Oysters a tasty alternative with duck, deer season continuing to disappoint

This is the week all hunters hate to have arrived.

It is the final week for the west zone of duck season, which closes on Jan. 24. The east zone will close one week later on Jan. 31.

According to Kirby Gomez, there aren’t too many ducks in the Salvador Management Area, but a hunter can still knock out some poule dos and coots.

“If a hunter doesn’t mind shooting poule dos and coots, you can have a blast.”

Russell Loupe of Des Allemand is also disappointed in the duck season this year.  Let’s keep hoping for next year.

Deer hunters have until this Jan. 24 with rifles and primitive arms will continue to be open from Jan. 25 to Jan. 31.

Archery will stay open until Feb. 15th.

The art of opening oysters

With the deer, ducks and hogs being uncooperative and becoming burnt-out on hunting, a group of neighborhood friends decided to get together.

On Saturday, with a sack of oysters and the Saints on TV, neighbors Gary and Ella Brasher, cousin John Brady, wife Gretchen, and friend Kevin Hebert spent the afternoon dining on grilled and raw oysters.

The Saint plucked the Cardinals and the afternoon turned out wonderful.

The art of opening oysters is really simple.  First, buy a sack and set them up on a table high enough so one can apply leverage and power to open oyster shells with an oyster knife. Use a board to keep the oysters from sliding and have a trey setup with a bowl, Louisiana or Crystal hot sauce, some crackers, a beverage and a towel to keep the oyster knife clean.

I like to wear a tough leather glove on my left hand. This enables you to handle the rough oyster shells and protect your hand if the knife slips.

Take an oyster out and place it on the board.  Find the crease between the heavy thick shelled sides of the oyster.  Place the oyster knife between the two halves as far as you can and twist the two halves apart.

Sounds easy, until you get an oyster with small creases.  It takes a lot of force from your forearms, so you may wake up the next day with sore arms.  The work is worth its weight in oysters.  A dream come true for the salty treat from the Gulf waters.  My favorite is raw on a cracker and hot sauce with a beverage.

Most savor the oyster po-boy.  But a local restaurant has made the grilling of oysters a big time favorite.

Sac-a-laits

A good report from Des Allemands last week came from Mike Collins of Hahnville.  He caught 25 nice slabs fishing around the pilings at 12 feet deep.  He was using the black/chartreuse, blue/white, & black/ white mini-jigs.  The water was flowing out or to the south.  He also caught some real nice catfish using worms on the bottom.