LOREAUVILLE – There were more four-legged “tree huggers” than usual due to brisk winds when Louisiana’s small game season opened Oct. 5.

Squirrels, scattered and difficult to pattern on opening day, still had a hard time escaping the eyes of a veteran Loreauville outdoorsman making the 30th or so opening day squirrel hunt of his life in the woods around Lake Dauterive-Fausse Pointe.

Chris Courville had their number, for sure, on his way to harvesting eight squirrels, the only limit in his five-man hunting party and another group of hunters from his Lake Fausse Pointe Hunting Club. The combined total of 28 squirrels sure made a mouth-watering brown gravy with smothered onions and white beans supper that went into the pot(s) at 3 p.m. that afternoon and served after 5.

Courville, 42, was joined on early morning squirrel hunt by his 17-year-old son, Landon Courville, Lacy Prioux, Nicholas Richard and Callen Tourney. The Louisiana Marine & Propeller Service owner accounted for eight squirrels, Prioux had four and Landon Courville added three for a total of 16.

“It was average. It won’t be one we talk about for sure as for number of squirrels,” Courville said about the recent opener as he drove to the camp about 5 miles from his home in Loreauville. “Oh, we struggled. There were not many cuttings on the ground and the squirrels were spread out about every 200 yards.”

His group started heading out around 6:15 a.m., each hunter going his separate way through the woods around Lake Dauterive Landing. Courville bagged five squirrels before 8:30 a.m. with his trusty Super Black Eagle Benelli. Then he met up with his son, who had one squirrel to his credit.

They walked side by side — like Courville and his dad, Lawrence Courville, did when he began hunting as a boy – for quite a while, split up and met again. The elder squirrel hunter had two more squirrels and his son still was stuck on one.

“We ended up getting to a tree with three squirrels,” Courville said, noting he downed one and his son felled the other two squirrels.

“That was the whole morning, the highlight. He got two and I shot my last one.”

With the wind blowing hard from first light on he was pleased he bagged what he did.

“I’m by no means a good squirrel hunter in the wind. Oh, I don’t like hunting in the wind. The wind was blowing from when I walked out of the house this morning,” he said.

As a result, he said, “They (squirrels) weren’t high in the trees. They were low on the trunks.”

He did shoot three other squirrels that hit the ground running and kept on running, he said.

Courville was looking forward to going out the following morning with his oldest daughter, Remi Courville, 10. Remi and her sister, Audrey, 9, were cheerleaders at a football game and missed opening day.

“She’s coming with me,” he said about Remi, who has yet to kill her first squirrel. ‘She went shoot her .22 in the yard just a while ago. I think she’s ready.”

The 2024-25 small game season ends Feb. 28. A special spring squirrel season is scheduled May 3-25.

There are approximately 50,000 squirrel hunters in the Sportsman’s Paradise. Courville, also an avid deer hunter, is one of them and proud to pass the tradition of walking the woods to hunt the bushy-tailed small game to another generation.