The world we live, work and play in was transformed into a wondrous white while we watched the third week of January.

Mother Nature turned a giant snow globe upside down and shook it. The result created a frozen, wintry wonderland from our home to the woods, swamp, marsh, rice fields, bays and bayous we hunt and fish from southeast Texas east along the Gulf Coast all the way past and above Florida’s Panhandle.

She added lagniappe of historic proportions to the mix of snow and ice by dropping temperatures to record lows in Acadiana, including a record 3 degrees in New Iberia on the first day of the historic event, Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Basically, the country was flipped upside down. Parts of southern Louisiana suddenly received more snow than many parts of the United States, including five Midwestern states and the coastal Northeast.

That it happened is more significant, perhaps, to many local outdoorsmen and outdoorsmen than how it happened.

However, for the record, briefly, two storm systems pushed by strong winds in the upper atmosphere – the northern, polar jet stream and the southern, subtropical jet stream – merged and formed an even stronger winter storm, according to a Washington Post story posted Jan. 26. The two storm systems met because of a polar vortex that dipped deep down into the U.S., providing cold air and creating three unforgettable snow and ice storms, each tracking farther south than the previous one.

The blizzard dumped 8 inches of snow in New Iberia, the most since a similar weather event in 1895, according to KLFY TV, Channel 10. To the west, there were unconfirmed reports of 10-12 inches of snow across parts of Acadia Parish, probably in the area where thundersnow, which happens only during very high snow rates, was recorded.

The snow fell so thick it decreased visibility tenfold at times, or so it seemed to Tyler Templeton of New Iberia, who enjoyed a duck hunt with friends on Tuesday, the first day, near Breaux Bridge. They hunted a pond, a paradise pothole for ducks, in the morning, then one of the rice fields in the afternoon on a lease owned by his friend, Landon Hardy.

During the height of the blizzard, as he scanned the tops of the treeline to watch for incoming birds, Templeton said he could see through the snow only about 35 yards. Hardly mattered because the pintails held a convention there, prompting the continuous roar of shotguns, as reported and recorded via video and photos by the LSU student/athlete and Catholic High School graduate (Class of ’24).

While Templeton, 19, was knocking down ducks, another Louisiana outdoorsman was shooting, too, but with a camera. Kyle Rome, 38, of Donaldsonville, rode through the Atchafalaya Basin on the east side of the Atchafalaya River with Paul “Skell” Blanchard, who owns Skell’s Outdoor Adventures.

Rome, a self-taught photographer who has turned his hobby into a business, tries to get into the nation’s last great overflow swamp at least eight times a month. The former restaurateur and chef by trade was as awestruck by the sight he saw Jan. 21 as thousands of Facebook viewers who saw the photos he took in the Belle River area during the height of the snowstorm.

His collection of breathtaking snow scenes was liked more than 20,000 times and shared 5,000 times on Facebook from Jan. 22-24. Prints of perhaps the most majestic scene are selling like hotcakes on 11×16, 18×26 and 24×35 frames. For more information, he said, pm (private message) him on Facebook.

“I give everything to God. He gave it to all of us to go out there,” Rome said while talking about the Atchafalaya Basin experience a few days after the scintillating photoshoot.

Meanwhile, closer to home, two Catholic High School Fishing Team members took advantage of the heavy snow to build bass angling snowmen.

Mark Leger of New Iberia and his helpers rolled and packed his way to an impressive three-tiered snowman that stood tall with a fishing rod, landing net and life jacket in the bluebird conditions Jan. 22, the day he texted it to a local outdoors writer and Jacob Shoopman, who founded the CHS Fishing Team. Leger’s son, Cannon Leger, and his fishing buddy, Greyson Young, swing into action for their first Louisiana High School Bass Tournament of 2025 in the Junior Division on Feb. 8 at Toledo Bend.

Brock Daigle of New Iberia, who was born and raised in Loreauville, and his sons, Hollis Daigle and Holden Daigle, enjoyed building three snow anglers representing the captain, their dad, and themselves, complete with life jackets, fishing rods, tackle box and landing net. The Daigles also will be fishing the LHSBN’s Junior Division on Feb. 8 out of Cypress Bend Resort.

In southeast Louisiana, Chas Champagne of Slidell, maker of the legendary Matrix Shad and other popular soft plastics used by saltwater fishermen across the Gulf Coast, particularly in the Teche Area, took the time to build a snowman wearing a Matrix Shad short-sleeved shirt and a Matrix Shad hat, ready to go fishing with a rod at hand, er, stick, and a tackle box at his side on Day 1.

The personable angler, one of the best in his area at catching speckled trout and redfish, also went fishing in his snow-covered boat and racked up twice in the next few days.

Devin Verret of Loreauville also hunted geese and ducks during the snowy week but was far from Acadiana. Verret was near Burlington, Kansas, where the frozen plains were covered with the white stuff.

The 20-year-old Tim’s SouthernAIR employee, four other Louisians and a Texas waterfowler hunted with TKO (True Kansas Outdoors) Outfitters and each killed a six-bird daily limit of Canadian geese on Thursday, Verret said the following day after setting up around midday for a mallard hunt. It was 15 degrees and snowing for a short period when the Canadian geese visited the six dozen Canadian goose decoys on the dry soybean field.

“It was fun. We were hunting in an A Frame,” he said after helping distribute two dozen decoys, 20 Mojos and six dozen Canadian goose decoys.

The hunting party had a field day dropping mallards on that hunt.

Of course, the woods, swamp, marsh, bays and bayous are stunningly beautiful already. The soft white blanket Mother Nature created made our Sportsman’s Paradise a Sportsman’s Spectacular.

 

 

 

You can watch Kyle Rome’s video below.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1306132347331319