The Campsite is our home away from home when duck hunting. This is the 2nd campsite I’ve been involved with since I’ve been duck hunting. The first campsite fell victim to the bayou shoaling up along with the ever increasing problem of coastal erosion we have here in southeast Louisiana. Joe and his brothers, who have been hunting a long time before I came along, used to camp across the bayou from the first campsite but one morning they awoke to water surrounding them and they moved across the bayou. That spot lasted several years but eventually we could not get to it anymore. Joe found a new spot just down the bayou and it’s been home for about four years now. But since the island we camp on now is off a pass coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, it is eroding quickly and one season, during a strong southern wind, we had waves lapping at the back of the camp. We did eventually have to find a new place to camp. And some hunts we stayed in a trailer in Venice. (This campsite is gone now as the island completely eroded away.)
Joe and I built this campsite. During a summer fishing trip, we made the fireplace, hauling rocks in over 90 degree heat. This Campsite was sacred to me. We spent many nights here in both good and bad weather. A couple years ago, Joe and I decided to go for a day hunt. A front blew through that evening and we decided to spend the night so we could catch the changing weather for a good hunt the next morning. With nothing but a space blanket and the fire, we spent the night under the stars. I’ll never forget it. The next day we had an excellent hunt.
One season, we came to the campsite early on Thursday for the opening of the regular season like we normally do. The weather turned nasty and for four days we got pounded by mother nature with high winds and heavy rains. A tornado hit Venice that weekend but we were unaware of it. We didn’t shoot many ducks and afterwards decided we were too old to do this anymore.
Three weeks later, Joe called me up for a Sunday hunt. So much for retiring from duck hunting. This was my favorite campsite because it looked out over the Gulf of Mexico.
