De La Houssaye's Swamp Tours

I began doing my Louisiana Swamp Tours into America's largest river basin swamp, which is the Atchafalya Basin, in 1984, as an amateur guide for my photographer friends. Then in 1985, I was mostly a passenger on my first official Atchafalaya swamp tour and it was co-guided by my good friend and inspiration Louis Choplin. We went into the interior of the swamp in his small commericial fishing boat. What Louis did for us that day was so perfect, that is how I am still doing it today. My photographer friend, Monty Orr, wanted to take pictures of the swamp and we hired Louis to guide us into areas I was not familiar with. Soon after, I built the houseboat and then Louis Choplin and Greg Guirrard were referring people to me for swamp tours. I took my guests to the places I knew so well as a fisherman. Gradually, I phased out the fishing and became a fulltime tour guide. Every de la Houssaye's swamp tour is guided by me personally in a 20 ft. long, 7 ft. wide, heavy-duty aluminum, flat-bottomed skiff powered by a 25 hp Yamaha outboard motor. My Louisiana swamp tour boat is specially-designed for getting into the shallow, flooded Bald Cypress forest, and the densely vegetated interior of the swamp. This boat is locally referred to as a "crawfish skiff". Harvesting crawfish from the natural areas of Louisiana is unique to our state. It is an activity which spans the broad variety of culture in South Louisiana with many of today's fishermen being second or third generation. My Louisiana swamp tour boat is an authentic Cajun fishing boat that has been outfitted with comfortable padded seats and backrests allowing you to experience my Louisiana swamp tour from the perspective of an everyday crawfishing trip. Born on the banks of the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, I grew up hunting and fishing the swamps and marshlands of South Central Louisiana with my father.  I have lived on a houseboat in the Atchafalaya Basin for ten years, conducting tours and guiding fishing trips through a variety of swamps and marshland areas.  I was a commercial fisherman when I became a tour guide.  I continue to drive the swamps today, the same way I did as a commercial fisherman in pursuit of crawfish.  I will take you where other boats cannot go.  In order to share my appreciation of the unique wilderness areas of Louisiana I am guiding tours into the Cypress Island Swamp, which is the most wildlife-intensive wilderness I have ever visited.  I also guide custom tours into the Atchafalaya Basin and saltwater fishing trips into select marshland areas.