Think deer hunting’s hard for you? Well, it’s definitely a whole lot harder for 16-year-old Ben Fontenot, but that hasn’t stopped him from whacking some brutes.
It appears as though Old Man Winter arrived in earnest, making for good weather conditions to kickoff the second split of the 2009-10 duck season. However, persistent rainfall has continued to hamper some hunters’ efforts, with many of the state’s rivers at or near flood stage. Flooded backwaters and widespread flooding of typically dry fields are giving the birds a leg up on hunters hoping to target them in their traditional haunts.
Even so, it appears some hunters are enjoying an increase in the number of birds following a forgettable first split, although overall things just don’t seem to be “right.”
Up in the northern end of the state, Hunter Shaffett of Cypress Point in Tensas Parish and Whispering Oaks of Concordia Parish reports spotty results, although there have been some good days.
“It’s tough, really tough. When they’re here, we’re killing a good many grey ducks and mallards,” Shaffett said. “I’m shooting an area, then leaving it alone for four or five days and hoping for them to return to the area. Those have been our best days when hunting a well-rested blind.”
Shaffett indicated that the high rivers continue to hurt their hunting, with birds scattered in flooded backwaters and rafting up in the nearby Mississippi River. He’s hoping the forecasted brutal cold this week will bring down a strong push of birds to help put beaks on the strap in the homestretch of the season.
Down in southwest Louisiana, Erik Rue with Calcasieu Charter Service reported a bit better results for the second split, which got off to a strong start but tapered a bit heading into Christmas.
“Though we’re seeing a lot of pintails, there’s just no overall consistency with the ducks right now,” Rue said. “We saw a lot of new geese just recently, but overall I’m not impressed.”
He said the specks are also getting more and more difficult to bring to the gun with so many mature birds in the air and very few young-of-the-year birds due to the weak hatch this year.
“We’re starting to see some Canadas, so that’s usually indicative of the tail end of the migration,” Rue said. “It’s looking to be a tough January.”
Heading a bit east, Rick Hall of Doug’s Hunting Lodge in the Klondike area said things have definitely improved.
“It’s not great but it’s better,” Hall said of the marsh and ag-field blinds in his area. “We’re seeing a good many mallards now, which were largely absent in the first split.”
Hall spends most of his mornings in his marsh blind, and has been putting together bags of mainly teal, mallards, pintails with a few spoonbills and gadwall.
Over in the Delacroix area, Mike Smith of Louisiana Marsh Guide Service had a great second-split opening weekend, but feels it’s slowed down overall.
“We had a fantastic opening weekend, but then saw our birds taper off a bit at a time since then,” Smith reported.
He’s still killing mainly teal, and feels that the big ducks just haven’t shown up like they usually do.
“We’re having our best hunts in flooded grass during higher tides,” he said. “With the water starting to fall out now with these fronts, the birds have left us, too.”
Smith echoed other sentiments, hoping late-season cold fronts will finally bring some grey ducks to his Delacroix area leases in the numbers typical of this time of year.
One area that seems to be having a season with at least some semblance of normalcy is Venice.
Capt. Damon McKnight of Super Strike Charters was pleased with the second split thus far and the number of birds he’s seeing.
“We’ve got lots of ducks,” McKnight said. “I’d call it even a bit better than average, with lots of grey ducks and pintail.”
He also reports seeing quite a few large wads of green-winged teal, along with a few canvasbacks and redheads.
“There are a lot of birds holding downriver, but we’ve been doing well hunting closer to Venice,” McKnight added.
There’s still nearly a month of duck hunting left before we’re back to counting down the long offseason. Brutal cold is in the forecast for our state this week, with much of the flyway experiencing the coldest temperatures of the season. That comes just in time for hunters to buckle down and capitalize on late-arriving birds.
Hopefully these last few weeks of the season will make up for everything the first few weeks were not.
