Louisiana Hunts 20-21

[Shangobango]

You ought to be hitting the weather just right. It is warm and wet out here now. Whoever invented thermocell should receive a Nobel prize.

 

[antlerradar]

Looks a little different than your hunt in SE Mt.

 

[Shangobango]

Looks a little different than your hunt in SE Mt.

For sure. I cant wait to get back up that way. I hope I draw pronghorn for the upcoming season. I still haven’t eliminated a short trip up this spring either. My son is pretty insistent that he wants to hunt Merriams up there again.

 

[Shangobango]

My perch for the morning from my climber. Will hunt the hang on tomorrow when the wind changes.

 

[Shangobango]

Still hanging in there. Been awful slow. Way less shooting than I expected.

 

[3855WIN]

The White Boot Army should be walking out about now. You’ll see something soon.

 

[Shangobango]

Went out for a couple hours about 1130. Walk back down the boat landing and some yahoo put in at our private landing and left his truck parked under the hill off of the concete in the mud. No way he gets out without cutting some major ruts. My uncle locked the gate at the top of the hill and left a note on his truck. He is gonna have to come see somebody to get through the gate. The landing is plainly posted with a pipe gate across it. People like him tearing it to hell and leaving it for us to keep up is why we built the gate and posted it about 10 years ago. Guess we’ll have to just keep it locked up tight.

 

[Shangobango]

I’m still at it. Sure has been slow as far as deer sightimgs the last 7 to 10 days. Makes me think I should of been doing more shooting of and less looking at deer when I was seeing so many. Still got a month and a half of season. I’ll keep grinding.

 

[Laelkhunter]

Good Luck. I have been following. We have been hunting Richard Yancey WMA for years (used to be called Three River/Red River WMA). Things are real slow. Worst year ever. Opening weekend heard 6 shots Sat and 4 Sunday, when over 1600 hunters were supposed to be in there. Check-in station (W&F mandatory) had very few deer come through. Mosquitoes are having a feast (on us). Thermacell barely keeps them at bay. Will continue to follow, and hope to see you with that monster buck-He should be in there somewhere.

 

[Shangobango]

Good Luck. I have been following. We have been hunting Richard Yancey WMA for years (used to be called Three River/Red River WMA). Things are real slow. Worst year ever. Opening weekend heard 6 shots Sat and 4 Sunday, when over 1600 hunters were supposed to be in there. Check-in station (W&F mandatory) had very few deer come through. Mosquitoes are having a feast (on us). Thermacell barely keeps them at bay. Will continue to follow, and hope to see you with that monster buck-He should be in there somewhere.

Thank you! I hope your hunts go well from here on out.

From what I gather talking to folks, public land is way down on harvest with hunter effort still rising almost statewide this year. We gonna have to start managing hunter numbers on public a bit better if you ask me. Time to go to lottery hunts on State WMA gun hunts in my opinion. Do good population surveys after the season and adjust accordingly.

Don’t even get me started on turkeys.

Been pondering on it all weekend. Time to do something.

 

[antlerradar]

From what I gather talking to folks, public land is way down on harvest with hunter effort still rising almost statewide this year. We gonna have to start managing hunter numbers on public a bit better if you ask me. Time to go to lottery hunts on State WMA gun hunts in my opinion. Do good population surveys after the season and adjust accordingly.

Don’t even get me started on turkeys.

Been pondering on it all weekend. Time to do something.

Louisiana is not the only state with this issue.

 

[Shangobango]

Louisiana is not the only state with this issue.

Absolutely. Some States will get in front of it and some won’t. I am afraid Louisiana is going to fall in the latter category.

 

[Shangobango]

Well no deer sightings over the whole weekend. I did manage to tweak the heck out of my knee while taking the boat out of the river though so there is always that lol. I have been limping around all day. Nothing swollen but swore as all get out. I think I strained my LCL. I am going to take it relatively easy for the next couple days and try to get this thing feeling better before the weekend. It was feeling ok once I got it loosened up this morning but I think I have overdone it today. If it doesn't get better I guess I will have to go in and have it checked out.

I don't have enough season left go on IR. I shudder at the thought.

On another bright notet he guy that parked under the hill at the landing the other day was just one of those people who doesn't care about posted signs and rutting up other people's property. He had every excuse in the book as to why he didn't know it was posted and why he parked in the mud under the hill. He apparently missed the posted signs and the common sense gene.

Fact is that the private landing was 2 river miles closer to where he was hunting vs. the public landing and he thought that if he parked under the hill then maybe no one would notice. It all became pretty apparent the next morning when we saw where he parked his boat to walk in the next day.

 

[Shangobango]

I can’t help myself. Slow at work, cool, cloudy, equals hunting for me. I eased through the half mile walk to my box blind this afternoon. Knee feels ok, I just have to remind myself not to get too frisky.

 

[Shangobango]

I hunted the farm yesterday. I saw what I believe was the 7pt that I have been seeing regularly. He crossed the road at about 325 yards. That was my only deer sighting of the week on the farm. The deer there must be almost completely nocturnal right now judging from the cameras and the amount of sign with no sightings.

I am back at the camp for the weekend to hunt a bucks only rifle hunt on a State WMA.

My buddy came with me as he has been wanting to hunt over this way. He got his climber set up on an old stream crossing that I have hunted for years. I am hunting on the ground off of a stool as I am still being cautious with my knee. Lifting the bottom of the climber is one motion that still lets me know it is not at a 100%. I need it at full strength for the January archery rut hunt over here so I am not taking any chances.

I will update throughout the weekend as signal allows.

 

[Shangobango]

Been pretty slow so far this morning. Lots of wood ducks but no deer yet.

 

[Shangobango]

Was slow yeaterday. See what happens today. 50 degrees, misty, foggy.

 

[Shangobango]

Just saw 3 otters boogieing through the woods. Had two cameras handy and never thought to pick one up. Love looking at those things.

Otters are my favorite furbearer to target and one of my favorite animals period. For a time I was as obsessed with otters as I have ever been any animal except for maybe deer.

 

[Shangobango]

No deer sightings again this weekend. This is the worst dry spell I have had in quite some time. I don't ever remember it being almost Christmas and me still having all 6 of my Louisiana deer tags in my pocket. I can't complain because I was seeing lots of deer the last couple of weeks of November and first week of December.

Things will turn around. I have to do work stuff for a couple of days. After that I think I'll just keep hunting.

 

[LaSportsman]

Louisiana needs to get serious about stopping poaching to increase deer quality and numbers. I'm sure poachers are everywhere but night hunting in LA is bad. Uphill battle.

Good luck on your hunt.