Duck Season Opens in Cocodrie a Week Before Thibodaux. U.S. 90 Is the Reason.

A hunter launching out of Cocodrie this Saturday, November 14, will be on the first day of the regular duck season. A friend in Thibodaux, about 45 minutes up the road, gets a youth and veterans day that Saturday and has to wait one more week for the general opener. Both of them get the same 60 days. They spend them on different schedules, and a federal highway sets the boundary between the two.

That boundary also explains why Cocodrie's season closes a week earlier, why the mottled duck rule lands on Thanksgiving week here, and why the December break looks the same in both places.

The line between the zones is U.S. 90

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries splits the state into two waterfowl zones. The 2026-2027 Louisiana Hunting Regulations define them this way:

West: That portion of the state between the Texas State line and the line going south on LA Hwy 79 from the Arkansas border to Homer; then south on LA 9 to Arcadia; then south on LA 147 to Hodge; then south on US 167 to Lafayette; then south and east on US Hwy 90 to the Mississippi state line. East: Remainder of state.

Follow that line on a map. It comes down from Arkansas to Lafayette, then turns and runs along U.S. 90 to the Mississippi border. All the coast below U.S. 90 falls on the west side of the line, and that includes Cocodrie, Chauvin, Montegut and the Pointe-aux-Chenes marsh. Thibodaux sits north of the highway, so it hunts on the East Zone calendar.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development notes that the stretch of U.S. 90 from LA 1 at Raceland to LA 311 at Schriever runs through both Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. Your parish doesn't decide your duck calendar. Your side of the highway does.

None of this is new. In August 2025 the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission adopted this two-zone boundary for the 2026-27 through 2029-30 seasons and said the zones "will be the same as the previous five seasons." The calendar you learn this year holds through the 2029-30 season.

Same 60 days, weighted differently

LDWF's November 5 season announcement says the 2026-27 season starts in the West Zone with a youth and veterans hunt on November 7, and the regular season follows on November 14. The East Zone starts a week behind.

Count the days and both zones come to 60. The West Zone gets 23 of them before the December break and 37 after it. The East Zone gets 16 before the break and 44 after. Cocodrie's season leans toward Thanksgiving and early December, and Thibodaux's leans toward late January. A family with a camp down LA 56 and relatives up in Lafourche has a week each fall when only the West Zone's regular season is open, and another week each winter when only the East Zone's is.

Both zones break on the same days, December 7 through 18, and come back together on December 19.

The mottled duck rule starts with the opener

For a hunter in the coastal marsh, the bag limit rules that matter most are the ones tied to the start of the season. The 2026-27 pamphlet sets the daily duck limit at six. That can include no more than four mallards with no more than two females, three wood ducks, two canvasbacks, two redheads, one black duck and three pintails with no more than one female. Those mallard, canvasback and pintail numbers are the same as last season.

Two species follow their own clock:

1. Mottled ducks: none may be taken for the first 15 days of the season, then one per day for the rest of it.
2. Scaup: one per day for the first 15 days, then two per day.

The zone decides when that window opens. Counting from a November 14 opener, the West Zone's first 15 days run through November 28, which takes in the Thanksgiving weekend. The East Zone's window starts a week later. Youth and veterans days have their own version of the rule. The pamphlet allows no mottled ducks and one scaup on those days when they come before the regular season, and one mottled duck and two scaup when they come after it.

There may also be more mottled ducks around than last year. LDWF's September 2026 aerial survey of the coastal zone below U.S. 90, flown September 13 to 15, estimated 16,000 mottled ducks. That's 60% more than in September 2025, and 10,000 of them were counted in the southeast region. The same survey counted 73,000 blue-winged teal, which is 28% below September 2025. LDWF called the September tables preliminary and said missing observer data left the southwest and overall estimates incomplete, so treat the counts as early-season estimates.

Pointe-aux-Chenes runs on the outside calendar

Pointe-aux-Chenes Wildlife Management Area covers 35,267 acres about 15 miles southeast of Houma, off Hwy 665. It's also the public duck ground closest to Cocodrie. LDWF notes that the interior is mostly reachable only by boat, with launches on Island Road and on Highway 665 south of the headquarters area.

For waterfowl, the WMA schedule reads "Same as outside." The marsh south of U.S. 90 follows the same West Zone dates as the rest of lower Terrebonne. Here are the other rules the pamphlet lists for the area:

• A self-clearing permit is required for all activities on the WMA.
• Permits are available at the Island Road Boat Launch, Grand Bayou Boat Launch, the WMA Campground/Pirogue Launch, Pointe Aux Chene Marina, Bayou Blue Boat Launch, and the Point Farm gate behind Montegut Middle School. You can also get one through the LDWF self-clearing permit app or web portal.
• Hunters may enter no earlier than 4 a.m. and must check out and leave no later than two hours after sunset.
• Beagles are prohibited from October through the last day of waterfowl season.

LDWF's season announcement adds that every WMA visitor needs a WMA Access Permit, a Senior Hunting/Fishing License, a Louisiana Sportsman's Paradise License or a Lifetime Hunting/Fishing License, unless the visitor is 17 or younger. It also lists the license basics for everyone else. Waterfowl hunters 16 and older need a Federal Duck Stamp, and hunters 18 and older need a basic hunting license and HIP certification.

The December break still has seasons running

On the statewide schedule, the Conservation Order for light geese runs December 7 through 18 in both zones, with no bag or possession limit. King and clapper rails, sora and Virginia rails, and gallinules stay open from November 7 through January 6.

On Pointe-aux-Chenes, a bucks-only deer shotgun season opens the day after the first duck segment closes and runs for seven days. On the West Zone calendar, that puts it in the same December stretch.

The road to the launch has its own schedule

For most Cocodrie camp owners, every one of those dates starts with a drive down LA 56 and over the Boudreaux Canal Bridge. In September, Houma Times reported that the replacement was moving forward as a project of about $56 million.

DOTD pushed the bid opening from October 14 to its October 21 letting. On the official bid results, Sealevel Construction Inc. of Thibodaux was the apparent low bidder at $61,365,635.20, compared with an engineer's estimate of $52,386,019.93. The listed work includes removing the old bridge, building a new swing span bridge and a bridge operator house, and temporary detour road work.

In its September announcement, DOTD said construction scheduling and traffic impact details would come after bid opening and contract award. Those details will show which part of a future season the construction overlaps. If the replacement work lines up with a busy stretch of fall, the West Zone calendar puts the pressure on November and early December.

This post is general information about published hunting rules, not legal advice. Before you head out, check the current LDWF regulations and confirm what licenses and permits you need.

For a camp in lower Terrebonne, the duck calendar comes with the address, because it depends on which side of U.S. 90 the property sits on. If you're thinking about buying or selling a camp down LA 56, our local team can talk you through it, from the launch to the last day of January.