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  #41  
Old 08-07-2015, 07:49 AM
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Money talks boys
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  #42  
Old 08-07-2015, 09:02 AM
Dogface Dogface is offline
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I hunt the pecan island area and like the dates. We do much better early. The last few weeks usually suck.
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  #43  
Old 08-07-2015, 09:59 AM
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From what I understand, Larry's data supports the new dates but his hunter opinion survey is what he proposed. I'm thankful we have a data/facts based commission as opposed to opinion. My opinion would be to support the data and quit sending out the survey. When opinion out weighs facts, enters politics.
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  #44  
Old 08-07-2015, 10:06 AM
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Everyone always says they "do better earlier." My take on this is simply the fact that, well, of course the first theee weeks or so are going to be best. Birds haven't been hunted for 40 or 50 days yet, and they are simoly just a little bit easier to kill. The last few weeks of the season will be more challenging, no matter when the dates are.

For the most part, IMO, the birds that get here in late Oct./early Nov. are not going to continue south if they aren't being hunted. Of course a few pintail and divers will head to coastal Texas and Mexico, but the greys, widgeons, ringnecks, spoonbills will probably hang around. Aerial counts prove this for the most part. Waiting an extra week may not make a difference, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I may be wrong, but the December count usually shows more birds than November.

I'm a marsh hunter, south of the Intracoastal, and I wish they would have just left the season alone and let it be 2nd Sat in Nov. We have excellent hunts in late Jan. The birds are here then, just can't hunt out of a poorly maintained blind with a few dozen decoys that haven't been moved once since opening day and mojos going everywhere and expect to kill them like you did on opening day.

Last, I feel bad for the rice field guys that aren't going to be hunting for the first week and a half or so. Have to remember that the coastal zone icludes lots of these guys. Have to make opening dates good for everyone. Gray ducks in the marsh aren't going anywhere, might as well wait that extra week and allow everyone to have a good first split.
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  #45  
Old 08-07-2015, 11:49 AM
Big Hutch Big Hutch is offline
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I've hunted the same marsh for 11 years now and kept detailed logs every year but 1 year. We kill just as many ducks the last week as we do the first week and usually kill more "better" ducks. We are fortunate that we have water at that time. Our marsh stacks up with ducks with those January cold fronts.

There is no doubt that hunters that hunt rice fields are being cheated out of opportunities in the field with the early opening. If the "new" coastal zone boundary would be implemented then that wouldnt be an issue. Regardless, the wealthy and large landowner interests are dictating how and when we get to hunt. Since this is an election year maybe we need to vote for candidates who will support sound science and the removal of Commission members who set seasons based on personal preference.

The main reason is that people kill more the first few weeks is that they get to hunt more for ducks that havent been hunted. Thanksgiving holidays allow people to take off and hunt. After January 1 most people are busy at work trying to catch up and cant take off and hunt. When they do hunt their blinds and decoys look like crap because they havent been there in a week or more.

Just my 2 cents.
Robbie aka Big Hutch
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  #46  
Old 08-13-2015, 03:19 PM
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apparently who ever went to the meeting and spoke their mind just wasted their time, public opinion doesn't matter, Chad doesn't care what you have to say


http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=8507
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  #47  
Old 08-13-2015, 03:47 PM
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Remember boys and girls, Mr. Courville is ex Ducks Unlimited employee. Do you think DU wants to optimize coastal waterfowling for all of us or just the fat cats? Its the DU way. Chew on that for a minute. I also feel he contradicted what he said earlier in his interview as it pertained to setting the duck season by data. The next thing he says is that someone asked if he had a problem with lowering the days for specks and he agrees with no reference to using "data" to guide his decision. The data showed that a 88-2 speck season would statistically not harm the population, then why agree to less. Sounds like a concession to the other committee member to get his vote to pass the change to the duck dates. Back room politics at Its best. Of course its all speculation but hey, what else are we going to talk about until duck season.

CH
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  #48  
Old 08-13-2015, 04:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fishfighter View Post
apparently who ever went to the meeting and spoke their mind just wasted their time, public opinion doesn't matter, Chad doesn't care what you have to say


http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=8507
Like him or not, he made some valid points
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  #49  
Old 08-13-2015, 04:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CameronHunter View Post
Remember boys and girls, Mr. Courville is ex Ducks Unlimited employee. Do you think DU wants to optimize coastal waterfowling for all of us or just the fat cats? Its the DU way. Chew on that for a minute. I also feel he contradicted what he said earlier in his interview as it pertained to setting the duck season by data. The next thing he says is that someone asked if he had a problem with lowering the days for specks and he agrees with no reference to using "data" to guide his decision. The data showed that a 88-2 speck season would statistically not harm the population, then why agree to less. Sounds like a concession to the other committee member to get his vote to pass the change to the duck dates. Back room politics at Its best. Of course its all speculation but hey, what else are we going to talk about until duck season.

CH
It took 47 posts before Ducks Unlimited was brought up. Gotta be a record for an a duck thread
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  #50  
Old 08-13-2015, 04:04 PM
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The committee members set the dates based on what was best for them not what was best for the majority of the hunters for each region. And I bet they are all big time DU supporters......
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  #51  
Old 08-13-2015, 04:12 PM
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AubreyLaHaye458 AubreyLaHaye458 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Duck Butter View Post
It took 47 posts before Ducks Unlimited was brought up. Gotta be a record for an a duck thread

Please refer to post #9. lol


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  #52  
Old 08-13-2015, 04:13 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Duck Butter View Post
Like him or not, he made some valid points

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
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  #53  
Old 08-13-2015, 04:14 PM
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Any way we can blame CCA to....lol
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  #54  
Old 08-13-2015, 04:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AubreyLaHaye458 View Post
Please refer to post #9. lol


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Well hell
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  #55  
Old 08-13-2015, 04:22 PM
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[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

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  #56  
Old 08-13-2015, 07:59 PM
B-Stealth B-Stealth is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Duck Butter View Post
Like him or not, he made some valid points
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?
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  #57  
Old 08-13-2015, 08:23 PM
Lreynolds Lreynolds is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by feesher View Post
From what I understand, Larry's data supports the new dates but his hunter opinion survey is what he proposed.
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?
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Old West Zone harvest 2.jpg (53.1 KB, 115 views)
File Type: jpg Coastal Zone season preferences.jpg (68.8 KB, 115 views)
File Type: jpg November aerial survey.jpg (51.0 KB, 114 views)

Last edited by Lreynolds; 08-13-2015 at 08:34 PM.
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  #58  
Old 08-13-2015, 09:05 PM
Lreynolds Lreynolds is offline
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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.
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  #59  
Old 08-14-2015, 12:42 PM
B-Stealth B-Stealth is offline
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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.
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  #60  
Old 08-17-2015, 10:34 AM
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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?
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