After fretting about what the new duck season would be like around Delacroix due to the affects of Hurricane Gustav, Captain Mike Smith with Louisiana Marsh Guide Service has been happy to discover that any negative predictions have been totally proven untrue. In fact, Smith says the beginning of the first split has been very productive.
“I’ve been hunting every day since November 8,” said the five time Louisiana state duck calling champion, “and it has been better than last year. All the doom predictions of no birds because all the hurricanes wiped out all the food… but we’re better than last season. We’ve had two bad days since the opening day, but other than that, we’ve been knocking the hell out of them.”
Smith says there have been a lot of birds in the sky and that he is still holding birds that were in his lease a week before the season even started. While he’s still holding these ducks, the population has steadily increased with new birds coming down on the heels of the past couple of cold fronts.
“Mainly grey ducks… gadwall,” Smith pointed out. “There’s also widgeon, teal, spoonbills, mottled ducks, stuff like that… a few divers. I think we’re seeing so many ducks because this November has been colder than last November, and that has brought in all these ducks.”
It has been obvious to Smith that his two bad days were also the two warmest and calmest days since opening day. When the temperature has dropped and the wind has howled, the ducks have been thick in the sky.
“As long as we’re getting wind the birds are flying,” Smith added. “Now if we don’t get the wind, the only thing that will fly is the gnats. (Thursday) was one of our bad days, but it was also in the lower 70s and calm. This past Tuesday we killed 24. Wednesday we killed 16 with the chance to kill 8 more. And (Thursday) it was a big zero. They didn’t fly and they shifted locations.”
If the sky continues to stay full of big flocks of new birds making their way to Southeast Louisiana, Smith says he thinks that the first split will continue to be better than last year. Although the timing of the action varies each morning, the ducks have been all over Smith and his customers.
For more information or to book some of Smith’s available dates during the second split, visit www.laduckhunts.com, or call 504-682-1966.
