Al Guidry, A Lafayette Photographer And Friend Of Lake Martin

My friendship with Al began after he sent me the picture below of me guiding a tour at Lake Martin earlier this year. Al has granted me permission to publish his work here for your enjoyment. Most of these photos were taken from Rookery Road and are an excellent example of your opportunity to capture nature photographically if you visit me to join one of my Louisiana swamp tours. You can call my cell phone at 337 298 2630 to make a reservation and book a tour with me, Marcus de la Houssaye. I am the man who pioneered the small boat tours that are the most interesting and sought after swamp tours in Louisiana today.






I strongly recommend reservaations as there is no reception area, or a storefront for you to walk into when you arrive. I am a one man business operating from a public boat landing in a wilderness and without calling to make a reservation, you cannot know my schedule or the availability of seating for a tour. Please give me a call on my cell phone before coming out to the landing so we can coordinate directions and scheduling.





You can also link to my Louisiana Swamp Tour blog to see other photographers work at Lake Martin.

The Gulf Oil Spill isn't over!

Accomodations On The Atchafalaya River

On the banks of the Atchafalaya River, is an interesting town surrounded by the largest river basin swamp in North America.

If you have ever wanted to spend the night on a houseboat,



or visit a wilderness area with hundreds of species of migratory birds,



and hunting and fishing oportunities on everyside,


this may be the place for you.

Hiking trails, paddling trails,





swamp tours,




birdwatching, nature-study,

photography, eat exotic foods like fresh caught, boiled crawfish,

honky tonk dance halls, all of these are in the Butte La Rose area.




And if you just want to get away from it all in a quiet, peaceful, wilderness area with modern comforts...Let me show you something.



Butte La Rose is primarily weekend hunting and fishing camps, but some people are permanent residents and have built some impressive and comfortable accomodations.




I have several homes being offered year round as a weekend get-aways in My Wild Louisiana.

Jeanne's Camp for instance is for our visiting guests who want to "rough it" in the wild comfortably.


The outdoor dining area,




complete with full kitchen and downstairs bathroom.



The view from the outdoor dining area.




The view from the upstairs back porch as seen above, stirs my heart, because I have so many fond and very early memories of my travels on the Atchafalaya River as a young boy.

Coming in from the backporch, the main kitchen upstairs offers marble countertops,



is spacious and well organized with

.
a Jenn Air stove,




and adjoins the living room.


The living room



and dining area




are all under a cathedral ceiling.



As cozy and inviting as the living room is, I am in awe of the porches.



Upstairs,



and downstairs both are in full view of the Atchafalaya River, and open to the expanse of wilderness and wide-open spaces, evident everywhere you go in Butte La Rose.

Jeanne's camp is available for lease with or without live-in cook for 2 nights minimum.

Cost is $1,500 per night and discounts are available for full week and monthly leases are also an option. Of course the longer you stay, the better the daily rate.

I have several other smaller camps for less money and they will be featured as soon as I can get them posted.

You can call me @ 337 298 2630 if you would like to discuss my hosting a Louisiana Experience weekend for you, your group or family. You name your adventure and I will make it happen. I can arrange transportation, food, attractions, with music, dancing, gambling, art galleries, antique shopping, plantation homes, museums, festivals, hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, camping.

You tell me what you want!

The Last Fishing Trip Of Summer

A painting by Elmore Morgan Jr.



I make a living as a swamp tour guide, and share the wildlife and natural beauty of our Louisiana swamps with tourists, but sometimes, I like a change of scenery.






Friday September 10, 2010

My fishing buddy calls me last minute to join him the next morning to fish for redfish in Vermilion Bay. My reply; "Of course!"

In retrospect, I realize it is a perfect way spend the day, nine years after 9/11/2001.




Saturday September 11, 2010
The day starts out at Cypremort Point in dim lit dawn.
Flat-bottomed clouds hang over the bay at about 500-600 foot altitude.


The high tide is peaking as we arrive in the public boat landing, as you can see in the photo above and the best fishing is almost always on a falling or out going tide.



It isn't long and we are pulling away from the boat landing...



and as we approach the bay, I again notice that the clouds are very interesting.




Then out into the bay, on our way to Shark Bayou.




I love mornings like this.






And it is not long before we are wetting a line.




And then the Cajun Navy passes us by...



and I continue to be infatuated with the popcorn shaped clouds.



At some point, I begin to reflect upon the horizontal imagery in Elmore Morgan Jr.'s art.



Maybe it was because he was being honored that night in Lafayette for the monthly, Second Saturday, artwalk in the downtown galleries and restaurants.

Elmore on the coastal prairie, painting a horizon filled with pink, popcorn shaped clouds.

Or perhaps he was out here with us in the spirit, enjoying the expansive clouded horizontal landscapes, he was so famous for painting during his life.




Either way, it was not long and we were leaving Shark Bayou behind and heading out into Weeks Bay.





And once again as the golden sun warmed up the landscape, Elmore and the inspiration he brought to so many young artists at ULL, was on my mind. The landscape, the clouds, and the morning light, seemed so surreal.



As we drove along this shoreline where the photo above was taken, I remembered about water skiing in this very location when I was a just a little more than a toddler, with my mom and dad a half a century ago, and little did I know in just a few days she would leave us and go to be with my dad.

Emilie Lampman Delahoussaye Rapp March 7, 1937 - September 15, 2010




From there we went into the trashpile,



and out to the point in Weeks Bay,



and then off towards Blue Point



Oh those horizontal lines and the popcorn shaped clouds that just seemed to linger lazily in the stillness of early morning.




Ed's little Lab puppy always eager and curious.



We had no luck anywhere in Weeks Bay so we headed south to Marsh Island.



As we rounded Cypremort Point, the sun was still just barely off the horizon.



Then as we entered Bird Island Bayou...



there was those popcorn shaped clouds again!



The game warden camp on Marsh Island is a place that always reminds me of some of my earliest memories on the water with my mom and dad.



We wind our way down the bayou and before long, we are catching our live bait at the first dam.



And so are several other boats...



As we leave the dam and come back into the bayou a couple of guys are anchored over the mudflat and casting out into the channel, and they are landing fish!



So we stop right there about a 100 yards from them and we start catching too!



Then my friends who were also cast netting at the dam came out and they anchored off the channel and they started casting out.



It wasn't long and Ed landed a huge Black Drum which dwarfed a 60qt. ice chest as you can see below.



Along with the drum and an assortment of smaller fish, we caught 9 fine, legal size redfish.

But, along with some really nice photos, and a nostalgic treasure hunt of my youth, we also brought home a surprize we did not discover until we parked Ed's boat in the driveway.


On the bottom of his hull, was a brown scum, and when we rubbed it with our fingers and felt it, between the thumb and forefinger, it felt just like motor oil, the feeling was smooth and lubricated.



It would appear the dispersant is doing its job and the BP oil spill has made its way 200 miles west of the spill site and is in Marsh Island.

Too bad we can't make BP pay to clean our boat, much less pay to clean up the largest barrier island and most pristine, until recently, unpolluted wildlife refuge in the state of Louisiana.