Where are all of the ducks?
This is the question that has been reverberating throughout South Louisiana after a generally weak opening weekend for the eastern and coastal zones’ second split.[…]
If only Pelayo were as punctual as wood ducks. The exasperating two-winged creatures keep a rigid daily schedule, flying exactly five minutes before and five minutes after legal shooting time.[…]
Ducks don’t talk to each other nearly as much as hunters think, especially during the late season. Just as a roomful of people will migrate away from a loud, obnoxious guy who tries to dominate the conversation, ducks will exhibit the same behavior.
The more you call, the less likely that you’ll attract ducks, especially during January.
Rod Haydel of Haydel Game Calls started going to the duck blind with his dad at the age of 5. Over the last 41 years, he’s hunted webfoots all over the nation, primarily in the marshes around Lake Charles in southern Louisiana.[…]
Now that the jet stream has finally dipped down far enough to give Louisiana a taste of the arctic chill, the ducks should be migrating in full force. This weekend (Dec. 15-16) is opening weekend for the coastal and eastern waterfowl zones, and any outdoorsman with a shotgun should be in a duck blind to get in on the action.[…]
The last thing you want when you’ve been hunting through dew, mud and muck for three days is to hear a click when you have the perfect lead on a decoying mallard or pintail. So it’s wise to carry the most-dependable shotgun when you head to the duck blind.[…]
After a roller coaster ride of weather throughout the first split of the 2012-13 waterfowl season, it was only fitting that the Coastal and East zones would close on a balmy weekend to kick off December.
With duck hunting largely weather dependent, hunting success came and went with the passing fronts for most hunters. Cold fronts brought in new birds over hunters’ decoys, but then action would often fizzle as the winds turned from northerly to southerly and temperatures rose. […]
Hunters looking for an easy and super-fast way to retrieve their duck decoys without worrying about tangles will love Rig’Em Right Decoy Anchors.[…]
I always wondered while fishing during the winter if all those ducks I kept jumping in the river lakes just off the Ouachita River between Monroe and West Monroe would eventually return to that same spot.[…]
Defining Catahoula is difficult. Perhaps it is easier to define what it is not.[…]
Although he’s had times when he’s killed nothing but greenheads, D’Arbonne Refuge and Upper Ouachita Refuge duck hunter Chance Havard said he has learned a little decoy trick he believes helps him get more ducks within shooting range.[…]
The Ouachita River itself offers some good duck hunting in many of its backwaters, but there is a collection of publicly managed federal refuges and state wildlife management areas within a short drive of Monroe that would make any hunter green with envy.[…]
This past teal season didn’t exactly knock Capt. Chris Pike’s socks off. The Delacroix charter captain and duck-hunting guide hunted every day, and although he had some decent hunts, most days ended with a few empty spots on his duck strap.[…]
Capt. Chris Pike is used to keeping an eye on the water while he is speckled trout fishing, and that has helped him to understand exactly how water conditions — namely high water and low water — affect duck hunting in the Southeast Louisiana marsh.[…]
The marsh that Chris Pike hunts around Delacroix is admittedly all leased up. That means that one can’t just launch a boat and find the closest pond to make a duck hunt.[…]
It was a hypnotizingly peaceful afternoon. I shuffled along the banks of Little River, head down, searching intently for a pottery shard, an arrowhead — anything that the area’s first inhabitants might have left behind.
The sun’s rays felt good on my back, but the air still had a cold nip to it from a front that had passed the day before.
The sound of dogs barking in the distance echoed through the bare trees. The occasional cawing of crows seemed especially sharp in the dry air.
Otherwise, there was silence.
I felt rather than heard something behind me on the riverbank. I turned but saw nothing. It happened again. The third time, I barely turned my head and peeked out of one corner of my eye. […]
We hunted in one of three of Chuck Buckley’s blinds Martin has inherited from him.[…]