Jr. Southwest Bassmasters
With the water on a slow rise after a summer of extraordinarily low water in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, it was good to read the report from the Junior Southwest Bassmasters’ January tournament on Atchafalaya Basin waters.
With the duck season rounding third and heading home for the last days of another 60-day season, the final survey from the State Waterfowl Study group showed a decline in the number of ducks from December’s estimate to January’s count for hunters …
Welcome to 2023 and a full slate of outdoors adventures especially if you want to get into the art — OK, the sport — of fly fishing.
HUNTING
With more hunting days left to take deer, small game, birds and waterfowl, state wildlife biologists and managers provided hunters with dates for the 2023-2024 seasons during Thursday’s Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting.
Seasons dates for resident game and migratory waterfowl/birds were outlined by the Wildlife Division of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries during Thursday’s Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting in Baton Rouge:
WEDNESDAY
Happy New Year, and if you’re looking for one of those proverbial resolutions then try this – take a youngster hunting and/or fishing and consider introducing them to what sporting conservation has meant to our country’s outdoors men and women.
Merry Christmas, and, on this special day, there’s the hope you’re doing something more important than reading this column.
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries waterfowl biologists’ Dec. 12-16, 2022 survey estimates of ducks in Southwest (SW), Southeast (SE) coastal zones and Catahoula Lake (CL) and a comparison with December surveys taken in 2021 and 2019 in the same…
Renowned fishing writer Ken Schultz came up with tips to “enjoy cold-water boating” late last week.
Have you checked out the weather forecast for later this week?
Oh by gosh, by golly, it’s time for mistletoe and holly — and, please, some cold weather to hunt ducks, deer, geese and all critters we enjoy for a sustenance. I mean, is there anything better than rabbit in red gravy served over spaghetti?
Well, Happy Holidays!
MONDAY-TUESDAY
TUESDAY-THURSDAY
Now that our deer season is in full swing, and there’s certainly more effort afield now that it “feels” like hunting season, it’s time to engage all hunters into the new CWD protocol.
The mysterious disease killing corals in the Gulf of Mexico’s largest coral sanctuary continues to puzzle scientists.
Jr. SW Bassmasters
Deer are moving, fish are biting and, hopefully, ducks and geese are flying, squirrels are in the hardwoods and fall’s first frost removed the lush cover for rabbits — and most school-aged children have the week off.
The collective prayers from tens of thousands of Louisiana’s West Zone duck hunters were so loud that they were heard all in all corners of the state Friday night.
In Louisiana outdoors circles, Saturday brings the most anticipated season.
The last days of an extended private recreational red snapper season produced enough of a catch to put our state slightly more than 1,700 pounds over our state’s allowed 809,315-pound allocation.
Jr. Southwest Bassmasters
Every dedicated fisherman has that one day he or she spent on the water that is engraved on their angling adventures’ memory.
Women in the outdoors!
High School qualifier
A long-delayed pump station considered the linchpin for a series of Bayou Lafourche and coastal restoration projects broke ground in Donaldsonville on Friday.
Hunters, no matter their game, remember 2021.
Thursday’s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission’s decision to set in motion a plan to dramatically alter speckled trout regulations should have come as no surprise.
Last month, an Omega Protein fishing boat overwhelmed by an unexpectedly big catch cut its 1,500-foot-long net and dumped an estimated 900,000 menhaden.
The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
After near 90 minutes of outlines and public comment during Thursday’s meeting, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission voted to post a notice to limit coastal fishermen to 15 speckled trout per day and a 13½-inch minimum size for “keeper” trout.
State fisheries regulators are proposing substantially lower catch limits for the popular but likely overfished speckled trout.
State Wildlife and Fisheries secretary Jack Montoucet signed off on an emergency declaration to reopen the private recreational red snapper season Friday for an eight-day run through Oct. 14 with a daily limit of four red snapper per angler.