Second split for duck, goose off to slow start

Published 9:05 pm Sunday, December 17, 2017

The second split for duck and goose season began yesterday and many hunters took to their blinds not really knowing what to expect.

“I’ve never seen it this bare,” D.L. Benoit said earlier in the week after spending 4 hours working on his blinds in fields in the Pine Island area (north of Interstate 10). “Not a duck or a goose.”

He added that other hunters in the area reported similar sightings.

“I do understand that the marsh people are reporting a lot of ducks so maybe when they start shooting they (ducks and geese) will come back here,” Benoit said.

There was better pre-hunt news from Capt. Sammie Faulk and the marsh.

“It looks like the snow and cold weather moved a few more birds into the marsh.” Faulk said.

He was out in the marsh on Friday tending to blinds and said he saw more ducks in the marsh in the afternoon than he has seen in awhile.

“All different kinds of ducks … divers, some big ducks and some teal,” Faulk said. “I really haven’t seen it like that in a while. I’m excited. We have a few more fronts coming through along with some rain so I think that it’s going to be great.

“I guess that we will just have to wait and see on opening day.”

Overall, there was a better lookout from Larry Reynolds of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries after his December flyover.

He said there was an estimate of 3.02 million ducks statewide and that was twice the November estimate of 1.55 million. It was below last year’s December estimate but higher than the long-term month estimate.

“Estimates for all species, except blue-winged teal, gadwall and mottled duck, increased from November with big increases in mallard (6,000 to 94,000 — 87,000 in Southwest Louisiana), green-winged teal (208,000 to 364,000 — 265,000 in Southwest Louisiana) and pintails (136,000 to 483,000 — 398,000 in Southwest Louisiana),” he wrote.

“This is clearly a major migration of ducks into south Louisiana since the November survey and was likely aided by freezing temperatures down to south Louisiana last week.”

The total ducks counted in the December survey in Southwest Louisiana was 1.69 million as compared to 968,000 in November.

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Shooting began yesterday and will continue through Jan. 21 in the Gulf Coast and West zones and through Jan. 28 in the East Zone.

Goose hunting is a little different. Statewide it will run through Jan. 31 for Canada geese and through Feb. 11 for light geese (snow, blue, ross) and specklebellies (white-fronted).