As most of you know in the state of Louisiana Nutria are classified as a nuisance animal and are to be taken by any means all year as long as you have written permission from the landowner. After the duck season closes, we go shoot the nutria up in the same marshes we hunt the ducks in. Itâs nice to ride through the marsh taking in the sights while getting some shooting in.
Date Hunted 1/14/23: A real nice breeze blowing from the north, tides below normal, 39 degrees and slightly overcast skies. Very good conditions for a duck hunt. The problem was the typical pattern of late season duck hunting. This time of year, the ducks usually stay down until somebody in a boat comes by or something spooks them and they get up, fly around for a minute and go right back down where they were. A few from the pack may come your way for some shots. That pattern is in full effect now. We managed to shoot 1 redhead and 6 teal Saturday. Not expecting much to change between now and January 29th.
12/17/22: Start of the second split did not disappoint. Conditions were good for a duck hunt. North wind around 10mph water height was good with slight overcast skies. We had a couple of shots early then not much happened for a while and I got worried this may not be a good hunt despite good conditions. Around 7:15 teal started to move and it was game on. Several nice flights of Blue Winged and Green Winged buzzed over the decoys and we knocked some down. Jefferson did a great job retrieving the ducks picking up all we shot in our blind for the hunt. My blind shot 1 hen pintail, 1 grey duck and 10 teal. After we picked up our decoys we went over to another blind where friends were hunting and Jefferson picked up some of their ducks that were in the lilies that would have been hard to find. The dog had a good work out for sure. Having a good working dog is a game changer and fun to watch.
This was our second duck hunt with my friends Labrador, Jefferson. The dog turned 1 last week and is doing a great job retrieving ducks for us. We shot 11 Friday and he got them all. It has been years since I hunted with a dog but it changes the the hunting experience having a good well behaved dog that works. What a treat he has been. Video of a few of his retrieves.
11/25/22: We decided to let the rain pass before going out into the marsh this morning. We set up around 10:00am with water dropping fast, overcast skies and light breeze. Early in the hunt we saw three mottled ducks poking along and decided to hit them with a duck call. Most times it does not work but this time it did and they started to come at us. We let the come and they saw the decoys and worked perfectly going across the pond right to left. We knocked all three down. One was a cripple and the dog went into the lilies and pulled it out. Real good stuff. Video of the dog working will be coming. Jefferson retrieved all the ducks. Now we are getting spoiled. Hunted until 12:30. Ended up with 11 ducks for the hunt. A good late morning duck hunt.
Date Hunted November 12, 2022: Another big duck season opening day. That makes 47 in a row. Calm skies with water height normal. Cool front on the way and we were hoping for some good breeze. By the end of the hunt it did not matter as we were able to limit our as a group. We shot mostly teal but mixed in were a couple widgeon, grey ducks, mottled ducks and a couple of dosgris shot by accident. Hopefully our luck will continue as the season goes on. All of our off season work seems to have paid off. We also shot a few pouledeau. Real good duck hunt.
My son was in the Marine Corps for four years and was eligible for the early special duck hunting weekend for youth and military people only in Louisiana the weekend before the regular season that starts November 12. In the four man duck blind Saturday was my son, me and two of my good friends with nothing else to do. Conditions were a little warm but there was a nice breeze blowing with overcast skies that made for a good duck hunt. Right after legal shooting time three Gadwall come from left to right, easy shot and my son shoots three times and doesn't knock a duck down. With his audience on hand the pressure is on now. Just a few minutes pass and five Gadwall come from right to left and he knocked two down with three shots. Few minutes later solo Gadwall goes down. Few more minutes four Ringed-necks come and he got two of them with three shots. Few more minutes he shot one more Gadwall to finish the hunt with four Gadwall and two Ringed-necks. It was over in 20 minutes he did some good shooting once he righted the ship after a rough start. Lots of fun. Great start to our big duck season. It sure helps when you have ducks in the area like we do now. We did the work part building duck blinds and putting good cover on them so we were ready to go. Hopefully the ducks stay around for the whole season.
The duck blind is ready to go for the big duck season. Cut lots of roseau cane to cover the 4 man blind and the boat we pull behind it. Got to get the work done before the fun.
Teal hunting is getting better in SE Louisiana. We shot 11 teal this morning and another blind shot 12. Water is high and hyacinth are starting to be a problem. Hopefully it does not get worse. Few more hunts to go for the season. Shot 5 teal Sunday...
Got a couple of new blinds built and cane put around them. The work is done. Now we need the teal to show up like they did last year and it will all have been worth the effort.
With a little more than a month to go before we start our September teal season I put together some of the best video shots over the last several years. Teal are a blast to hunt and can't wait for the action to start.
Date Hunted 1-15-22 Nice day for a duck hunt compared to today. Water was high enough for us to get where we needed to get as we have been watching where the ducks want to be. This time of year it's not what you think ought to happen rather scouting where the ducks are and going there is the ticket. Not many hunters out in the marsh to keep the ducks moving so have to get the ones that do come close. Had a good hunt shooting 18 teal and 11 coots. Did not hunt today - I don't hunt on days like today. I find once the wind gets above 20MPH the ducks stay down and it's miserable hunting with wind and low water. Let the youngsters do that if they want to.
Some of you may remember I posted a YouTube video in March of 2021 that shows thousands of Black Bellied Whistling Tree Ducks (BBWD) lined up along the West Napoleon canal bank near Lafreniere Park in Metairie. My son was walking his dog yesterday and took this picture of an Eagle that had gotten a BBWD and was eating it. Apparently this Eagle saw the easy meal and took advantage of it.
Date Hunted 12/28/21: Four of us took the ride to SW Louisiana for a goose and duck hunt. It had been many years since we hired a guide to take us out on a hunt. We have been shooting some ducks this year but wanted to add geese to the equation. It was warm in the morning with a 10 to 15 mph breeze from the south for the beginning of the hunt, partly cloudy skies. Water height was perfect, that is what you get when you have levees and pumped in controlled water. When we got to where we were going to hunt our guide loaded up us and all our gear into a side by side with big mud tires. He took us through the flooded rice field to the sunk pit blind would be hunting in, real curb side service. The goose and duck decoys were already out in the pond so we jumped in the pit and the hunt began. Early on we shot two teal, the duck action was slow. At about 7:00 am the geese started getting restless making the racket they usually do and some started to get off the roost heading out. Some came our way and the guide did all he could calling them and were able to shoot some. Up until 10:00 am we had 6 geese and 2 ducks. At 10:00 the wind picked up and the geese began to work us better. A group of 4 speckle bellies came right at us and we knocked them all down. Then we shot a high-flying snow goose. We ended the hunt at 11:00am with 11 geese, 8 speckle bellies â 3 snows â 2 teal. Considering the status of waterfowl hunting in south Louisiana we had a good hunt and a great time. The dog our guide had retrieved all the geese and ducks for us. He made a real nice retrieve on a crippled goose that would have gotten away if not for the dog. For our hunt we used Cluckers Outfitters â Thornwell Louisiana â 337-842-4447
Weather conditions were ideal for our duck hunt Friday after Thanksgiving. North wind about 15 steady with overcast skies, perfect. We had good amounts of teal and big ducks on the move right from the beginning of the hunt. We had been doing well in this spot so we had all of us in one blind for the hunt. Lots of fun cutting up, hunting, eating and some cold beer. We hunted until 10:00am. After the hunting part in the latter part of the video we have to back out of our spot because the trenasse we use we can?t turn around. The motor is a 2007 36HP Pro Drive surface drive with manual full power reverse and manual trim getting it done. She is still going strong after all these years with lots of duck hunts in the slop. The video shows us shooting 30 ducks which was surprising to me. Even more of a surprise was the very next day four of us went to the same spot on another good day for a duck hunt and shot 1 duck. Makes no sense at all.
Date Hunted 11/24/21: Bad conditions for a duck hunt today. No wind at all and blue bird skies. We got in before 6:00 am hoping the teal would be on the move again but today they seemed to stay put. There were times some nice bands of teal were zigging and zagging across the marsh but today we seem to be in the spot they did not want to fly. Often times they flew just out of range. We are noticing they are starting to gang where the pouldeau are and we can't compete with that. Another issue was so few hunters out in the marsh today. I was surprised how few there were, that did not help the cause. Planning on a Thanksgiving day drive in drive out hunt. Hopefully we have some wind tomorrow. 4 teal - 1 pintail for the day.
Date Hunted Saturday 11/20/21: Real nice morning for a duck hunt. Temperature 52 degrees with a nice breeze out of the north east and the water levels remaining above average which is good for us for the property we are hunting now. The teal are still in the area and as soon as it starts to get light and someone in the area shoots the first shot the teal start to move. Ended up with a four-man limit for the hunt 18 teal - 4 greys - 1 pintail - 1 spoonbill. Date Hunted Sunday 11/21/21: Opened the door of the trailer at the camp to no wind at all and the stars shining bright. I told the guys if we can get a limit out of a day like today we are living right. Same start with teal buzzing around at daybreak and we were fortunate to make some good shots. Gnats came out to make it ruff on us and that lasted for about one hour then a breeze picked up. The gnats left and teal started again with some big ducks moving around. Shot a four-man limit for the hunt 21 teal - 2 pintail - 1 wood duck. After some tough years in the duck game it's great to be back on them, as long as the water stays up like it has been we should be able to have success. Enjoying it while we have it. Picture from Sunday.
I have stated many times the duck game is location, location, location. Over the last several years the ducks donât seem to want to be in an area we had success for many years. The habitat has changed and we were able to lease new property in an area the ducks, teal for the most part want to be. Teal seem to like the flats where water levels change the area from shallow ponds to mud flats and back to shallow ponds. The area we have leased has limited access and space to put the blind like I want to. Current blind set up is breaking the rules of having the rising sun at your back but in this instance we donât have much choice, so on sunny days it will be tough looking into the sun and video will suffer. We can all deal with the issues as long as we are shooting ducks.
Decent amount of teal in the area, not many grey ducks, pouledeau have showed up in good numbers. Due to the dry conditions in the Mississippi valley this could be a good year for south Louisiana duck hunters. Not much water for the ducks up the line. Of course that could change during the season but right now things are looking good.
Fished off the dock a few nights ago and the outside trout are moving into the Rigolets - Chef area. Fished a couple of hours and there were a lot of throwbacks, ended up with 11 with three being real nice.
SE Louisiana Report: We hunted Saturday shot 3 teal and Sunday we shot 2. Hunted yesterday and up until 7:20 we had one duck in the boat then all hell broke loose for 45 minutes, ended up with 17. We had to leave to get to work. More teal have showed up with the cool front.
Slow times for us in SE Louisiana. Shot 3 teal yesterday and 2 today. LFWS aerial survey that came out Friday indicated 7,000 teal in SE LA. That is why we struggled, they aren't here.
No it's not the same spot. The area with the video has no water now and is overgrown with grass. We had to relocate.
Depending on what parish the property is in you can go to the Tax Assessors website of that parish, most parishes in the state have a map system that shows property, ownership and boundaries. It takes some research but more than likely you will find your answer.
Considering the current status of waterfowl hunting in south Louisiana these days we had a good season. We were fortunate to lease another piece of property where the teal wanted to be and they made up the majority of the ducks taken this year. Had we hunted our other lease only it would have been an awful year. As the crow flies it is 15 miles between properties but the difference in ducks cannot be compared. For the last day of the season we hunted the old lease to shoot some divers. Shot 2 Dogris each. The other part was the tide was low with cold temperatures and we have permission to shoot nutria on some private properties near us. 7 nutria for the day and they are fun to shoot.
Good hunt. You can't shoot them from the house, gotta go.
Off to a good start. I will take that for opening day.
Good report and enjoyed the video.
We hunted our regular lease Saturday morning three boats going out, zero teal for the day. Hunted another piece of property Sunday and four of us shot 15 teal. It was a real nice duck hunt.
I have been trying it but don't like it at all - bad move by somebody
Excellent video and very well put together, I watched the whole thing. A lot of seat time to get that much good video.
I am not a big fan of it. I prefer the old format. Only thing I found missing with the old format was the date of the original post below the headline.
Here is a part from an old article from 1968. Area is near Oak River and Bayou LaCroix as the map shows. As we all know back in the day before Mardi Gras pass it was a prime-time speckle trout area.
I have gotten similar reports from people I know personally who have done the same thing you describe. Who would have thought states that once had tumbleweed crossing the roads on windy days would become duck capitals of the country.
Two of us went out this morning in foggy conditions and shot 4 tree ducks, 4 dosgris and 1 ruddy duck. Hopefully next year we have some vegetation in the ponds to help keep puddle ducks who make their way down here, here. However, as we all know the game has changed and with all the food and water up the line no reason for puddle ducks to come to SE Louisiana. Where we hunt it has become diver duck country with some exceptions but not like it used to be. Despite undesirable outcomes over the last few years we hunt on.
Three of us hunted today and shot 6 dosgris and 2 ring necks. All divers continue but at least we are shooting some ducks holding our nose while doing it.
Nice picture and I hope good hunting continues for you.
Enjoy the coots. Did not see any of those. And yes, I am an equal opportunity waterfowl hunter. We cut coots same as ducks, very tasty.