Guy LeBreton (a.k.a. Guy L) is a 38-year-old diehard duck hunter from Lafayette. He is a Mighty Lion from Lafayette High Class of 1990 and graduate of ULL in 1994. His family consists of his wife Kimberly Gesser LeBreton and my two children, Hunter, 11, and Maddie, 8. Hunter, as his name suggests, is LeBreton’s constant companion in the marsh. Maddie may someday follow in his footsteps, but she has to overcome her strong desire to sleep in on weekends first!
LeBreton’s most cherished memories from childhood are those spent with his dad in the duck blind. They didn’t have a lease, and only hunted two or three weekends a year when his dad took oilfield customers out and he was fortunate enough to tag along, but those days were the highlight of his youth.
LeBreton cut his teeth hunting with a great outdoorsman and a very fine man, a duck guide named Amos Hebert on Schooner Bayou out of Little Prairie. Hebert taught LeBreton most of what he knows about duck hunting and duck identification.
Even after LeBreton’s father retired and the oilfield customers went by the wayside, the father-son team still got together at Amos’ houseboat with the elder LeBreton’s friends a couple times a year to make a hunt. Unfortunately, health got the best of LeBreton’s father, and about six years ago the elder member of the team had to put the gun in the gun cabinet for good. It was a tough decision for him, and a sad time for the younger LeBreton.
LeBreton realized that the best times of his life, and best times with his dad, occurred in the marsh watching the skies for ducks, so he kept his eye open for a lease to call his own. He was fortunate enough to find a small lease he could afford in the Vermilion Parish marsh on the Boston Canal. That is where he now makes memories with his son and relives the days of the past with his own father.
LeBreton is what you would call a “Weekend Warrior,” hunting as often as he can but only when work and time allows. Of course, it is never enough.
The goal of this blog is present the perspective of the Average Joe duck hunter. LeBreton doesn’t have the biggest, newest mud motor or the modern hi-tech electronic flapping electro duck decoy. He goes out in a leaky flat boat with a 10-horsepower Go-Devil. His equipment consists of his shotgun, a couple of duck calls, as many dented and faded old decoys as he can find, and, of course, a thermos of hot coffee. His companions are his son, his lab, his brother and the marsh.
He doesn’t always shoot a limit, and once in a while he even scratches, but he never returns home disappointed. Any day in the marsh is a good day for him. He hopes you enjoy his tales of the hunt and the memories he and his son makes.
