East Zone hunters get last shot
Like the recent Sunday was a sad day for Louisiana’s West Zone duck hunters, East Zone wild waterfowlers face the last of their 60-day season this coming Sunday.
And those hunters facing the last of this season’s travels to their blinds are hoping for the same success their West Zone brothers and sisters enjoyed on their final weekend.
Across the coast — the West Zone covers all coastal parishes — and despite warm, foggy days, hunters celebrated their opportunities.
“There wasn’t enough water around my blind to float a decoy until Jan. 10,” state Waterfowl Study leader Larry Reynolds said. “But the water came and on the last day of the season, with fog and a south wind and birds stacking up in a flooded field to the south of us. My Sunday morning limit was made up of two pintails, a greenhead (mallard drake), a gadwall, a wigeon, a teal and two specklebellies (geese). That’s a great hunt. I guess we were rewarded on that last day for having to wait all year for the water.”
The lingering effects of a near two-year-long drought meant that, like Reynolds, thousands of southwest Louisiana hunters spent a long time wondering when there would be enough water to lure enough ducks near their blinds. Hunters along La. 14, from Holmwood east through Lake Arthur, scrambled to find other hunts until the water showed up earlier this month.
Mike Benge at Delacroix on the state’s eastern end of the coast said leaving the camp Sunday was difficult.
“We had great hunts to close out the season,” Benge said, adding he was surprised about the lack of final-weekend hunters. “We killed mallards during the first split (in November) and lots of gray ducks and pintails in the final days. It was a good season.”
Reynolds said the cold front sweeping across the state should help East Zone hunters.
“We’ve finally had some decent reports from northeast Louisiana and they’re likely going to do much better for the final weekend. Catahoula Lake is high, but the recent survey showed it was holding more than 80,000 canvasbacks,” Reynolds said.
“It looks like there will be tougher hunting in the marsh areas, like the spots north of Lake Pontchartrain. The birds picked up last week there, but it’s been slow. The cold front has to help.”
Deer closing out
Wildlife biologist David Moreland advised deer hunters to continue hunting areas with oak trees and acorns for the final week of the primitive weapons seasons in Areas 1 and 6.
“After examining the stomach contests of deer (in the Clinton area), we continue to see acorns,” he said noting one buck was eating corn from a feeder and soybeans that remained in a nearby ag field.
Moreland said bow hunters, whose seasons end Jan. 31 but linger into Feb. 15 for Area 6 archery hunters, should continue to find some breeding activity, and the cold front and the break from the recent run of too-warm conditions should have deer moving through the weekend.
Autographs, everyone
Former LSU All-American Jerry Stovall and retired NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert will join pro bass fisherman Scott Suggs for Thursday’s grand opening of Sam’s Club off Airline Highway near Cortana Mall.
Stovall is scheduled to sign autographs from 9-11 a.m.
Suggs, the million-dollar winner of the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup, will be available for autographs and photos from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Hebert’s appearance will run from noon-2 p.m.
Kids for Tucker
Young anglers will have a shot at prizes Saturday, Feb. 4 when adult anglers are working for big money in the annual Fishing for Tucker Bass Tournament.
Organizer Ryan Lavigne said the Kids Fishing Derby will run from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the pond next to Cabela’s in Gonzales.
There’s a $5 entry fee and youngsters must bring rods, reels and tackle. Youngsters will be divided into age groups and the weigh-in will be held at 2 p.m. on the same stage at Cabela’s that the adult anglers will use later that day.
Classic’s first in
Chris Lane started the 2012 Bassmaster season with a Sunday stringer weighing 28 pounds, 5 ounces to win the Southern Open opener by more than 14 pounds on the Harris Chain of Lake in Florida.
Lane, who’s in the field for the Feb. 24-26 Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport, is the first angler to qualify for the 2013 Classic set for Grand Lake near Tulsa, Okla.
Lane’s Southern Open three-day total was 72-11.