Opening day jitters

Atchafalaya Delta WMA prime for deer, hog hunting

Ricky Aucoin

It’s GO time!

Since my last blog, I have made a few more scouting trips down to the Atchaflaya Delta WMA, including one where I found my game camera broken by a black bear.

Click here to see my post showing the bear on trail cam.

Bears have been a rare sight at the Delta over the years. Cassidy Lejeaune, who manages the Delta, sent me a picture from one of their game cams showing one of two bears they have seen there this summer.

Some noticeable differences from my earlier scouting trips are:

• Since the tropical storm, the understory has exploded in growth.
• Many brittle trees and branches have fallen over the hog and deer trails.
• There is now some standing water in certain locations.
• The mosquitoes are back big time.

Hog sign is still rampant, and I will be surprised if we don’t at least see some hog activity in the first few days of the season.

The deer sign is there also, but with the hundreds of hog tracks, it is not easy to distinguish the deer tracks. Early season will be a distinct advantage for both the deer and hogs, with the thick cover that is at the Delta.

I made a quick run down there immediately following the thrilling Saints win over the Texans. Riding down there, all I could think about was that the bow season is only days away. I am like a kid at Christmas in anticipation of hunting season. I’ll be tossing and turning Friday night, and definitely will be up before the alarm rings.

We have been very fortunate to not have any serious storms this summer and no flood impacts to deal with, so this could be a very good bow season for us all.

I ran out of time to make any scouting trips outside of the Delta; I’ll just have to scout in season at my other locations.

It looks like we will have a little cooler weather for the opener this Saturday. Oh yeah! Even 10 degrees is huge when it has been this hot.

I pray that each of you have a wonderful, safe, successful hunting season. I ask that you remember to help out your fellow hunters, be ethical, honest and thank God for the opportunity to enjoy what He has set before us.

Now let's go get us a deer!