Hey guys, I'm trying to get into gar fishing, specifically Gator Gar, and I was wondering if anyone had any helpful tips on where to find them and what baits work best. Specifically looking for info on Southwest Louisiana. Thanks.
Check with your local LSU AgCenter or the Louisiana Department of Ag and Forestry. They are the ones that offer the classes on prescribed burn. Technically, any prescribed burn class will allow you to do prescribed burns, whether its forest or marsh, but they offer specific classes on marsh burns. These classes will teach you everything you need to know, such as how and the purpose of filling out prescribed burn worksheets. You do not have to have any special kind of insurance for a prescribed burn. These forms act as such. If you have those filled out and let the proper fire or sheriff departments know that you will be burning on a certain day, if anything goes wrong the prescribed fire sheets protect you. rnrnMany Ag offices, NRCS offices, and LDWF offices have personnel trained to do prescribed burns as well. Some food for thought...
So I take it you've got some mighty fine duck habitat too, then? I mean, why else would DU get involved?
Plus, I will say this, 5 food plots of that size would definitely affect the carrying capacity of the land. Makes a lot more sense now. I can believe 1 deer to 5 acres when you've got between 25 and 50 acres in food plots. That's almost like supplemental feed. If that wasn't there, doubt that land could support that many deer. Just plain facts. But that's awesome if you can support that many. Not trying to say I doubt you or anything, just saying food plots have a lot to do with that because there tends to be a lot more nutritional value in food plots than natural forage.
But you already knew that, i'm sure.
Production, Potential. You're starting to talk semantics. They are both affected by similar factors. You have too many deer (above K), you reduce the production and potential of those deer because you can't support them. Max Carrying Capacity is not just about production, its about the health of the population. A population at carrying capacity is not as healthy as one below carrying capacity because there is more food available to each individual in the second scenario. As I said, my example was just that, an EXAMPLE.
Honestly, I'm not really sure what you were trying to say by that post.
Although he is always over my head on the deer biology too, Delta is right. Maximum productivity in wildlife populations is achieved at K/2, or 50% of the carrying capacity.
Mike, you are correct in saying that if the population is at carrying capacity, then there is enough forage to support the population. But, if as you said, the population goes over K, then the forage base cannot support the population any longer and body health will begin to deteriorate. So, taking this into account, if we want to maintain a population at its maximum productivity level without going over K and maintain our forage base, you want to shoot for about 50% of the carrying capacity. This provides adequate forage for all members of the population and future recruits (i.e., fawns) into the population.
Here's an example. Say we have hunt r's deer herd with a K = 20, 10 does and 10 bucks for an adequate 1:1 sex ratio. Hypothetically, there are 20 persimmon trees and each deer requires one persimmon tree (I know, not real world, but hang with me here) to MAINTAIN its current, healthy condition. Let's say we have a great fawn recruitment, 10 fawns are added. You harvest the maximum deer off the property, 6. You still have 24 deer on the land. Now, you are over carrying capacity. Instead of each deer getting one persimmon tree, you now get 1.2 deer to each tree. Not a significant increase, but less forage for each deer. Now take that same example, half your original number of deer, and even with a fawn recruitment of 10, you are still below your carrying capacity and there is more forage available to each deer. More forage = better health, higher survival, (potentially) higher fawn recruitment.
Simple population dynamics, that's all. lol.
I stand semi-corrected. While my last post was obviously not totally incorrect, there are subspecies that I failed to think of, much less mention. I'm not a squirrelologist by any means. But I still stand by everything I said in my last post--no such thing as a cat squirrel (simply a gray squirrel by a different name)-- except that it is a hybrid, because clearly, it may not be.
Although I must disagree with the statement that the 2 species do not interbreed. There is no way possible to prove that, and I'm sure in some places it is very possible that they do interbreed.
October 23, 2012 at 10:24am
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Check with your local LSU AgCenter or the Louisiana Department of Ag and Forestry. They are the ones that offer the classes on prescribed burn. Technically, any prescribed burn class will allow you to do prescribed burns, whether its forest or marsh, but they offer specific classes on marsh burns. These classes will teach you everything you need to know, such as how and the purpose of filling out prescribed burn worksheets. You do not have to have any special kind of insurance for a prescribed burn. These forms act as such. If you have those filled out and let the proper fire or sheriff departments know that you will be burning on a certain day, if anything goes wrong the prescribed fire sheets protect you. rnrnMany Ag offices, NRCS offices, and LDWF offices have personnel trained to do prescribed burns as well. Some food for thought...
So I take it you've got some mighty fine duck habitat too, then? I mean, why else would DU get involved? Plus, I will say this, 5 food plots of that size would definitely affect the carrying capacity of the land. Makes a lot more sense now. I can believe 1 deer to 5 acres when you've got between 25 and 50 acres in food plots. That's almost like supplemental feed. If that wasn't there, doubt that land could support that many deer. Just plain facts. But that's awesome if you can support that many. Not trying to say I doubt you or anything, just saying food plots have a lot to do with that because there tends to be a lot more nutritional value in food plots than natural forage. But you already knew that, i'm sure.
Production, Potential. You're starting to talk semantics. They are both affected by similar factors. You have too many deer (above K), you reduce the production and potential of those deer because you can't support them. Max Carrying Capacity is not just about production, its about the health of the population. A population at carrying capacity is not as healthy as one below carrying capacity because there is more food available to each individual in the second scenario. As I said, my example was just that, an EXAMPLE. Honestly, I'm not really sure what you were trying to say by that post.
Although he is always over my head on the deer biology too, Delta is right. Maximum productivity in wildlife populations is achieved at K/2, or 50% of the carrying capacity. Mike, you are correct in saying that if the population is at carrying capacity, then there is enough forage to support the population. But, if as you said, the population goes over K, then the forage base cannot support the population any longer and body health will begin to deteriorate. So, taking this into account, if we want to maintain a population at its maximum productivity level without going over K and maintain our forage base, you want to shoot for about 50% of the carrying capacity. This provides adequate forage for all members of the population and future recruits (i.e., fawns) into the population. Here's an example. Say we have hunt r's deer herd with a K = 20, 10 does and 10 bucks for an adequate 1:1 sex ratio. Hypothetically, there are 20 persimmon trees and each deer requires one persimmon tree (I know, not real world, but hang with me here) to MAINTAIN its current, healthy condition. Let's say we have a great fawn recruitment, 10 fawns are added. You harvest the maximum deer off the property, 6. You still have 24 deer on the land. Now, you are over carrying capacity. Instead of each deer getting one persimmon tree, you now get 1.2 deer to each tree. Not a significant increase, but less forage for each deer. Now take that same example, half your original number of deer, and even with a fawn recruitment of 10, you are still below your carrying capacity and there is more forage available to each deer. More forage = better health, higher survival, (potentially) higher fawn recruitment. Simple population dynamics, that's all. lol.
I stand semi-corrected. While my last post was obviously not totally incorrect, there are subspecies that I failed to think of, much less mention. I'm not a squirrelologist by any means. But I still stand by everything I said in my last post--no such thing as a cat squirrel (simply a gray squirrel by a different name)-- except that it is a hybrid, because clearly, it may not be. Although I must disagree with the statement that the 2 species do not interbreed. There is no way possible to prove that, and I'm sure in some places it is very possible that they do interbreed.