Waterfowl hunters get extra days to do what they love
I always wondered if others got as excited about hunting ducks as most of the folks I knew and know — guys and gals, young and older.
There’s a passion in waterfowl hunting. Yeah, you see it in other outdoor adventures like fishing in all its forms of shallow and deep water, marsh, bays and bluewater — then there are that special group who chase tarpon — and, of course, deer hunters (We’ll get to that later).
It’s difficult to explain the lure to duck hunting, to tell someone you can’t wait to swat mosquitoes and gnats during the September teal season (even riding out a tropical storm in the marshes one year) and during the first days of the big duck season. And, there are the usual questions about one’s sanity when you say how invigorating it is to break ice on the way to a blind on a windy, 25-degree morning.
Okay, okay so it’s a little crazy, but there’s magic in our madness.
There are mornings, not every morning, when, at sunrise on a Louisiana marsh, the entire marsh turns to gold.
Those 90 seconds or so are majestic, just like those heart-stopping seconds when that first flight of teal comes whizzing in low over your blind minutes before shooting time.
There is the pleasure of watching a Labrador retriever fetching a downed gray duck and returning it to its hunting friend with a gleeful glint in the retriever’s eyes — yes, that happens!
There are the after-the-hunt minutes shared with fellow hunters talking about that morning in the blind, the hour or so in the cleaning shed preparing your ducks, and, then, the chance to enjoy the hunt at a dinner table surrounded by family and friends.
That’s duck hunting. Goose hunting, too.
An “experimental” season
So now that this year’s special September teal season is in the rearview mirror, Louisiana’s wild waterfowlers have another special season.
For the first time ever, the Oct. 3-11 black-bellied whistling duck season comes just five days after the close of the teal season.
It takes a seasoned duck hunter to remember when Louisiana and other southern states pushed hard for an early teal season. Waterfowl biologists worked hard to document the arrival of teal in Louisiana marshes as early as late August some years.
The data was passed on to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, including details about how teal, especially blue-winged teal, had left the marshes before the regularly scheduled duck season, before Louisiana hunters had a chance to take teal for their tables. The teal had moved on to Mexico and Central America only to return to Louisiana marshes the following March.
Those first teal seasons came with heavy post-hunt reporting requirements, data that was used to more firmly establish the propriety for a special September season.
So, too, in the early days of October, Louisiana’s first whistling duck season comes with special requirements in the hopes of taking this from an “experimental” season to a permanent place on our state’s hunting calendar.
Must-haves and regulations
No matter the season, there are common rules to duck hunting: hunters need a state basic hunting license, state and federal waterfowl stamps and the no-fee Harvest Information Program (HIP for hunters 18 and older) certificate, must use nontoxic shot, have plugged shotguns and know the daily and possession limits for each species of ducks.
Hunters in the special October season will need a special (no fee) permit issued by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries with the further requirement that hunters must report their effort and their kills within 15 days after the close of the whistling duck season.
Know, too, this October season is for whistling ducks only, that shooting hours are sunrise to sunset (to better identify the species) and the daily bag is four birds.
As with all waterfowl hunting and season preparation, Wildlife and Fisheries waterfowl managers are asking hunters to take extra time getting to know what whistling ducks look like and how they fly. It’s good advice for the big duck seasons opening in November, too.
Happy hunting!
Same old story:
Why is it we continue to read the same reports, mostly from opening weekends, every dove and duck season?
Wildlife and Fisheries’ Enforcement Division agents were busy on the opening weekend of the dove season, and it’s sad they have to work so hard on a holiday weekend (Labor Day).
This year’s report — agents issued 141 citations, 102 of them for hunting over baited fields.
What’s worse is that’s more than last year’s opening weekend.
Among the 141 were 12 for “placing bait” and seven more for what agents described as “…aiding and abetting others in hunting migratory game birds over bait.”
These cited hunters are headed to federal court.
