David Durand of New Iberia, center, is flanked by his sons, Barrett, left, and Joey after a duck hunt in 1997. The boys started duck hunting at a young age with their father in and around the Atchafalaya basin.

When Joey Durand said goodbye last weekend to the 2021-22 duck hunting season, which ended Jan. 30, there were zero regrets.

The 39-year-old outdoorsman from New Iberia surpassed his heart’s desire to hang out, to bond, with the next generation of duck hunters, his sons Kaleb, Conner and Drew.

“Driving away after picking up the decoys, I’ve got a smile on my face at the memories of the season and looking forward to what’s to come. It’s enjoyable, man,” Durand said Tuesday morning about those poignant moments leaving the back of Sandy Cove as the sun set over Lake Fausse Pointe.

A lonely poule d’eau on that trip was the last duck downed by the Durands.

Sure, the season was about shooting ducks, if there were any to be shot, but it was much, much more than that. Throughout an enthusiastic conversation about the joy of duck hunting with his three sons, Durand emphasized, “I’m a dad.”

The New Iberia Fire Department captain, a 19-year veteran who works out of Station 5 on Admiral Doyle Drive, realizes it’s more than dropping ducks, more than the acquisition of hunting equipment, of gearing up. The joys of duck hunting are the rising sun painting lavender streaks across the horizon, the camaraderie inside the duck blind.

Kaleb, 16, attends New Iberia Senior High, his father’s alma mater (Class of 2000). Twelve-year-old Conner is a student at Belle Place Middle School, where he plays on the soccer team. Drew, the youngest at 9, goes to Belle Place Elementary School. Both Kaleb and Drew participate in competitive archery, which isn’t surprising considering Durand, who also hunts rabbits and squirrels, is a passionate bowhunter whenever he targets deer.

Durand and his sons went on an estimated 30 duck hunts this past season, at least one each weekend in season and, occasionally, twice in one day (morning and evening). Naturally, they had more duck hunting trips when school was out during the holidays.

Their duck hunts took them mostly into the Atchafalaya Basin; Lake Dauterive; Lake Fausse Pointe, including Sandy Cove; Spanish Lake, and the Wax Lake Outlet. Those waterfowl hunting trips came after the family had a successful deer hunting season in Area 7. All three sons got good bucks.

In a perfect world, Durand said, deer hunting comes first in milder weather conditions followed by duck hunting in colder weather. It set up perfectly in 2021-22. Well, almost. They hunted ducks with temps in the 20s and in the 80s.

“I enjoy and have more fun duck hunting. I get to hang out with my kids more,” Durand said, noting their talks are as important as teaching them how to blow duck calls, how to identify different trees, vegetation.

“It’s just exciting for them just to pull the trigger. We’ve had hunts we didn’t see a bird. We’ve had hunts when the sky was full.”

The Durands’ shotguns were booming that final morning of duck hunting the last weekend of January. The younger duck hunters each wielded pump shotguns while their father shouldered a semiautomatic Stoeger.

There’s a good reason the boys have pumps, he said, because if they shoot and miss the moving target, they must rack it back and re-aim. His theory is that process will help them become better marksmen in the future.

The Durands savored their final morning duck hunt in the nation’s last great overflow swamp while gunning down greenheads, teal, mallard hens and a few wood ducks. It was a solid finish to duck hunting in the Atchafalaya Basin, where a fast rise by the Atchafalaya River (from around 6.0 feet to a little over 12.0 feet at Butte La Rose) helped more than hindered duck hunting success, according to Durand.

“Anytime it’s below 7 or 8 feet it makes it hard to get back to the (timber) holes because of the mud flats. Ideal is 10- to 12-feet),” he said.

The 2021-22 duck hunting season could have ended right then and there after that morning hunt. Did it? Heck no. As they have often this past season, the Durands went back out in the evening on the other side of the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee to the back of Sandy Cove in Lake Fausse Pointe.

“We saw one bird, a coot (poule d’eau). Conner shot it. That was the last one. It’s all good. He was just as happy with that as he would shooting a drake,” Durand said. The whole group was content, he said.

Durand agrees with many, many other duck hunters around here and across the state who claimed there were fewer ducks than usual in the Sportsman’s Paradise.

“Overall this season we just didn’t have the birds like we normally have. … (But) it doesn’t take away the quality of time we have,” he said. “It’s more than the hunt. Like, right now, we’re talking about next season.”

And they went to a local retail chain store, which had a sale on duck decoys early this past week, and bought more duck decoys.

Durand, who also owns Teche Exterminating, and his younger brother, Barret Durand, also of New Iberia, began duck hunting at an early age with their father, David Durand of New Iberia. Much of the area they hunted and still hunt in the Atchafalaya Basin is on three-quarters (480 acres) of a section that has been in the family for generations. His great-great-grandfather was a sawmill operator who purchased the land.

They bonded on those and other hunting trips, Durand said, just like he bonds with his children now. His wife, Erin Segura Durand, accompanies them occasionally to shoot with a camera and enjoy nature at its finest.

“A lot of people don’t realize the beauty of the area we live in. Our kids, given the option (over video gaming, etc.), they’re rather be in the woods,” he said.

His 20-foot long Pro Drive aluminum boat and 40-h.p. Pro Drive motor is his pride and joy, the transportation to and from duck hunting and deer hunting spots. He has a special popup blind that’s all brushed in and the decoys stay in the boat.

“That boat is the cream of the crop to get us where we are hunting,” he said.

That boat will be used for fishing now, until hunting and bonding begins anew. The thought brings a smile to his face.