Hurricane Ike, yes the one that just leveled the entire island of Galveston and layed waste to the city of Houston, roared ashore Friday night a mere 100 miles to the east, just far enough and on the right side to give us a glancing blow as he went by.  Twenty miles down the road, there was wind damage and power outages already, but all we had was a forty mph breeze and no rain at all.  We were lucky for sure.

Needless to say, teal season opened Saturday morning without anyone noticing with all the attention on Ike.  I don't suppose there were too many hunters in our area who planned on being able to get out.

The next morning though, we were on our way to the flooded ricefields.  It's the first hunt of the year in southeast Texas so you can imagine how much I look forward to it every year.  It means summer is officially over, and not only that, a cold front had rolled in right behind the hurricane to really make it feel like fall.

Instead of going into a play-by-play of the hunt, I'll describe to you some of my favorite things about teal hunt during the special 16-day September season:

- It reminds me of my very first hunt when I was a twelve year old kid following my dad down the levee with a 410 single shot in my hands going on my first ever duck hunt.

- The sound of wings buzzing by overhead in the dark just before shooting time begins and the full moon sinks in the west.

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- The aromas of the flooded second-cropped ricefields.  Fermenting rice grain and old stalks wander around the areas of open water and up into the atmosphere.  This draws in the ducks and to me smells like hunting.  Even the annoying mosquitos are a welcome sound this early in the year.

- The big flocks of teal just arriving from the Kansas wheat fields and the Texas panhandle.  This phenomenon can only be seen when light north winds following a front happen to coincide with the full moon in September.  Flocks of teal three hundred strong or drop down off of the upper level winds they've been riding all night.  After staying in Texas for a few weeks, getting fat on crop waste, they'll take off again for South America.

- Getting the dogs out for their first hunts of the year.  You can always see the excitement in there eyes after they've been suffering through the long hot summer, maybe as much as their owners have. 

So another season begins, and all my favorite things about September teal hunting happened during one perfect morning on the Texas coast, and all right after one of the biggest natural disasters to hit our area in 50 years.  Life and the hunt go on.  (see duck recipe below)

Blue-winged teal hunting tips:  - Use a motion decoy like a robo-duck in your decoy spread.  This gets blue-wings to decoy better than any other tactic.

- Don't over call.  Blue-winged teal don't make much noise and calling like you're mallard hunting in the flooded timber can put them off. I like to use the teal call by Duck Commander or just a whistle.  All you need to do is get them to notice your decoys.

Pot-Roasted Duck Recipe - "To Die For" 

6 small or 2 large ducks

2 med. onions            1 pkg. Pioneer cajun gravy mix

1 bell pepper              1 bay leaf

2 stalks celery            1 cup sliced mushroom

2 cloves garlic            1 cup chopped shallot tops

1 cup burgundy wine   2 cups olive oil

1/2 cup orange juice    Tony Chachere's seasoning

1 (14oz) chicken broth  2 tbsp Lea & perrin's

2 cups water                1 tbsp tobasco

directions: 2 hrs before cooking, sprinkle generously w/ wine inside & outside of ducks and season w/ Tony Chachere and salt (inside & out) until you think they have too much seasoning.

brown ducks in heavy dutch oven or magnilite pot in 1 cup olive oil. remove ducks and add chopped onions, bell pepper, celery & garlic. saute about 10 minutes until onions are transparent.

add chicken broth, 2 cups water and Pioneer gravy mix. bring to low boil and stir continuously until gravy mix is dissolved.

add wine, orange juice, bay leaf and ducks to pot. cover and cook over low heat (light boil) about 1 to 1&1/2 hrs. season to taste w/ Tony's, salt, lea & perrin's and tobasco about 30 minutes after you begin cooking.

add mushrooms and chopped shallots to pot 15 minutes before ducks are done.

stir pot occasionally and cook until tender (when breast begins to separate from the bone). serve over rice. serves 4.

best served with a red wine, perhaps a nice shiraz.