Camden Courtois, left, holds the first duck of his hunting career on Nov. 15 while hunting with his father, Josh Courtois, and his maternal grandfather, Edmond ‘Beaver’ Schwing.

HACKBERRY — Edmond “Beaver” Schwing of New Iberia has seen many, many ducks plop down in the water after being shot during his 50-year waterfowl hunting career.

The duck Schwing saw shot on Nov. 15 stands out more than any other now following a duck hunt he took with his son-in-law, Josh Courtois of New Iberia, and his grandson, Camden Courtois, a fourth-grade student at Highland Baptist Christian School. That duck was the first-ever for Camden.

“You can ask any duck hunter out there, he can tell you, you know, it’s a special moment that lasts a lifetime,” Schwing said this past week.

The 68-year-old duck hunter was proud of that particular moment, for sure, on that morning while hunting ducks on a lease on Apache Corp. land near Johnson Bayou, eight miles west of Holly Beach in the Coastal Zone. Coastal Zone waterfowl hunting started with the first split on Nov. 9 and ends Dec. 8.

Schwing, who retired 20 years ago from the real estate and insurance business, said the duck hunting success has been good from the start.

“That morning the teal were flying around in flights of 50 to 100. There were plenty, plenty gray ducks in the marsh. We’ve been getting our limits by 8 a.m. It’s been a good season so far. I think the big front had brought in a lot of new birds,” he said.

He once had a camp in that area, he said, but sold it after there were more subpar seasons than fair to good seasons. He and his duck hunting buddies stay at a new hotel in Hackberry, he said, which he labeled “really a good bargain” per night.

That’s where Schwing and the Courtois father-and-son duck hunters found themselves the Thursday night before Nov. 15. Camden, 9, was out of school on Friday as HBCS recognized its volleyball team’s state playoff Division V semifinal match against Central Catholic in Kenner. They got up aT 4 a.m. and left the hotel at 4:45 a.m., he said. The drive to the lease preceded a 3½-mile ride in an 18-foot boat powered by Gator Tail.

“That puts us in the blind right around 6 o’clock, right around shooting time,” Schwing said.

The action was hot and heavy early for the older hunters, who wound up taking home eight teal and four gray ducks. Camden’s time would come later in the morning.

“The plan was for Camden to take a shot at a duck that would be on the water. He’s really not that proficient of a wing shooter (yet),” he said.

After Schwing and the elder Courtois got their limits, he said, they waited for a duck to decoy and land on the water.

“We both limited out at 8 o’clock. The plan, after the adults limited out, was for Camden to get a shot. Along comes a green-winged teal. Sure enough, the teal came in and landed about 15 yards from the blind. Cameron was standing on the bow of the boat and shot. He let him have it,” he said.

The 10-year-old boy was shooting with a 20-gauge Browning shotgun with a cutoff stock. It’s a heavy shotgun, Schwing said, and Camden’s father positioned himself to catch his son in case the recoil knocked him backward.

Camden’s kill was a green-winged drake teal, he said.

“It was a great moment for him. You could tell he was happy,” he said.

Ditto for grandpa. 

“What do you think? Me and his daddy were just totally engulfed in the moment. I say, ‘Thank the Lord,’” he said.

Schwing comes from a duck hunting family. He duck hunts as much as possible and might take one or two deer hunts each season.

His daughter, Caroline, a kindergarten teacher at Daspit Elementary School and Camden’s mother, is an outdoorswoman through and through, he said. Her husband is an operator for RedHawk Energy Systems LLC.

“She’s got a pair of Delcambre Reeboks. She loves to fish. She loves to hunt,” Schwing said, proudly.

Now there’s another young outdoorsman coming up in the family.