Nothing like a cold, cloudy, windswept day to get a wild waterfowler's heart pounding.
Unlike the last several seasons, frigid conditions in the north-central states and sweeping into the Midwest has pushed ducks and geese southward and into Louisiana fields, marshes and swamps.
The biggest surprise of the first split is the number of ducks in the East Zone, especially north of Vidalia.
The early November survey in the Little River Basin - the Catahoula Lake area in past years - was as high as any year in recent memory, and a series of cold fronts only made the count increase.
Places where hunters counted their shots on one hand during the last five or six seasons held the possibility for hunters taking limits and near limits. The number of mallards showing up is off the charts for this early season with grays, spoonies and a few lingering teal showing up in post-hunt photos - with smiling hunters.
While this is the last day for the East Zone's first split, West Zone hunters go through next Sunday, and reports of pintails, teal, grays, ringnecks and tree ducks mixed with a few mallards are making up most of the take in fields and marshes.
Even better, Thanksgiving Day's cold front should push more birds into our state, and duck hunters have even more reason to give thanks for this bounty.
Timber tip
Our state's East Zone has something most of our West Zone doesn't have - flooded- timber hunting.
Conditions often indicated success: cloudy days favored marsh and rice-field hunting, while clear, cold skies favored the timber-hunt folks.
Why? A very learned waterfowl biologist once said it's because ducks have trouble seeing the water and a landing spot over timber in cloudy conditions. The sun gives them a clear look-see into the flooded areas and hunters can conceal themselves in the shadows on the trees.
When the sun creates shadows and exposes hunters' movement for ducks winging over marshes and fields, these conditions demand more disciplined actions by hunters in their blinds. That's why cloudy conditions favor West Zone hunters.
And, that leads to a Ducks Unlimited email from Jim Ronquest, an accomplished duck caller who grew up hunting Arkansas' flooded woods.
Ronquest's advice is worth the read on the DU website. He writes on shotguns and shooting and decoy spreads.
Go to DU's site: ducks.org/hunting/shooting-tips
The commission
Thursday's Wildlife and Fisheries Commission has a light agenda for the 9:30 a.m. meeting at state headquarters in Baton Rouge. If you can't attend, the meeting is streamed via webinar.
The agenda? To recognize Enforcement Division Sgt. Josh Harris for his work in boating law enforcement, and a updated report on Chronic Wasting Disease found Nov. 17 in a deer in a pen in Jeff Davis Parish.
The latest CWD find was detected by LSU Diagnostics Lab and the National Veterinary Services Lab from a deer found dead in a farm in that parish.
The result is a quarantine restricting movement into or out of the place, which, according to Wildlife and Fisheries' statement, "...including (a quarantine on) live deer or deer products" and activation of a 25-mile surveillance-zone radius for deer herds near the affected deer farm. This also activates an immediate review of recent movement records and further restricts movement of deer in all deer farms in the surveillance zone.
Since this is the first incidence outside the CWD area in the east-central parishes, Wildlife and Fisheries is encouraging deer hunters in Jefferson Davis Parish "...to assist in surveillance by submitting samples. A deer head with 4 to 5 inches of the neck is needed for diagnostic testing. The LDWF Field Office located at 1025 Tom Watson Road, Lake Charles is the closest option for submitting samples at this time."
Our All-American
Carsen Adcock, a junior at Haughton High School, is among 12 named to this year's Bassmaster High School All-American Fishing Team.
Added to his team's three wins, including the 200-team 2023 Bassmaster High School Series held on the Red River Bassmaster High School Classic, Adcock is a member of the school's Random Acts of Kindness Club, the ACT Domination Club, the FCA, the baseball team and represented his school at Louisiana's Boys State. He also helps his community in food and clothing drives and neighborhood cleanups all the while maintaining a 3.81 GPA.
The 12, representing 10 states, were selected from among 300 nominees, and will receive invitations to and be honored during the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic in Fort Worth, Texas.