Columns
When’s the next fishing trip?
People I meet think I have the perfect job. After all, I get to hunt and fish for a living, right? Wrong.[…]
First Cast
Columns
Support hunting, buy a sandwich
When I opened my Facebook account the other day, a post by a lifelong friend grabbed my attention. This friend had shared a link decrying an African safari taken by Jimmy Johns founder Jimmy John Liautaud.[…]
Columns
It’s time to peel back veil of secrecy at LDWF
My first job in the outdoor communications business was as a lowly Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries “information specialist,” working under the chain-smoking, profanely cantankerous and unpredictable Maurice Cockerham.[…]
Columns
Science vs. opinion
What are the roles of science and public opinion in the process of structuring hunting or fishing regulations?[…]
Columns
Bear recovery has far-ranging benefits
I don’t know many outdoorsmen who would argue against habitat management. We all want more forests to support more deer, squirrels, turkeys and rabbits. We all want to protect our marshes so we can watch swarms of ducks cup into a spread of dekes.[…]
Columns
Cut our game wardens some slack
I hear regular complaints about supposed jerks wearing the uniform of Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries agents. You know the refrains.[…]
Columns
The math just doesn’t work
No one has ever accused me of being a math whiz. For good reason. I get 2 plus 2 equals 4. I’ve got 100 divided by 20 comes out to 5.[…]
Columns
Value of fishing lost in closure of launch
I’m not what most would consider an anti-government ranter. I’m not a big-government fan, either. I just believe government has a role in our lives that probably can’t be rolled back without great pain to us all.[…]
Columns
It’s time for ethanol to go
Every now and then, amidst the partisan screaming and yelling on Capitol Hill, a piece of legislation appears that makes perfect sense.[…]
Columns
It’s time to give back
I went through a tournament-fishing phase when I was in my 20s and thought I had outgrown my bream-fishing childhood. I fished the old Greenwell Springs Marine Pro-Am as a no-boater and was a member of Sunshine Bass Club.[…]
Columns
Safety is first priority in the outdoors
I’ve had the privilege to travel all over the country for work. I’ve hunted throughout the Deep South, and I’ve fished from Texas to Virginia and almost every state in between.[…]
Columns
Hunting no longer a male fraternity
I can remember the scene like it was yesterday: A wife of one of the hunting club members showed up around lunchtime, and another member walked out of the bunk room in his tighty whities.[…]
Columns
Enjoying a dying hunting tradition
It’s been years since I have been a member of a hunting club. I just don’t hunt enough anymore (I’m sad to say) to justify the expense, and over the years I have found other things (aka “kids”) that required money.[…]
Columns
We’re so spoiled
We Louisiana coastal anglers are like spoiled children. No, really. We’re so used to catching gobs of speckled trout that when fishing gets tough we immediately determine there just must be something wrong with the fishery.[…]
Columns
More ducks is good news? Maybe, but …
No one who really knows me would accuse me of being a die-hard duck hunter. While I’ve spent a lot of time over the years pointing a shotgun at waterfowl (“pointing” being the operative term), what has traditionally gotten my hunting juices flowing has been the thought of climbing into a tree and having a deer — any deer — walk into range.[…]
Columns
I can’t stand a liar
I remember saying I would never think like my dad, the hard-nosed redneck who raised me under a regime of strict rules and hard work. I promised to never say the things he said, and I’d be my kids’ best friend.[…]