John K. Flores: Despite warm, foggy weather, duck hunters did well

When the 2025 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Waterfowl Population Status Report came out in early September, things weren’t looking good for duck hunters.
The 33.98 million breeding ducks estimated during the survey was unchanged from 2024’s report and remained a minus 4% below the long-term average. Essentially, the last two years of surveys have been some of the lowest estimates on record.
However, there’s one thing for certain: The estimated breeding population doesn’t necessarily reflect what the actual fall flight of ducks will be.
Moreover, waterfowl hunters are a dedicated lot. Come opening day, they usually show up to the party despite what the weather conditions are and the duck numbers are predicted to be.
For whatever reason in the days leading up to the youth hunting weekend on Nov. 8, Mother Nature took a shine to these young waterfowl hunters.
A frigid cold front blew in that set a few record lows for this time of year across the state. What’s more, with the cold temperatures and windy days, the ducks came too.
On the eve of the West Zone Waterfowl Season opener the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries released the Waterfowl Population Estimates from aerial survey. The 2025 November survey estimated 1.238 million ducks in Louisiana’s coastal region and Little River basin. The estimate was 143% higher than last November’s record low estimate of 510,000. It was also 40% higher than the most recent 5-year average of 885,000 and 2% higher than the most recent 10-year average of 1.2 million.
Yet, Mother Nature can be finicky. The cold weather didn’t last long and the week leading up to last weekend’s opener was warm, foggy, and without wind, conditions duck hunters pretty much loathe.
So how did West Zone waterfowl hunters do opening weekend? Thomas Landers, from Lake Charles, and his 10-year-old son Rayburn hunted with an old friend of Landers in the Sweet Lake/Holmwood area in Southwest Louisiana.
With the forecasted ground fog and no wind, Landers says they had lower than normal expectations for opening day. By the time they got into the blind and set up they had about 10-minutes of waiting to do before legal shooting light. In the quiet they could hear different species of ducks working and making the familiar sounds only waterfowl hunters know.
Once legal shooting light came around, they had a group of white-fronted (speckle bellies) geese work their spread. The three hunters were able to scratch one of them to which Landers says was a good way to start off a hunt.
Landers said, “Shortly after we began to have several bunches of ducks working during periods of time when the fog would clear for a few minutes. We were able to shoot our three-person limit of 18 ducks and a speckle belly.”
Landers’ group shot wood ducks, green-winged teal, pintails, a northern shoveler, gadwall, and one mallard, but the highlight of his hunt, he says, was his son Rayburn shooting his first duck on the fly.
Landers said, “We had three gray ducks work in perfectly and he made a great shot with his 20-gauge folding it in the decoys. We celebrated that like most dads do in that moment. It was a special way to begin the year and hopefully it’s a sign of great things to come.”
Steve Stroderd hunted with his family and friends opening weekend in the Johnson Bayou area of Southwest Louisiana. Like Landers, they were met with similar weather.
Stroderd said, “You couldn’t have ordered any worse conditions than we had, but that’s mother nature. Flat calm, very warm, and ground fog are not very conducive for high success.”
Stroderd said his party of hunters managed half their limits both Saturday and Sunday. What’s more, reports he heard from around Johnson Bayou ran the full spectrum from hunters who had ducks prior to the opener only to lose them before, to few limits.
One of the things the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fishers November aerial survey showed was 301,000 ring-necked ducks in the southeastern part of the state.
Chauvin resident Britt Cavalier hunts the Bayou Black region just south of Gibson in the southeast. Cavalier mentioned that the youth only weekend and the regular West Zone opening weekend were different from one another.
Cavalier said, “It was definitely a different opening weekend hunt than in the past. Last weekend for the youth weekend, we had a ton of teal and gray ducks behind my house in Chauvin. My son Rowan and his buddy did well both days, while on our lease in Bayou Black was empty. After the front came through, literally overnight, we didn’t have a bird behind my house, and Bayou Black had tons of ringnecks and teal.”
Cavalier attributed the high numbers of ringed-necked ducks and teal to the feed. The region he hunts is known for subaquatic vegetation that these particular species prefer.
Cavalier said, “We did well on Saturday, while some of our neighbors didn’t fire a shot. We have decent grass, and our neighbors don’t have very much. That’s the only difference I’ve noticed for who was successful this past opening weekend and who didn’t fare as well.”
Mike Arcement, is someone who also hunts the Bayou Black area. Arcement says that he and his partner limited out on opening day shooting 10 ring-necked ducks, 1 teal, and 1 canvasback. When reporting on the opener Arcement said, “It certainly was much better than anticipated. We saw thousands of ringneck ducks even though the conditions weren’t favorable. Submerged aquatics are the variable. We lost 50% in the last two months. I assume saltwater played a factor.”
The duck season runs for 60 days in both the West and East zones. The East Zone duck season began Nov. 22, leaving plenty of time in both zones to bag a few birds.
John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.