A season opener Friday will prompt hundreds of duck hunters to grab their shotgun and try to bring down teal in Louisiana.

The Sportsman’s Paradise is the last stop for the tasty migratory birds that continue south after visiting Louisiana. The state’s hunters will get a crack at them Friday through Sept. 30.

This season the teals’ stopover almost certainly won’t include the coastal marshes in southwest Louisiana, which have been flooded from heavy rains associated with Hurricane Harvey after it first made landfall Aug. 25. Louisiana’s leading authority on waterfowl said as much Wednesday afternoon.

Larry Reynolds, veteran waterfowl study leader with the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said water levels in the marsh are too deep for the smallish bird to feed. Teal prefer shallow depths so they can feed on seed sand, invertebrates in the soil, he said from his Baton Rouge office.

Taking that into consideration, the best teal hunting, at least early in the season, probably will be in the agricultural fields, which also have plenty of water from the storm but still are shallower.

“There’s way too much water in the coastal marshes,” Reynolds said, adding habitat conditions are better in agricultural areas.

In other words, it’s the same scenario as last year following the “100-year flood” in mid-August 2016. Overall, it was a subpar teal hunting season in 2016, Reynolds said.

The lease he hunts is in the part of the coastal marsh that is flooded, he said, ruefully. Still, he is hopeful of getting in a teal hunt, perhaps opening day if his aerial waterfowl survey schedule allows this week.

High water or no high water, he just wants to hunt. He’s sure other duck hunters feel the same way.

“Folks in this state look forward to it. You know, you’ve gotta get out. You can’t kill any from the couch,” Reynolds said.

His advice? Try different areas.

“Be mobile. Conditions might not be good in certain parts of the range,” he said.

The waterfowl biologist and his staff will get a better idea of the waterfowl population in the state when he conducts his first aerial waterfowl survey Monday.

“We’re flying next week. The first coastal transects will start Monday at the Texas state line. By Wednesday, we should get east and all the way to Catahoula Lake,” he said. “Right now, everything’s wait and see. I’ll know more when I get in the plane.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s breeding population survey earlier this year indicated there were 7.9 million teal in North America, 18 percent more than at the same time last year. Many of those birds will migrate through the Mississippi Flyway to the Sportsman’s Paradise.

Teal hunting is “extremely popular” in Louisiana, Reynolds said, especially in the Coastal Zone. The special season is designed to target the migrating teal, almost exclusively blue-winged teal, which are the first of the teal species to head south for the winter each year.

Opening day is on a Friday for the first time and six days later than usual in order for the season to go as late as possible into September, LDWF officials have said. 

“We made the decision to open on Friday and end on a Saturday. That’s why it’s six days later,” Reynolds said.

For sure, it’s high time to intercept the thousands of teal that are passing through.

New Iberia duck hunter Dylan Trim, 21, knows all too well what the small migratory meals on wings intend to do when they make a stop in the state.

“After a long trip, I’ve always been told the first thing they do is try to find agricultural fields just to feed up for their next long haul for wherever they’re going,” Trim said Thursday afternoon as he enthusiastically talked about the upcoming season opener.

Trim and other Teche Area waterfowlers should enjoy fair to good duck hunting in the Atchafalaya Basin and the Wax Lake Outlet and Gueydan areas, Reynolds said. 

 

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.