Please refer to post #9. lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

haha
 

i got no dog in this fight, i don't duck hunt enough to matter, and don't shoot well enough for the ducks to worry, i was just "ruffling feathers" of the duck hunters:p:p:p:p

Any way we can blame CCA to....lol

Well hell

[QUOTE=fishfighter;768557]i got no dog in this fight, i don't duck hunt enough to matter, and don't shoot well enough for the ducks to worry, i was just "ruffling feathers" of the duck hunters:p:p:p:p

:grinpimp:

Duck Hunters are Crazier than Women
 

Yep, it makes sense to me, duck hunters are like women, you will go crazy trying to please them all the time. Duck hunters as a whole are irrational; why else would we do crazy **** to kill ducks. We have a long history of justifying absolutely absurd decisions, such as 20k duck boat, or a $5,000 lab.

I may have missed it but where is he pulling the harvest data from, HIP survey?

That is not completely true.


1) The harvest data I presented is for the old West Zone in 2001-2010 when season dates were consistently the second Saturday in November, closed for 12 days, then re-opened and ran until a week before the end of the framework. The opening date during that time was never earlier than November 8, we never had a 4-week first split, and we never closed as early as the 17th, so it is not possible for those data to support the new dates.

In fact, the weekly harvest I presented may well be exactly the same if we opened on November 1 or December 1. Consequently, they don't support moving the season earlier or later.

2) The hunter-opinion data I presented favored the latest possible dates proposed in the 2013 survey, which because the calendar was so early was November 16 running until January 26. You can see that we gave Coastal Zone hunters strategic choices of the traditional dates, more November hunting, more December hunting, and more January hunting. Hunter opinion has always favored the latest possible hunting dates when given specific choices.

3) I presented a summary of the November aerial survey counts since 1969 which show a strong downward trend over the last 20 years. In fact 11 of the 15 lowest November surveys on record have been flown in the last 15 years during a time of record high breeding populations. The other 4 lowest were flown in the mid-80's when we had record low breeding populations. These data suggest fewer ducks are coming to Louisiana by the first week in November.

So taken together, harvest data which shows we do kill good numbers of ducks early in the season; hunter opinion data showing hunters favor later seasons, and aerial survey data showing there might be some risk in setting seasons earlier ........ I recommended the traditional second Saturday in November opener and the typical season structure.

Look again at the weekly harvest data, and see that NW Louisiana, what is now in the West Zone, had an even earlier harvest signature than the SW or SE coastal areas. But for some reason, the Commission chose to set my recommended dates LATER in that zone but EARLIER in the Coastal Zone. If the harvest data were so important, then why?

It's pretty clear that there is no way to make everyone happy. I have shown you over the years how I try to balance the harvest and hunter-opinion information, which I am convinced is the traditional dates in the Coastal Zone. I believe we set those dates and just accept that the calendar is going to shift from earlier to later and back again.

Last year, the calendar was as early as it could be, and public comment convinced the Commission to set the season a week later than my recommendation. This year, the calendar is as late as it can be, and the Commission set the season a week earlier than my recommendation.

The net result is last year we hunted 1 day later than we would have hunted this year had my recommendation stood. And this year we will be hunting 1 day earlier than we would have last year had my recommendation stood. So over the 2-year period, all that was accomplished was 1 earlier day and 1 later day, and BOTH those favoring earlier seasons and those favoring later seasons getting highly pissed-off in alternating years.

So really, it's no big deal. It's worked out as a pretty fair compromise between those that want to hunt earlier and those who want to hunt later over the 2-year period. The only real casualty is the hunter-opinion survey. I've received a maybe 2 dozen e-mails, phone calls, and forum inquiries asking "why participate in the hunter-opinion?"

That is a fair question given the actions of the Commission and Commissioner Courville's explanation, but season dates are only 1 purpose of the hunter-opinion survey, and it was not a component of the 2015 survey. You have seen us use those dates to inform the 2012 changes in zones, make changes in Youth hunt dates in 2 zones, refrain from regulating spinning-wing decoys, modify the pintail harvest strategy to eliminate those seasons-within-seasons, keep Catahoual Lake in the East Zone, evaluate the important components of hunter-satisfaction, and others. The survey is a FAR more valuable and representative tool for collecting objective hunter-opinion data than public meetings, but there is never a guarantee that its results will be binding.

Mr. Reynolds thank you very much for your time and your response.

Now if we could only get a "Trophy" Greater North American Red Breasted Shovelor season for late April/May I would be a happy man.

For goose hunters, Courville pointed out his original proposal for the Commission was for an 88-day season with a two-bird bag limit. He was asked by another commissioner if he was OK with reducing the season to 81 days, and he agreed.

The variability of the number of white-fronted geese (specklebellies) that arrive in Louisiana from year to year is cause for concern, he said.

“For Canadas and specks, I don’t think we have a very good handle on what’s going on with those two birds in this state. We need to spend a lot more time talking about them, and finding out what’s going on with them,” he said. “Do we have a legitimate pressure problem, or is just one year they’re here and one year they’re not?

“Is our habitat becoming more or less friendly to geese? I haven’t seen the habitat analysis of that area as far as what percentage of it has been converted out of rice, or has gone idle, but that’s the kind of stuff we need to find out to know if the number that we’re counting is a real number. And frankly, that matters more to me than what everybody thinks we should be doing.”

Regardless of season length, one question Courville wants to know the answer to is how long the specklebelly population remains in Louisiana.

“And as I appreciate it, nobody could answer that question,” Courville said. “But we need to know the answer because, what good is it to have extra days if you don’t have specks in the state?

“The whole point of my mindset, and what I believe my role on the Commission is, is we’ve got some fundamental questions that we need to ask. And if we don’t have the data, we probably need to spend some time and allocate some resources and go find out what that is.”




soooooooooooo if this guys has so many questions and we dont know squat about the wintering of specklebelly geese in our area, then why would they go from 74 days to 81? am i just stupid, or does this make sense?

the only birds that are down in early november are ones that still have the migration pattern ingrained in the parents... we shoot soo many birds early because they are young, dumb, and have not been hunted 60 days. they get here and get shot at the first split, and then they figure out very quick where everybodys blinds are. they are a little smarter in the second split..

if you pay close attention to all of the hunting shows, you will notice that they RARELY make it south of oklahoma. and that is bc the majority of the mass migration never makes here... the problem is fooooooooooooooooooood...

how in the heck can a combine down here be soooooooo efficient on a such a small grain of rice but up in the midwest,the same combine leave entire cobs of corn on the ground every 10 ft?

Kind of a slap in the face when they say our opinions are appreciated but don't count

Also we kill more birds early season like you said Goods. Because they are new birds. Young birds. So perhaps we push the season back to Dec 1st. Then we kill good for 2-3 weeks like always and there are more birds down. More birds means more success.

Here is another issue. We open after the west zone and east zone.
We also open after Arkansas and Oklahoma. ***!!!! The birds migrate north to south and they open after us. So when the birds get shot at down here they just go back north where it's is safe or keep flying south where they haven't been.

It makes sense to me to open the hunting seasons as the birds migrate north to south. And close in accordance with the migration. So why do we open first and close first when everyone else around us is open and closing later than us.

Some serious conspiracies going on in my opinion. Money is the game and if you don't have it F!!!!U!!!

One day I would like some people in our side. Middle class man will always be in the slums and ignored.

Hope I made a little bit of sense.