NEUTRAL GROUND
The bottomlands just below the saltwater line on the middle coast in the Atchafalaya Basin and extending slightly west and eastward are worth mentioning here as being a sort of waterfowling Switzerland -- neutral ground. The hunting here is quite different from that on the rest of the coast.

Mallards and gadwalls also frequent the flooded timber, and hunters able to identify open areas within the timber and set up a good decoy spread along with an automated decoy like a Mojo duck can score big.

"Moving decoys are really good in the timber in the Pineywoods," Moore said. "It is not like hunting out on the open water or prairie, where ducks can see everything. Looking from the sky down through the trees, they have a limited view, so a motion decoy is important. It would be a good idea to have one with moving wings and some feeders down as well."

Moore is also a big believer in having decoys that the ducks can see. "I'm all into mixing quite a few magnums in with the standard decoys. It is all about making a good visual impression. The ducks have to see you before they have a reason to commit."

Calling is also vital, as it can be the key turning point for ducks not exactly sold on the decoys. "If you have mallards and gadwall around, call, call and call again," Moore insisted. "You can bring both in fairly easily if you are using motion decoys. Have a good facemask or paint on and good camouflage that match your surrounding. Gadwalls in particular will light like crazy if you can speak the language using this strategy."

THE EAST The eastern coastal area has an almost overwhelming amount of opportunity for waterfowlers.

"The hunting down here can just get silly-good," said veteran waterfowler Kirk Lamont of New Orleans. "Once you get down past the Big Easy there is so much water and marsh it's almost hard to digest. We have the habitat here even after Katrina to draw in the ducks and our hunting is without a doubt the best in the state. The marshes around Venice and Lafitte are untouchable as far as I'm concerned."

According to Lamont, one problem with the area is access, as the shallowness of the bays make access to some of them problematic; major cold fronts compound this by turning skinny water into mudflats. The boats of choice here are airboats, which are loud and obtrusive but allow hunters to get into the hard to reach areas like freshwater ponds in the marshes and lightly pressured zones that hold the most birds.

"Airboats are great," he said, "but I prefer mudboats -- but that's another whole area of debate right there. Let's just say you need a boat that can get you across the mud in the really, really nasty stuff. Which we have plenty of."

The secret to bagging ducks here is to think big. A decoy spread in a marsh pond might consist of two dozen. On open water, the starting number is six dozen; some hunters put out as many as 200. Joe James knows more about open-water duck hunting than anyone I have met. He spent 20 years hunting ducks in the open waters around the country and is a big believer in putting out lots of decoys.

"If you're putting out anything less than 100, you're cheating yourself," James said. "Ducks congregate in big numbers on open water, especially redheads and bluebills (scaup). You have to mimic nature to get nature to cooperate with you, and that means going through the trouble of putting out a bunch of decoys."

James also believes that when it comes to decoys, bigger is truly better. Besides mimicking nature, you have to get the duck's attention, and using big decoys is a way to do that.

Some hunters mix in a half dozen or so snow goose imitations to help draw attention, particularly later in the season. "This time of year, ducks are showing all of their colors," James said. "There is a lot of white out there in the sky, and it seems to be seen at greater distances."