Hunters brace for final hunts of 2015-16 season

NEWSMAKERS
January 27, 2016
Longtime Vandebilt coach passes away
January 27, 2016
NEWSMAKERS
January 27, 2016
Longtime Vandebilt coach passes away
January 27, 2016

Louisiana’s 2015-2016 waterfowl season heads into the final days and weeks of what has proven to be an unpredictable season. Record-high temperatures and water levels across the state and even the northern reaches of the flyway have kept the ducks scattered and hunters scrambling.

Armond Schwing, a New Iberia–based Drake Waterfowl field expert, hunts in the Coastal Zone near Forked Island. “I know it’s been a tough season for many folks, but I’ve had some success,” he says. Part of his strategy was to hunt less, but focus his efforts on days that were more likely to produce birds. “I tried to hunt only on days where we had good conditions, and that made a difference in my season,” he explains. High concentrations of geese, primarily specklebellies, provided waterfowlers with productive hunting when ducks were scarce.

Due to an abundance of rain in Louisiana and states to the north, many river systems are experiencing flood conditions. The coastal marshes have endured unusually high tidal conditions throughout the season, and the ducks have more habitat available and are less concentrated. “The birds had options, and as soon as they were pressured, they were able to move to areas that are not traditionally hunted,” Schwing says.


Although he hadn’t yet crunched the latest numbers, Louisiana Waterfowl Study leader Larry Reynolds offers this report. “With the exception of the Delacroix area, we saw fewer birds in January than we did in December,” he says. Reynolds acknowledged that there is so much water—in so many places across the state—that some birds may be in areas that the surveys do not cover. “I was surprised to see fewer ducks in so many places, but happy to see the increase in Delacroix,” he adds.

High water also caused the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to cancel the last two lottery waterfowl hunts on the Sherburne Wildlife Management Area (WMA) South Farm Unit. Extensive backwater flooding on the site caused safety concerns due to high water.

Drake Waterfowl field expert Lane Stephenson knows firsthand that Louisiana isn’t the only state to experience tough duck hunting this season. Stephenson, who lives in Shreveport, hunts in northwest Louisiana but says he has pursued waterfowl in Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma with pretty much the same results. “It has been a tough year everywhere. The water has been high, and so has the temperature. We’ve had some good hunts, but it’s nothing like last year,” he says.


Based on reports of other hunters he’s in contact with, Stephenson says that many prized private areas have also experienced slow hunting. “From Gueydan to the Arkansas border, it’s been slow. We’re going to tough it out for the remainder of the season. It’s what we do,” he says.

Louisiana is certainly not without ducks, and many waterfowlers have experienced good hunting. But favorable habitat conditions up north have meant fewer ducks in the Pelican State. “It’s just one of those years,” Reynolds says. •