DELACROIX, La. — Teal hunting in south Louisiana in the month of September requires certain things you need in order to be successful.
"Bring a lot of bug spray," said Captain Jimmy Corley of Waterfowl Specialist Charters.
There's other things you have to deal with - alligators.
"Hopefully you hurry up, shoot your birds, pick 'em up cause if not the alligators are going to have them on a buffet," he said. "They are going to eat all your ducks. You can't bring a dog, they'll eat your dog up. This morning we've seen at least 20."
Now through September 29, only teal are legal to take, so identifying other species is critical.
"Wood ducks look just like hen teal, female wood ducks look just like a teal. You definitely have to identify your ducks before you pull the trigger," Corley said.
"We have our tree ducks, black bellied whistling ducks, we have plenty of them right now. Make sure you don't shoot none of them. Mottled ducks, the mottled ducks are all over the place but you can tell a teal from a mottled duck - one's flying fast one's flying slow. They're not hard to identify."
"Your teal are going to come in real quick so I would definitely lead about an inch to two inches in front of their beak and try to get a good shot and that's at thirty to thirty-five yard shot," he added.
"My number one bird, I'll give away the gadwalls and keep all the teal. I like cooking them, I like eating them I like shooting them. That's my favorite duck to eat, a bluewinged teal."
And there's one more thing every teal hunter looks for: a September cold front.