Post Season

[Darren]

Exactly. Wife likes me to be home for a weekend in December but I'd rather hunt harder in December and call it quits earlier in January. December usually more promising

[DComeaux]

Changes to HIP Certification

Louisiana Migratory Bird Hunters Must Complete HIP Certification Online or In Person at LDWF Headquarters Beginning June 1
May 11, 2020 – Beginning June 1, Louisiana migratory bird hunters, including waterfowl hunters, will be required to complete the Harvest Information Program (HIP) certification process either online or in person at Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) headquarters in Baton Rouge.

HIP certification along with an appropriate hunting license is required to hunt waterfowl, doves, woodcock and other migratory birds in Louisiana. A $2 fee will be assessed by the LDWF license vendor for online HIP certification.

Retail license vendors will no longer be able to provide the HIP certification service beginning June 1, necessitating the change. Therefore, hunters that purchase licenses from retail license vendors will be reminded to go on-line to complete HIP certification for hunting migratory birds. Hunters who purchase LDWF licenses online will see no change.

The change is to make sure that the most complete information is available to state and federal biologists as they manage the migratory bird resource.

“The primary intent of HIP is to provide the names, addresses, species hunted and past harvest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so they can randomly select migratory bird hunters to receive annual harvest surveys,’’ said Larry Reynolds, LDWF’s Waterfowl Program Manager. “In this way, more complete information can be obtained from all migratory bird hunters so that harvest estimates will be based on representative sampling and thus be more accurate than in the past.’’

[Darren]

So it IS going to start costing us $2? I usually just go to Academy to do HIP so I can affix my stamp to that, since I've got a lifetime.




On another note, now with the breeding survey cancelled, guess we'll have to rely on videos released by Delta and DU discussing observations on the breeding grounds? Obviously wont have pond or breeding number counts. The report in current DU magazine shows the Dakotas to be wet, with some improvements in Canada over last year

[Ducaholic]

The Lifetime License was a good thing for the short term influx of cash but it's really come back to bite the Dept. on long term cash influx. With oil and gas revenue taking a hit I wonder what cuts LDWF will make in July. Could get ugly!

[DComeaux]

The Lifetime License was a good thing for the short term influx of cash but it's really come back to bite the Dept. on long term cash influx. With oil and gas revenue taking a hit I wonder what cuts LDWF will make in July. Could get ugly!

The lifetime license is a disaster for this state. I wouldn't mind paying more for our licenses to help fund some of our LDWF programs, but you're right, it will get ugly. I do not have a lifetime license.

[Darren]

The Lifetime License was a good thing for the short term influx of cash but it's really come back to bite the Dept. on long term cash influx. With oil and gas revenue taking a hit I wonder what cuts LDWF will make in July. Could get ugly!

The lifetime license is a disaster for this state. I wouldn't mind paying more for our licenses to help fund some of our LDWF programs, but you're right, it will get ugly. I do not have a lifetime license.

While I agree in principle that the lifetime license is a windfall for lifelong anglers/hunters, they dont exactly HAVE to make HIP free, or they could charge more for WMA use, charge a fee for a permit for a given WMA, raise a variety of other license fees. All comes with opposition, that's certain, but its not impossible.

No doubt the O&G industry hurting is tanking state budgets, but even when it was "good", the state was arguably robbing LDWF's budgets anyway.

[Rick]

...they dont exactly HAVE to make HIP free...

I'm thinking it's going to be a contracted service that can't be free.

[DComeaux]

...they dont exactly HAVE to make HIP free...

I'm thinking it's going to be a contracted service that can't be free.

It is a vendor fee and does not go to the state.

[DComeaux]

Darren wrote:
Can be a strong winter all day long, if it's another with the above average rain we've had last few seasons (note the three years in a row now of BC Spillway openings), we will still have a tough time, but the birds will have a great time enjoying unpressured habitat.

Ducaholic wrote:
Agree and noted but if we get the right kind of weather events say similar to January 2018 they will come. Bottom line you need strong arctic fronts at least one every 7-10 days. When you get two in a 7-10 day period then it's on.

Darren wrote:
You are mistaken, Jan 2018 was not good hunting, we have not had good hunting for many years, Louisiana has been dead for many years, its almost not worth hunting at all..........

Oh wait, January 2018 was tremendous, always fun to re-visit the logs on here from that time frame. On the other end of things, glad to see Coastal Zone opening on Nov 14 instead of the 7th this year, give us another week to get a good weather event through.

I grabbed this from Ricks page so we don't run on with off topic stuff.

After looking over my logs this morning and feeling a slight spark tickle my innards, I'll take a season like 2017/2018 every year. We lost our birds in January before the season ended so I'd guess this is the increase in northern LA, which was the case for years when we'd actually have a migration. The last two years sucked really bad, as did the two before the 2017/2018 anomaly. 2017/2018 was a tease.

[Ducaholic]

We like Rick's page better...

[Darren]

If your two seasons before the 17-18 season were not good, I get why it's harder to interpret that particular season as anything other than an anomaly.

On my end, 2015 and 2016 seasons were solid, and the very beginning and later end of 17-18 were strong before the dumpster fire that was the 2018-2019 season. Thankfully 2019-2020 was an uptick more along the lines of the 2014 and 2015 seasons so I have an entirely different feel for the last few. Will be interesting to see how weather shakes out in beginning of November to see what we would have had for Nov 7th versus when we'll actually open on Nov 14.

Log says openers in Delacroix in the ballpark of Nov 7-9th have been at least decent, with the 2015 opener of November 7th being teal-season-like hot with hot flights of grays to match, could have taken a 5 man limit that day as we swatted mosquitos and couldn't wait to get the waders off......warm enough to wear shorts in the long boat ride back in.

November 9th, 2019?? Heavy jackets were in order, fuzzy hats for the boat rides. Goes to show, ya never know.


Stoke that fire, DC!! Dont let it burn out

[Rick]

We like Rick's page better...

No ducks there, either.

[Duck Engr]

Some scary stuff from Paul Link. Obviously not a big sample size but still not good. Rick please tell Paul to start transmittering smarter susies.

[BGkirk]

Discouraging for sure.
I wish Paul would post somewhere else too, which I’m sure his studies if published are more wide spread but these updates he gives only on Instagram I feel aren’t being seen by the majority.


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[Duck Engr]

I agree, which is why I try to spread them to the masses on the forums if possible. I’m not on Instagram near as much as I used to be so I wouldn’t have known he posted if not for a heads up from a friend.

[Duck Engr]

Delta waterfowl has a hen house project and predator control project ongoing in the PPR region. You can specify which project your donation goes to.

I asked DU the same question and was informed I had to donate $10,000 before I could specify where my funds went. That made my decision pretty easy.

[Rick]

Rick please tell Paul to start transmittering smarter susies.

Don't know that there are any. The transmitters have all gone on the healthiest adult females we could catch, ie: those most likely to be Heitmeyer's high production "super hens". Not that we got to cull enough immature hens to make a gumbo...

[Ducaholic]

Delta waterfowl has a hen house project and predator control project ongoing in the PPR region. You can specify which project your donation goes to.

I asked DU the same question and was informed I had to donate $10,000 before I could specify where my funds went. That made my decision pretty easy.

Same here with DU when it came time to help my brother-in law spruce up his duck property. 10K is the minimum before DU would even think about getting involved. Otherwise they point you to NRCS.

Pretty clear we are not doing enough on the breeding grounds. You can have all the wintering and mid-latitude staging areas you want but if hens are not re-producing it's all for naught. 90% of what makes a duck a duck happens on the breeding grounds.

I have been beating this drum for over 20 years now. I'll beat it until I die.

[Ducaholic]

Rick please tell Paul to start transmittering smarter susies.

Don't know that there are any. The transmitters have all gone on the healthiest adult females we could catch, ie: those most likely to be Heitmeyer's high production "super hens". Not that we got to cull enough immature hens to make a gumbo...

I wonder how many genetically superior super hens even make it to La.? It's always been my thought process that the super mallards, the creme of the crop breeding stock were those that held up on the freeze/snow line. It's discussions like this that peak my interest.

[Duck Engr]

Delta waterfowl has a hen house project and predator control project ongoing in the PPR region. You can specify which project your donation goes to.

I asked DU the same question and was informed I had to donate $10,000 before I could specify where my funds went. That made my decision pretty easy.

Same here with DU when it came time to help my brother-in law spruce up his duck property. 10K is the minimum before DU would even think about getting involved. Otherwise they point you to NRCS.

Pretty clear we are not doing enough on the breeding grounds. You can have all the wintering and mid-latitude staging areas you want but if hens are not re-producing it's all for naught. 90% of what makes a duck a duck happens on the breeding grounds.

I have been beating this drum for over 20 years now. I'll beat it until I die.

That makes two of us. Sad thing is, where I saw this information first posted, it received minimal discussion and attention but other silly/stupid posts received over 100 comments. Indicative of how short sighted our “hunters” have become. The only time they’ll realize we don’t have ducks is when they don’t see any in the Fall, and by that time, it’s too late.

[Darren]

Great points above

Paul is citing predation; isn't it Delta that beats the predator impacts drum far more than DU? DU wants acreage, Delta seems to want to make the most of the limited acreage.

As for Delta vs. DU, not trying to fan any fires someone might have with that debate, I've been known to support both. Will not, however, forget how the grand wizards of DU presented themselves at one of the LDWF commission meetings I attended, wasn't a good look.

[SpinnerMan]

Paul is citing predation;

But I think the real underlying problem is the "strip farming" that occurs today. They farm every inch and with the roundup resistant crops if you walk through a cornfield it is nothing but bare dirt underneath. Cornfields looked nothing like this when I was growing up. There was plenty of cover in the cornfields as we chased the pheasants around in them.

The fence lines, ditches, or tree rows as he mentioned are mostly stripped away so they can farm every inch.

I blame ethanol. It artificially inflated the grain prices making all this land of marginal value for agriculture but very high value for wildlife profitable to clear out put in drain tiles and farm. Once stripped and the drain tile is in, it will be tilled indefinitely and its value to wildlife dramatically reduced.

[Duck Engr]

100% agree with ethanol being the cause of many woes Spinnerman, wildlife included.

Darren that’s correct. Delta frequently talks about the importance of nesting habitat. Just this week they put out a new video focused on predator control and also mentioned their hen house project. Link below.

https://youtu.be/Vysi4RXTvWw

[Rick]

Ethanol is the devil - unless you're a corn farmer or one's congressman. And there's a bunch of 'em.

Same thing with predators, there's a bunch of them.

[Darren]

Speaking of BBWD, from P Link:

PLink.jpg

Note the reference to an apparent increasing distribution. If anyone knew, would think it him. Also didn't know they were less "duck" and more so "swan"

[Ducaholic]

Always heard more goose like than duck like...

[Ericdc]

All I know is there skinned out legs make good jambalaya


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[Ducaholic]

I find they are very hard to clean so I rarely shoot them. Does everyone just skin them out?

Last year I had a flock of about 20 on a string for several low passes right over the decoys at daylight. We ended up passing as it was a promising duck day. Probably the best ops my group has had in several years in terms of whacking several out of one flock.

[Ericdc]

Yea they are tough skinned but the meat is great.


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[Darren]

I find they are very hard to clean so I rarely shoot them. Does everyone just skin them out?

Last year I had a flock of about 20 on a string for several low passes right over the decoys at daylight. We ended up passing as it was a promising duck day. Probably the best ops my group has had in several years in terms of whacking several out of one flock.

Was that a rare occurrence to have them by you? Something new or routine?