I wasn't a typical opening day for us by any stretch of the imagination. We were greeted with 23 degree temperatures and some pretty tough ice to deal with. Geese by the thousands helped keep some open water but it quickly froze as we bumped birds off going in to the pits. At our opening night eve "Come to Jesus" meeting I strongly suggested that we leave the impending ice alone and not attempt to break it up as I've found it scares ducks more than attracts them. I also dwelt on the "Dead hens lay no eggs" theory and laid down the law on shooting hen Mallards and hen Pintails, which was evidentally taken to heart as out of 56 Mallards killed opening morning there were 55 Greenheads and after a few hours most of the guys quit riding the Rookie about his mistake (I didn't!), but it still cost him a mandatory trip to the hen bucket. I was proud of everyone's effort on this. I also made it clear there were no Robo ducks allowed on the club and any member caught using one of them would loose his membership, no discussion, no refund, no recourse. We did better than any of the surrounding clubs that used them anyway and some in site of our pits.
We've picked up over 300 dead Snow, Blue, Ross' and White-fronted Geese out of our fields and at first suspected impaction due to the dry conditions but now suspect a toxin and I notified the AG&F who gladly sent samples we had saved to Wisconsin for tests. We did pick up 6 bands and one $20 reward band on the dead ones we found. A lot of 200 to 400 yard blinds for the dogs to run. My BLM Ace picked up over 80 in one day.
If we don't get substancial rain it's going to be a tough season as it's dryer than any year I've hunted Arkansas and I've been over there since 1971.
Nov. 22 "Hell's coming to breakfast!"
20 hunters, with 56 Mallards and 31 Whitefronts among others.
Another view.
The Rookie!
The teal showed up on day 3.
Gotta love the Specks.
Ace picked up almost 300 birds in 10 days.
Benellis all, To my knowledge, nobodys shoots anything else at the L'Anguille Lounge except some of the kids.
Oddly, Pintails were in short supply, fewest I've seen on an opening week.
good hunts 
