re: Maurapas wma

It's literally been a lifetime ago since I've seen it, but I'd imagine there is a duck or two around there still. It's just that the big numbers are long gone, and best I can tell, it's ALL due to giant salvania plant, which, as I said earlier, may God please damn that plant to hell.

I'ma quit talking about this I swear, but for those that never saw the great Louisiana mallard flight, think of it like this......there were places - and LOTS of them - that when a man wanted a couple of ducks for gumbo - he could go to a railroad track that ran through the swamp, or a ridge, or just really anywhere that easily accessed that swamp being talked about, and PASS SHOOT a couple of mallards in the evening. You read that right. Roll up, walk down a train track, and pass shoot yourself a couple of mallards.

Last story for that area, then, I'ma quit memorializing. And I really appreciate those that have humored me by reading/replying, as it does bring back some incredible memories.

I've told this tale here before. Y'all remember that year it go SO cold? When everything froze? The only open waters in the entire area was the middle of the Ms River, parts of Lake Pontchatrain, and the hot water canal that ran from the sugar mill in reserve into that same swamp, pretty much right through the middle of Reserve. It dumped into the swamp right close to East St. John High School, and likely still does. Anyway, I seem to remember that Maurepas actually froze completely over, and good bit of Lake P did as well.

So, it's FREEZING cold, and me, my cousin, and my aforementioned buddy, the grandson of the great "Gagoo", a founding member of Garyville Hunting Club, decide we're going to "go to camp". My mom pitched a bitch, as two hunters had just been brought into East Jeff Hospital after being "chisled" off of stumps. In a horrific accident, they'd flipped a boat, and froze to death. Mom refused to let me go, but dad got her to acquiesce, and let me take the boat. The plan was to launch at Garyville Canal (buddy had a key), head to camp, drink beer, eat onions, fart, and kill ducks.

So, we roll up to the launch with the idea that the weight of the trailer would bust the ice, and since my boat, at the time, was a 16 foot heavy ribbed, V bottom, aluminum bateau, we'd bust ice via the V hull all the way to camp. As I back the trailer into Garyville Canal, it just rolled straight back onto the ice. Going to camp was not an option. So, we head to Reserve, and begin to make tail chasing plans at my buddy's house, instead of duck hunting plans, as we COULD NOT GET A BOAT INTO THE WATER.

Anyway, my Reserve buddy, already mentioned, had two younger brothers. They were on a robin hunt behind their house w/Benjamin pellet guns. My buddy lived on the 3rd left past where Central hits Airline - Reserve's equivalent to Country Club of La. All new, brick houses. Riverside Academy was "behind" his house. Between his house and Riverside was nothing but a bunch of huge, overgrown, fields. It was decent robin, rabbit, and snipe terrain. Most importantly to this story though, that hot water canal ran through those fields. The temp was probably 25 degrees, although I'm sure as I get older, the 25 will turn to 6. Trust me, it was cold, and those younger brothers would hunt for about 20 minutes, come back in, warm up, rinse and repeat, right? Well, on one of their "warm ups/come back", I see them coming through the fields, and instead of carrying a paper sack full of robins, they are each trying to tote more ducks than they comfortably carry. I haul butt outside to meet them, and ask them "WTH?" One's probably about 6 years old, the other 9 maybe? In my best Cajun accent (remember, I'm a transplant)....

"Gaw, Trey, boy dey got alotta ducks in dat hot watah ditch, yeah. Dey aint even flying off brah. We kill'em w/pellet guns, and jis finuh big stick to pull'em in."

I accused him of shooting someone's pets. They told me (and remember, they are like 6 and 9) "put some clothes on bitch and come see fuh yaself."

So, the three big boys rolled back there w/bigger artillery, and the sight was amazing. There were places on that ditch that you COULD NOT FIT ANOTHER DUCK.

We killed ducks there for days. The area had been frozen about a week, IIRC, when they found it, and stayed that way for about another week +, but for about 4 days, it was ON.

There was no good place to hide, so it wasn't AS easy as it sounds, but it was by far the easiest place to shoot (over shoot) mallards that I've ever seen. Because every launch was locked up (we figured that was the reason), we did see a game warden truck riding around "the neighborhood" one day (for those my age and from that area, the game wardens then were known as the "M and M's" - Metasallus and Mitchellette (sp), and this was on the heels of ALOT of shots being fired back there......we weren't the only ones that knew about it.....so we got scared after a couple of "overshoots". Like every place else, word got out enough, and eventually we shot them out of there, but it's again one of those "if I never see it again, I've seen at at least once.....a ditch in a field full of mallards that don't even want to fly off".

In the words of MrSportzzzz, "thank you for reading my post", and I'll now quit memorializing.