We have been out looking for teal the last week. Since the past week we have two huge flocks taking up residence on one of our leases. We can only hope they stick around awhile. There are a few dates left available for guided teal hunts. For bookings contact Mike Smith at 504-228-4506. www.laduckhunts.com
We have been having an overall decent season in Delacroix. Some days or better than others. Above are a few photos taken during the second split.
On Wednesday and today I had a great couple from Georgia who have been hunting with me for over ten years. They got their 24 two person 2 day limit consisting of blue and green winged teal,gadwall, widgeon,pintail,redhead ,scaup and shoveler! Where else but Louisiana can you get a mixed bag like that! The shooting wasn't fast and furious by any means but nice and steady. Anyway, we have a good amount of birds on our leases now and also have a few dates left available including one blind left for November 16-17. 504-228-4506. www.laduckhunts.com
We had one of best opening days in years! On Saturday conditions were perfect. We had 3 boats with 7 hunters and 3 guides and we got a total of 60 birds. On Sunday things were a bit slower but we still got 40 birds. They included gadwall, blue and green winged teal,redheads, spoonbill,scaup and wood ducks. Exactly totally 100 birds for the weekend. We have a few dates available. Get in on a hunt while the birds are here. www.laduckhunts.com
Two young sharp shooters managed to get their 12 bird total limit by 8am Saturday morning. Two of the best young hunters I've ever seen. They got 5 grays, 3 blue winged teal, 2 mottled ducks , 1 spoonbill and 1 redhead. LOTS of ducks flying.
Louisiana Marsh Guide Service is again offering duck hunts for the special YOUTH WEEKEND NOVEMBER 2-3. All hunters ages 17 and under are eligible. Easy hunts, no walking, no boots needed. We have one blind left for each date. Price includes one box of .12, .20 or .410 gauge shells. Call,email or text for details. 504-228-4506. www.laduckhunts.com mike@laduckhunts.com
The last four days have been good for my crew from Tennessee . After a slow Thanksgiving week we finally got into some birds. The crew of four managed to get a total of 74 birds in their 4 day hunt. This consisted of gadwall, blue and green winged teal, mottled ducks,scaup and buffleheads. Hopefully the pattern will continue for the rest of the week.
Took the two oldest grandkids out Sunday and after each shooting a box of shells they finally each got a duck. The grays and teal were plentiful. Even saw a few scaup. The grays were for the most part flying in flocks and VERY responsive to the call. They were giving us one circle then came in point blank between the blind and the decoys. The kids had a great time shooting at them and scaring them! Ha!
Some days you hit them some days you miss!
Overall it looks to be a great opener this Saturday. The forecast calls for a front on Friday with NE winds. Let's hope they are right! We do have a few dates available .
For bookings give us a call at 504-228-4506 or visit the website www.laduckhunts.com
Mike Smith
Louisiana Marsh Guide Service is now in its 34th year of guiding waterfowl hunters from across the nation. We are currently booking duck hunts in the Reggio and Delacroix area on our private marsh leases. Easy hunting and no hip boots or chest waders needed. This years dates are November 10-December 2 and December 15-January 20. Also, don't forget about the special youth duck hunts for youths ages 17 and under. We have a special rate and one blind left on each of those days.
For booking or other information call Mike Smith at 504-228-4506. www.laduckhunts.com
Louisiana's coastal zone duck season is less than a month away! The dates are November 12-Decemeber 4 and December 17-January 22. Since 1984 we have provided quality duck hunting for hunters from across the country and are one of the oldest established duck hunting guide service in southeast Louisiana.
For all the hunters who want to get their kids started in duck hunting the special youth season is the perfect way to do it. We have a special rate for youths 15 years and under for the youth season November 5-6.
The rate includes one box of shells. For bookings or more information on the youth hunts or to book a hunt during the regular season contact us at 504-228-4506. www.laduckhunts.com
Location,location. Very high tides and 75 degrees this morning and ducks by the hundreds. Mostly gadwall and teal but pintail,widgeon,redheads and spoonbill were giving the kids chances today. They got their birds and scared a lot too!
High water did not affect the grass. The grass is still thick in our area. We are looking forward to a great opener next weekend. Haven't seen this many birds so early in a long time. We still have a few dates available for a great duck hunt.
If you would like to book a hunt with the oldest waterfowl guide service in the area give us a call. Most of our guides have 40 to 50 years of waterfowl hunting experience. Owned and operated by Mike Smith, the only person to win the Louisiana State Duck Calling Championship 5 times.
We are looking forward to seeing our repeat customers this season as well as meeting our new ones.
For more information call 504-228-4506 or visit our website at www.laduckhunts.com. Lodging available.
Can you imagine that teal season is only two months away? Before you know it the marshes will start seeing the first blue winged teal arrivals. This year's season dates are SEPTEMBER 12-27. We are once again blessed with a 16 day teal season with a daily bag limit of six.
Teal season is a great way to sharpen your shooting skills. They are fast flying birds and easily taken down with minimum steel loads of #6 shot.
We are currently booking for the teal season as well as the regular duck season. The proposed dates (though not set in stone yet) for the regular season coastal zone are NOVEMBER 14-DECEMBER 5 and DECEMBER 19-JANUARY 24.
For bookings or other information call or visit our website. 504-228-4506 www.laduckhunts.com
Just finished up with one of the very best seasons in years. Ninety percent were gray ducks with the rest being teal,scaup,mottled ducks,pintail,mallard,redhead,spoonbill,canvasback,bufflehead and even a goldeneye. We constantly had new grays in the area. Cold weather,warm weather or fog......it didn't matter.....we had constant shooting all season. We have a few dates open for the second split. 504-228-4506 www.laduckhunts.com. I have posted some pictures from the last two days of hunts.
This past Saturday I took my two oldest grandkids on their second duck hunt. This year was different though........they each got a duck! Their first. The ducks were very plentiful and although they missed and scared a lot of ducks they had a great time taking turns with the gun. I enjoyed hunting with them so much that I have decided that this will be the last year that I will hunt with clients on opening weekend of the regular season. I will book for my other guides but not me. Both of them have become good callers for their age. They called in several groups of grays.
It's looking great right now with the amount of ducks in the marsh. We have very few dates left to book. Give us a call at 504-228-4506 for available dates. www.laduckhunts.com
LOUISIANA MARSH GUIDE SERVICE is now booking DUCK HUNTS for the 2013/14 Coastal Zone season, NOVEMBER 9-DECEMBER 1 and DECEMBER 14-JANUARY 19. Come hunt this season with southeast Louisiana's oldest and most established waterfowl hunting guide service. Owned and operated by Mike Smith, Louisiana's only 5 time state duck calling champion and inducted into the Louisiana Sportsmans Hall of Fame. With 47 years of waterfowl hunting experience including 30 years of guiding we have been guiding duck hunters from across the nation on some very exciting hunts.
NO hip boots or waders required when you hunt with us! For bookings or other information call us at 504-228-4506. Website: www.laduckhunts.com
After a pretty good teal season we are eagerly awaiting the upcoming coastal zone duck season. Went for a ride this morning on the leases and saw lots of birds. Lots of blue winged teal have continued to move into our marshes. Saw a handful of grays but its still way too early for the big concentrations to get here. Since the water went down a little we noticed some vegetation on the bottom of some of the ponds. That is a good sign. There still is time for it to grow. Anyway after Hurricane Gustav we had a great season even though we had no visible grass. The birds were feeding on snails and other animal matter.
That being said we are currently booking duck hunts for the youth and regular seasons. YOUTH DATES are November 3-4 and the regular coastal zone season is November 10-December 2 and December 15-January 20. We are giving SPECIAL RATES FOR THE YOUTH DATES and it includes one box of .12,.20 or .410 gauge steel shot shells per youth per day.
Since 1984 LOUISIANA MARSH GUIDE SERVICE has taken customers from across the nation to some of the most productive waterfowl areas in the nation. Owned and operated by Mike Smith, 5 time Louisiana State Duck Calling Champion and Louisiana Sportsman Hall of Fame inductee. For bookings on youth and regular season hunts call us at 504-228-4506 or check out the website at www.laduckhunts.com email: mike@laduckhunts.com
It has been a good teal season afterall. Since opening day my boat has taken teal everyday. Today there were more big flocks out in the marsh. My brother took a group from Georgia and limited out with some fast and quick shooting. With one week left for the teal season we will continue to get birds. A few openings are left so give us a call at 504-2280-4506 or email mike@laduckhunts.com. www.laduckhunts.com
Speaking as a duck hunter and not a guide. After Katrina the Reggio-Delacroix-Carnarvan area had a fantastic season. The season after Gustav was great for us. Lots of widgeon and coontail grass was gone BUT the birds adapted and found food. Tiny bright green grass began growing on the edges of the ponds and the grays tore it up. When the marshes are flooded the blue wings will indulge in smartweed and tiny snails and other animal matter. Afterall, widgeon and coontail grass is not a prefered food for blue winged teal. Gray ducks love widgeon grass. But if they don't find it they will find something. Stop worrying fellow hunters I've been chasing these birds since 1966 and have seen the ducks adapt to any condition. We will have a good season. Sure the storm dumped some water up the flyway but not enough the ruin our season. Two years ago they had record floods up north and we still did good here. End of story.
LOUISIANA MARSH GUIDE SERVICE will once again offer GUIDED TEAL and DUCK HUNTS for the upcoming season. This season promises to be as good or better than last year. The highest population of ducks ever recorded combines with the worst drought in 50 years will push the birds to the Louisiana coastal marshes. With virtually no water up the flyway and the midwest the ducks will have no choice but to continue their traditional migration to Louisiana without getting short stopped!
For a limited time only we will offer special rates for this season if a hunt is booked prior to September 1.
Also be sure to watch us on the Sportsman's Channel on the FLYWAY HIGHWAY show. The dates are September 9,10 and 15. We filmed this show the second week of January 2012.
For bookings contact us at 504-228-4506 or email mike@laduckhunts.com Website: www.laduckhunts.com
Hunt teal this season with one of south Louisiana's oldest and most established waterfowl hunting services. A record population of blue winged teal combined with the worst drought the midwest and up the flyway has seen in 50 years will make the teal hunting in coastal Louisiana one of the best! For a limited time only we have SPECIAL RATES available for the remaining dates open for teal season. All our hunting areas are in prime marshes full of vegetation. Call or email to book. 504-228-4506. mike@laduckhunts.com
WEBSITE: www.laduckhunts.com
Glad you had some good hunts. We had some good and bad ones. Flooded roads being closed for awhile cancelled a lot of hunts. On another note that Hammer Time stuff is expensive! For teal season I use my .20 gauge with Federal Upland 2 3/4' #6 steel shot. $6.00 a box at Walmart. Never had a cripple!
Mandevillian . The first split in Delacroix was generally good for us. After January 1 it was all downhill. As far as I'm concerned set the season for us November 1- December 30. Over the last 53 years I've been hunting I've gotten more ducks in November than ANY other time of the season. By the time January gets here the pressure put on the birds is is unreal. Not only hunting pressure but the extremely low tides and the hundreds of fishing boats riding thru the marsh and bow fishermen at night that prowl thru duck ponds harassing what few birds are left. I would say about 90 percent of the gadwall are pushed out to the outside waters in grass filled bays and lakes. Take a ride in January to Lake Campo, American Bay , etc and witness the thousands of gadwall rafting there. The best scenario for late season Delacroix hunting is a good south or southeast wind. Forget a north wind!
Hey Mandevillian. You won't shoot scaup or spoonbills but will shoot mottled ducks!? They are truly bottom of the barrel. Most of the ones we got this season had their throat full of minnows! I have never shot a scaup that had minnows. By the way just made a 3 day Arkansas hunt. 4 hunters got 3 ducks the whole trip. The grass isn't always greener.
Regardless of what the survey says we kill more ducks in Delacroix in November than any other month. Period.
South Louisiana quickly becoming the scaup capital of the country. Next season the scaup limit will be 2 for the first 45 days then ONE for 15 days!\r\nWhat genius came up with that!?\r\nProbably the one who requires us to use non toxic shot while shooting at waterfowl BUT I can go out with a skeet thrower and shoot lead all day long in the marsh as long as I\'m not shooting at waterfowl!\r\nSimply stupid to say the least. Another example there is a place in southwest Louisiana we used to hunt doves. Lead shot allowed. But then they flood the fields for ducks later in the season and you need non toxic shot! The freaking lead is STILL on the ground from the dove hunts!!!!!!
That's strange. Zero shovelers for southeast Louisiana ? We have been seeing hundreds! They must of been hiding out during the survey. Lol
With a little luck we managed to get a total of 24 teal with three blinds opening weekend. Not great but good considering hardly anyone else got or saw any. Saw lots of new birds flying high.
I agree daberry! Where did they find these commissioners!? These commissioners should be qualified biologists not just some anybody. There is no scientific data to lower the limit back down to four! Do they really think a bag limit of six is the reason why we have less blue wings the past few teal seasons? What a joke!
Concrete now since you mentioned it I too truly believe the youth weekend hurts the opening weekend of the regular season. A former editor of Wildfowl magazine believes it does also. I have grandkids too and would surely bring them opening weekend of the regular season.
Charles, we also had A HELL OF A LOT more grays and teal on my leases in early to mid November. For youth weekend it was flock after flock and opening weekend was good also. Now its almost one hundred percent divers. There are too many people riding around harassing birds. The grays are pushed from the pressure to the open bays. All of Delacroix is private and leased land. Why go riding around someone elses land when you have no business being there. There is no reason to go riding thru other peoples leases.
Another problem is the bow fisherman with the huge LED lights at night going into duck ponds, some with loud airboats!
Your right Scott! You have to play the cards your dealt. I have over 60 foam filled diver decoys consisting of bluebills,redheads and buffleheads. ALL the bluebills we got this season had grass in their gizzards. No fish! And as you probably know already but guess what duck is famous for eating those minnows in a trapped pothole. A mottled duck!
We are having a fantastic time hunting those divers and I know you are too. It's a guaranteed successful hunt where I'm hunting. Enjoy the hot action!
You hit the nail on the head frogslayer! As long as they have food and water up the flyway the puddle ducks aren't coming! We will ALWAYS have good and bad seasons. I've been hunting since 1966 and remember the 1968 season. 30 days with a 3 duck limit. Ducks were scarce that year in the Reggio area. I was 13 years old and remember being lucky to even get a stinking mottled duck. Our average hunt that season was 3 or 4 ducks a hunt. The next year (1969-70) things turned around 360!
A banner year! So,this season is below par for puddlers here but the divers are in mega force.
It doesn't matter to me. I'm 63 now and will never get tired of cupped wings gliding into the decoys no matter what the specie or limit. It's the thrill of the hunt that keeps us going.
Since the second split we have been limiting on divers, mainly scaup but also a few redheads and buffleheads. Also a few mottled ducks and teal every now and then. My clients don't care if the duck has a a black head, a greenhead, brown head or whatever! They come to shoot ducks and we are getting fantastic shooting everytime we go!
In the first split we were getting more puddle ducks (grays and teal) but now its mainly divers.
We are in that cycle again........too much water and food up the flyway. They had so much rain this year that a lot of farmers couldn't harvest their crops. So the puddle ducks are staying put unless they have a very hard freeze for days at a time. Sure there are isolated areas in our marshes holding some puddlers but for the most part they are virtually non existint.
The late Robert Helm, the former waterfowl study leader for Louisiana, once told me the reason you see wood ducks in the marsh in September is because the acorns have yet to drop in the wooded areas. Once November rolls around the woodies head for the woods and virtually disappear from the marsh.
Yep, Proud Pop Is right! My brother and I jumped 2 flocks and a few singles on one of our Delacroix leases this past Saturday. This is the earliest I've seen teal on my leases in a long time!
Can't wait! We have a few dates left available.
www.laduckhunts.com
Flooding harvested crops to me is baiting. And yes in my opinion ice eaters should be illegal.
Oh by the way, unless your duck ponds in the marsh are one foot deep or less, baiting would be a waste. A puddle duck tips over to feed. Baiting in any duck pond over a foot or so deep will only attract scaup and other divers. I've never seen a mallard, gadwall , etc dive to feed.
I remember very well the 2000-01 season. On one of the late second split hunts I had a group of 4 clients from Tennessee. We left the dock at the usual 5am and tried to plow thru the low tide and ice. After getting stuck a few times we turned around and headed back in. I told them to go back to their motel and meet me again at 9am. By about 945am we finally had the decoys out and settled in the blind. At 11:15am we had our limit of 30 birds. All gadwall and widgeon.
Now, 18 years later there are more and more agricultural fields and prime habitat to the north of us. The birds are being short stopped. Plain and simple. Each year gadwall are wintering in Arkansas more and more. So are the blue,snow and specklebelly geese.
I had a very good season this year with only about 3 bad hunts. During the first split we did well with gadwall as well as other species. The second split brought a hell of a lot green winged teal and scaup. To hunt the gadwalls we had to travel to our far out leases that were away from the normal pressure.
The birds had all the food they wanted in those opens bays and lagoons and were virtually untouched by hunting pressure. During the second split only a very strong south or southeast wind would push them in the inland marshes.
I'm with you Roland and Scott. More birds are shot during the early season in the coastal zone.
We can go show these guys where all the gadwall are in January. They are rafting by the thousands on the outside bays getting away from the inland marsh hunting pressure. By early February these same birds move back inland because the pressure is gone not because they just arrived! I have videos that we took in mid January of clouds of gadwall on these outside bays and lakes that are covered with grass mats. We have a lease that is pretty far out and produced a lot of second split gadwall.
Our closer leases did good on gadwall during the first split but after that they moved further out because of the hunting pressure. And thank goodness for the green winged teal and scaup this season! With the exception of 3 real slow hunts we had a damn good season.
I agree with pushpaddlebangbang.
Glad you had some good hunts. We had some good and bad ones. Flooded roads being closed for awhile cancelled a lot of hunts. On another note that Hammer Time stuff is expensive! For teal season I use my .20 gauge with Federal Upland 2 3/4' #6 steel shot. $6.00 a box at Walmart. Never had a cripple!