Bayou Catholic | October 2014 | Outdoor Guide by Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux

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Bayou e d i u G r o Outdo 4 1 0 2 l l a F HOUMA, LA ~ OCTOBER 2014 ~ COMPLIMENTARY

Contents

On Our Cover Bayou Outdoor Guide fall 2013

2014-2015 Deer hunting forecast

Southwest rice field guide Jude Zaunbrecher is an exceptional speck caller. Speckle belly geese seem to have filled the niche that mallards have held in the past. Like mallards, whitefronted respond to a call. And in this part of the state seemingly everyone knows how to call, where speck music fills the air. Cover Photo by John Flores

Targeting fall speckled trout on the coast

Fall redfish roundup

8 6

2014-2015 Small game forecast

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Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

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Tide Charts October thru December

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2014 - 2015

DEER HUNTING forecast

O 4

By John Flores ne year ago, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries made the decision for a return to doe days much to the chagrin of many deer hunters around Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary parishes. The biggest reasons given for a return to nine either sex days were flooding due to natural calamities, an increase in hog numbers, and increased hunting pressure on private and public lands. According to LDWF Deer Study Leader and Biologist Scott Durham, the pull back, as he referred to the department’s protection measure as being, reduced the overall female portion of the deer harvest during the 2013-14 season. “Our deer harvest this past season was better for sure,” Durham said, pointing out the mail-in survey estimates indicated the harvest went from 153,000 deer in 201213 to 166,200 deer in 2013-14. “It came up in both the mail-in survey and the actual reporting that was done. We think the either sex days kind of prevented an increase in the number of does harvested by going to the more restrictive platform.” Durham, an advocate of the department’s Deer Management Assistance Program, pointed out there was an overall decline in deer harvest numbers in Terrebonne Parish. However, though the deer harvest reporting showed a decline, there was a dramatic increase in harvest numbers on those lands enrolled in DMAP programs. Durham said, “Terrebonne Parish’s reported harvest went from 355 deer last year to 308 this year. But on the DMAP side of things we saw a harvest increase from 46 to 77 deer for a 67 percent Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

improvement. The fact that the harvest declined four percent overall was probably because of the either sex days preventing that

‘At least as GOOD’

parish from doing better.” In spite of either sex days, by contrast St. Mary Parish’s overall reported deer harvest increased from 690 to 720. However, on enrolled DMAP property the harvest numbers went from 74 deer to a whopping 287. By all measures the DMAP increase was a reaction by St. Mary private land hunters enrolling in the program as a result of the more restrictive doe days. Of Area 7, Durham had nothing but high praise for the coastal marsh’s habitat mentioning its lush vegetation this summer

during surveys he conducted on DMAP enrolled properties. One of the differences Durham noticed was how deer rely more on an herbaceous browse than woody as seen in the upland habitats. “I spent two or three good days this summer on some DMAP clubs in St. Mary Parish and I saw some incredible browse,” Durham said. “I was super impressed with the harvest rates of those clubs. Those clubs down at the mouth of the Atchafalaya River, where you have building marsh, is really good habitat. It was high good marsh I walked on. There were lots of deer peas, which is really a preferred marsh deer food. It’s a fabulous vine and between it and the alligator grass I think that’s a lot of the forage use there. It gave me a new appreciation for that fresh marsh. It was

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

really good for me to get my boots on and go down there.” The department still relies heavily on the mailin surveys in estimating the annual deer harvest says Durham. Many hunters are still not reporting the deer they harvest skewing the accuracy of the system, where the mail survey is still statistically preferred. Because of the inaccuracy of the reporting data, Durham mentions using both systems allows

the LDWF not to put all of their eggs in one basket – so to speak – when estimating total harvest. Besides an overall increase in total harvest from the previous year, one other notable statistic from the LDWF’s 201314 was an eight percent increase in the number of days hunted. Additional information revealed that of the 163,000 deer harvested in the state 56 percent were male and 44 percent were does. In predicting what the 2014-15 Louisiana deer harvest might be, Durham said, “We’ve had great moisture and rainfall all through the spring and summer. It looks like our cycle of droughts and stress from tropical events is kind of over. My prediction for the upcoming years is at least as good as last year – maybe better.” 5

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Targeting

t u o r t d e l k c e Fall sp on the coast

By Chris Berzas ne of Capt. Bill Lake’s best days of fishing started with waking up to an extremely dense fog in November of last year. “With the GPS, we were moving very slowly making our way down the bayou,” Lake said. “And the waters were slick and extremely calm. It was kind of eerie, like being in a thick sea fog,” he described. Lake and his crew eventually reached their destination, a series of shallow reefs in Bayou Dunord. “I could see the mullet moving on top of the reefs, but nothing was hitting them,” he said. Under Lake’s directions, his crew started casting in the periphery of the reefs, and they eventually picked up a couple of speckled trout. “The school of mullets were about a foot higher on top of the reefs, and eventually we started casting LSU Chubs and VuDu Shrimp right on them,” Lake said. The trout action picked up considerably. “We could not make a cast then without catching a 16 to 18 inch trout,” he said. “The women aboard were having a great time as they were throwing the VuDu Shrimp under a cork and really doing well. “The rest of us worked Bayou Chubs over the reef and we had no trouble catching plenty.” When it was all over, Lake’s crew had taken 90 speckled trout that morning, with 40 of those fish taken on the VuDu Shrimp under a cork. “It was one of my most memorable trips last fall,” he said. And as the fall of 2014 is upon the Louisiana coastal angler, Lake is optimistic that there will be adequate numbers of speckled trout available to anglers in the Bayou Catholic readership area. “I’m excited as of now,” Lake said. “In August, we saw a lot of small Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

trout moving up into the estuaries. These small trout were bunched up and stacked on the coastline ready to head north,” he said. “And as long as we have shrimp, I am expecting an average winter for catching them.” In October and early November, Lake advised that the easiest way for anglers to find speckled trout

BILL LAKE/BAYOU GUIDE FISHING CHARTERS

is to motor through Lake Mechant and Sister Lake and simply look for birds. “That is the simplest way,” he said. “But look, there will be gafftops too until the end of October when the waters begin to cool. After that, you’ll mostly catch trout.” At October’s end, Lake suggests that anglers then begin finding any of the deep waterways on the north sides of both lakes – any of these major tributaries where bayous meet the lake. “And I’m talking about places like Bayou Raccourci, Deer Bayou, Goose Bay and the mouth of Blue Hammock – all off of Lake Mechant,” he said. “There’s also Bayou Seveur, Bayou Dunord and Bayou John, and these three empty into Sister

Lake on the north end.” As for lures in the early fall, Lake and his crew will cast doublyrigged glow/chartreuse, Cajun pepper, chicken-on-a-chain and LSU Bayou Chubs. Of course, they will also cast VuDu Shrimp under a popping cork. “I’ll have three rods with double rigs and three rods with VuDu Shrimp under a cork all ready for the morning in the early fall,” the angler said. As the waters cool, Lake and fellow anglers will then start targeting shell reefs and begin blind casting because the birds will just not be working as well. “It’s topwater time for us and we’ll be casting Top Dogs and Super Spooks,” he said. “I will also throw a plain LSU Bayou Chub on a 1/4-ounce jighead and just swim it over those reefs. The VuDu Shrimp under a popping cork can be deadly on trout on the reefs. And I am talking about catching better trout in November, 15 to 18 inch fish that are mainly eating baitfish and not shrimp. All that anglers have to do is go from reef to reef and find mullet. You may catch 15 to 20 trout at one reef, and maybe 10 at the next. Just keep moving from reef to reef.” For more fishing information and guide service, Captain Bill Lake can be reached at (985) 8516015 and (985) 637-3712 (cell). He can also be reached by e-mail at b.lakejr@comcast.net. Anglers are reminded that the recreational creel limit for speckled trout in the Bayou Catholic readership area remains 25 fish per person at 12 inches minimum total length limit. An exception to these regulations occurs in western Louisiana where in a defined area of Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes there is a 15 fish daily take and possession limit – with no more than two spotted seatrout exceeding 25 inches total length.

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Outdoor Guide

2014-2015

Small game forecast

By John Flores erhaps, never has there been a better time than now to hunt small game. From the piney forests to the uplands, from the bottomland hardwoods to the coastal marshes every region of Louisiana is teeming with squirrels. Big red fox squirrels – many with the black pigmentation – abound in places like Kisatchie National Forest and many of the state and national wildlife refuge systems. Their smaller cousins, the gray squirrel can be found on every canal bank in the coastal marshes and the backwater swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin. What’s sad about the abundance of squirrels across the state is hardly anyone hunts them. Sure there’s the occasional group of fellows with high strung Jack Russell Terriers or Treeing Feists that will give bushy tails fits. But, the norm now is to skip right over small game season, which traditionally opens the first Saturday in October, and go to hunting deer instead. The same holds true with rabbit hunting. Many of the state wildlife management areas don’t even allow small game hunting until the deer and waterfowl seasons are over. In short, small game take a back seat to more glamorous game animals. Following the coastal zone duck season, it’s not uncommon for Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

many Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area waterfowl hunters to switch from duck feathers to rabbit fur. It’s not uncommon to hear reports of 50, 60 and even 70 rabbits being

‘Taking the back seat’

harvested by groups of hunters walking bayou banks down at the mouth of the river and Wax Lake Outlet. Several years ago, a good friend of mine from West Monroe, invited me to make a float trip with him in Kisatchie National Forest for the odd combination of wood ducks and fox squirrels. Our un-motorized craft was

2014-2015 Season Dates Small Game Season

Species

Season Dates

Daily Bag Limit

Possession Limit

Rabbit Squirrel

Oct. 4 - Feb. 28 Oct. 4 - Feb. 28

8 8

24 24

Deer Season Area Archery Season Primitive Weapon

Still Hunting Only No Dogs Allowed

With or Without Dogs

7 Oct. 1 - Jan. 31 Either Sex Oct. 11 - 17 Bucks Only Nov. 1 - 7

Bucks Only Oct. 20 - 31 Nov. 8 - 30 Either Sex Oct. 18 - 19 Nov. 15 - 16 Nov. 28 - 30

Bucks Only Dec. 1 - Jan. 4 Either Sex Dec. 27 - 28

9 Bucks Only Bucks Only Bucks Only Oct. 1 - 15 Unless Either Nov. 5 - Dec. 5 Either Sex Sex Season in Either Sex Oct. 16 - Feb. 15 Progress: Nov. 28 - 30 Nov. 8 - 14 Jan. 26 - 31

Bucks Only Dec. 6 - Jan. 18 Either Sex Dec. 13 - 14 Dec. 27 - 28 Jan. 10 - 11

Waterfowl Coastal Zone Season

Season

Coastal Zone

Ducks, Coots, and Nov. 15 - Dec. 7 Mergansers Dec. 20 - Jan. 25

Youth Waterfowl

Daily Bag Limit

Possession Limit

Ducks 6 Coots 15 Mergansers 5

Three Times The Daily Bag Limit

Nov. 8 - 9

Same as Regular Season

Light Geese (Snow, Blue, Ross)

Nov. 15 - Dec. 14; Dec. 20 - Feb. 1

No Possession Limit

White-Fronted Geese (Specklebelly)

Nov. 15 - Dec. 14; Dec. 20 - Feb. 1

6 Possession Limit

Canada Goose

Nov. 15 - Dec. 14; Dec. 20 - Jan. 31

3 Dark Geeese

The daily bag limit on ducks is six and may include no more than four mallards (no more than two of which may be female), two pintails, one canvasback, one mottled duck, one black duck, three wood ducks, three scaup, and two red heads. www.bayoucatholic.com

Outdoor Guide quiet and stealthy as we drifted along in the morning chill. Because it was winter, much of the hard mast in the form of acorns and wild pecans was now gone sending squirrels to the ground to forage. As we’d come around a bend, there would be several bunches of squirrels we’d get a shot at who never expected danger to come from the waterside of the forest. Small game has taken a back seat to all other forms of hunting mainly because of the business aspect of big game and waterfowl hunting. There are more Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel, and other cable television programs that focus on deer hunting, not to mention A&E that has made Duck Dynasty popular where waterfowl hunting is concerned. What this means to small game is it takes the attention away from game animals that older hunters cut their teeth on. Nearly every middle age hunter has a crackbarrel shotgun squirrel-hunting story he can remember while growing up. Other reasons for a lack of hunter

participation or interest in small game hunting often come down to tradition. October is hot and trees still have their leaves well into November, where it’s hard to see a squirrel, so why bother hunting them. Not to mention redbugs are

Small game forecast

prevalent and creates a miserable itchy condition hunters have to deal with when the weather is warm. Also, many old timers were brought up to not shoot a rabbit until after the first frosts, which sometimes don’t occur until well after Thanksgiving in some parts

of the state. Because of these traditions quite often it’s after waterfowl and deer season before hunters give squirrel and rabbits a thought. This is the time when coastal hunters burn the marsh making rabbit hunting easier. In the uplands this is where a squirrel dog is worth its weight in gold. Without a leaf in a tree, squirrels will scamper up into the branches offering much easier shots. It doesn’t take much to hunt small game in the State of Louisiana. There is plenty of public ground available. Moreover, there has been an abundance of rainfall this past summer where the upland hard mast food sources are in good supply. All a small game hunter has to do is toss a few rounds of high brass shotgun shells loaded with number six shot in his or her vest, plus maybe a sandwich, and they have the makings of a good outing. Why let the 2014-15 small game season take a back seat to ducks and deer? There’s never been a time when these critters have been more abundant.

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Take advantage of the

fall flounder migration

CHRIS BERZAS PHOTO

By Chris Berzas ost of the year, flounder may be considered a sporadic, yet valued bycatch species for many saltwater anglers in Louisiana coastal waters. But once the Autumn Equinox sets in and water temperatures begin to cool, flounder fever soars as anglers target these flatties for quick, easy catches. On a Saturday last fall, Craig Vidrine of Nuba and I started a Saturday morning catching bass and a few speckled trout north of the Saltwater Barrier near Lake Charles. “Let’s go to Cameron for some flounder,” Vidrine said. We knew it was a gamble as it was a little early for flatties, but the tides were moving well and were forecast to continue for most of the day. So we trailered the boat and headed south on Hwy. 27 to the Cameron Ferry landing in hopes of finding a few of these. Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

Upon reaching our fishing location on the Calcasieu Ship Channel, it didn’t take long. “I have one now,” Vidrine said as he was reeling the fish in, his rod arching a little. Just a little while later, my rod too was bending as I had hooked another flatty headed to the cooler. “They’re here already,” I said. “Yes, but when we caught our limits each day for three days last

‘Flounder fishing in our area looks good this fall’

year, that was only two weeks from now,” Vidrine said. “I figured some must be here.” But the word “some” in his remark was an understatement. In just two hours, we each caught a limit (10 flounder in Louisiana). Also included in the catch were a few speckled trout that just happened to be cruising by. The flatties we caught were particularly interested in our pearl/chartreuse VuDu Shrimp by Egret Baits. We tightlined these VuDus and worked the bottoms very slowly and meticulously. The flounder were biting with subtlety, so Vidrine and I both used medium/light spinning rods with fast-action tips at 7 feet in length with low profile spinning reels. Of importance was the fact that we moved at less than drifting speed, thus allowing the bottom bumping baits to be worked slowly and meticulously. “They’re kinda like just loading up on the VuDus,” Vidrine said.

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Flounder

“Yah, I noticed the same,” I replied. “Very much like crappie . . . the bite is soft.” Two weeks later, Lake Charles’ Ken Chaumont and a buddy were fishing south of the Grand Bayou Boat Bay in Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge. “We got into the flounder, too,” Chaumont said. “We caught them by slowly working Egret Baits’ 3.5inch green chili pepper Wedgetail Mullets on 1/8-ounce jigheads. “One more cool front and these flounder are going to stack in quick and thick,” he said. Certainly, it is well known that all along the coastline a fall flounder migration occurs. Sometime in mid-October through mid-November, flatties in marshes, bays and estuaries will begin a mass movement to Gulf of Mexico waters to spawn. But before that, they’ll stage in grand numbers on the southern

CHRIS BERZAS PHOTO

end of the estuaries and choose shell and hard-packed bottoms to lay flat and ambush prey to fatten up before experiencing the rigors of the spawn. In the Bayou Catholic readership area, Capt. Bill Lake (www. captlake.com; (985) 851-6015) said that flounder fishing in the area looks to be good this fall. “Bayou Raccourci offers some fine fishing for flounder, and just about

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any area that drains with a current near breaks, sandbars and points,” the angler said. Other areas that hold flounder south of Cocodrie include Trinity Bayou, Last Islands, Terrebonne Island, Lake Barre and Timbalier Island. Outgoing tides coupled with shell and oyster bottoms are great locations to bottom bounce plastics in these areas. Have a great fall catching flatties!

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By John Flores h a n c e s are if you were born after 1996 and have become a diehard waterfowl hunter, you’ve always experienced liberal duck seasons. By liberal I mean 60 day seasons and six bird bag limits. In fact, I’d dare say there’s a high probability it would also be true for those in their 20s and many in their in 30s. When the United States Fish and Wildlife Service released their 2014 Annual Breeding Population Survey Estimates back in July, the report revealed duck numbers remain at record high levels at a whopping 43 16 percent above the long-term average and exceeded the previous record set in 2012. Parlay those kinds of numbers with a soaking-wet year that continued right up to the time of the USF&WS announcement and what you had was more good news according to a press release from Delta Waterfowl. In the release Dr. Frank Rohwer, Delta Waterfowl President, said, “Exceptional water this year will lead to high duck production. When the prairies are really wet, ducks settle in the best quality habitat. Hens will nest and renest vigorously, and duckling survival will be high.” For the 18th straight year

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

2014 - 2015

Waterfowl hunting preview

Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

L o u i s i a n a waterfowl hunters will get to hunt another liberal season. However, according to L o u i s i a n a Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Waterfowl Study Leader Larry Reynolds, high p o p u l a t i o n numbers this past summer and another liberal season set this fall is no more a guarantee hunters will see an increase in their bag limit than the number of shotgun shells it takes to get them. S t a t i s t i c s provided by Reynolds from midwinter surveys conducted during the 1996-2000 winters revealed 29 percent of the Mississippi Flyway’s mallards wintered in Louisiana. The same mid-winter survey conducted from 2011-14 revealed those numbers now average 9.6 percent of the flyway’s greenheads. Where geese are concerned numbers have declined as well. From 1996-2000 when 80 percent of the flyway’s white-fronted (speckle bellies) geese wintered in the state, those numbers have declined to 37 percent during the 2011-14 period. Wintering snow geese numbers have fallen from 52 percent to

22 percent. Reynolds said, “A point that was driven home last year is that high continental breeding populations do not mean successful hunting. There is no way around the situation we find ourselves in. We are losing coastal wetlands, our rice agriculture is moving north or being lost to sugarcane, invasive aquatics have gone wild, and we may be looking at the effects of climate change. So, the apparent fact that fewer and or a lower percent of the Mississippi Flying birds are either coming this far south or sticking around should not be surprising. What we have to do is acknowledge that we are still wintering half of the birds in the flyway and killing more birds than any other state. So, although it’s not what it was 20 to 30 years ago, it’s still pretty good.” The real story is how Mother Nature has compensated for what humans are doing on the prairie pothole region of the

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

country, known in waterfowl circles as the “Duck Factory.” Wetland habitat on the prairie is being lost at an alarming rate. Farmers are opting out of the Conservation Reserve Program in favor of grain crops utilized for ethanol production and as a result tiling wetlands to increase drainage. Moreover, now energy production is having an impact in the Dakotas as well.

Depending on who you talk to, many duck hunters claim to have had a below average season in 2013-14. However, one of the bright spots in the southwest agricultural region last year was with a lack of mallards how speckle belly geese seemed to have filled that niche. Like mallards, white-fronted respond to a call. And in this part of the state seemingly everyone knows how to call, where speck music fills the air. The 2014-15 waterfowl season has all the makings of being another good one for hunters, in fact, 18 in row. In those enchanting moments staring out over the decoys a half hour before sunrise this fall, hunters should take pause for a moment and realize waterfowl numbers are one drought away from crashing unless something changes. For now Mother Nature is picking up our slack, where hunters should enjoy the upcoming season. 17

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Get into that fall

BILL LAKE/BAYOU GUIDE FISHING CHARTERS

h s i f Red roundup

By Chris Berzas edfish is a saltwater game fish with a soaring gain of respect in Louisiana waters. And no, it’s not necessarily because of the cuisine – although grilled reds on the lower limit of the slot range still garner much acclaim these days. Quite simply, this increase in popularity has more to do with an ever increasing corps of nonresident anglers taking to our marshes, bays and inshore lakes to engage in battle with this specific species. Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

Even clients from Europe and Asia have been noted to fly in for redfish angling opportunities in our Sportsman’s Paradise. Last month, I was reminded just how wonderful it is to take part in angling for this species. My buddy, Craig Vidrine, and I were fishing specific areas of Calcasieu Lake for speckled trout and flounder. Finding just a few, we decided to move to a different area of the lake, aptly termed the Bottleneck, in an effort to score on some slot reds. Finding pelicans flapping into the waters of a shallow flat, we decided

to cast a few Egret Baits Wedgetail Mullets into the midst of the area of the feeding birds. Just as soon as I began a twitching retrieve of the chartreuse-pepper Wedgetail, I felt the wallop and set the hook. My reel drag hummed as my FINS braid metered out, and I knew immediately it was a redfish. After a brief run, the fish exhausted itself and Vidrine netted the 22-incher aboard. Five slot redfish later, Vidrine and I found ourselves smiling as we relished the experience. Pound for pound, there’s just no other

species inshore save a few jacks that offer rod bending and drag humming encounters. And Louisiana anglers will find that fall encounters with this species are very popular. “In the early fall, specifically October and November before the big cold fronts hit, we’ll fish for them in lakes and duck ponds,” Capt. Bill Lake of Houma said. “Lost Lake is my favorite area at this time because there’s just not much pressure there,” he said. “We’ll drop our trolling motors and move fast away from the banks to do some sight-fishing for redfish here. On some days, we could find schools of five to six fish and other schools may number as many as 35 redfish. “We’ll get on them with gold spoons and Egret Baits LSU Bayou Chubs,” he said. Lake and his crew will also find them in numbers at Coupe Platte Pass, a major waterway that connects Lost Lake with Blue Hammock. “If there’s baitfish and a good current, those redfish will school

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on the points here,” the angler said. “We’ll go along the north and south banks and fish the points. These areas will often be shallow, two to three feet of water, and we’ll find the reds and just burn them.” The larger specimens, what anglers refer to as bulls (20 to 40-pounders), also prowl in numbers inshore but also near barrier islands, passes and beaches in the Gulf. “Bull reds can be found out of Dularge in Grand Pass,” Lake said. “Just anchor up along the Pass and cast crabs on Carolina rigs with a two-ounce weight and a No. 9 hook, and you can catch bull reds and black drum from 25 to 40 pounds when the tide is moving,” he said. Also, the waters south of Cocodrie are legendary in Louisiana for the huge bulls. Other baits that work well for these red lunkers include mullet, shrimp and pogies – but the mainstay of anglers looking for bull reds appears to be cracked or whole crab. Although medium-to-heavy baitcast or spinning tackle will

work for reds moderately sized above keepers, anglers are advised to use 40 to 50 pounds monofilament or braid on a reel with a good drag system to haul in the real bulls ranging between 25 to 40 pounds. As for artificials – spoons, Wedgetail Mullets, spinnerbaits and the popular LSU Chub will catch redfish in all salt inland waters in the Bayou State. All redfish taken by saltwater anglers in Louisiana must be at least 16 inches minimum total length. There is a five-fish-perperson daily bag limit with not more than one exceeding 27 inches in length. For more fishing information, you can reach Captain Bill’s Bayou Guide Service at (985) 851-6015 (home) and (985) 637-3712 (cell). He can be messaged by e-mail at b.lakejr@comcast.net. Have a safe time on the waters, and read carefully regarding limits and sizes in the 2014 Louisiana Fishing Regulations Pamphlet before heading out.

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Outdoor Guide

The Burns point pond

JOHN FLORES PHOTOS

By John Flores nything physical was laborious for him. When there is a frost on the ground from the night’s chill, in those moments when sunrise pushes the last moments of darkness away there is almost always absolute quiet in the marsh. With his heart rate up I could hear him struggling to breathe so I’d pause. Twenty years separated us and my steps were youthful compared to his. On my back I carried a sack full of decoys and in my left hand was an empty five-gallon bucket for him to sit on and in my right I carried my shotgun. A man isn’t critical of another whom he honors. If we arrived at the edge of the pond through the myrtle trees we negotiated in the dark after good shooting light so be it. It was his hunt and something told me it would be his last. The blue winged teal had been rushing into the little pond all Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

season. My close friend Jimmy Wilson and I would go in there with our elementary school age boys and let them have at the little ducks. It was a place the youngsters could mop up on them. No more than an acre in size, the little pond had a grove of myrtle trees on its eastern side. There was a half dead willow tree with a hollowed out cavity setting along its edge that made a perfect dry ground natural blind. The ducks would fly into the pond blinded by the sunrise to our backs. Cuss us if you will, but we let the teal light in the decoys and we’d say, “Shoot-em boys.” They were at an age when I could have cared less about their marksmanship hitting birds on the fly. They were going to take game home to their mommas and that’s what made them feel like hunters. That’s what would make them feel like they were entering the fraternity of men. It was so easy for them. When the dog came back with their teal,

they’d pass their fingers over the feathers to feel the texture. They’d open the duck’s bill to try and understand how it called and ate. They’d also look at the BB holes, which brought home the reality of the damage real firearms could inflict upon an object. It was a right of passage. One minute they were cutting up laughing making boy noises and eating the snacks my buddy was good about bringing and the next quiet as church mice, while the reality of their first kills set in. My father-in-law loved the taste of teal. Of all ducks, the little blue wings were his favorite. From the time he was a boy trapping at age seven he learned and possessed the skills of an orthopedic surgeon when it came to disassembling carcasses joint by joint. The teal he cooked us in previous years were meticulously cleaned and tossed into a black iron pot with a little oil on the bottom to first sear them a rich brown color.

He’d only season the birds with salt and pepper and after browning would cover them with water, letting them cook down; only to repeat as many times as necessary to get the meat tender. The smell would fill the room at the camp wafting out onto the porch. The ding of the electric rice cooker bell would tell us the meal was nearly ready to serve. Pop was the one who actually told me about the pond behind Burns Point. When my wife and I were first married he and I would frog hunt. He would drive the airboat and spot frogs with his sealed beam headlamp while I’d lean over the side and catch the slick skin critters. Invariably he’d stop the boat and ask me, “Do you know where you’re at?” It seemed I always replied, “No, but I’m glad you do!” Then he’d always chuckle, but what he was doing was teaching me what I needed to know. If I was going to be married to his daughter and be part of a family who made their living trapping and fishing alligators, I had to have a sense of direction day or night. He told me behind the house along an old Texaco oil field road was an oak Chenier. If I passed north through it, I’d come to a patch of myrtles and to the edge of an old pond. The pond he said was actually where an old bayou cut off by Highway 317 headed up.

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‘The teal we shot and ate for lunch that afternoon were the best he ever cooked’ I found the pond by accident while walking in the general direction Pop gave me. As I got close to it one afternoon during the cold winter of 1989, it exploded with mallards. Every greenhead along the coastline must have been in the pond. After that I knew what to do. We were well into legal shooting light when I set out the last of the decoys, when true to form blue winged teal were flying into the pond. I hadn’t even sat down when Pop splashed two birds, then reloaded shooting two more that came in. “You better shoot boy,” he said with a smile on his face that reminded me of the one my boys had on their face the week before. “If you don’t, I’m gonna shoot your birds, too.” I knew he only jested, but honestly if he had I wouldn’t have cared. The following summer he was diagnosed with lung cancer. While he and I sat drinking coffee at the kitchen counter he gazed out of the window breaking the news to me. He said if he chose to do nothing the doctor gave him six months and if he went through chemotherapy maybe he’d get two years. I often reminisce about the Burns Point pond that has long since been taken over by cattails. The teal we shot and ate for lunch that afternoon were the best he ever cooked …

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Outdoor Guide

By John Flores hen the sun sets in the west the folks that live in the surrounding communities near the town of Lake Charles are the last to see it on the horizon. It’s a special part of the state, particularly the marshes and agricultural fields that are usually teeming with ducks and geese during the fall and winter. Literally tens of thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds winter in the region making it a mecca not only for hunters, but bird watchers who travel here. It was during the 2013 Annual Southeastern Outdoor Press Association Conference held in Lake Charles that good friend and fellow outdoor writer Glynn Harris and I signed up for a waterfowl hunt sponsored by the Southwest Louisiana Lake Charles Convention and Visitors Bureau. Harris and I had fished together before, but never hunted. It would be a grand adventure indeed. Harris has a folksy affable way of communicating that makes him a popular radio host in the northern part of the state, where he uses phrases like, “gosh darn, my ole buddy, and gollyyyy ... ,” with emphasis on the latter. Several weeks after the conference both 22 Harris and I received a phone call from Sammie Faulk. Faulk is chairman of the Cameron Parish Tourist Commission and Vice Chairman of the Board that governs the 180-mile Creole Nature Trail, All American Road and National Scenic Byway. In short, Faulk stays pretty busy, one of the reasons probably the name of his commercial fishing business is “Gotta-Go charters.” Faulk had us fixed up to hunt ducks with him the third weekend in November during the Louisiana Coastal Zone’s first split of duck season. Harris and I had supper the night of our arrival at MacFarlane’s Celtic Pub with CVB host Ann Klenke, where about halfway through our meal our duck hunting plans turned south. Faulk contacted us and was straight up with us. Basically, there were no ducks. “No ducks,” I thought to myself. “This was southwest Louisiana. Every duck in the Mississippi Flyway was supposed to be here at this time of year.” Honestly, no one could have guessed the fall weather would have been so balmy. Moreover, that the waterfowl migration was only a sprinkle of what it is normally for the time of year. But, the thing about southwest Louisiana is there is always something to do. Faulk suggested instead of hunt ducks, we go fishing. Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

Southwestern sunset specks

Fall fishing in Big Lake JOHN FLORES PHOTO

Both Harris and I were good with fishing. Faulk’s commercial fishing operation meant we’d be fishing Lake Calcasieu also known as “Big Lake.” There are large speckled trout in Big Lake. And because of its notoriety for big trout, the reason a 15 fish limit has been set, where only two can be over 25 inches. “It all has to do with food,” Faulk explained to us. “Although most people are fishing birds over shrimp, the shrimp are not what makes fish grow big. The big fish come from menhaden. The pogy has so much protein in it. It’s really unbelievable. It would be like these guys on steroids bulking up and being on the A-Team or real high in the batting order. Pogy are really-really good and builds them up to be big, fast and strong. I’ve known some people who’ve got broken off by big trout. There are some big redfish in Big Lake, but there are also some big trout, too.” Saturday morning Faulk picked Harris and me up outside of our hotel – Springhill Suites. I had to admit hitting the snooze once or twice because I slept so well. That’s one of the few

drawbacks about hunting and fishing. The little pleasures of a comfortable hotel stay can be short lived due to having to get up so early. Faulk had us fishing under birds in no time, when he spotted a flock of gulls working the surface for shrimp and baitfish the trout had stirred up. After tossing a few in the boat in short order, he took us to the Grand Bayou Weir to see if we couldn’t do the same with redfish. We even tried our hand at catching a flounder in a few other spots on Big Lake. With several of the preferred target species of game fish in the boat, Faulk noted that’s what he refers to as catching the Calcasieu grand slam.

In all, on our Saturday Big Lake excursion we caught redfish, speckled trout, black drum, flounder and sheepshead. Faulk even passed on a sheepshead recipe to me that was a good substitute for crab on a salad. Not bad for a change in plan and a perfect example of what the region has to offer in the fall. As the sun set on Lake Calcasieu, I took in our day on the water – how Glynn’s popping cork exploded at the Grand Bayou Weir when a redfish smacked it before it even settled on the water good; and how tossing baits at trout under birds is one frenzy that, like the fish, gets you all worked up, too. You can’t seem to toss the fish in the ice chest

or get the plastic back in the water fast enough. I also noticed a few flocks of ducks flying overhead – migrators – as the horizon became orange where the sun stationed itself west of Lake Charles. There’d be another day for feathers. For now the fall fishing on Big Lake watching the sunset as we headed to the landing was plenty. For information on all the region has to offer go to www. visitlakecharles.org. To book a fishing trip with Captain Sammie Faulk go to www.lakecalcasieu. com or call (337)540-2050. To learn more about the Creole Nature Trail and Scenic Byway go to www. creolenaturetrail.com.

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Outdoor Guide

Louisiana

Swamp t u o I

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

By John Flores met Matt McCollister through his boss Paul Yakipuzak, the recently retired Mandalay and Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge Manager. McCollister was assigned to guide me around Bayou Teche NWR while we discussed the ongoing black bear population study they were conducting on the refuge and surrounding private lands. Come to find out, McCollister was a dog man, who loved the chase of hounds on anything, whether it was squirrels or rabbits. One of his heroes was Ben Lilly. Lilly was a late 1800s – early 1900s professional hunter who chased bears and cougars with his pack of dogs from Louisiana to New Mexico. Lilly is a Louisiana legend that once guided President Teddy Roosevelt on a bear hunt. As it turned out, McCollister’s brother Porter also is a dog man who was coming down from Tennessee in early February last year with his beagles to hunt rabbit. I offered him the opportunity for him and his brother to come run the dogs on my hunting lease in Bayou Sale, where there’d be a few swampers for them to chase. The two McCollister brothers took me up on the offer and we set a date in early February. The hunt started out with a little confusion on the dog’s part as to what they were supposed to be chasing; as they took off down a canal bank after a bobcat they jumped in a patch of cane roseaus. The dog’s barking faded off down the bank while we piled into my boat and struck out in a hurry for the backend of the canal to try and head them off. By the time

we caught up with the dogs they had enough of cat chasing and were more than happy to jump in the boat with us and get back to hunting what they were supposed to be. Porter McCollister is a commercial real estate salesman in Nashville, when not in the woods chasing rabbits with his dogs. For the Tennessean, the opportunity to hunt swamp rabbits was a departure from the upland woodlot cottontails he was accustomed to back home. McCollister in describing the differences between Tennessee and Louisiana, said, “It’s a different animal. Down here it’s all swamp rabbits and we don’t have swamp rabbits back home. They’re all cottontails. The animal itself is twice as large. It’s faster and runs farther, but it has got more scent so the tracking is usually pretty successful. And marsh hunts are also completely different than anything I’m used to. It’s a little bit more chaotic, because of the high density of animals. Back home we’re so used to jumping a rabbit, running a race, and when it comes back, harvesting it. Here it’s more like flushing them. You could be shooting several rabbits while the dogs are packed up chasing a different rabbit.” One of the other things cottontail hunters will have to get accustomed to when hunting swamp rabbits, is the terrain. The name “swamp” should be a dead give away. And the souped up Cajun version of cottontails even has a different scientific name: sylvilagus aquaticus. It’s that “aquaticus” part that got McCollister’s attention early on. “The vegetation is very different,” says McCollister. “The first day out in the marsh, 10 minutes into the race, I fell up to my chest punching a hole through the flotant. I didn’t realize that it would do that. I stepped on a cottonmouth that was out and didn’t realize they were out. And nutria was there – so we ran into animals I wasn’t used too. Back home what I have to worry about is coyotes and finding land to hunt.” Rabbit hunting has a long-standing tradition in Louisiana. And along the coastal marsh, right after duck season, is the time of year it’s done. Take any weekend in late January through February and you’ll see plumes of smoke rising skyward where the marsh is burning somewhere. In the years gone bye the old marsh men would burn the marsh to trap muskrats. Tall patches of cane roseaus would pop, crackle and sizzle as the flame would lap over acres upon acres of land leaving the terrain sooty black and flat with nothing but the rat hills showing. During cold nights, rats would become more active according to lore, and the next morning a frost would greet the trapper running his trap line. Today the rats are gone, but the practice of burning the marsh still exists and still is allowed by some land companies along the coast. But, in these cases it’s more to condition the ground to hunt rabbits, making it easier for dogs and hunters. The two McCollisters, my son and I had an opportunity to shoot a few swamp rabbits along the coastal canal bank that we hunted in the marsh. And though our quarry wasn’t the cougar and bears Lilly chased with his Catahoula’s, it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the empty black iron pot of smothered down pot-roasted swampers to prove it are long gone.

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Outdoor Guide

By John Flores rowing up in Michigan, where unlike Louisiana the firearm deer season is only 15 days long, it always amazed me how opening day was a statewide event. Back then kids were allowed three excused days off from school to hunt deer with their family. And local meat markets would hang out signs that read, “DEER PROCESSING.” Though Michigan is about as far north as one can get, I grew up in the southern part of the state. Southern Michigan was a combination of rural farm country and large cities like Detroit, Flint, Lansing and Saginaw. Solid middle class people who worked mainly in the factories 26 lived in this region. And those southerners would always say they were going “up north” when the weekend was about to come around – especially during deer season. Up north small towns like Gaylord, Grayling, Oscoda and West Branch would put up buck poles for hunters to hang deer waiting for processing. Town folk and hunters still to this day gather around these poles talking and drinking hot coffee while admiring a set of big antlers. Much has changed the way we hunt deer today. It’s become big business with sophisticated deer stands, trail cameras, laser range finders, scent-free clothing, scent-free washing powders and numerous other products that annually cause hunters

Cajun holiday deer drive

Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

to break out the plastic. If I learned anything from Michigan it was a tactic known as the “deer drive.” People were less interested in a huge set of antlers back then compared to today. It was about venison. Hunters would set up on a woodlot and have standers block off one end while several others would walk in a line and “drive” deer hiding in the forest to them. It was an effective method that produced deer annually. Though it is a legal method of harvesting deer, there are few places in the country that traditionally still do it. The closest thing in Louisiana that today is remotely similar is hunting deer with dogs. It’s basically the same principle only without the humans running the deer. A number of years ago, I remembered the tactic when my close friend Jimmy Wilson and I hunted deer together in the marsh. Our season wasn’t going very well though all of the sign was there. It was a warm fall and there hadn’t been any frosts to knock down the flag and cut grass. Worse, the deer all seemed to be nocturnal. There was a little piece of land that was about as wide as the width of a football field and maybe three times as long between a pipeline and location canal. What made it perfect were two little bayous that were like bookends. I knew deer were bedded down in this strip of ground. I thought to

myself if I put Jimmy on one end of it acting as a stander, I could walk the length of that piece of marsh hooting, hollering and barking like a dog and surely a deer was bound to jump and run his way. We strategized – figuratively speaking – how we were going to do it on one of the little bayou bank. He would leave me where I was at and drive the boat down to the end of the canal and wait along the other bayou bank at the opposite end, while I pushed the deer to him. While Jimmy was driving the boat away he glanced over his shoulder to see me raising my shotgun as a deer jumped up from the marsh in front of me. The gun bucked twice in my hand as I missed and then my cheek pressed tightly on the stock for my third shot. The big doe tumbled dead while the sound echoed across the marsh. She and another doe had been lying down mere feet from us while we talked over the deer drive strategy. When she heard the boat

drive off, she thought the coast was clear and got up to sneak off to better cover. Later that winter during Christmas our family was down at the camp. Aunts, uncles, brothers and cousins – family – all were there. During the day we talked about a piece of marsh that held a bunch of deer. It was thick with myrtles and flag grass, but was hard ground along the coast that could be walked. There were nine men in all and we decided to make an afternoon deer drive. Like back home in Michigan we divided our crew in the plot of marsh with several acting as standers and the rest walkers. I drew one of the lucky straws as a stander this time. And when the drive began, never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined so many deer could be in one small spot of marsh. Deer were flying in every direction attempting to escape the walkers. That Christmas weekend

afternoon we harvested nine deer. Every man took home a deer for his family. Game drives have been around since ancient times when Indians would take advantage of a heard of buffalo’s innate response to run after being spooked. The Indians would drive them off of cliffs if they had to. It wasn’t about commercialization back then, it was survival. When I was a boy growing up in Michigan a man around town who killed a deer was often slapped on the back and admired. That Christmas weekend years ago we skinned deer well into the evening after dark. We laughed and joked and repeated our individual experience of this Cajun holiday deer drive. All while our sons looked on. I thought about Michigan and those buck poles. On this day our family would have filled one and what a sight it would have been. 27

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Outdoor Guide

Time to repair

By MARK MAZOUR y the end of waterfowl season, it is always cold, and neatness is no longer a priority when it comes to picking up the decoys. I always just throw my dekes into the bag as fast as I can with anchors and line thrown everywhere. The end result is usually a tangled mess. The best thing you can do before heading out

DECOYS

is to dump all your decoys out on the lawn. Then you can untangle the mess and check for missing anchors or frayed line. It is a lot easier to rig up a spread with new anchors or decoy line in your front yard, than finding broken lines or missing anchors 10 minutes before shooting light. If your decoys are like mine, they get some serious use â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t baby them. Between

getting thrown in the back of the truck or tossed in the boat, time starts to wear on even the best decoys, causing them to lose a lot of their paint. Besides just looking good to you, a wellpainted spread might make the difference on some of those wary, late-season redlegs. With a simple decoy paint kit, you can have your old blocks looking like new in no time.

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Outdoor Guide

Who’s in control? M

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

By CHAD HINES ost dog owners don’t realize how much influence they have over their dog’s performance. Here is how your approach to praise and dominance can make or break your dog’s hunting career. Among the most difficult lessons school teachers and athletic coaches learn, as they go through life, is that they can’t be buddies with their students. At least, it can be safely said that a buddybuddy relationship between coach and player is likely to break down and cause problems at a crucial time. Problems arise because nothing is settled concerning who’s in control. This is true, to an even higher degree, when it comes to training your dog. So many well intentioned dog owners do a wonderful job of establishing a bond with their dog, but never assert their dominance over the dog. The dog who cannot be blamed goes through life with an instinctive belief that the two of you are on equal footing. It becomes a tossup as to whose turn it is to decide whether the dog needs to obey or not when asked to sit, come, or is simply asked for its undivided attention. Believe it or not, from the day you bring a puppy (or adult dog) into your home, you can gently assert dominance through the way you pet and handle the animal. When it is playtime, you can let many of the rules go out the window. But during training sessions (which should, ideally, be frequent and brief), you should reinforce your calm control over the dog and the situation.

Getting your dog in shape

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

By MARK MAZOUR ummer and early fall is the time to get a dog in shape. The water temperatures are perfect for working your dog in the water. For all he does for you, it is only fair to take the time to adequately train your retriever for the upcoming seasons. If your dog has become a couch potato in the off-season, start slow, with 10-minute sessions in the water. Once your dog has worked up to that try to go with 20 to 30-minute swimming sessions. This repetition will allow you to refine techniques, but it will also give your dog the energy he needs when you have a wing-tipped gander sail down outside the dekes.

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Outdoor Guide

Shotgunning strategies for doves

By MICHAEL FAW ost hunters head afield and hunker down by a shade tree, fencerow or standing corn stalks and wait for doves to fly within range. At the top of my favorite hunting places is near a dead tree with no leaves and plenty of limbs. Doves seem drawn to these ghost trees if they are located near food sources and along travel routes. And, when looking for a dove hunting hotspot, don’t overlook watering holes, sandy areas and gravel yards since these areas also seem to be major dove magnets. Hunters can attract more doves Bayou Catholic • Houma, LA • October 2014

by placing decoys on the ground, or in nearby tree limbs, when establishing a hunting area. Visit www.cabelas.com and look for the Carry-Lite dove decoys. Many hunters in the dove field sit on a folding stool, webbed lawn chair or an overturned five-gallon bucket. The more comfortable you are, the more fun you’ll have, so choose your seat wisely. Sometimes, I like to use small ground blinds or camouflaged screens to hide any shiny gun metal from the keen eyes of leery doves. Avoid moving when a dove approaches your position and it will often fly much closer to you. Dove hunts are the

place where cotton clothing, or garments such as Mossy Oak’s new lightweight hunting suits, can keep you comfortable and hunting longer. Dove hunting is also the place to showcase a retrieving dog. If you take Rover along, be sure to take ample water since dove hunts can become very warm affairs. If you’re hunting without man’s best friend, a large metal washer or bolt with a piece of orange ribbon attached can be tossed where a dove falls to help with recovery. Before you leave the field, pick up any shot-shell hulls and refuse and place it in the appropriate trash receptacle.

Calm, firm praise

By CHAD HINES s your dog learns its lessons, it can be tempting to break out in loud cheering or some other enthusiastic response. You see amateur dog trainers jumping up and down and hollering “Good Boy!!” or some such thing, as their dog gets to a distant retrieve and turns to bring it back. You know what that does? It introduces the element of play into the training or hunting time. It’s a very natural response from the dog to then drop the bird or dummy and come running to you to join the party. After all, you

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have just relaxed your grip on dominance. When your dog does something good even for the first time ever praise should be given calmly, to keep the dog’s emotions under control and his or her head in training mode. There are dogs that just seem to do well no matter what, and so you can come up with exceptions to this rule. But

most dogs, if you go crazy with the praise, tend to get overly excited. It can cause them to “lose their head” and kind of spin out of control. Keeping a dog’s emotions in check seems to open their minds to learning. If they understand that you are in control, the training sessions are consistently productive.

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By MICHAEL FAW hen you scan the sky for doves, forget slow moving airplanes and think fighter jets. Doves can zip along pretty fast, and if someone else shoots at them, doves turn on the rocket burner and hit Mach speed. They can also twist and dip, and will quickly drop to the ground and behind cover or will explode upward to gain altitude and avoid hunters. Most hunters around a dove field will work to alert other hunters about approaching birds and the buddy system seems to provide the best results. This subtle in-the-field communication helps all hunters

determine safe zones of fire and keeps everyone alert about safety. Of course, this can also produce good natured ribbing if you miss

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Avoid hunting under power and telephone lines, and near homesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; too many birds. On the other hand, if your shooting is on fire, having two hunters from two viewpoints to help find lost birds

is a great boon to bird recovery. Dove hunting is also popular with kids and women because they can shoot often, meet lots of other hunters and learn about safe firearm handling practices. Dove hunting is an interactive situation, and a dove field with many birds flying overhead will provide lots of stimulus for any age hunter. I frequently see fathers with young kids around dove fields. Small kids who are too young to shoot like to fetch doves and participate in the hunt when permitted. And if you watch the kids long enough, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll possibly spot one doing the dove dance. A last note: Avoid hunting under power and telephone lines, and near homes, since shots fired in the heat of the action could down lines or interrupt neighborhood power. Never, under any circumstance, consider shooting doves off of power lines. Aside from being unethical, unsporting and illegal, it is also unsafe and is a horrible image for hunters.

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