My first Nutria hunt

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GunnyUSMC

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Jan 3, 2012
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Denham Springs LA
A while back, I had the pleasure of meeting one of our forum members, Bull Nutria. Bull is a great guy. Around the end of last year Bull offered to take me Nutria hunting in January. Well, things got delayed due to the Atchaflaya river being low and the marshes having extreme low water, which would have made it unable to get to where the Nutria were.:(
Well Saturday, 03/20/21, I got a text from Bull that the river was up and he had a hunt planed for Monday 03/22/21 and wanted to know if I was able to go. Bull did advise to dress warm because, it was going to be cold and we might get wet.
Well, being retired gives me plenty of time to do whatever I want so I let Bull know that I was good to go. After a few texts we had things worked out and I would meet him at Bayou Black Marine in Gibson LA. At 08:30 on Monday.
To let y’all know, Bayou Black Marina is Close to 90 miles south of my house and I haven’t been down in that direction in a long time. But then we have Google map.:)

Monday morning I hit the road at 6:15 and headed south.
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Other then a few wrong turns the trip was pretty smooth until I got to Bayou L’Oruse. That’s when I lost internet service and directions to Bayou Black Marine. I gave Bull a call and he said he was in no rush and would wait for me. I was able to pull up a map of the area and navigated my way to Bull.
Once at the landing we loaded up and headed out in Bull’s mud boat along with his dog Bonne. Once we reached the hunting area we went over a few things to make sure we had a good safe hunt.
For guns I brought a Ruger 1022 and a Remington 597, and my Glock 44 for a side arm. I ended up using the Remington because it has a 3-9 scope on it. Most of my shooting was done on 3X.
Before I go any further with the tails of this adventure, I have to let you know, I was cold, wet, got a little muddy and had to shear a seat with a wet dog named Bonne, and I had the time of my life. :D
Bull let me do most of the shooting. I can’t say that I started off all that great. It was my first time shooting from a boat, but as the day went by, I think I got better, but I’ll let Bull be the grudge of that.
Here are some pics.
There were plenty of gators, here’s one of the small ones. F69D1877-E266-412F-8099-BBE3927D42AC.jpeg
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Here’s Bonne retrieving a nutria. She had the hardest job.
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Here’s some of the nutria.
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Here’s Bull cutting off the tails.
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Me and Bonne, my new friend.
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And here’s one of me and Bull.
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We ended up getting 32 Nutria. I really want to thank Bull for a wonderful hunt and a great day.
We did meet up with a friend of Bull’s. That guy is one hell of a shot and a great hunter. He got 112 nutria .
 
Not bad, not bad at all!
Sounds like a great trip. I used to shoot nutria from a boat with a .22 back in the '60's in SE Texas.
Fun stuff.
 
Kudos to bonne. Not sure of how much nutria bounty is but he sure deserves a better cut of meat than nutria. With a labs drive they are one of the few dogs that could tough that out.
 
I love So. La. and especially the residents. After Katrina I donated a generator to a fellow duck hunter on line. He invited me to come hunt with him for a few years. We had a great time and almost made ducks extinct in S. Mississippi and Louisiana. ;)

We both had retrievers and Jay was a fantastic cook. Boudin and jambalaya along with crawfish are all better than filet mignon IMO.

Thanks Bull for keeping the tradition going. :thumbup:
 
A) I had to look up the animal to see what it actually is
B) It appears as if it is decent meat

I've eaten capivari several times in restaurants in Brazil and found it tasty. I also have a very nice set of capivari hide gloves and a capivari hide weekend bag given to me by former employees when I left a Latin America job.
 
I've eaten capivari several times in restaurants in Brazil and found it tasty. I also have a very nice set of capivari hide gloves and a capivari hide weekend bag given to me by former employees when I left a Latin America job.

All You Need to Know About the Now-Common Capybara
https://www.mccallservice.com/blog/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-now-common-capybara/

Status of Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris Rodentia: Hydrochaeridae) and Potential for Establishment in Florida
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw438


Come on down to Florida and take as many as you want.
 
It's great to hear from you again and about your retirement FUN! Is that an air boat or a propeller driven boat? Traveling thru the "quicksand" looks like you'd need an air boat. Think I'da shot the alligator for the hide tho. :) Thank you for the story and pictures.
 
Cool hunt, and great friends, both Bull and Bonne.
My wife spent time in the bayou country after Hurricane Rita from Lake Charles south (and lots of time with Katrina) as part of the National Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team. (DMORT) She saw a lot of those guys and learned from the locals how destructive they are.
 
Excellent post
Excellent pics
Excellent story
I hope you guys drained a couple of Busch Lights after the hunt.

(The official beer of nutria hunters)
We shot the bull for a little after the hunt. Bull had a special date to go to and I haven’t drank since I had cancer. And I also had an hour and a half drive back to the house.
Oh! I did get something else while on the hunt, sunburn on my face. :)
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It's great to hear from you again and about your retirement FUN! Is that an air boat or a propeller driven boat? Traveling thru the "quicksand" looks like you'd need an air boat. Think I'da shot the alligator for the hide tho. :) Thank you for the story and pictures.
You need tags for hunting gators.
Here’s a pic of a mud boat like Bull’s.
FF7FA9B7-FC71-4CDB-A286-636724969156.jpeg
 
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