COTEAU — The spirit of the recently departed 2011-12 waterfowl hunting season hung over the Francis Romero Recreation Center here on a cool Friday night.

But the mood inside and outside, where some serious Cajun cooking was going on, was anything but funereal. Outdoorsmen from near and far, a vast majority of them hunters and most of them duck hunters, were enjoying the 37th annual Duck Wake started in 1975 by Gordie White.

The New Iberian assumed his usual position as head cook while nearly 100 men, a dozen or so with their adult or young sons, swapped hunting and fishing tales. White was overseeing two large bubbling gumbo pots filled with 144 ducks, 30 pounds of smoked sausage, 8 pounds of tasso sausage and 8 pounds of andoillie sausage.

And then there were the trimmings — 5 pounds of onions for each pot, 5 pound of celery per pot and 5 pounds of green peppers for each pot.

“I’ve been here since 2 cutting onions, onion tops, etc.,” Keith Sellers, a Maurice native who lived in New Iberia from 1978 to 2001, when he moved back to Maurice, said around 6:30 p.m. as he minded the pots with White.

The Duck Wake and his good friend White, a local lawyer, bring him back each year to New Iberia.

“We’ve been hunting together a long time. He’s a top cutter,” White said, smiling as he raised an eyebrow. “It’s the Cajun trinity.You’ve got to have onions, celery and peppers.”

The Duck Wake crowd of people — who came from as far away as Ossining, N.Y., the home of David Vutera, who signed the guest sheet — mingled before supper was served a little after 8 p.m. Many of them sipped on cold beverages and some of them, including Armond Schwing and Pierre Schwing, both of New Iberia, played cards at a large table near the kitchen.

“Those card players play all kinds of crazy games,” White said, noting one of the games has the root word “Loreauville” in it.

Steve Johnson of New Iberia and his grandson Tyler Johnson, 10, a Magnolia Elementary School student, were among the last to sign in.

“This is my first one. I got invited,” the elder Johnson said.

Young Johnson was proud to report he killed three deer this past season, which made his grandfather proud.

“This was his first year pulling the trigger.Two were in the marsh, when we went hunt with Dr. Eric White (Gordie White’s son and veterinarian), and one on our lease at the Catahoula Hunting Club. Like me, he hunts everything — ducks, deer, squirrels, hogs …” Steve Johnson said Carol Perez of Lydia, who owns Perez Marine Service, was making his umpteenth appearance at a Duck Wake.

“Oh, I went to school with him (White, at New Iberia High School) back in the ’50s. We’ve been friends so many years. Gordie’s a great person and he’s been a great friend, his boy, too, Eric and I,” said Perez, who will be 75 in May.

Perez and others looked at photos and newspaper clippings from past events that covered the far wall.

René Simon of New Iberia, a Franklin native, talked about duck hunting and his love for the outdoors. Simon, 47, said he cherishes the days and nights he spends on a houseboat he and his brother Jim Simon of New Iberia have at the Wax Lake Outlet, a prime duck hunting spot in south central Louisiana.

Simon, a director with the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry, also chatted with John Conery, a judge of the 16th Judicial District in Franklin.

Soon after they started talking, the long-awaited call to eat went out.The Rev. Scott T. Bullock of First United Methodist Church said the blessing before the feast with another of his inspirational messages, albeit

with an outdoor theme.

The Duck Wake’s highlight — supper — began with the chicken and sausage gumbo with 20 pounds of rice, 45-50 pounds of potato salad and many desserts.