Looking for duck blind to lease
 

Property we have hunted for six years is changing farmers. New farmer is turning propery into a crawfish farm. Our 6" of water in fields will now be 2' of water. Will have traps and crawfish boats in fields, where previously all was quiet and undisturbed. So we are not renewing. Anyone know of blind available in Gueydan, Kaplan, Klondike area? Hard core hunters.

Good luck. With the raping prices of crawfish these days field duck hunting will be a thing of the past in the near future. A lot of farms are going to crawfish. The sole fact that crawfish are destroying louisiana field hunting is reason I can't stand the lil bastards anymore.

Crawfish
 

The expansion of crawfishing the rice fields of southwest Louisiana is creating a big problem for field duck hunters. I've seen a dramatic rise in crawfish acreage the last few years. I've lost some really good blinds over the years to crawfish. I can't blame the farmers, with the price of rice ( f'ed up by the govt with trade restrictions ect..) at very low levels. Farmers are looking for other ways to stay in business. If this increase in crawfishing continues, I'll say that in twenty years field hunting will be a dead sport. It's not just that it ruins that specific farm/field. But the pop guns ruin about a surrounding mile. Crawfish farmers don't want a duck or goose (or any other bird) in their fields, period. This loss of habitat will change flyways and birds (ducks, geese, shorebirds etc. will quit coming down here, if there is not adequate acreage available to them. This is a relatively new industry, but I've seen it becoming a much bigger issue to hunters in the last two years. In the meantime I'll keep finding new areas with less crawfishing, which are getting harder to find. It's a tiny drop in the bucket, but I don't eat them anymore, or serve them at our lodge.
Hopefully supply will meet demand and the destruction of waterfowl habitat won't expand any further!

Wait so out of principle, you don't eat crawfish because they are cutting in to your hunting witch is your source of income?

Not just my hunting. But tens of thousands of people who enjoy the tradition of duck and goose hunting in the rice fields of southwest Louisiana. And yes I own/operate a commercial hunting And fishing service that supports my family and the families of my employees.

Gotta love free enterprise. The landowner ultimately decides how the land gets used. God bless America.

My first job in college was working with Dudley Culley out at the crawfish farm run by the LSU Ag Center. They were perfecting the crawfish farming techniques now being used to bring in the big bucks.

I can't find it in my heart to blame any Louisiana farmer for switching to crawfish to make an honest living. I'll have to switch to crawfish for bait and eat more when I'm in SWLA.

Idk how they do it wherever yall hunt, but we hunt crawfish and rice fields. And we've killed plenty of ducks in both. Our best teal seasons come from the fields that were the last year's crawfish.


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Crawfish fields are fine for teal season. But the big ducks will not stay in the deep water. And also like mentioned above the pop guns. U can ride through miles of crawfish fields during the season and not see the first duck or goose. Personally I really don't care all that much for crawfish. Give me shrimp and crabs. Duck hunting is my passion and has been for many years. I just hate to see what crawfishing is doing to it. Nothing against the farmers wanting to make money. But what is sickening is a farmer crawfishing a piece of property then trying to lease blind for 5-10k per blind when it's not worth 2k.

I wasn't going to comment but after reading this, my head nearly exploded. I grew up south of Kaplan on a rice farm which I now own along with my two brothers. We have always had crawfish ponds in the bottom pieces. We have also had a duck blind right in the middle of the crawfish ponds. We have another blind in the higher section of the farm thats better for geese. We alternate the rice crop between the two sections every year, have done this for 50 years. I know about 50 other people that do the exact same thing. Never had a problem with ducks flaring at the sight of a crawfish cage and no farmer I know would run his cages in a pond someone was hunting. Most of the time its a waste of time and money to start crawfishing until the weather warms up. Especially so if the pond hasn't been stocked and fished previoulsy. A lot of guys around here don't flood their fields until December and thats only if they need a tax right off before the end of the year. He probably will trap as much rain as he can tough. If your lease is in a decent flyway, I'd say give it another year before you go looking for another because your likely to be disappointed unless you have 30 or 40K to drop.

Crawfishing destroying the tradition of field hunting for the tens of thousands is complete hyperbole. It's the tens of thousands destroying hunting for those of us who aren't tourist. There are so many suburbanites and Business Development directors willing to pay ridiculous money for a blind landowners are putting them within shooting range of each other. Why not? Oil royalties dry up quick and a 1/5 or 1/6 royalty on a rice crop isn't going to keep the lights on unless you own a township. Money's not easy to come by in these parts. 3/4 of the people looking for a place to hunt would consider 4 or 5 spoonbills a slaughter. And I don't know where you hunt exactly but have never, ever, ever, never ever, heard a carbide gun go off during hunting season. Those things don't come out until its time to plant to keep the blackbirds and other nonmigratory birds from eating the seeds before they germinate. If someones got one out during duck season its out of spite or stupidity.

As a landowner I will say that finding a good farmer is a hell of a lot harder than finding a someone looking for a lease. We don't lease any property and probably never will. But if I did, I would more than likely let my farmer sublease to the hunters just to make sure they didn't do anything to piss him off. I can imagine running a commercial hunting/fishing outfit isn't the easiest or most secure way to feed your family, neither is sharecropping. The tradition of hunting means a lot to me, but at the end of the day, its a hobby. My land being taken care of and cultivated the way my grandfather would have wanted it done means a lot more than killing birds. If that means letting my rice farmer have a crawfish pond so be it. Sugarcane is 10X the threat to rice field hunting. Maybe you should boycott sugar as well.

It's those guides leasing up large chunks of land and then making a profit off it and keeping all the little guys out that are ruining field hunting to me. I still wonder why I can't guide duck hunts on Fausse Pointe but you can guide fishing trips on that same body of water


Best thing to do is just buy yor own land and do what you want with it. Unfortunately my ex and her crabber beau from Glencoe have the only land I owned

I would argue that its not crawfish is not the reason you don't see birds like you used to. Hunting pressure being the biggest culprit and also there are just more people in general. Subdivisions popping up like mushrooms in the middle of nowhere. If you wan't to see ducks look in the marsh. I'm not talking about the stuff thats easy to get to, there's too much pressure there as well. I saw more ducks in the middle of Vermilion Bay this winter than I have in the last 5 years combined. Hunting may be your passion but when your running 1000 crawfish cages for 10 sacks you will do what it takes to feed your family. And that farmer is trying to lease that blind for 10k, he's getting it because people are willing to pay it.

I hunt both marsh and fields. Deep water in either is not good.


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I saw that hand the other day at Dago's. He was trying to get them to start selling some popping corks your ex made out of some crab trap floats that got run over by outboards. You aught to take him to court for copy right infringement. Did you patient them? Get you a good settlement and you can get you a prime spot.

Three years ago we had a pop gun ruin our teal season. When duck and goose season opened it was going of most mornings. Never say never, ever.

I can't patent them because I am using his crab floats I am cutting off

I think you got a case. You need to talk to an intellectual property rights attorney. If you need the number to one I can hook you up. I got one that keeps calling me about a duck lease.

What do you think it was running in Sept? I don't know what for, couldn't even guess. They grow winter wheat where you hunt?

Winter wheat is a dry ground crop. Not a viable reason for pop guns. The only reason they would have pop guns in September is to piss somebody off.


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I agree.... We suffered this year in the marsh due to high water.

I don't guess you picked up on the sarcasm.