Pipkin Ranch Outfitters, 23347 Big Hill Rd. Beaumont, TX 77705
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Opening day report

November 02, 2013 by

Well folks it is finally here!  Opening day! We have been working hard to get everything!  ready for our hunters.  We spent the summer working mostly on habit improvement and controlling unwanted vegetation.  Lots of time with the spay rig is starting to show some returns.  Ponds we opened last season are full of widgeon grass and other preferred duck foods. This years spraying is providing plenty of invertabrates for the birds.  The recent rains have flooded a lot of our prairie flats and with a great smart weed crop on the flats it is just a matter of time before the birds move in.

 I was lucky enough to start the season with an opening day hunt that included the owners of Sureshot Game calls.  These were great guys and a lot of fun in the blind.  The only drawback to hunting with these guys is they can out call just about everyone!  Fletcher was in the blind with us and put on a great job calling with his Sureshot.  The guys said he even taught them a thing or two on calling birds.

 We had birds in the dekes before shooting time.  Fletcher had gone to park the air boat and I convinced the guys to wait until he made it back before we started shooting. They were happy to comply.  We had a nice flock of pintails working just as he made it back but they faded off.  First group of birds were gadwalls.  A big flock of 10-15 turned towards us as we called and locked up.  Wish I could say we smoked em but after the volley there was only a single bird floating in  decoys!  I guess those opening day jitters got the best of us.

 The rest of the morning our shooting improved and we were able to put together a nice limit of birds that included gadwall, widgeon, teal, shovelars and ringnecks.  We finished around 9:30 giving the birds plenty of time to get back into this impoundment and rest.  Our other groups all did well and returned to the dock with full limits around the same time.

 The season is looking good with colder weather in the forecast the birds should keep arriving.  I'm expecting bird numbers to increase over the next week.  Hope to see you at Pipkin Ranch Outfitters for a quality hunt this season.