December, and have only seen two birds drop into our decoys--both taken by partners I was hunting with.

I'll be out in the morning with one or two friends, but it's a lousy tide. High at 5:54 with a 7:15 sunrise, so depending on where we set up, we'll probably only get about 90 minutes or so to hunt after legal shooting light before the tide chases us out of the marsh. In the afternoon, we've got a noon low tide with sunset at 4, so an afternoon hunt is pretty much out of the question.

Monday is a holiday with slightly better tides for the morning-might be able to eke out an all-morning hunt.
 


The kind of hunt that keeps a waterfowler stoked all year long, and stay in the memory bank for a lifetime. Few and far between and for good reason.


Best regards
Vince
 
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