Angling for the news

By: HEATHER
BOGARD
Associate Editor

Louisiana State Newspapers Editor Claudette Olivier grew up on her dad’s rice farm in L’Anse aux Pailles and comes from a long line of hunter-farmers. She says, “I ‘farm’ now, but just on paper.” Her family history of farming and hunting dates “probably so far back I’ll never be able to track it, but at least five generations on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family,” she notes.
Olivier shares, “I was in the duck blind with my dad at about eight years old, and I killed my first duck at 11. My late father, Craig, and my late grandfather, Leroy, both hunted. Leroy purchased my brother, the first grandson, a gun that was later my first gun.” She continues, “I know my great-grandfather, Claude Rozas, my namesake, hunted as well because I have one of his guns, an old double barrel shotgun. I’m fairly certain his father, Mayo, hunted as well because he farmed in and near Chataignier, too.
“My grandfather,” Olivier said, “had stopped hunting before I got in the blind, but my special memory of hunting with my dad was the last trip we ever took together, dove hunting on Christmas morning. Since his passing, I use my dad’s 12 gauge Belgian-made Browning Gold Hunter, so when I hunt, he’s ‘there’ with me. We didn’t have any traditions for hunting or fishing, but I still have all of my dad’s hunting gear, down to the duck decoys and his first gun he purchased himself, a 16 gauge Remington Sportsman 58, also known as a dial-a-duck because of the different gas ports for hi and low brass ammunition.”
Olivier’s dad always fished, mostly freshwater, and the children often fished private ponds with him. She remembers, “For a while, we owned a boat and fished Toledo Bend and Chicot State Park, but I think my dad sold the boat, likely because I remember us always having problems with it.” I didn’t go on my first saltwater fishing trip until I became the outdoor reporter at the American Press, and after fighting a 30 pound black drum for 15 minutes on that trip, I was officially “hooked” on fishing. Since then, I’ve done inshore and offshore saltwater fishing as well as freshwater fishing, and I also bowfish. I caught an 8 pound bass in Toledo Bend in 2009, and I had it mounted since it’s probably the biggest bass I’ll ever catch in my life. As far as saltwater goes, I love chasing bull reds along the coast in the fall, and the biggest redfish I’ve ever caught was about 20-25 pounds.
While she was raised to hunt ducks, geese, doves and rabbits, Olivier fell in love with squirrel hunting a few years ago. She admits, “ I love the camaraderie in the waterfowl blind, but I love the quiet of sitting under a tree looking for tree shakers. I love shooting guns and honing my skills. To be a hunter takes practice and dedication, and it teaches me to exercise my patience, which I tend not to always have. I think hunting and fishing can teach a person a lot about life skills, and often those skills can be used in other parts of life. Above all, I love to be outside. It’s where I find peace in my life and to be outside is pretty much all I’ve ever known. If the weather is nice outside, I’m outside, doing something. I only go on all day clothes shopping trips if the weather forecast calls for rain all day.”
Olivier is a graduate of Chataignier High School and McNeese State University, where she graduated in the top 10 percent of her entire graduating class of about 700 graduates. After graduations, she recalls, “I took myself and my two degrees on down to the Lake Charles paper, the American Press. I cut my teeth in the newspaper business there, where I was the paper’s first female outdoor reporter. About six years later, I moved to Houma and was the first female outdoor reporter a the Tri-Parish Times newspaper, and I also led their outdoor publication, Cajun Sportsman. I joined Louisiana State Newspapers in September 2014 as a reporter at the Eunice News, and that year’s outdoor section, which I contributed to, won third place for best special section in the paper’s division of the Louisiana Press Association’s yearly contest. In addition to the Eunice News, I have also worked at other LSN publications, the Church Point News and The Ville Platte Gazette. I am currently editor of The Church Point News and news editor at the Crowley Post-Signal. I have covered and continue to cover the outdoor beat at each of these LSN publications.”
Oliver fell into covering the outdoors news while at the American Press because, “All of the other reporters at the American Press had grown up in larger cities and weren’t quite ‘country’ like me. When my executive editor there asked if I hunted and fished and I replied in the affirmative, I had the job.” She adds, “My dad (when he found out about the job) exclaimed, ‘Someone is paying you to hunt and fish? Where was that job when I finished college?’” She adds, “I’ve had so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences in this line of work, experiences most people will never get to have, and for that, I am so very thankful. I mean, whose job tells them to get open waterscuba certified so they can cover a spearfishing tournament in the Gulf of Mexico? Mine did.”
Olivier lived in North Dakota for six months, from September 2021 to February 2022, and says, “I saw people ice fishing in their little fishing shacks, and there were deer and pheasants everywhere. I was warned about being cautious when driving at night because hitting deer is pretty common there. For pheasants, the warning was to slow down when you saw one, because if you see one, more were going to follow. There, walleye seemed to be the most popular fish to catch as opposed to bass here in Louisiana.” She shares, “A guy I was dating when I lived there took me to brunch in Bismarck on our first date, then to “the” sporting goods store Sheels (think if Bass Pro\Cabelas had a baby with Academy), where we wandered around for hours. He showed me all the northern hunting and fishing gear (I even got myself a little walleye kit). Then we went to shoot at an indoor gun range. It was definitely what I would consider a great date. I got to be the hunter and the lady at the same time. The guy is a former Marine and deep into deer hunting, and we still talk for hours about hunting and fishing and trade pictures.”
Olivier has hunted from Sabine Lake to Des Allemands and up into central Louisiana for more than 30 years. But, she shares her biggest trip was probably her four day deer hunting trip to Red River Wildlife Management Area. She recalls, “Being out there, basically in a pop up community of hunters, tents and campers with the hum of generators and not leaving the woods for four days, was like being in another world. We hunted, fished, battled some rain, ate like kings and queens, slept like logs and had some cocktails, sat by the fire at night and swapped hunting stories. I even caught a big catfish on a piece of deer liver while we took a break from hunting. Someone else hauled it up the bank for me, and when I got back to the campground, someone had hung it on a deer rack for all to see. I got to enjoy my 15 minutes of fame with that fish.”
Some of Olivier’s favorite areas to hunt include Thistlethwaite and Sherburne Wildlife Management areas for squirrels and duck hunting along the coast in the marsh. She enjoys fishing Calcasieu (Big) Lake, and she says, “I’ve asked my family to spread my ashes there when I’m gone.”
The oldest of seven granddaughters on her dad’s side of the family, Olivier states, “I’m pretty certain I’ve been the only one with a hunting license until just recently. One of my younger cousins just got hers, and I’m so excited to have another family member to hunt with. We wanted to dove hunt opening weekend this year, but the rain messed up those plans. We’re hoping to go on a girl’s tent camping trip to Sherburne Wildlife Management Area for squirrel season. I guess this would count as a “family tradition,” being a hunter, and I am proud to keep that tradition going. Not all girls are lucky enough to have someone to teach them to hunt. She implores gun owners to please sit their children down and teach them at least general gun safety, even if they never plan to hunt. She shares, “When I was growing up, loaded guns hung on a gun rack in my parent’s hallway. I was taught at an early age that guns are not toys and about the damage guns could do when I fired them. No one in my family has even been hurt due to improper gun safety, and no one in my family has harmed another human being due to being unsafe with a firearm.”
Olivier declares, “I will literally pass on my love of hunting and fishing on to anyone who will listen. Society seems to be a lot more ‘indoorsy’ than it used to be, among other social issues, and maybe people need to step outdoors more, even if it’s not to hunt or fish.” She urges, “Take your allergy pills like I do and head out to read a book, kayak, rock climb, what ever speaks to you, but get outside, especially away from the phone and get some fresh, humid air. Hunters and anglers are this country’s future game wardens and conservationists, and if no one is teaching the next outdoor generation to hunt and fish, who will hold these jobs in the future and who will keep the sports of hunting and fishing going?”