When trying to find where teal may be keying in on in your area, the name of the game will be shallow water. Teal are on the smaller scale of waterfowl and prefer to feed in very shallow water. It is often the same waters used by wading shorebirds thus I’ll often use them as indicators for where teal may congregate on arrival. Be it a rice field or marsh area, the shallowest areas with food will be your best bets for setting up. 
Though blue wing teal are most common, the green wing variety are also commonly harvested during the early season. Keying in on their small size and erratic flight pattern will help to identify teal from other species that may be present which includes mottled ducks, wood ducks, pintail, shovelers and whistling ducks, among others. Though it can prove challenging in low light, know your target. Firing before a positive identification can yield an expensive result in the form of a ticket.  


Do’s & Don’t of September Teal Hunting

• DO dress for the occasion with lightweight, breathable camo.
• DO stay hydrated; after all, it will still mostly feel like typical summer. This goes for your retriever as well. 
• DO keep retrieving dogs close if there is any chance of alligator presence in your hunting area. When in doubt, leave your buddy at home, or keep close at hand on a leash. 
• DO pack an arsenal of insect repellent measures. A ThermaCell coupled with a can of fogger (YardGuard) are my go-to when getting into the blind. 
• DO wear hearing protection. A good teal hunt can involve a lot of shooting, especially when hunting with multiple buddies in the blind. 

 

• DON’T go overboard with shot size; #3 to #6 is ideal, anything larger is overkill for a bird that is thin in fat and feather on their early migration. Similarly, 2 ¾” shells are more than enough, save the 3” and larger shells for the bigger birds still to come this winter. This is also a great time to break out the sub-gauges like 20’s and 28’s in similar shot sizes.  
• DON’T forgot your motion decoys like spinning wing decoys, especially. Teal are usually extremely susceptible to the fast flashing of a spinner. These decoys also give you greater visibility from distance on passing flocks. 
• DON’T be afraid to call up a storm on a teal call. If a flock of birds are in view, there’s no such thing as over-calling in attempt to turn them your way. 

One can do all the preparing of equipment and have enough shells to sink a boat, but without finding an area holding birds, it’s all for naught.  It’s awfully hot in late August and first week of September to go tromping through the marshes of southeast Louisiana but it’s important to do so each year as these marshes evolve. An area that was wide open one year may be closed in with standing vegetation and thus un-huntable the next. 
As I’ve mentioned in past entries regarding teal season preparation, it’s critical to not be too discouraged if your favorite duck holes are void of any teal before opening day. I’ve now experienced two opening days over the past five years where no birds were to be seen on the eve of the opener, but we took home at least a few on the strap the next morning.  
When scouting, think shallow, as a small bird like a teal cannot feed in water that’s too deep. They actually tend to prefer similar habitats that you’ll commonly find wading birds in year round, so I often look for areas that the local wading birds are using and also keep an eye out for resident mottled ducks and/or woodducks as they’ll often be found in the same places. Arriving teal tend to just slip right on in with the crowd. 
These birds are well known for their overnight movements on a whim so there’s really only one way to find out what might show up opening morning……go! Show up, toss decoys, kick on a spinner or two and load up. Be prepared and go through with it just like any other hunt, you very well might be pleasantly surprised. 
My must-haves for teal season:

1. Shells in #4 to #6 steel shot – small shot size makes for dense patterns
2. Chokes ranging from Skeet to Light Modified 
3. ThermaCell unit and YardGuard fogger can – very effective when used in conjunction
4. Teal calls for the lanyard – quacking and whistling types
5. Spinning wing decoys – at least one or two helps to draw attention from distance
6. Floating decoys – can use teal but also larger decoys of other species tend to show up better on the water
7. Water bottle – The work put into setting up and picking up a duck hunt can get you heated up in a hurry, don’t get caught with nothing cool to drink
8. Lightweight, breathable clothing – short sleeves are nice but long sleeves help combat bugs 
9. Head lamp – There’s plenty to do in setting up in the dark, a hands free light setup is critical. 

Whether the teal show or not, the hunt will be over by 8:00-8:30 at the latest so there will be plenty of time to head out fishing after the guns and decoys are put away. There will be college football on TV as well so hopefully you’ve got ducks, doves, fish or all three to cook while celebrating the cusp of fall. Good luck out there! ​

With the regular season opener just around the corner, time for prep is running short. For young guns under the age of 16, the first crack at arriving birds is this Saturday November 4th! The rest of us will chomp on the bit passing time until the following Saturday rolls around to kick off the Coastal Zone on the 11th.  As I alluded to on Saturday’s NFR radio show, there’s much to be excited about as a south Louisiana duck hunter, with the following factors currently aligning nicely in our favor: 

​1.)    Much of the Mississippi Flyway is abnormally dry, with some areas even seeing drought conditions. As of the October 26 update of the US Drought Monitor (http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/), key areas in Missouri, Arkansas, western Mississippi and even north Louisiana are very dry. This helps from two angles; 1.) The birds have less water available to them and will continue moving southward seeking available water, and 2.) Those few areas holding water, be it naturally, or pumped, are thus are more likely to be pressured by hunters, thus pushing birds elsewhere……southward. 

2.)    October has been migration-friendly, with significant fronts blowing through and getting birds on the move, especially early migrators common to south Louisiana. The final full week of October had three frontal passages alone, keeping winds northerly and birds on the move. Certainly one of the more favorable preseason stretches of weather I’ve seen in recent memory.  

3.)    Barring a late sucker punch, we’ve again made it through another hurricane season without a significant storm event. October’s Hurricane Nate looked to break that streak but assessments of marshes along our eastern coastal areas show that impacts were minimal. Even delicate submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) key to holding wintering ducks looks to have made out largely unscathed. Impacts down river below Venice were likely the worst hit areas but by no means was it the catastrophic event many feared. Knock wood!

A tour through the marshes of Hopedale and Delacroix over the weekend showed that a number of ducks had already arrived following the parade of fronts. We noticed ducks holding in areas that in the past two seasons were largely devoid of birds for at least the first couple weeks of the season. If this is any indicator, it

If you’ve got work to be done on your duck boat such as aluminum repairs or mud motor servicing, your favorite mud boat company would probably appreciate you bringing it in sooner than later. Every season hunters start thinking ducks at end of August and go to give that mud motor a crank to find it out of tune and the service folks end up under the gun to get you ready for the September teal opener. Of note, the annual 16-day teal season will open on Friday September 15th this season so prepare your work schedule accordingly! ​

In the meantime, good luck fishin’!

That's a wrap on the 2016-2017 waterfowl season here in South Louisiana. This season we about saw it all, from sweaty mornings with swarming mosquitos to frozen ponds. Overall, though, it was a pretty solid season for the Bayou State with plenty of birds taken for the pot. Here's a quick recap of my season and the travels I made along the way.

Unfortunately for many the 2016 teal season was largely a bust here in southeast Louisiana. The preseason aerial survey revealed the second lowest count on record prior to the opener with only about 500 birds counted in southeast Louisiana all together. Though it didn’t exactly get us fired up to hit the blinds opening morning, many were able to take a few birds if they headed out in good faith anyway.  


Though opening day was slow with only three teal on our strap, the very next morning was pretty strong following a weak frontal passage. Steady flights of groups up to 30 strong were observed coming into the area from the north and more than a few found our decoy spread. Eleven teal came home with us that morning, with the 12th downed but lost to the flooded marsh. A follow up hunt only a few days later in the same location was a total bust, not one teal even spotted. That’s typical of our area during teal season, here today gone tomorrow, but we let that Sunday hunt be the highlight of the short season. After all, we’d taken more teal in one hunt than many did over the course of the two week season in total. 


Now that we’re into October, all eyes are on the weather. Cool fronts coming down with regularity along with dry conditions are what we’re after. The fronts get the birds heading southward on northerly winds and the lack of rain helps to reduce the spreading effect so common to abnormally wet seasons such as what transpired in late October 2015. Outside the leaves are falling, a slight north breeze is blowing, and the grass is crunchy, right where we need to be for now! We will see how this comes together as the next few weeks unfold but we’re off to a good start this month. 


In preparation of the big duck season to come next month, I’ve assembled a gear guide of some of my favorite items that rarely miss a hunt with me. Hopefully they will also serve you well. 

1.)    Browning Hi Noon SpotlightPutting out 500 lumens of LED light, this is crucial for lighting the way during those early morning boat rides and setting a big spread in the dark. Using only 3 “C” batteries, it’s still fairly lightweight, fully waterproof, and even floats. 
​

2.)    Cabela’s Dry Plus WadersFeaturing the DryPlus breathable construction, these are extremely versatile for use here in S. Louisiana where hunts can be 70 degrees as often as 30 degrees. I even wear these during teal season over shorts, or during our coldest hunts over wader pants. Keep the neoprene for standing in Arkansas flooded timber, it’s got no place in our neighborhood
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This week we we’re getting ready for teal! With the September 10th opener just a couple of weeks away, Darren offers some insight on a few topics to help you get prepared to head to the blind.

Hello NFR readers!  We are new to the NFR community and want to introduce ourselves.  We are Charlie Neale and Justin Hergert. We own and operate Southern Way Retrievers, a full service retriever training kennel.  Both Justin and I reside in Louisiana, although only one of us is a native.  Justin reigns from Georgia, the state of pine trees and quail plantations.  We are both avid duck hunters and have been known to fish a little when we get some spare time.  I grew up with rabbit dogs, hunted with and raised coonhounds while in college and then transitioned to retrievers when I discovered duck hunting.   Justin started off with pointers and setters, as a guide on a quail plantation in Georgia, while in college and soon  recognized the benefits of a retriever to “clean-up” after the pointers.  He took that knowledge with him to Alaska and then here to Louisiana, training retrievers while serving in the US Coast Guard.