Of all the shotguns being fired Nov. 9, opening day of the duck hunting season in Louisiana, five of the hottest barrels had to be in a duck blind in a rice field near Wright.

That’s where Austin Theriot and Gavin Savoy hunted with three friends for less than an hour on their way to bagging a limit of ducks each that morning just east of Gueydan. The action was hot and heavy for as long as it lasted as the first split got underway in the West Zone.

“It was load and shoot. Oh, yeahhhh! It was pick up and shoot the one you want,” Savoy said around midday Nov. 11.

Savoy, an all-around outdoorsman who lives in Catahoula and works as a welder at GOM Energy Services LLC, and Theriot hunted both days on opening weekend with their friends from high school, Carter Bulliard of St. Martinville, Lane Borel of Catahoula, and Cole Fuselier of St. Martinville. They killed “a lot of teal,” Savoy said, as well as bringing home some spoonbills, grey ducks, blackjacks and ringnecks.

Savoy, 22, realized late Friday afternoon on the day before opening day his group of duck hunters probably would be in for a field day as far as duck hunting success.

“The day before it opened I ran out before dark and threw out the decoys. There were 2-3,000 ducks sitting where the blind was. I knew we had ducks …,” he said.

Savoy said the first day of duck hunting surpassed that of opening day 2023-24.

“Man, at last year’s opener, I shot in Welsh with some guys and we shot a four-man limit, 24. This Saturday was a lot better than last year. This year we had our 30 birds before 7 o’clock,” he said.

“All ducks are in the west, that’s for sure. They’re not on our end (broad area between Kaplan and St. Martinville). There are a lot of birds probably from Gueydan to the Lacassine area. On the way (to Wright), no ducks, no geese. We got on their (Bulliards’) place and there were ducks everywhere you looked.”

How good was the duck hunting by Wright? After Savoy and company exited the duck blind soon after 7 a.m., another hunting party entered and stayed until it limited out, too.

The St. Martin Parish waterfowlers got a big assist from a veritable youngster, Bailey. Theriot’s fox red Labrador retriever shined on its first-ever day of live duty.

“Man, Austin’s dog! She did fantastic. Picked up every duck. He got her last year and has been working with her damn near every day. She’s a hunter, definitely a hunter,” Savoy said.

Theriot, a 23-year-old mechanic at Arrow Aviation, was proud of Bailey.

“Oh, man, she did awesome. I couldn’t ask for better,” he said Nov. 11. “I put some time into her. Time pays off, I tell you that.”

Theriot said it took a little longer to get their five-man limit on Sunday, the second day. There weren’t as many ducks in the air as on opening day, he noted.

Meanwhile, in the marsh 46 ½ miles southeast of Gueydan, duck hunting success on opening day was good for Kyle Broussard of Loreauville, who hunted with his sons, Owen and Max, and his father, Blaine Broussard, all of Loreauville, and friends of the family on his lease near Pecan Island. The younger Broussards helped Loreauville High School’s state playoff-bound football team spank West St. Mary, 40-20, on Senior Night in Loreauville the day before the long-waited opener.

Kyle Broussard, 46, who owns GatorTail with his dad, submitted photos of the ducks they killed the first day of the season. He was cautiously optimistic the week before the opener because it appeared there were more ducks in the marsh around Grand Chenier than around Pecan Island during the youth-only duck hunting weekend, Nov. 2-3, in the West Zone. That’s where Owen, 17, and Max, 14, enjoyed some waterfowl hunting with a friend of his and two of their high school buddies, he said.

Broussard was grateful more ducks showed themselves around Pecan Island on opening weekend for the West Zone. Twelve duck hunters, young and old, settled into duck blinds on his lease both days.

“Oh, it was good, man, very good. We had a good opener,” Kyle Broussard said a few days later, noting they killed mostly blue-winged teal, some green-winged teal and a mix of other species.

“We hunted north and south of Highway 82. We had success on both sides,” he said.

They were able to hunt marshy areas that were unhuntable last year because of the severe, prolonged drought, he pointed out.

He hunted both days with his father and his youngest son. They harvested 10-12 ducks each day, he said.

As for the rest of the duck hunting season, he said, “I’m very optimistic. We haven’t had any migratory push yet. When they’re going to come, they’re going to come.”