re: Maurapas wma

quote:

---

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

---

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.