Upland birds and saltwater fish in the same day? It’s happening in Lafitte.
Even though killing gets lower on our priority lists as we get older, there’s no doubt that we all want to kill something when we go hunting. Whether it’s to put meat on the table or a trophy on the wall, my place is not to judge how others hunt or what others hunt as long as they are hunting it within the framework of the law. You want to hunt deer with a crossbow? Get after it, Jack. It’s legal in Louisiana now, and I support your right to hunt with it. You want to use a spinning-wing decoy to lure in the ducks? What do I care as long as it’s legal? You want to shoot dizzy, pen-raised quail? Well, that’s cool too, as long as you invite me to go with you.
Hunting pen-raised quail is likely to stir up less debate than some of the other perceived flash points within some hunting circles today, but I’m sure there are a few pretentious people around Louisiana who would stick their noses in the air and complain about hunting “canned” quail.
The problem is that hunters crying dirty pool often do it after filling their feeders, planting their plots or sticking their spinning-wing decoys in the mud. What’s wrong with all those things you ask? Nothing. And that’s precisely the point. They are all efforts at putting game within your sights, and that’s exactly what quail hunters want — birds at the other ends of their barrels.
Below New Orleans, about 17 miles to be exact, Capt. Theophile Bourgeois had a novel idea a while back that is coming to fruition this October. Having offered for years traditional cast-and-blast packages that were combinations of fishing and duck hunting, Bourgeois always felt bad charging people to go duck hunting when he never knew if the ducks would be there or not.
“Even though we’re in the flyway down here in Lafitte,” he began, “they are nature’s birds. And if a front comes through the night before and blows all the birds out, the people look at me the next morning with their hands in the air asking where are the ducks.”
While he still offers the traditional cast-and-blast if the duck numbers are right, Bourgeois now has another option for those who want to fish and hunt birds during the same trip, and that is 1,000 fat, corn-fed quail sitting in a pen that are guaranteed to be there during the hunt.
Here in Louisiana, hunters may hunt pen-raised quail at game preserves from Oct. 1-April 30, and there are plenty places to scratch your upland-bird itch. Preserves like Bayou Teche Hunting Preserve at Breaux Bridge, Covey Rise at Husser and Wild Wings in Downsville all offer hunters the opportunity to shoot quail during the seven-month season.
Why hunt a quail preserve? Well, the simple fact is that quail have dramatically disappeared from the wild Louisiana landscape. Whether it’s due to different farming practices or a complete lack thereof, increased predatory pressure from coyotes and such or landowners jumping on the timber bandwagon several years ago by planting all their open fields with rows of pines, wild quail are scarce in Louisiana.
Sure, an occasional covey might startle you on the way in to your deer stand. In fact, a few quail are starting to reappear on my property in Washington Parish. However, I don’t think the four or five that I’ve seen from my deer stand or the one I’ve heard calling late in the evening would make for a successful hunt.
“That’s what a quail preserve can offer,” Bourgeois said. “A successful hunt. I can’t guarantee the fish are going to bite or the ducks are going to fly, but I can guarantee those little birds will be on the ground and that they’re going to flush in front of you. Now whether you shoot them or not is up to you.
“Quail aren’t like bufflehead or teal that do 90 m.p.h. with three flaps of their wings, though. When these quail flush you’ve got about four seconds — an eternity in bird hunting — before they’re up and about 80 feet away from you. It’s kind of like shooting live skeet because you don’t know which way those birds are going to fly. The main difference is skeet don’t taste very good wrapped in bacon.”
What can hunters expect on a guided quail hunt at a preserve? In Bourgeois’ case, which would be very similar to any quail preserve in the state, hunters must go through a morning safety session to make sure everybody can handle a shotgun as well as they claim. Then it’s off to the start of the hunt in wagons pulled by ATVs to make the hunt more of an event than just a shooting experience.
“Our hunts are totally guided,” Bourgeois said. “There are some preserves that let you hunt on your own with your own dogs, but we’re not doing that now. What we’re doing with the cast-and-blast with quail is putting your fishing guide in the field with you on the quail hunt. He’ll walk through the field to work the dogs and explain everything that’s going on with the hunt.”
Typically, the dogs will zigzag in front of the hunters until they get a scent and go on point. Once the dogs are locked on, guides walk the hunters up right behind the dogs with one on the left and one on the right, at which point the dogs will flush the birds. And according to Bourgeois, the key factor in the whole quail hunting experience is watching the dogs work.
“I thought I liked hunting and going out to kill, kill, kill,” he said, “but it wasn’t until I started watching these dogs actually working, going on point, flushing and retrieving that I realized there’s more to hunting than just killing something. For the first-timer, he just can’t appreciate it until he sees it — just how keen these dogs’ senses are.”
The terrain in quail preserves is as varied as the Louisiana landscape. However, in Bourgeois’ case, he has reclaimed an old cow pasture through which winds the original road that was used to travel to Lafitte. In fact, Bourgeois says this road is the same that the notorious privateer Jean Lafitte used to go between Barataria and New Orleans.
To keep the hunting experience as natural as possible, Bourgeois leaves it in its original state except for some bush hogging to keep the grass and brush down to about 10 inches or so. His intent is to make it so that the quail hunt is more of what he called a “gentleman’s hunt” rather than a hard-core experience busting through briars and battling snakes.
“You can get by out here with just some ankle or knee boots,” he said. “You don’t need the briar pants and all that stuff. We try to make the hunt easy and convenient for the hunters, so they don’t have to crawl through too much brush and dodge a bunch of trees and stuff like that.
“Our hunt consists of walking about 3/4 of a mile with a break about halfway where hunters can sit down and enjoy a cold drink and a snack. You don’t have to be in great physical shape do it either. There’s some physicality involved since you’re going to be doing some walking, but you don’t have to be in shape like a jogger or anything.”
Although there are plenty of preserves around Louisiana where hunters can experience the same kinds of quail hunts that Bourgeois offers, what is unique about his set-up is that hunters get to go fishing the afternoon before their hunt if they so choose.
“We go out and fish redfish or speckled trout that afternoon for about six or seven hours,” Bourgeois said. “The reds are usually the easiest, but we get a lot of trout up here close to us in the winter when they hit places like The Pen. Whether it’s reds or trout, we usually don’t have to go very far from the Cajun Vista during the fall and winter months, so the fishing is almost as easy as the quail hunting.”
Most of the fishing between October and March, which is when Bourgeois shuts down his quail hunting because of the heat-induced stress on the dogs, is throwing spinnerbaits or corks with plastics about 90 percent of the time. The other 10 percent is throwing dead shrimp under a cork if fishing slows down after a cold front.
Although killing may be low on your list in the total hunting experience, knowing that you’ll have a successful hunt is one of the main reasons for hunting a quail preserve this season. These places are about recreating the old-world upland game bird hunting experience that has long been pushed aside in favor of big money hunts for deer and ducks.
As long as you can shoot, quail on the ground at a hunting preserve are as good as in the bag as long as your nose isn’t in the air. How they got there isn’t nearly as important as enjoying the experience of watching the dogs work and getting in some great wing-shooting.
Who am I to judge?
For more information, call 504-341-5614. Visit the author’s blog at www.chrisginn.com.
