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D’Arbonne’s Daffy Divers

It was late evening in the early summer. The five men assembled on the back deck of the Petrus family camp, set on a hill slope overlooking Lake D’Arbonne, were engaged in a masculine redneck ritual. Bobby Petrus, a.k.a. “The Claw,” was grilling meat, and all of them were exchanging humorous insults.

The rough-and-tumble humor, mixed with an equal blend of braggadocio and self-deprecation, was delivered with powerful North Louisiana twangs in what a Cajun or a New Orleanian would consider a foreign language.[…]

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Turkey Tornado

If Alaska had a huntable population of turkeys, Franklinton’s Randy Stafford wouldn’t be stuck on having killed a turkey in 49 out of 50 states.[…]

Freshwater Fishing

Why a hole?

Catfish noodlers, grabbers or wrestlers, whatever you call them, take advantage of an important trait in the biology of North American freshwater catfish. They need to spawn in cavities of some kind.[…]

Sidebars

Wild turkeys benefit from NWTF

In all the hunts he has made to complete his goal of killing a turkey in 49 of the 50 states, Randy Stafford has seen firsthand what the National Wild Turkey Federation has done in regards to introducing turkeys to areas where there weren’t any before.[…]

Freshwater Fishing

Rub-a-dub tub

Catfish noodlers use a variety of man-made objects to entice flatheads into confining spaces where they can be grabbed. The “Women, Whiskey and Wrastl’in” crew have settled on bathtubs as their favorite. Preparing one takes substantial work.[…]

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Davis Pond Speck Effect

While telling me about how the Davis Pond Diversion has affected speckled trout fishing around Lafitte, Capt. Theophile Bourgeois mentioned something that I don’t think he realized provided a perfect contrast of the life before and after the levee break started flowing.[…]

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Vanishing Eden

The smoke/glitter sparkle beetle arched through the air toward a handful of scraggly, brush sticks poking out of the water — the few remains of the live black mangroves that once covered a substantial island.[…]