re: Will tomorrow be the worst opening day of duck season in recorded history?

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When my dad started taking me duck hunting in the 90s, I can honestly say I never remember them shooting a whole lot of ducks. What I do remember though, was loving everything about what we did out there and wanting to go back out there at every opportunity.

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Same here

Now I see it in my youngest son. We hunted this morning and didn't fire a shot, at least at a duck. He did get 3 racoons and a Fox squirrel. Sat for an hour or so this afternoon on a creek just knowing he would at least get a shot at a wood duck. Nope, nada.

While putting him to bed we talk about what to do in the morning. Hunt or head back home. I was leaning towards the latter. He wants to go, so go we shall!

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Easy, walkable, hard bottom ponds, mild weather, no water

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The rice fields have some of the worst mud I’ve ever been in and the weather is very similar to south LA in winter except it rains a little more

Also they have tons of land that’s not hunted but flooded for ducks that holds ducks and they also have a big reserve that ducks don’t leave

Best opener weekend we've seen in a number of years, lots of ducks in places they hadn't been recently. Lot of people claiming "teal season 2.0" but.....that doesn't explain the swarms of green wings. The bugs and fog weren't ideal, but we hunted for all of maybe an hour....total.....for the weekend. Just crazy good

Where it goes from here is anyone's guess, looks stale this week till we get another front.

Edit: clarifying above was in SE La, St Bernard Parish

Green wings seem to be the thickest east of New Orleans.

For all the doom and gloom I’ve been reading about last few weeks, it appears ducks do in fact still make it to LA after all. Lots of very quick limits reported, mostly teal. But I have to believe if they laid off them for a bit there would have been more big ducks on the straps.

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Best opener in years. It gave me hope again.

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Agreed. It showed that some legit early weather can, in fact, still move birds down to us without short stopping in the ever-growing collection of primo habitat above us. Plenty still stop off, but not all apparently.

Need some more fronts.

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For all the doom and gloom I’ve been reading about last few weeks

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I just saw this:

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“The 2025 November survey estimate of 1,238,000 ducks in Louisiana’s coastal region and Little River basin is 143 percent higher than last November’s record low estimate of 510,000. This year’s estimate is 40 percent higher than the most recent 5-year average (885,000) and 2 percent higher than the most recent 10-year average (1.2 million) but remains well below the long-term average of 2.14 million. It is the largest estimate since 2021,”

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reports Jason Olszak, LDWF waterfowl program manager.

I miss the 70’s on the Ouachita

You do realize gators eating duck dogs during duck season is incredibly rare