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Better Late Than Never
The rhythmic whistle of mallard wings slicing bits of air from the sky could be heard as they nervously circled high above.[…]
Waterfowl & Duck Hunting
Contents
Amphibious Assault — Tips for duck hunting out of popup boat blinds
I had never been a big fan of boat blinds, but the reality of the situation was finally beginning to settle in.[…]
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Drive-in shooting
In addition to portable boat blinds, other hunters use permanent drive-in boat blinds.[…]
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Expert boat-blind tips
Popup boat blinds are great tools for duck hunters looking to attract more ducks into shooting range, but there are some tricks that will maximize their hunting success.[…]
Contents
Sibling Rivalry — How this brother-sister team hunt Atchafalaya WMA ducks
A midmorning hunt with a late arrival on the Atchafalaya Wax Delta was the plan. Adam Rhodes had no desire to get up at 3 a.m. to beat the weekend crowd to some of the better locations he already scouted and plugged into his GPS.
The diehard Morgan City waterfowl hunter had done the middle-of-the night thing before in order to beat others to a preferred location.
And he figured out it isn’t always necessary.
Rhodes is now accustomed to making later-in-the-day hunts on the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area, understanding the tidal conditions and advantages of scouting prior to hunting the vast 141,000-acre refuge that can only be reached by boat.[…]
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Limited-access area equipment for walk in hunters
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries has set aside 3,250 acres on the Atchafalaya Delta WMA as a limited-access area. In other words, no motorized boats are allowed.[…]
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Robo-logic
If there’s one conditioned response that comes from the various mechanical apparatus used on duck ponds, it’s usually negative.[…]
Contents
Rolling with the punches – Duck-hunting tactics for late-season success
Picture this. You’ve had a good opening to the duck season. But now the season has been underway a while and you haven’t had any cold fronts or strong south winds to bring in new birds or shake things up. They sky is blue-bird clear, and has been for days.[…]
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The learning curve
Is a popup blind on a boat the answer for you? When they first made their appearance, lots of hunters wrote them off tersely, with “They don’t work.”[…]
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Surface drives are fishing boats too
Boats equipped with surface drive engines were not long ago seen as an oddity in anything but duck-hunting situations.[…]
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Souping up surface drives
The power plant of choice for surface drive motors is the 35-horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine. These stock engines can be modified to improve their performance, something done every day by Andy Johnston and his crew at The Boat Doctor Inc. in Metairie.[…]
NEW PRODUCTS
FLOATSTAND
Add life-like motion to your spread with the FLOATSTAND, a floating platform designed to support your spinning wing decoy in a variety of water depths and hunting situations.[…]
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Hot Redheads and Delta Cakes
Over the years, with each generation, there always seems to be a good-looking redheaded actress that captivates audiences everywhere.[…]
News Breaker
Second-split opening disappointing for many hunters
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.[…]
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Swan Song
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.[…]
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Shut up to call ducks
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.[…]