Preseason 2021-2022...

[Darren]

Fronts this week may get things shaken up!

[DComeaux]

Did you see this?

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) adopted a notice of intent reducing the number of farm raised alligators required to be released into the wild from 10% to 5% during its October meeting Thursday (Oct. 7) in Baton Rouge. Nuisance alligator harvest and alligator farming regulation changes were also adopted in the notice of intent by the LWFC.
The reduction of release is in response to the increased number of nests, which is surveyed each year by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). The estimate has grown from less than 10,000 in the 1970s and ‘80s to more than 60,000 in recent years. The nesting increase has produced a wild population that can be sustained with a much lower farm return rate.
To see the complete NOI, go to https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/resources ... tion-items.
For more information or to comment on the NOI, contact Jeb Linscombe at jlinscombe@wlf.la.gov or write to LDWF, 200 Dulles Dr., Lafayette, LA., 70506. Comments on the NOI will be accepted until Dec. 2, 2021.

[jrock75]

I don't believe there is any release requirement in Texas and there is certainly no shortage of them over here.

[Rick]

Did you see this?

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) adopted a notice of intent reducing the number of farm raised alligators required to be released into the wild from 10% to 5% during its October meeting Thursday (Oct. 7) in Baton Rouge. Nuisance alligator harvest and alligator farming regulation changes were also adopted in the notice of intent by the LWFC.
The reduction of release is in response to the increased number of nests, which is surveyed each year by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). The estimate has grown from less than 10,000 in the 1970s and ‘80s to more than 60,000 in recent years. The nesting increase has produced a wild population that can be sustained with a much lower farm return rate.
To see the complete NOI, go to https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/resources ... tion-items.
For more information or to comment on the NOI, contact Jeb Linscombe at jlinscombe@wlf.la.gov or write to LDWF, 200 Dulles Dr., Lafayette, LA., 70506. Comments on the NOI will be accepted until Dec. 2, 2021.

Didn't see the release, but had heard that news from a state farm release crew member who banded with us last weekend. Won't hear me complaining.

[Rick]

I don't believe there is any release requirement in Texas...

Had heard that but do not know it for fact.

[Ducaholic]

Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission Adopts NOI Requiring Licenses for Hunting Guides

Trey Iles
(225) 765-5115
riles@wlf.la.gov
For Immediate Release
Oct. 11, 2021

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission passed a Notice of Intent requiring licenses for hunting guides beginning with the 2022-23 hunting season during its October meeting Thursday in Baton Rouge. The NOI was in response to legislation passed during the 2021 session of the Louisiana legislature requiring the licenses.

The action will establish and define who needs a hunting guide license in the state.

A portion of the NOI says, “A hunting guide license is required for any person or entity who publicly represents himself to be a hunting guide or who transports, aids or provides assistance to another individual(s) in the act of taking, or attempting to take, any wildlife species for compensation on a transactional or for-hire basis. For purposes of this rule, a hunting guide license is not required for any person or entity employed or contracted by a private hunting club to provide hunting guide services exclusively for the club’s private members and its invited guests.’’

To see the complete NOI, go to https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/resources ... tion-items.

For more information or to comment on the NOI, contact Tommy Tuma at ttuma@wlf.la.gov or write to LDWF, P.O. Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA. 70898-9000. Comments will be accepted until Jan. 5, 2022.






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Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
2000 Quail Drive
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70898

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[Ducaholic]

Rick will you need a license or will the Lodge need a license?

[Rick]

That clip reads like it covers the big private entertainment club's ass while screwing the little guys' like part timers in the ass.

[Rick]

Odd to find myself conflicted about a front, but having packed the truck to hunt the deer opener in the marsh this morning, the too-strong-for-long-range-shooting gusts are a plan breaking disappointment. And no matter how many times the bug and I have gone out just to stand in them, we've heard not a speck peep. Which doesn't mean we'll not be making yet another round through Klondike rice with the sunrise with that hope.

Have heard that the Hennings have specks on their Walker farm, and Gauthiers had 14 in their Thornwell second crop a couple days ago.

[Ericdc]

That clip reads like it covers the big private entertainment club's ass while screwing the little guys' like part timers in the ass.

That's exactly how it reads to me, are you surprised though?


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[Ericdc]

about to make coffee and go watch the sunrise at the pond. May wear a long sleeve since the phone says 51 degrees.


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[Rick]

Big excitement of our "listening walk" through rice country was a potential lost blue that soon became a distant dog.

[Ericdc]

2 weeks from now I'll be in Kansas for day 1 of 5 days of waterfowling.


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[Rick]

That will put our youth season a week away and perhaps, see me cutting brush and chunking decoys.

[Darren]

Rick,

any specks yesterday? Enjoyed a few nice flights at the bunkie camp yesterday morning.

[Rick]

Still haven't seen or heard a speck.

Met the sun spent a couple hours with a deer rifle at our back blind and still can't get over what pretty broken marsh it's become after last year's spraying. Lousy deer stand - at least this morning.

Did see a couple wads of teal pass and a few woodies and mottleds drop in close to the blind and listened to one of the later "epp, epp, epp, epp..." like no duck call ever did in adult hands. Limpkins were deafening at times and once seemed to stop and listen to whoopers braying on Cherry Ridge.

Also saw a basket buck that saw me first and initially tried hiding then blew out too fast for a shot when I stopped to fertilize my canes on the way back to the truck. So it goes...

[Rick]

Banded in Big Pasture again this morning. Pack of coyotes rolled nearly everything out of the net zone once and a couple mottleds were fighting so violently we feared they'd run everything out a second, and perhaps final, time before they decided to take it elsewhere. Caught more woodies this time but only three green-wings among the teal by-catch. Also a single gray and black-belly.

Made a point of learning the "tricks" of eclipse gw teal sexing and aging, as well as woodie aging.

[Rick]

Saw my first specks (high over the town of Gueydan) this morning. More and more reported to our west, but my travels have missed them.

[Rick]

Met the sun in our marsh yesterday. Needed to poison this year's sparse crop of fourchettes at my blind - and took a rifle to the back blind, where I've most often seen deer in the past and knew I could at least watch some ducks fall in nearby. No deer, but moved quite a few ducks from the marsh we'd opened last year on the pond's east side going in. And mottleds, woodies and blue-wings dropped in there as dawn broke. For reason known only to them, few mottleds fell in on the pond's west side, where they congregated on my last watch - just a several limpkins and bec croche.

Did see a few more birds than last time, with mottleds, blue-wings, spoons, pintails and couldn't-say ducks all passing by. With the highlight being a pintail pair that floated across the front of the blind low and slow enough to have been easy targets.

Jumped next to nothing on my way out of the marsh, but did see a few crossing. Little surprised by the apparent lack of game using our more easterly ponds, and a ride down through Isaac's "honey hole" in the heart of our marsh moved exactly one hooded merganser.

Probably should mow before our predicted midday rain, but believe I'll go watch the sun come up at the mudhole this morning just to be there.

[Darren]

Sounds neat for sure. Tomorrow morning may be the one to be sitting in your blind just a-watchin' behind the front

[Rick]

Tomorrow morning may be the one to be sitting in your blind just a-watchin' behind the front

This one wasn't. Thought the wind and storm action over the deep marsh to our south might stir an interesting pot, but the mudhole wasn't near as interesting as the back blind was yesterday. Did have three woodies dip to look at the mottled decoys I left floating the Mallard Machine's bracket in its place, but nearly all of what little I saw was well south or east. Put glass on what I thought my first jack sighting of the new season only to have their light wing tops show "dos gris". But later saw a little bunch of divers swing across the big ponds south of me and put in at the west end of the broken marsh horseshoe around me and verified they were, in fact, jacks when I ran back to the back blind before heading home. (Were enough birds back there again to make me wish that's the area I'd watched.)

Did manage to get caught in a good downpour half way back to the truck.

[Darren]

Much neater than my office this morning nonetheless, even with the daily Canada goose flight into the retention ponds behind our building.

[Rick]

Well fudge. Tried another deer wait/duck watch this morning, and most anything else might have been more interesting. Went to the back blind, where I'd been seeing appreciably more ducks than at the mudhole the other day and saw but a handful more than none. Don't know where all the woodies and mottleds that had been falling in there went, do know I had but a single pair of mottleds for company, saw but one passing wad of woodies and a couple small handfulls of blue-wings until 8, when a big bunch of black-bellies gave the pond a swing before heading back to CR.

Highlight at the back blind was a single with a mottled profile but appearing too light. Tried to make her a gray by putting glass on here and saw a Susie's double white speculum bars, instead.

Stopped at the mudhole on my way out and broke up the weathered-gray wood of my boat hide and dog stand with OD exterior paint, that may or may not last longer than rattle can. Didn't see a bird there, but did bump a couple little wads from between Clyde's blind and Isaacs. One being jacks and the other ?

Took time at the dock to swap our my boat's bogus bilge pump toggle for new one with a rubber boot and was blessed by a noisy, three or four string mixed flight of geese passing low overhead. Had seen two little strings while running the bug in rice country yesterday but too far to hear well. These were low enough to have drawn fire from some of our region's "hunters" and wonderfully loud.

[Duck Engr]

Hate those underwhelming scouting trips. Youth season next weekend and open the following?

[Rick]

Still don't know if we'll be hunting the youth/veterans' weekend, but need to find out in the next day or two to prep if need be.

Hard to get excited about it just yet, anyway - though the next front is coming from the right direction...

[Darren]

These were low enough to have drawn fire from some of our region's "hunters" and wonderfully loud.

That makes it for sure! Pretty sure I heard a wad of specks over the house Friday night when I stepped out into the front yard to just enjoy the cool weather.

On the note of underwhelming scouting reports, a buddy's lease partner took a ride to a usually good area for grays just a bit south of my area and reported basically none. Conversely, another buddy went to some public land near Lake Maurepas and reported impressive numbers of various teal and some others mixed in.

[Rick]

For reasons known only to themselves, the birds started making a more significant show in our marsh yesterday. Not "a lot," but a definite bump, including passing grays and pintails and a mix of jacks and teal flying or using the marsh. That, and enough specks coming out of the south that I caught myself not looking up to admire a noisy bunch. Again, "not 'a lot,' but a definite bump."

And Clark called to say their Cherry Ridge body was loaded.

Were "a lot" of mosquitoes, and then some, for the first time in a while.

Got the call from Doug to take a "father and young boy" Saturday (Doug being Doug, it could be a Cub Scout pack), pulled covers began brushing. Feels sweet to be working in that direction.

[Deltaman]

Glad to hear you have an uptick in bird numbers Rick! I fished in our delta last Saturday, and saw the first ducks and coots of the season finally showing up here.

[DComeaux]

Good to read, Rick. Things at the mudhole will be okay, as they usually are. I forgot to mention that I did hear some specks in the marsh this past weekend. I didn't take the time to put eyes on them.

[Darren]

Not "a lot," but a definite bump, including passing grays and pintails and a mix of jacks and teal flying or using the marsh. That, and enough specks coming out of the south that I caught myself not looking up to admire a noisy bunch. Again, "not 'a lot,' but a definite bump."

Print it! Klondike is loaded to the gills!


Glad it trended to the better !