New lottery hunt among proposals
After years of establishing rules and regulations to increased hunting opportunities for young hunters, disabled hunters, new forms of hunting weapons and opening or controlling access statewide and on public hunting areas, the state’s Wildlife Division proposed something entirely different at Thursday’s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting.
A women’s-only lottery deer hunt is up for consideration by the LWFC for the next two months.
The proposal calls for permanent fourth-Saturday-in-October — Oct. 27 this year — for hunt on the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area. The stipulation is that the lottery pool will be restricted to participants in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Louisiana Women in the Wild Program. Women enrolled in the program must complete a hunting basics workshop. For program details, call the LDWF at (225) 765-2932.
The proposal was among 33 offered by the LDWF’s wildlife managers, plans that alter the hunting seasons rules and regulations from the previous (but ongoing) 2011-2012 hunting season. Most of the 33 changes dealt with state-owned or managed wildlife management areas.
Plans call for these proposals to be outlined at five public hearings around the state in March. The LWFC will accept comment at its next two monthly meetings (March 1 and April 5) at LDWF state headquarters on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge. Public comment can be offered to the to the LDWF’s Wildlife Division, too. The LDWF’s website: http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/. At the bottom of this webpage, you will find “contact us.” Click there and you can register a comment.
The LWFC will consider amendments until its May 3 meeting when Thursday’s package, complete with approved amendments, will be forwarded to the Legislature for oversight consideration. Final ratification is at the LWFC’s June 7 meeting.
More Tigers
LSU Bass Club honcho Doug McClung clarified a release issue by the FLW folks that listed LSU having two teams in this weekend’s FLW College South Conference tournament on Lake Amistad in Texas.
“The rules are that we can enter only one team in each of the four qualifying tournaments,” McClung said. “We sent Travis Laurent and Richard Murdock and will take turns for the next three tournaments.”
Laurent and Murdock finished in 23rd place with a five-bass stringer weighing 10 pounds, 6 ounces after Saturday’s action.
The Lamar U. team won with a 21-11 catch. The top Louisiana team, Paul Clark and Brett Preuett of Louisiana-Monroe, finished third (18-14) and earned $1,000 for their team.
Other Louisiana schools included:
12TH PLACE: LSU-Shreveport (Joe Landry-Gavin Havard), 12-2.
20TH PLACE: Southeastern Louisiana (Andrew Cavell-Billy Smith III), 10-10.
30TH PLACE: McNeese State (Quinton Trammel-Colt Reeves), 5-6.
36TH PLACE: Louisiana Tech (Peyton Igo-Dalton Tam), 2-12.
The Louisiana-Lafayette team among the pre-tournament participants was not listed in Saturday’s final standings.
Volunteers needed
CCA-Louisiana is leading the campaign to enlist volunteers for two derelict crab-trap removal periods in February and March.
While the program is managed by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Louisiana Sea Grant, most of the volunteer workers have from groups like CCA, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.
The clean-up will cover three days, Feb. 25 and March 3 in the St. Bernard-Plaquemines area out of Sweetwater Marina in Delacroix, and March 17 in Terrebonne Parish out the LUMCOM office in Cocodrie. For details, call CCA (225) 952-9200, or go to website: http://www.lasea
grant.org/crabtraps.