Duck/Goose Hunting

I also grew up in welsh, and I am one of the family members that you mentioned above. In the 80’s,90’s and early 2000’s I duck and goose hunted as much or more than anyone. Things have changed. Hunting pressure and the way that people hunt now has a lot to do with it, crawfish ponds and competition for habitat as well. Combine that with different weather patterns and more effort up the flyway to hold birds and they just don’t make it down here like they used too

There used to be so many flying over I-10 between Welsh and Jennings traffic would have to slow down to keep from hitting them. This was in the 1970's and the noise of the geese in the fields behind my uncle's duck camp in Gum Cove and flying over the house was unbelievable.

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private refuges set up all over the place up and down the flyway. There’s one up in AR that I know of that was holding 30k ducks a few weeks ago. That place wasn’t around 30yrs ago. Multiply that by a lot and it’s easy to see where the ducks are.

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Private refuges and hundreds of lakes that have been created since the 60's that allow for even more waterfowl habitat that was not there previously. .

It's obvious the future of waterfowl hunting in Louisiana has been trending in the wrong direction for awhile, what I cant understand is why South Texas and Mexico still seem to get plenty of birds every year. There's a ton of water and not a fraction of the pressure as you see in the lower Ms flyway but most of the water is saltier than the gulf so its tough for me to believe the habitat is better.

It's a small sample size but I spent a few days in Port Mansfield, TX after Christmas and one evening saw thousands of birds get off what I think was the King ranch and head to wherever they were roosting out in the bay. It was the most birds I had ever seen, waves and waves of thousands of birds. It was all redheads and scaup but was impressive to see. The guy I was with that spends a lot of time down there said there aren't as many birds down as usual. So obviously weather plays a part in it but something else is up.

We hunted 3 mornings with 3 guys and had no problem shooting 3 man limits each morning of teal, spoons, a few pintail and divers mixed in on public land.

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Biggins

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We know each other.

Lots of short stopping all the way down, plus less rice to feed on. Without any very hard freeze they aren't forced down here.

Your right, outside of Lacassane co and Henning property in thornwell geese are hard to find!

Grew up on the Lyon’s farm just across the road from the Tiejes. Killed many a dove and blackbird.