Promote
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.[…]
Waterfowl & Duck Hunting
Promote
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.[…]
Waterfowl & Duck Hunting
Cold fronts bring new ducks into South Louisiana for second split opening
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.[…]
Waterfowl & Duck Hunting
Top 5 Duck Guns
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.[…]
Waterfowl & Duck Hunting
First duck-hunting split largely hit and miss for many, fizzles to a close
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. […]
Sidebars
Read signs
Newcomers to Lake Catahoula hunting must be aware of where they can and can’t legally go.[…]
Sidebars
Chuck Buckley: The man
Martin Close III’s father Martin Jr. often good-naturedly called his friend Chuck Buckley an “unnaturalized citizen” of Alexandria.[…]
Recipes
Chuck Buckley’s Duck (Coot) Gumbo
According to Martin Close, Chuck Buckley loved coots (poule d’eaus).[…]
NEW PRODUCTS
Rig’Em Right Decoy Anchors
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.[…]
Contents
Jump Around
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.[…]
Sidebars
Defining Lake Catahoula
Defining Catahoula is difficult. Perhaps it is easier to define what it is not.[…]
Sidebars
Hen dekes bring in more ducks
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.[…]
Sidebars
Top picks for North Louisiana public duck hunting
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.[…]
Contents
Sock Knocker
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.[…]
Sidebars
Changing water conditions change duck patterns
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.[…]
Sidebars
Biloxi Marsh offers duck hunters room to spread out
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.[…]