Going to Louisiana

**daytripper** · 01-12-2005, 09:36 AM

Heading to Louisiana tomorrow afternoon to hunt private rice fields near Lake Charles. Hunting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'll let yall know how it goes.

DT

**Ring King** · 01-12-2005, 10:33 AM

Good luck. The weather down here is a beautiful and balmy 72 degrees. There are plenty of geese over on that side of the state with some decent numbers of mallards. The only problem with them is that they don't want to fly around very much. I am still killing enough birds here around New Orleans to keep me interested. We have good numbers of gadwall and teal here if you are willing to work to find them. You may be coming at just the right time due to the major weather system that is on it's way. Saturday is supposed to have a high temp of 39 degrees and Sunday is a high of 40. Have fun and make every shot count.

**daytripper** · 01-12-2005, 10:47 AM

Yeah I saw the weather and was hoping the same thing. I'm going with my neighbor who grew up there and his Dad said they are covered up with Geese right now. He said they shot a bunch of teal and then a mix of Gadwalls, Shovelers, Pintail, and a few mallards last weekend. He said the duck just were not moving much b/c of the weather. Hopefully this cold front moves in some new ones and keeps them moving around. Either way I'm sure it will be a good trip.

DT

**dukmon** · 01-13-2005, 10:34 AM

im leaving for LA today and hunting close to natchez and perhaps move down towards vinece if we need to.

**SCDuckSlayer** · 01-13-2005, 11:06 AM

We hunted public land below Lake Charles December 18-22. There were a lot of birds in the area at that time. We saw gadwall, teal, shovelers, wigeon, pintails, mallards, and geese while we were there. The weather looks like it's gonna be a lot better for you that it was while we were there. Good luck!

**Ring King** · 01-13-2005, 11:10 AM

DirtyDuck, his father, and a friend arrived safely in New Orleans last night and are hunting as we speak. I hope they are OK as we are being hit with some major weather right now and they are calling for 37mph wind with at least an inch of rain. They are supposed to meet me for a few cold ones this evening so I will report back with there happenings in the morning.

**DIRTYDUCK** · 01-16-2005, 01:37 PM

Well that weather forecast should have said 73 mph winds cause thats what it felt like! We were in the marsh when the big cold front moved through and I have to say I will never forget that event as long as I live. I doubt that many hunters have ever witnessed what we did when the wind got up all at once and a waterspout formed about a mile away. The ducks in the marsh went crazy!!!! There were several hundred birds flying all around looking for cover from the gusts that threatened to turn my avery blind into a hang glider. We survived by running the boat up into the marsh but I wish we could have remained hidden cause the birds flew all around us but could see us sticking up like a sore thumb. We did manage to drop three grey's by the way of pass shots, when the rain got so heavy that the birds couldn't make us out so good,but we lost two of them to the high winds pushing the water up over the marsh grass and taking the birds with it before we could get the boat back in the water safely to pick them up. We did pick up 4 greys, 1 dos gris, and an accidental merganser that morning, but we will always cherish the memories of the display that mother nature allowed us to witness that morning in Southeast Louisiana.
A special thanks goes out to Rink King for his help in making this trip possible for a group of SC Duckers. He is a class act and a hellava nice guy. Thanks Matt.

**daytripper** · 01-17-2005, 09:17 AM

This had to be one of the most disapointing hunts I have ever been on from a hunting perspective. We had a great time with the folks we stayed with and witnessed Cajun hospitality first hand. We ate like Kings and drank enough beer to float a small battleship. We just happened to be hunting very educated Geese for the three days we were there. Saw snows and specks by the thousands but only managed one eaglehead and an immature speck. The ducks were almost non-existent. The first morning we had 4 Pintails try to land on our head but the season went out down there on the 7th I believe. After that all the ducks we saw were flying high enough to show up on FAA radar screens. We had wind and cold weather but no clouds. I think the no clouds part was the killer. We are going back next year a little earlier before the birds get so damn educated.

DT

**dukmon** · 01-17-2005, 11:02 AM

our trip turned out great. i really did not know what to expect because i had never hunted this guys property and he was sort of looking to me to tell him where we needed to set up. this was compounded by the fact that we checked into our hotel rooms at 2:00 am, woke up at 4:00 to hunt, i had never seen the place in my life and only had his words and a topo to go by (it was dark, of course.) we hunted flooded sections of a cotton field that he has planted. what would look like a hell of alot of water to me in the dark turns out to be about five acres or so of water almost knee deep. he has three areas like this. wind was blowing great, temps were ok, ducks were there in huge numbers. first morning we did not have good cover at all and the best i could do was get on my knees. this worked ok, but for some reason, almost all the birds would come in high then land about 80 yards from us. i watched this go on for about twenty minutes and once about a hundred birds were in there i had had enough and moved over that direction. they jumped up and i knocked two down and stayed in place. more came back and i was good to go! that morning was two guns and seven ducks. once i had the lay of the land down and a chance to look over the other impoundments that afternoon, it was on like donkey kong. we nailed their asses on the other hunts. not sure how many birds were knocked down. id guess three guns and 55 birds over three mornings and one eve. we had one extra for four guns on sunday morning.

btw, the deer in louisiana are pretty big.