CLAYTON – Michael Stoute of Youngsville and his young son, Vincent, savored the moments after the boy killed his first deer. They were standing in the general area of the elder hunter’s most significant hunting achievements.
“Matter of fact, where Vincent shot his deer is the same property where I shot my first deer on a lease near Clayton in Catahoula Parish. It was a doe,” Michael Stoute said a few weeks after the father-and-son deer hunt Dec. 31 in Area I. “My trophy buck came off that property as well, a 12-point that scored 142 2/8. I do have it mounted, I surely do. It sits in my office.”
The 36-year-old New Iberia native had a few flashbacks of his first deer 18 years ago and his biggest deer ever shot in 2012 while he and his son stood with friends around the freshly killed doe on the final day of 2025. Vincent, 10, has hunted deer the past three years and almost every weekend this season.
Stoute said they have seen only button bucks and does this season with no opportunities for a shot at a mature deer, including during a recent hunt on the back side of Grand Avoyelles Cove. He noted his son doesn’t want to pull the trigger on young deer…