Chris Courville knows where he’ll be looking for squirrels when Louisiana’s squirrel hunting season opens Saturday.

His eyes will be scanning cypress trees on land leased by the Lake Fausse Pointe Hunting Club. While Courville hasn’t been scouting, per se, it’s no mystery to him where the squirrels are located.

“I haven’t been riding too much. What I’ve seen is there are a lot of squirrels in cypress trees,” he said, noting that’s the case across the land. “At my shop, they’re tearing them (cypress balls) up every day, one tree by my shop.”

The 40-year-old Loreauville outdoorsman plans to hunt the opener again this year with his son, Landon Courville, 15, a sophomore at Loreauville High School. The younger Courville won’t be alone in the woods.

“My son has a list of friends he wants to come with him. (But) we only have so much room to hunt. We don’t want to overcrowd it,” his father said, noting three or four of his son’s buddies probably will make the hunt on the first day.

Courville began squirrel hunting with his father, the late Lawrence Courville, at around age 5, walking alongside without a shotgun until he was old enough to tag along behind his dad ready to knock a squirrel out of a tree. A few years later he was hunting on his own.

Landon Courville started the same way around the same age. Now he’s old enough to hunt by himself.

“We’re ready. We’re pumped up. My little boy has been reloading shotgun shells every chance he gets. We’re ready. We can’t wait,” Chris Courville said.

Courville, who has owned Louisiana Marine and Propeller Service since 2013, said last season was fair to good for harvesting squirrels in his area.

“It was good. It was decent. We didn’t do a lot (of squirrel hunting). I think we made three, four hunts last year. I didn’t have a chance to hunt. I was busy. I didn’t hunt like I normally do,” he said.

An estimated 50,000 squirrel hunters will participate on the first day of squirrel hunting for 2022-23.

Joining the Courvilles, et al, in the woods for the opener might be Courville’s brother, Jed Courville of Loreauville.

“He says he is. It depends on work,” Chris Courville said.

To so many squirrel hunters across Acadiana, across the Sportsman’s Paradise, Oct. 1 is a tradition as revered as the season opener for ducks and for deer. Many of those squirrel hunters will hunt private lands while others will head to Wildlife Management Areas open to the public in Louisiana.

There are several WMAs with top-notch squirrel hunting, where an average of 2.0 squirrels per hunter effort can be had, such as Dewey W. Wills WMA in LaSalle, Catahoula and Rapides parishes; Big Lake WMA in Franklin, Tensas and Madison parishes, and in Acadiana’s backyard, Attakapas Island WMA in Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary parishes in the Atchafalaya Basin.

Attakapas Island WMA’s 27,962 acres boast some of the most consistent squirrel hunting among the state’s public areas despite having few acorn-producing oaks. However, according to Lafayette Region biologist manager Tony Vidrine, there are enough other mast-producing trees to support the squirrel population.

Attakapas Island WMA is accessible only by boat. As a result, the area receives very little hunting pressure.

“Those hunters who do utilize this area have good success,” Vidrine said.

How much success? In 2021-22, squirrel hunters killed 542 squirrels, or 2.0 squirrels per hunter effort.

Another Lafayette Region WMA was one of the state’s top squirrel producers last season. Richard K. Yancey WMA, with 70,872 acres, gave up 7,879 squirrels for a 2.6 squirrels per hunter effort.

The small game season, which includes squirrels and rabbits, begins Oct. 1 and ends Feb. 28.