"After Hurricane Audrey hit Cameron Parish in 1957, the old-timers said that the duck hunting was as good as it gets," said Chad Courville, a DU biologist based in Lafayette. "I think the habitat will be pretty good across the coast this fall if we get some heavy rains without hurricanes. Once we get a good flushing of fresh water, we'll have great foraging habitat for ducks. Every place that has river influence should have good duck hunting this fall."

The river systems of the Sabine, Atchafalaya, Mississippi and Pearl rivers provide an influx of fresh water to rejuvenate marshes. Three of those four areas suffered extensive damage in 2005. Situated almost halfway between landfall of Katrina and Rita, the Atchafalaya Basin suffered fringe impacts from both storms, but remained relatively untouched. With the awesome flow of the Atchafalaya River, which siphons off about 30 percent of the Mississippi River water, this area should recover quickly and continue to hold enormous populations of ducks.

Many people hunt the 137,000-acre Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area south of Morgan City. In the brown freshened shallows of Atchafalaya Bay, hunters bag plenty of mallards, green-winged teal, gadwalls, pintails and mottled ducks. The area also normally contains high concentrations of canvasbacks.

Despite travel restrictions in Plaquemines Parish, habitat damage and shattered infrastructure, many sportsmen still managed a few good hunts in parts of the Mississippi River delta, especially during the early season. In other places, ducks that normally winter in that area headed elsewhere. After ducks devoured the available food, they left. This year, though, hunters anticipate better opportunities in the delta.

"I flew over coastal Louisiana immediately after Katrina and several times since," Courville said. "In late May 2006, places in the Mississippi delta that had influence from fresh water out of the river looked about as good as it gets. The marshes were green with lots of aquatic plants. Places without freshwater influence really looked bad, mostly brown and dead. Any place along the coast with good fresh water flow should hold ducks this fall."

In good years, millions of birds flock to the usually-verdant marshes of the Mississippi River delta. Without access to private land, many hunters head to 48,800-acre Delta National Wildlife Refuge or 66,000-acre Pass-A-Loutre WMA, both about 30 miles downriver from Venice.

Birds that normally winter in delta marshes moved upriver to the Lake Salvador area or westward into Terrebonne Parish. The Salvador/Timken WMA in St. Charles Parish offers 34,520 acres of fresh to brackish marshes, open water and ponds near Lake Salvador southwest of New Orleans. The 33,480 acres of tidal marshes in the Pointe-aux-Chenes WMA near Houma largely escaped serious damage from either hurricane.

"Terrebonne Parish was stacked up with unbelievable numbers of ducks in late 2005," Reynolds said. "It was largely missed by both Rita and Katrina. The Lake Salvador area south into Terrebonne Parish held tremendous numbers of birds. Hunting reports were terrific."

Marshes on the east side of the Mississippi River between Venice and Delacroix probably suffered the most severe damage from Hurricane Katrina. Even here, though, sportsmen found some bright spots. The 39,583-acre Biloxi WMA near Hopedale on the south shore of Lake Borgne came out of Katrina in relatively good shape. These fresh to brackish marshes normally offer some of the best hunting in southeast Louisiana. A Mississippi River diversion project at Caernarvon freshens the marshes near Delacroix and should help improve habitat conditions east of the river.