During the first split of duck season, we usually have to keep an eye out for gators. I usually hunt the bay at the mouth of the Calumet Cut, an area called The Wax.
For the past week, if you wet a hook half way down the cut, just past the Intercoastal, your going to hook up with a bull shark. Up to about seven footers.
I guess maybe I wont take the dogs till the second split.

That adds an interesting variable to the hunt......

We hunted Lake Okeechobee in Florida with damn gators all around us...no way in hell I would use a dog with gators swimming around....much less sharks.

Now is the water brackish ? or are the sharks coming into fresh water ?

The sharks are in fresh water, about 6 to 7 miles up river from the bay. They might be there right now because it seems redfish are every where. I'm sure they go where the food is. Bull sharks have been known to get into the Atchafalaya basin about 20 miles north of the bay.
No one takes dogs during teal season. At least by the the first split it usually cools off enough, but you still have to keep an eye out for a gator.
For the last 25 years you could only get tags if you were a land owner. They have gotten out of hand lately. The last 2 years the state has had a lottery where anyone could apply for tags.
The gator farmers are required to release a certain amount back into the wild. So now you have gators that have grown up being hand feed, back in the wild, coming up to your boat looking for a handout.