Monday, May 23, 2011

The Great Mississippi River Flood and Summer Happenings!

I want to thank you all for the many calls on how we are doing with the flood and if we were taking on any water. We have not had any water problems where we are, but just south of here on the other side of Belzoni it is pretty rough. The water has risen above the highways and has taken a lot of the crops out in those areas. The river has finally started to drop some, but won't drop below flood stage until the middle to the end of June. Right now there is 2 million cubic feet of water per second moving down the mighty Mississippi. One good thing about the wet spring season though is in the breeding grounds up north have had one of the biggest duckling hatches ever according to Delta Waterfowl. I am excited to hear hear the number when they come out in a few weeks.

The next big thing happening at Mossy Island Outfitters this summer is the birth of the next guide. As most of you know Royann and I are expecting our second child. If Royann hasn't had the baby by June 8, we will induce then. We don't know what it is and I continue to hope it looks like Royann.

Bookings are up right now and if you plan on returning this winter please go ahead and give me a call. Look forward to hearing from you guys and thank you again for checking on us with the flood.

Rocky Leflore
http://www.mossyislandoutfitters.com

Monday, May 16, 2011

What shot size is the best for killing ducks?

Recently we did a blog post on the type of shell that is preferred by most duck hunters hunting in Mississippi. Today we look at the shot size coming out of the shell. This is another of the numerous questions I get from hunters coming in to do a guided hunt at Mossy Island Outfitters. What size shot do I need to shoot? I have always given my opinion on what I shoot. I have always shot BB's down to a 2 shot in the field and 2 shot down to 4 shot in the timber (remember inexperienced hunters the larger the number the smaller the shot). I try not to go lower than these shot sizes, seeing how I could end up just wounding a lot of ducks.  Being a guide, the faster we get out of a duck hole with the limit, the sooner we can hunt that hole with other clients. Another reason to always shoot bigger shot, is while hunting  in the field is the chance of shooting down some geese. There is always a good chance geese are going to fly close enough or decoy in to a field hole you are hunting. So it is smart to have these bigger shot sizes to knock some geese down along with your duck limit.

Again this week I proposed the question of shot size to my group of expert hunters on www.msducks.com and got their opinion. I counted their votes and put them on a pie chart. I hope this group vote from expert Mississippi duck hunters will help you make your next decision on shot size.

So I called on my old pal Jimmy Slater, at Slater's in Indianola, Ms www.slatersjigs.com,  who owns an outdoor store that services a lot of Mississippi Delta duck hunters. He said that most hunters that shop at his store prefer 2 shot more than any other shot size. He said it is versatile to most hunters for the field and then to use also in the timber.I hope this helps hunters deciding what size shot to buy when coming to hunt on a guided duck hunt in Arkansas or Mississippi. Please call us to book you next guided duck hunt at 1-877-699-6677 or check out our website at www.mossyislandoutfitters.com.


Rocky Leflore

http://www.mossyislandoutfitters.com

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

What Brand of Steel Shot or Shotgun Shell is The Best for Duck Hunting?

A lot of customers will ask me when planning their trip what brand of shotgun shell we prefer customers to shoot while on their hunt with us. I really don't care to much about the brand of shell as much as I do as the trigger puller behind the shell. Because if you are not used to shooting ducks, it is a hard task for some. We did run a test on most brands a couple of years ago to see how they would pattern. The best of the best was the Hevi-Shot and the worst of the worst was the Estate. The Hevi-Shot patterned with a modified choke, 12 guage, 3 inch shell, and 4 shot at thirty yards was perfect. It formed a pattern about 2-3 feet wide, which is perfect for shooting ducks in any situatation. The Estate steel shot spread out to 5-6 feet with very few holes. So I asked a group of friends of mine and thank you again for the responses, probably the best group of duck hunters I know at http://www.msducks.com/ and here are their responses put in a graph:


As you can see the new Hypersonic seems to be a good one along with Black Cloud and Kent following close behind with these group of expert hunters. So I went a little further and called a local outdoor store to see the most popular shells that Ms.duck hunters that shop at his store buy. I spoke with Mr. Jimmy Slater at Slater's Inc. in Indianola, Ms at http://www.slatersjigs.com/ and he said his most popular shell that he sells is the Black Cloud and the new Heavy Metal shell. He said most hunters seem to get the most umph, as we duck hunters say, from these shells. I hope this helps in your next decision in what shotgun shells to buy when coming to the Ms. Delta on a guided hunt with Mossy Island Outfitters, http://www.mossyislandoutfitters.com/.


Rocky Leflore


http://www.mossyislandoutfitters.com

Monday, May 2, 2011

Guided Duck Hunt Numbers 2010-2011

Last week we talked about the numbers by the week. This week we show the total numbers by the species of ducks of the 2010-2011 season. It was a great season this year. I heard a lot of grumblings from other duck hunters around the area about how dry it was, but I am not gonna complain about it being dry. I lost a lot of flooded timber I usually hunt due to it being so dry. The reason I like a dry year so much though is I believe it concentrates the ducks in the holes you do have and that far outweighs having a few extra timber holes to hunt. I have heard other hunters say that ducks pass the Mississippi Delta and its low water conditions in a dry year for the LA. Marsh, but from my numbers I have better years in normal to dry conditions. On average this year, It was a cold year compared to other years. We recieved three snows which is unusual for the Mississippi Region. With all that being said, lets look at the numbers:


As you can see the spoonbills were plentiful this year due to the low water conditions and concentrating them in the catfish ponds and flooded fields we hunt. The mallards we shot were both in the field and in the flooded timber holes we hunted. Gadwall was one of the the main ducks we killed this year. The gadwall hunts we had this year was almost like the gadwall hunts of 10-15 years ago. What I mean by this is when they came in they flooded in. Sometimes it was amazing even for me to see and I have been on some of the best flooded timber hunts ever. Teal numbers were right on where they usually are. Canvasback numbers were through the roof. I don't know where all these canvasbacks came from. It was the most I had ever seen. The last two seasons the canvasbacks have been very plentiful though. Wood ducks were also were concentrated in the few holes they had left to sit on with most brakes and flooded timber holes dry. Other ducks consist of bluebills, hooded meganzers, ruddy ducks, and ringnecks. When Ducks Unlimited released their numbers and said the bluebill hatch was up this year, I said yeah I have heard that before. They were right on because it was the most I had seen in five years. So as you can see the variety was there in the numbers we killed. I think this is what makes us here at Mossy Island Outfitters so unique. When you hunt with us you may come back with five different ducks in a six duck limit. If hunts like this interest you please visit our website at http://www.mossyislandoutfitters.com/ or call us at 1-877-699-6677 or my cell at 662-392-4740.

Rocky Leflore

http://www.mossyislandoutfitters.com