Is That a Teal?

By Lt. Larry Breaux & Sgt. Remy Broussard

I am a firm believer in the old adage “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. This can also apply to areas where we work specific complaints from year to year. Such was the case during teal season in Southwest Louisiana.
There is a piece of swamp off of the Calcasieu River, which produces closed season wood duck cases on a yearly basis. Lt. Larry Breaux met myself, Sgt. Remy Broussard , and Sr. Agent Chris Harp in the early morning hours to plan our strategy. Since some of the areas of the swamp are inaccessible by boat, Chris and myself would serve as “forward observers” for Lt. Breaux. Operating by vehicle and on foot, he would be more able to reach any violators on the far edge of the swamp.

As luck would have it, this is exactly what happened. The shooting broke out just after dawn. This is precisely when shooting is supposed to happen when teal hunting. The only thing strange about this particular hunt was the fact that there were no teal to be seen for miles….literally.

Shots were heard in an area where Chris and I couldn’t manage to navigate with the 20-foot tunnel hull flat. This is where the years of listening and making “educated guesses” as to the location of shots pays off. Unable to actually see the violators there was little doubt as to what they were, at least, attempting to harvest. It was a bright, clear morning so there should have been no reason whatsoever for misidentifying a teal for any other type of waterfowl. I said “should have been”.

A few minutes of listening and moving locations pretty much pinpointed the location of the two shooters. This was relayed to Lt. Breaux and he was soon on their trail like a dog on a bone.

Once in the area Lt. Breaux was actually able to watch the two subjects as they downed not only waterfowl other than teal but also a pair of dove which went out of season the previous weekend. What a show!
It didn’t take long for the two “hunters”, and I use this word generously, to get enough shooting. Or maybe they simply ran out of shells. At any rate, they were on the move and headed directly to the good lieutenant’s location. BAD mistake for these two “would be nimrods”.

After a few minutes of radio silence the triumphant lieutenant came over the air to announce that he had the two fellas detained…along with eight wood ducks, one mottled duck, and two doves. When we met up and began paperwork it seems that neither of the two had a very good memory either. Neither had remembered to purchase a hunting license, state or federal duck stamp for this year. In addition to their lapse of memory they also must have forgotten that it is now illegal to shoot lead shot at waterfowl anywhere in the United States of America! In addition, one of the two was educated in the fact that a pump shotgun needs a plug in order to be able to hunt waterfowl.

Needless to say, they were not happy campers by the time we were through writing our “suggestions” to the federal court system.

If I had to guess, I’d say that their memory might improve the next time they take to the field in search of waterfowl. If not, we can come back and play “educator” again.