The hunting Ludeaus

By: TONY MARKS
Editor

With the ever increasing hustle and bustle of people’s day-to-day lives, there is less time to reconnect with a person’s loved ones and, more importantly, with nature. A positive side effect, if you will, is the time spent together becomes more precious and more valuable.
Take into account a local family, the Ludeaus. With daily demands bearing down, they still take time to come together for the opening weekend of teal season. According to Christopher, the usual suspects of himself, Jesse Ludeau, Jay Ludeau, Lawrence Ludeau, and Gene Roberie converge on a camp located on J.L. Ludeau’s property near Hubbard Lake in the Clearwater area of Evangeline Parish.
“We go there every opening weekend,” Christopher said. “We cook and cutup on Friday night, and, then Saturday, we go to the rice fields that are actually located behind my current house off the Chicot Park Road. That’s where we go teal hunt.”
He continued, “We probably tell the same 10 stories every year, but we love to tell them every time. It was particularly important for us this year because dad (Jesse) got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and liver cancer this year, so it makes hunting season that much more special and important to us.”
For Christopher, hunting is so enjoyable because of “the idea of being out there with friends and family and cutting up.”
He went on to say, “When the ducks are working, there ain’t nothing better than hunting ducks, in my opinion.”
That experience of being together makes up for the actual hunting. This year, especially, it seemed the group killed nothing but time while in the woods on opening weekend. “We didn’t kill a single teal on Saturday,” Christopher said. “I think we got two or three on Sunday.”
Ducks have always been the favored target for the hunting Ludeaus through the years, but the family, at times, also hunts squirrels. As Christopher said, “We do opening squirrel day the same way, and we hunt here and there during squirrel season. That’s what we hunt lately because the duck population is so terrible. We’ve been turning to deer hunting, but nothing beats a good duck hunt.”
For Christopher, duck and squirrel hunting are similar in terms of routine. “We go to the camp in Clearwater, and we all cook and hang out for the weekend. Squirrel is a little different because it is a little more individualistic. When the morning hunt comes, we spread out and go do our own thing, whereas, with duck, it’s a lot more camaraderie and visiting and hanging out before it’s time to start hunting.”
Regardless if the target is a duck, squirrel, or the occasional deer, hunting provides opportunities to pass family traditions down to the younger generation.
“Last year was my son’s first year to come squirrel hunting with me,” Christopher said. “That was a special moment for me and a special moment for my dad, too, because he got to show my son (Chris) how to clean a squirrel and how to cook a squirrel. That was big for my dad, and, this year, we anticipate to bring Chris for duck season this year.”
For Christopher, in general, hunting is so enjoyable for a variety of reasons. As he concluded, “The older I get, and I think it goes for a lot of hunters, the less mad I get at the animals and the more I just value the idea of hanging out with my family, reliving war stories, and just that general companionship that comes bonding over the idea that we’re going hunting.”