COTEAU —  What better way for duck hunters to get over the heartbreak of the passing of the latest duck hunting season than commiserating together, chowing down on a duck and sausage gumbo, which is where most good ducks go in the end, and just taking it all in?

Even an unscripted and unplanned exotic female show Friday at the end of the 43rd annual Duck Wake.  Many eyebrows were raised when co-master of ceremonies and Duck Wake co-founder Gordie White, a retired local lawyer, made a surprise announcement after supper.

“I said, ‘Guys, there’s a young female here interested in performing,” White said. Many of the men in the crowd exchanged worried glances, he said.

Oh, Lord, some of the wake-goers must have thought, wait until the better half hears about this. And there were young, impressionable young boys in the crowd.

White, 80, enjoyed every minute of the buildup. 

Toward the end of the event, a man who was with an elderly outdoorsman approached him and told him they had a service dog trained to sniff diseases such as cancer. They asked if they could have the floor.

The two men went outside. It took a few minutes to get the dog inside.

White milked the moment for all it was worth.

“I said, ‘Wait a little, guys. She’s shy,’ ” he said.

The man who first talked to him told the crowd about the service dog, who most of the waterfowlers in the building could relate to as owners of loyal retrievers. His presentation was well-received, White said.

The exotic female show was the perfect ending to a perfect winter night. The Duck Wake, which got its start in 1975, attracted 180 outdoorsmen, young and old, and a few outdoorswomen to the Francis Romero Memorial Building.

They came from here and Baton Rouge and New Orleans and Patterson, as well as other areas of the Sportsman’s Parade.

“That’s the biggest crowd we had. We were running out of bowls (for the gumbo). Everything really was great,” White said about the event, which is free.

His son, Eric White, a 59-year-old veterinarian, said, “That is the first time we came close to seeing the bottom of the (gumbo) pot. We had about 5 gallons left. Some people cook for an army. We cooked for a bunch of armies. We cooked for three or four of them.”

Indeed. Two hundred ducks, 30 pounds of andouille sausage and tasso, 6 gallons of oysters, 280 eggs and more either disappeared or nearly disappeared, the younger White said.

“This gumbo has evolved for 43 years,” Gordie White said, noting his son precooked and lightly browned donated ducks to make a thick stock.

Of course, the highly sought-after bread pudding prepared each year by Alexis Delcambre, his daughter, perhaps was the biggest hit.

Before the eating commenced, there were tall tales, sorry tales and sobering tales, most revolving around duck hunting.

Word got around early that Benny Lissard of Loreauville, the outdoorsman who planted the mounted duck in a custom-built coffin years ago especially for the Duck Wake, lost a helluva yellow Labrador retriever in September. Buck,  his duck hunting companion for 17 seasons, was almost 19 years old the day the retriever breathed its last.

“He hunted through his 17th year. Not much, though, because he couldn’t fight the deep water,” said Lissard, whose son, Chris, and sons-in-law, Paul Cook and Andy LeBlanc, both of Loreauville, attended the event.