Louisiana waterfowl season dates 2014
 

Let the discussion and arguments begin. They have the coastal zone opening early again, Nov 8-30, 2 week split then dec 13-jan 18.
Now based on my lease over the years, the early opening would usually have helped us out a lot. We usually hold good numbers in the 2 weeks leading up to the season. Last year that was not the case at all. I really would like to be able to hunt deeper into January. I'd take a longer split to make that happen. I don't really pay much attention to the other zone's dates as I don't get much opportunity to hunt them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

What about Teal season?

I would like to see it open a week later and go a week longer at the end.

I don't understand why they they open the coastal zone before the northern zones. It just don't make much since to me.

I don't know about y'all but I hunt tidal marsh, there's almost no water left by the end. I don't really mind the early start. Birds aren't nearly as educated early in the season versus later either.

They aren't educated yet but they aren't down from up north nearly as thick as mid November though

What exactly do they go by when setting the season dates? It seems to me based on some of the polls and information I've seen put out by LDWF, its driven atleast somewhat by public opinion. I seem to remember seeing something last year that showed more people preferred the dates as is for the coastal. Don't really know how true that is, or the sample size.

Leave the coastal as it has been for years. 2nd sat in nov. We get the early migrators in coastal. Greys, wigeon, teal, pintail etc. north la counts on mallards. The coastal season doesn't need to be touched IMO. Leave as is. Someone will always have a *****. And yes sometimes you have a phenomenal hunt second split but first split is usually best for numbers.

Season can't run into february. I'm fine with it now, just don't want it to get any earlier. Not many people in the coastal zone kill mallards, so i'm not sure why there are so many complaints. Starting in late October, every little front and north wind pushes down pintail, greys, widgeon, teal, spoonbill, ringnecks. Harvest numbers are extremely good in first split, as most of the time we are constantly getting new birds. It's only 23 days. For those of you complaining, more than half of the season is the second split. I wouldn't mind one week later, but it's not going to make much of a difference.

Btw, these are only the proposed dates, and are up for public comment. You can email Larry Reynolds and tell him what you think. Final dates will be set in August.

I only eat teal and wood ducks and give away just about all the big ducks ill kill...I like the dates the way they are


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd like to see them set the season dates later. Take last year, before the season started we were getting reports of a late migration. This turned out to be true. If they could set the season based on what's happening with the current years migration then that would be great. I know that's a pipe dream, just sayin....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Get enough people to email Mr Reynolds.

I agree that the first split is usually better so why can't they add days to first split and start 2nd split 1 week later ?

I mentioned that to him in another forum before. he said they set the season as early as possible so people can plan ahead for vacations and trips and such. I get that argument somewhat. However is it better to plan a duck hunt in advance or not have as much time to plan and know you are taking a trip when the migration is happening? I'm just saying, can u say that every year that ducks will be on the coast during the 2nd week of november? Absolutely not. Look at how they set shrimping seasons. They take data from sample trauls then open the season when the shrimp are of size and running. Seems like we could do that with waterfowl.

I do understand the reasoning behind why they do it.

BUT, being a biologist, I don't think its the right way to go about it at all. Seasons and limits should be based more on biology than on politics or public opinion. Grant it, public opinion is important and should be considered, but if public opinion is steering the management in the wrong direction, then management decisions should revert to being based on the biology.

The best they can do is move it back one more week. Since I have been hunting I don't remember a single time when ducks weren't here for opening day. I'm fine with the season as is, but one week later wouldn't bother me. 23 day 1st split and 37 day second split, ending on last sunday in January would be fine by me.

What would be wrong with 30 days in first split and 30 in second split?

Unfortunately, no. Waterfowl hunting regulations require federal approval. What we set at the August meeting goes to the USFWS for publication in the Federal Register and a public comment period before getting final approval the last week in September, before the first state in the Flyway can open a season. So even if all states didn't have to submit seasons at the same time, there is at least a 6-week lag-time for federal approval by law.

And we are going to begin setting seasons even earlier.

The Canadians, for example, set their season dates for the upcoming hunting season last October.

Starting next year, we will be transitioning into a system that uses prior-year data to set the waterfowl hunting season. We don't yet know exactly what it's going to look like, but we will probably set the seasons at the March Commission meeting instead of August starting in 2016.

Make sure to send an e-mail
 

As per the press release, please send an e-mail or make a phone call with your comments. I won't be collecting any comments from forums, facebook, or other websites.

Thanks,

Larry Reynolds

Mr Reynolds, as always, thank you so much for participating in these public forums. I think we are lucky to have such easy access to you.
My question is, what benefit is there to setting the season dates earlier? I understand you have work within the federal framework and there is a 6 week lag time at best. Setting it early based on previous season data seems a little pointless. We all know that so much changes one season to the next. Maybe I'm missing something.

I don't believe there is much benefit, except as you mentioned in another post, it gives some hunters more lead time to plan vacations from work. I get a number of calls every year from guys that have to schedule their vacations early in the year. Also, it would streamline the process if we could use the same Notice-of-Intent, public meeting, and public comment period process and time-line for ducks/geese that we use for resident game.

However, there probably isn't much of a cost either because 1) populations don't change so much in 1 year that it affects regulations, and 2) the effects of hunting regulations on populations is so minimal that one year of too liberal or too conservative won't make any difference. Note the long periods of regulatory stability, both liberal and restrictive. We already use 3-year averages for our goose harvest strategies, and current-year population information for say speckle-belly geese (late-September survey in SK) comes after we have set the season.

The pressure to set the seasons earlier is coming from the USFWS legal staff who are constantly worried about lawsuits from anti-hunting factions. I'm not a legal expert, but evidently the comment period for federal waterfowl hunting regulations is so short as to be indefensible as a functional mechanism for comments to be collected, summarized, and responded to.

The issue isn't biological; it's administrative.

If we had 30 days in first split and 30 days in second split and the season begins on Nov. 15th, then the second split would not be open on Christmas and Christmas eve should we still have a 12 day break in between. These are holidays that most people are off on and may be some of their only times to hunt besides weekends. I think a 12 day break is much much better than a 5 days break. 5 days is not a big enough break for the ducks and specks to catch a little rest. I would like to have a 12 day split no matter when the season starts.

Lawyers.....burn em all!

Agreed



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk mmm

That being said, I did not fully understand the process.

Larry's post brought to light some information I did not know.

Even so, it does not change my view on the matter. However, I don't want any of that to be construed as criticism of Larry. Mr. Reynolds does a great job for our state, and I know that there is only so much he can control when working with a federally regulated season such as waterfowl.

I have the utmost faith that Larry does what is best for waterfowl hunting in our great state, whether or not others agree.

Speaking of specklebellys, what is the estimated mid continent population? I have no data to support, but it seems to me we are seeing more and more birds each year. Do you expect more liberal bag limits to come? If I'm not mistaken Alberta and other areas allow 3 birds a day.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk mmm

it's set per last commission meeting-
Blue-winged, green-winged and cinnamon teal season would last from Sept. 13 - 28 with a daily bag limit of six (6) and a possession limit of eighteen (18). Federal and state waterfowl stamps are required to harvest teal.

Welcome Larry!

Thanks Mr Reynolds for all of your great input. It's a great benefit to all of us for you to take your valuable time to educate us about how all the hunting seasons, etc are determined. It makes LDWF much more transparent and we actually get an inside look at how some of the bureaucratic processes work. We may not agree on the final decisions that are made but are better informed as to how this all works. Please keep up the good work.

Is there a possibility that squealers might be added to teal season somewhere down the road?

They seem to disappear earlier than the teal do.

Let me provide some data:

So what we see with specklebellies is that most of our monitoring data show them to be increasing markedly. Both the mid-winter aerial waterfowl surveys in January each year, and a Lincoln-Peterson index calculated from band-recovery data show that increase. Only the annual aerial survey of fall-staging specklebellies in Saskatchewan shows the population to be constant or maybe slightly decreasing, and we don't know exactly why. However, THAT is the population index that is used in the harvest management plan.

That plan is being re-written by the Central and Mississippi Flyway Technical Committees, and we are making a strong push for the Lincoln-Peterson index as the management metric, which will likely lead to some increase in bag limit. The daily bag limit in the Pacific Flyway is 6 per day.

However ........... Remember what is happening in our state regarding specklebelly numbers:

The population may be increasing, but a smaller % of the population is migrating to Louisiana.

That is actually a quandary that Texas and Louisiana find themselves in regarding goose harvest regulations. The populations are in great shape; snow geese and Canada geese are actually over-abundant at the Flyway and continental scale, but the estimates of birds in our states is declining. So what do we do?

Do we reduce season length and bag limit in hopes that more birds will return to our states?

Is it just uncontrollable changes that we have to live with?

Probably not.

The USFWS will not allow ANY additional species in the teal season bag limit. Although Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky are allowed a teal/wood duck season, albeit a much shorter (5-day) season, those seasons are grandfathered relics of the past. No other state will be allowed to open a multi-species teal season into the foreseeable future.

Thanks for the response sir.

The season dates are fine with me as they are projected for this upcoming season. I'm in a unique position of having to balance, and work with over 500 hunter's schedules. Hunting and fishing is how I support my family. So the earlier in the year the season dates are announced tentatively and then ratified is best for me. I'm sure there are others who would be in favor of finding out the season dates earlier in the year. We all seem to get busier each year, the earlier people can schedule vacation to hunt and also arrange schedules with their buddies would be helpful. As Larry mentioned earlier, there is a possiblility for next year of our tentative dates being set at the march commission meeting. I am in strong favor of this if it's possible. FYI. Larry Reynolds, who is the waterfowl study leader for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries posts on these forums on his own time in order to keep an open line of communication with waterfowl hunters above and beyond his job duties. He takes a lot of grief from uninformed "experts" on these forums. Just remember, he is trying to balance lots of information and opinions. I think he's doing a very good job of that.

To me it's simple.
Start opening the east and west zones mid and late November open the coastal zone in December. Look at doing a 5 day split. And bleed the season into February.
I hunt 95% of the time in the coastal zone and last year I only missed a handful of days including the added speck season. I hunt in a great area and it's known for the amount of birds killed there each year. However, I never saw the bulk of the birds till at least December. And as the season progressed it just got better. My whole month of November was centered around shooting anything and everything (legally allowed to shoot) just so that I could see my dog work. With that said, I'm not Pointing fingers at the WLF Board Members but after last year, they would be foolish to start the season this earlier. I understand the winter that we were looking for didn't show up till very very late. But even the season before that I noticed a huge difference in the amount of birds being here in November. Call me crazy but I strongly believe that the coastal zone should be the last area in the Mississippi flyway to open...it's literally the most southern part.

Federal law doesn't allow for hunting after Jan 31st.

Actually, it doesn't allow hunting after the last Sunday in January.

Unless duck populations decline and we go into the "Restrictive" package, which is 30-days and 3-ducks. Under those conditions, we can't hunt any later than the Sunday nearest January 20.

But it gets migrants first. The coastal marshes are a much more predictable habitat for migrating birds, and always has water compared to the un-predictable nature of the forested wetlands and fields of NE LA.

That is why since 1975, the first year that states were allowed to have zones, the old West Zone (which included almost all of what is now the Coastal Zone) has opened earlier than the East Zone. And because far more mallards use the forested wetlands and fields of NE Louisiana, and they tend to migrate later, the East Zone has always run later than the old West Zone.

It's hardly all or nothing; there is lots of overlap; but it is not reasonable for the Coastal Zone to open or close later than the East Zone simply because of the migratory trends of the species that winter there.

I can see why you would want the season dates announced as early as possible. However, you are a professional while the vast majority of us are not. Is it fair to announce the season early simply so the guides can book their clients?
I just continue to maintain that treating it like the shrimp season and announcing the opening based on real time observations of the resource would give hunters the best chance of success. I know it's a pipe dream, but I I've always been a dreamer haha.

It's not just because he is an outfitter, it is because the large numbers of hunters that book trips with guides every year need to be able to plan vacation time as well. It is hard to argue your point that there aren't many ducks here in early November when the harvest data shows that most hunters do best in the early season

I never said there was no ducks here in November. Last year not so much maybe. But we normaly always do better early at my spot in the coastal zone. I take no issue at all with the dates themselves.

If it were up to me, I would take the last Sunday that the Feds will allow us to hunt and count backwards 60 days with a 12 day split. I would make sure that all holidays would fall during times where the season was open, and that would be how I would set the season. I don't think many people would argue with this.

However, I don't think one week earlier will make much of a difference.

Not a bad point really.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

What about running the first split Nov 8-Dec 7 and second split Dec 20- Jan 18. This would give coastal zone hunters 7 additional days in the first split. Most seem to agree that their hunting is better early so why not have a few more days in the first split.

This is what I would like to see also

X2

What can we do to try to make it happen? Does anyone have Mr Reynolds email and would it do any good to email him?