Feb 8 Cajun Man's Swamp tour

This is winter time down here so this tour would have been totally different a couple of months later in the season when the leaves would have been out on the trees and the alligators would have been sunning themselves on the levees. However we are here now so we were able to find some one to take us on the tour. Bob the owner of the Cajun Man Swamp tours has lived here all his life and hunted and fished this area since he was a young boy. He worked in the oil industry until he retired and then bought this business. He is so proud and appreciative of this area. He told us many hunting and fishing stories from when he was growing up. We got a glimpse of what life is like living in this area. He and his family live of the land, hunting for white tail deer, raccoons, black bears , rabbits and anything else that lives here. Alligators are hunted for about a month and he keeps 3 or 4 for his family and sells the rest. What was supposed to be a 1 1/2 hour ride ended up being a 2 1/2 hour ride just for us.  A memory of a life time.

A bald eagle

Bob our tour guide threw raw chicken parts in to the water and the eagle came down and picked up the pieces . He would grab the piece in his claws and then to his beak before going for another piece.

This is a typical swamp land as they call it. The water is only 12 to 18 inches
deep and the alligators, snakes , turtles live here

Alligator sleeping in the water

This alligator is about 9 feet and 500 or 600 lbs. Bob told us one time when he was hunting in this area he saw an alligator of about 1000 lbs grab a white tail deer, by the neck and held it under water until it drowned. It then took the deer and buried it in the levee to eat later.

Bob has a chicken leg on the end on this stick and he is calling the alligator. It eventually came within about 4 feet. It is early in the season, with in a month or so he will becoming right up to the boat.

He caught this turtle about 5 years ago. It was the 3rd largest caught in Louisiana.

This was the head of the turtle

Years ago they would float the cypress logs down these channels and then boats
would pull the logs just like they used to do in our area.

This is a capped oil well that has just been left in place once the oil well went dry.
They would pipe the oil to the oil processing location in the picture below.

A Shell oil processing plant. The oil would be shipped from here by boat to the refinery

These bayous run all over and act like a road way

Turtles sunning themselves. They are harvested for food

Bob Gasson our guide