Hunters should pay attention to the tide and the winds. Low tides move ducks to the middle of ponds and bays and can leave hunters stranded on a mudflat. North winds can also push water out making an area to shallow to hunt. On the other hand, a strong south wind pushes water and salt in, making ponds and bays too salty and too deep to hunt.

Only temporary blinds are allowed on Delta NWR, and blinds and decoys must be attended at all times and removed each day. Most hunt from boat blinds, with some jamming pirogues into the roseau cane points. Hunting the vegetation points allows hunters to take birds coming in from two different directions.

Manchac WMA
This 8,324-acre WMA gets a lot of attention because of its location between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The area is in upper St. John the Baptist Parish about 17 miles north northeast of La Place. The northern border is defined by Pass Manchac, which connects Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain.

"Manchac WMA used to be a cypress tupelo swamp," said LDWF program manager Randy Myers. "It was logged, and has since been changed to a coastal marsh and intermediate marsh because of the saltwater intrusion from the southwest."

Teal, gadwalls, widgeon, scaup and an occasional mallard can be found in potholes throughout the WMA, but the most popular area for ducks and hunters is a 100-acre pond near the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline known as "the Prairie." Bulltongue dominates the vegetation there, but there's also a lot of submerged vegetation like widgeon grass and pondweed to attract the different ducks to the area.

Manchac WMA is also home to 50 wood duck nesting boxes, which are designed to make up for the lack of natural nesting sites within hollow trees.

Manchac offers an excellent opportunity to take a mixed bag of ducks, but hunters should avoid hunting on the weekend, if possible. The area tends to get a lot of pressure from New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Another key thing to remember: Pay attention to the weather. Hunters should try to hunt when rough weather has moved the ducks off Lake Pontchartrain and into the marsh.

Pass-A-Loutre WMA
This 115,000-acre WMA in southern Plaquemines Parish lies at the mouth of the Mississippi River, approximately 10 miles south of Venice. Pass-A-Loutre is arguably the best area in south Louisiana for taking a mixed bag of ducks. However, it isn't exactly an easy place to get to. That, coupled with the fact that this marsh doesn't offer much solid ground obliges hunters to rely on a boat to hunt the area.

The WMA is challenging to get to because you have to boat down the Mississippi River, which calls for a boat large enough to hold its own with the big ships with which they must share the river. However, once you get there, Pass-A-Loutre opens up into a vast area of fresh and intermediate marsh with hundreds of different potholes, open bays and lakes.

Pass-A-Loutre offers abundant dabblers, including pintails, gadwalls, and teal, but you'll also find opportunities to hunt canvasbacks, redheads, ringnecks and other divers.

Pass-A-Loutre is obviously attractive to these ducks because of all the water available for them to use. However, the presence of water grasses like widgeon grass, pondweed, and wild millet is what holds ducks in the area.