Louisiana Suburban Duck Hunting

  • Sure did, twice, but I didn't take pics. It was a lot of prep work compared to my go to duck recipes but it was damn good. It was good the first time but I didn't prep the skin right, I poked holes too far through it and it allowed the breast meat to dry out a bit, as it's a pretty lengthy cooking process. The second time I hand picked 3 ducks that had noticeably more fat under their skin and I was super careful when scoring them. They were downright amazing, really incomparable to anything I've experienced. I should have replied to let you know how it went and thank you for the suggestion, but I'm always hesitant to bump my own threads. Better late than never, Thanks Judah. :)

  • I'll come back to read the larger part of your post at my leisure, l always enjoy your narrative Nate. About the squirrels, I recently gave up on them since my new dog like to chase but not eat them. Your post revived my interest. Interesting color variations on the ones you got. The insides look the same as the consistent little grey ones I have here. very nice pics too.

  • Sure did, twice, but I didn't take pics. It was a lot of prep work compared to my go to duck recipes but it was damn good. It was good the first time but I didn't prep the skin right, I poked holes too far through it and it allowed the breast meat to dry out a bit, as it's a pretty lengthy cooking process. The second time I hand picked 3 ducks that had noticeably more fat under their skin and I was super careful when scoring them. They were downright amazing, really incomparable to anything I've experienced. I should have replied to let you know how it went and thank you for the suggestion, but I'm always hesitant to bump my own threads. Better late than never, Thanks Judah. :)


    Awesome man. That is great. I will assume the prep is best left to the highly qualified chefs at my local Chinese restaurant!! Hahaha. I was thinking about trying one smoked. You ever mess around with that?

    i like to spear fish

  • Awesome stuff Nate. Great pics and interesting report. Looks like a beautiful place to hunt and enjoy nature. Are you originally from there?


    Whats your main method of transportation? Canoe/John boat?



    Dan those are good, wholesome country squirrels,. I still think the back alley ft. lauderdale squirrels are better left un-ate.


    Hhaha, im just imagining a one eyed rough & tough street squirrel who fights cats and gets fed garbage by a hobo every night.

  • Awesome man. That is great. I will assume the prep is best left to the highly qualified chefs at my local Chinese restaurant!! Hahaha. I was thinking about trying one smoked. You ever mess around with that?


    I've got a high end smoker at my parent's house, and we've smoked everything from rabbits to hogs.. but interesting enough, I've never smoked duck.. never even thought about it. It's so damn good when cooked medium rare on the pit that I never really experiment with it. I'm sure it would be good smoked, but if it turns out to be better than the good old medium rare grill treatment, it will be nothing short of a full on religious experience. I'll have to give it a shot.
    However, I did try this method recently and it came out absolutely fantastic.. quite possibly my go-to method from here on out. Forewarning.. don't watch this vid on an empty stomach.
    Stove-Top Sous Vide Duck Recipe - Doing Sous Vide at Home with No Special Equipment - YouTube

    Edited once, last by Nate ().

  • Awesome stuff Nate. Great pics and interesting report. Looks like a beautiful place to hunt and enjoy nature. Are you originally from there?


    Whats your main method of transportation? Canoe/John boat?


    It certainly is beautiful.. breathtaking at times. Watching the sunrise through those old cyprus trees that are covered in spanish moss never gets old, there is no better way to start your day.


    I'm from Grassy Key, but my parents moved us to Louisiana in 2000 because they weren't too fond of the Key's education system. I've been bouncing back and forth between the 2 states ever since.


    The method of transportation varies on a day to day basis. The main form of transportation to and from the camp is a skiff that looks pretty similar to this, however it's fully camouflaged inside and out.

    It has a 40hp tiller handle outboard on it. We've also got a camo john boat with a mud motor on it that can literally drive through less than 2 inches of water, which is great.. but the max speed in open water is about a quarter of the outboard so that one tends to get left in the garage. The skiff takes us where we need to go, fast. Some spots we can hunt out of the skiff itself, others we just get as close to the spot as we can and then get out and walk to it. When the water gets too high to walk, but still too low to get the boat where we need to be, we use what's called a pirogue (pee-row). They are smaller than a canoe, with low sides and a completely flat bottom. They're extremely unstable, so it takes a while to get accustomed to being in one, but once you get it down they can take you literally anywhere you want to go. If you scroll back up to this year's report and look at the picture with the most ducks, they are all laid out on an upside down pirogue, to give you an idea of what it looks like.

  • It's that time again, figured I'd bump this thread and make it 3 years running. Sadly, due to work restrictions, I was only able to get away for 2 weeks this year, as opposed to a full month. It was kind of disheartening, but I took it upon myself to pack as much duck hunting into a 2 week period as humanly possible.. and by my standards, I'm fairly certain I succeeded.
    I flew out of Ft. Lauderdale on New Year's morning, touched down in Baton Rouge around 4pm and hit the ground running. Most people who know me will vouch for the fact that I'm not much of a planner. I'd rather wing it and fly by the seat of my pants. With so little time this year, I went against my own grain.. I had the entire 2 weeks planned out by the day, some down to the hour, after all I've only got 14 days. The first thing on the list was a 5 day trip out to the camp with my dad and one of my best friends whom I hadn't been able to hunt with since high school due to his deployment. We headed out the following morning, set up everything for the morning hunts that were to follow and found a nice little spot to try and catch some evening duck action. We managed a few birds over the next 5 days, but certainly nothing to write home about. I had a blast nonetheless, it was nice to be hunting with my dad after not seeing him for a year, and seeing the look on my buddy's face when he finally managed to knock his first bird down was priceless.
    After returning home, the next leg of the trip was a couple mornings in Mississippi with my brother. He had to work the morning before we left, not wanting to waste a sunrise, I decided to grab my bow and see about a deer. All I saw that morning was does, none of which I was willing to settle on so early into my trip. My bro picked me up that afternoon and we headed towards the Mississippi state line. These mornings were cold. I'm a bitch when it comes to cold, I call anything below 70* cold.. but when I say it was cold, I mean it was freaking cold. Sub 20* temps, 20+mph winds, and being inevitably soaking wet.. both mornings I was questioning my sanity while thinking about my warm bed. All of the doubt and discomfort dissipated immediately at first light. When the birds started raining in, it might as well have been sunny and 75* I've said it in previous posts on this thread, and I'll say it again.. hunting with my brother is the best thing ever. I look forward to it all year, and sadly it was only for 2 mornings this season, but the mornings hunting with him are always the highlight and this year was no different.




    After the Mississippi trip, I made a few more trips with my dad and a couple friends out to the camp. Our Louisiana season was very very slow this year, the birds just weren't there. We had fun nonetheless. With only a couple days left of my trip, I let the arrow fly on a doe one evening to put some venison in my parent's freezer. The morning after, while sitting in the duck blind, I heard something tromping through the muck behind me. When I turned to look, there was a 7 point that was obviously wounded. Somebody had shot it low on the front shoulder, completely missing the vitals, but he wasn't going to survive in the thick muck. Having nothing but #2 duck shot on me, I gave him 2 quick rounds behind the shoulder and put him down. He was still coherent when I got to him, and the dispatch was anything but pretty. There was no way in hell I could drag him 200yds through the mud back to the boat, so I quartered him up right there, removed the backstrap and packed it to the boat. With season closing, you can never have too much meat in the freezer.
    I brought my GoPro with me this year, determined to get some decent shooting footage. Having the camera on my head was driving me crazy, so that all went out the window fairly quickly. The little bit of footage that I did get was too dark to make much of anything out. I decided to play around with the timelapse setting on the go pro. I took these 2 videos at a 2 second interval, sped up to 30fps, making 1 second of the video equivalent to 1 full minute of real time. In the first one, you can see some nutria playing around on the left side, then one comes flying by right in front of the camera. The second video of the moonrise is my favorite. At one point the sky color changes drastically. I believe it's because as the sun set it obviously got darker, but with the moon being so bright, once it got to a certain height the sky was actually brighter than it had been in the minutes leading up to it. While this video was rolling, I made the most beautiful shot of my 13 year duck hunting career. Sadly, it happened so fast that the bird wasn't caught on the time lapse.
    I recommend watching in HD.


    Louisiana Swamp Sunset - YouTube


    Louisiana Moonrise Time Lapse - YouTube


    My parents had been keeping my dog Gus for me for the past 4 years, as I can't have dogs in my apartment. He died on me a couple weeks before I was able to make it home. Seeing my parent's house without a dog wasn't natural, it just didn't feel right. Coincidently, a buddy of mine has a chocolate lab with great bloodlines that had just had her first litter. He cut me a great deal on his last remaining female. I gave her to my parents, mom named her Ellie. I've got my dad working her on obedience, and I'll be moving back to Louisiana just in time to start her retriever training. She'll be working next duck season, and I can't wait.


    Edited once, last by Nate ().

  • Nate, beautiful write up as always. I am sorry about your buddy but it is nice you are starting the cycle again with a new puppy. Sounds like a great, albeit shortened trip. When are gonna try some smoked ducks?

    i like to spear fish

  • Thanks Judah. I tried smoked ducks this past trip actually. My brother is working a job for a catering company, he's developed some serious skills with a smoker. He smoked a few ducks and a goose while I was home. He used pecan wood, 200* for about 3.5 hours give or take. It came out excellent, nice and pink.

  • I just re-read your first post. This is a damn good thread. Thanks for posting Nate. I wish it was still duck season!:toast:

  • Nate,


    Great Read(s). You make me feel I was 30 years younger. We looked about the same when I was younger back in 80's, but you got more greenheads.


    Not duck hunted much last couple years, I just tend to hear the stories, and get a few birds to clean now and again. The boys wanting shell limiters never seems to stop. I spent the day making shot gun plugs, vs spear tips and pole like I'm suppose to.


    I look forward to your next post. Thanks .;)

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