re: Maurapas wma

Hey Boats, you seem to still be hunting that area.....anything in there "thick" anymore? What about the teal in Manchac? They used to eat that place up. They still in there?

Know what was funny? There would be a mother load of people in there on teal weekends, and the thought process was "the further back you went, away from folks, the better off you were". At some point during our Maurepas/Manchac/back of DuPont/back of East St. John/back of Norco careers, we figured out that all them teals was roosting in the woods west of 55, and that actually, what you wanted to be was the FIRST decoy spread, almost up ON the railroad track.

This was before it was a WMA....not sure who owned it, but EVERYONE hunted it. There would be SO MANY folks from New Orleans in there, launching pigogues off the top of Volvo's and shite. I can smell that swamp gas now.

Also, answer me this.....I guess the reason for this has already been explained (we just had tons of better places), but do you know of folks that ever hunted the woods WEST of 55, like on the other side of 55 from Manchac WMA, below the pass?

We used to fish in there a bunch, but never thought to duck hunt it. Again, no real reason to, when a man could pull a pirogue out of his truck/off I 10, and get after'em.

Just curious.

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anything in there "thick" anymore?

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snakes
Rabbits but last year sucked for them.

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What about the teal in Manchac?

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I don't go around manchac much, mostly blind river area. I'm not sure.

We used to shoot our fair share of pintail and teal in manchac in the late 90's; used to beach the 16' flat boat boat @ the end of Galva and drop the pirogues.

My first hunt with my current dog (now 12 or 13 years old) was insane. We would only take a few shots and had out limit of teal, 2 and 3 dropping at a time. You'd have to retrieve them before the gators dialed in them.

In the pre-college days, we would launch toward the end of the spillway levee and paddle east. I think the area is leased by the "Duck Club" or something, but we didn't know any better. We's take the boat as far as we could and do the wader walk through the marsh ponds to the mallard holes. We once go lost for a few hours back there. The sounds of airline hwy and the interstate started to merge and mess with our heads. We'd only carry in a few decoys and a 12 pack of luke warm beer.

Used to hunt tatoons club a lot with a buddy. Christ we killed the shite out of the heads. Salvania is a bitch. But the pictures and memories will last forever. I can close my eyes and see bunches of 20 heads dropping in the decoys. Right near ponchos shack

We took a Yamaha big bear 4x4 and a big red 3 wheeler to our holes back there, the ground was that hard, some mornings we push poled pirogues

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So do you guys think it would benefit from a water flow restoration project?

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LINK

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The objective of this diversion is to provide additional freshwater, nutrients, and fine sediment from the Mississippi River into Maurepas Swamp and its surrounding areas. Construction of the Mississippi River levee has effectively stopped annual spring flooding that, in the past, had nourished the Maurepas Swamp with sediment, nutrients and freshwater.

The introduction of additional freshwater will simulate the natural historic flooding cycle and promote rebuilding wetlands at a rate greater than the subsidence rate. Additional freshwater should also improve biological productivity and help reverse the current trend of degradation, thus restoring wetland habitat.

This project could involve construction of a small siphon(s) over the Mississippi River levee or construction of a concrete multi-barrel box culvert(s) in the Mississippi River in the vicinity of Convent. River water would flow into a conveyance channel and eventually be distributed to the project area, possibly through a network of small conveyance ditches.

Working in concert with Hope Canal Diversion and Amite River Diversion Canal Modification features, this project is intended to introduce freshwater, sediment and nutrients into the southwest portion of Maurepas Swamp to improve hydrology, facilitate organic deposition into the swamp, improve biological productivity, and, eventually, reverse the transition of the swamp into marsh and open water.

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I got to experience the glory that it was when I was in high school during the season of 2000 and
2001, the swamp had either been lit on fire or caught fire the summer before and it completely cleared a huge swath of swamp out across from what is now noranda alumina. The water was clear and pristine those winters and there were charred stumps everywhere, I wish I had pictures of it at the time...our hunts were exactly as u described, this lasted for 2 seasons until all the growth came back, it's the reason I duck hunt as much as I do to this day. I doubt I ever get to see it like that again

We were back there with a buddy of mines dad who lived in that swamp duck hunting in the 80s, he would tell us stories that are exactly as u describe...we were in there that year bc he knew that fire would clear it out but we weren't expecting much, man were we wrong, and even though I had my best duck hunts ever back there, his dad would tell us it didn't hold a candle to the way it used to be...I have a couple mounted mallards in my house that came from back there those years

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Nice post, and so glad you got to see it. Had no idea anyone had seen past the 90's. You know you're lucky. That kinda gives me hope. If whoever THEY are could somehow figure out a way to get rid of that stuff, it sounds like they'd return.

Thankfully, the picture of what the evenings looked like in there will never leave me head. Although we weren't big time roost shooters (likely only because we couldn't figure out EXACTLY where they were going), that visual image of thousands of black dots, and that sound - a continuous chuckle, interrupted only by the occasional 3 or 4 note bitching of mallard hen, is something every duck hunter should get to see.

I've found other big duck roosts years after that, and as much as I like to kill ducks, I RARELY - maybe 2 times in 5 years at this particular spot I'm talking about - could bring myself to shoot them. That said, I'd go there just to watch them go to roost often. Probably 50 times, counting the times I was deer hunting close to this spot.

Anyway, as many ducks that were roosting in the "new" spot I found - a 100 acre willow thicket off the Red River some 200 miles away from the swamp off I-10, nothing that I've ever seen holds a candle to that area bordered by I-10, Lake Maurepas, and a mile either side of the St. John/St. James parish line. It was one those places where "the old days" lasted a long time.....well into the 80's. I really think people didn't hunt them because it was "too easy".

Places like that are the exact substance of what Louisiana's bountiful game population is built upon, IMO. Places where a man could just roll out and go "kill'em a few gumbo ducks" in the evening. Feeling really blessed right now that I got to see it as many times as I did.

Know what else is funny? I've ALWAYS loved to hunt, right? And remember, I'm a guy with north La roots, grew up in Metairie, then moved to LaPlace at age 12. Pre - LaPlace, I only got to hunt when I came to north Louisiana to see my cousins/grandparents. So, as a younger kid, like say 9-10, any time we'd go up I-10 in the fall/winter, say like going from Metairie to an LSU game, I'd always look for ducks when we were on the "10 mile bridge", from Kenner to LaPlace. Mentally, I thought that the marsh would have more ducks. While I did see quite a few ducks there over the years, I "quit" looking when we'd get to LaPlace, as the marsh ends, and cypress and tupelo starts. Had I only known to look up, there's no telling what I'd have seen lol.

Don't only is it the Salvana but the flyway has been changed by DU.

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Don't only is it the Salvana but the flyway has been changed by DU.

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Not sure if serious.

While I do think "programs" have changed what ducks do, and have been very outspoken here in the past, I've never been pretentious enough to think a "program" could change the ULTIMATE PROGRAM, laid down by God Almighty his own self.....

You get that salvania out, they'll come back. There was a reason there were hundreds of thousands in there. No program in the world could change it. There just too many, and there had to be a reason.