St. Landry offers bountiful blend of game for hunters

When it comes to game harvests in St. Landry Parish, hunters are bringing home the ducks, doves, deer and squirrel.
“St. Landry Parish has a good mix of game,” said Chad Gaspard, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries private lands section biologist. “There’s good squirrel habitat, good waterfowl habitat, and good agricultural habitat for doves. The Mississippi Alluvial Valley also has good harwood bottomland habitat.”
“As a whole, it’s a mixed bag for St. Landry Parish — deer, waterfowl, squirrel and dove are probably the top game harvested.”
The department does not collect harvest numbers for private lands, but each year random proprety surveys are sent to hunters who purchased licenses the previous season, giving the department a statewide estimate of harvest data. Deer and turkey hunters are given tags with their license purchases, and hunters are required to call in the harvests to the department.
Gaspard is stationed in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, a region designated by the department, and he works out of the department’s Opelousas office. He works with landowners who are enrolled in the Deer Management Assistance Program.
“There’s about 60,000 acres of land in St. Landry Parish in DMAP,” Gaspard said. “Over 600 deer were harvested on these lands in the last three years. There is a deer harvested for every 90 to 100 acres. The deer hunting in Avoyelles Parish is considered good, and the harvest there is a deer for every 110 acres.”
“St. Landry Parish has a very healthy deer herd. Population numbers are looking good and have been holding steady for the last few years. There have been no big cases of blue tongue lately either. The deer population is holding strong.”
Last season, 1,177 turkeys were harvested across the state. Only four of those turkeys were harvested in St. Landry Parish. Vernon Parish topped the list with 205 turkeys harvested.
“There has been a decline in the parish’s turkey harvest,” Gaspard said. “Thirty were harvested in 2011. I think the decline is due to the lack of habitat. More land is going to agriculture, and turkeys need a pretty mixed ecosystem for their habitat.”
While the figures are not available for some harvests on private land, numbers are available for the harvests at Thistlewaite Wildlife Management Area, the only WMA in St. Landry Parish. The harvest information is obtained from self-clearing permits required by all users of the WMA system, but may not be completely accurate. 
During the 2014-2015 seasons, 171 deer, 658 squirrels, 24 hogs and 389 wood ducks were taken at the WMA.
“This was the best harvest rate recorded in the region (for deer), with a harvest rate of one deer per 64 acres,” said Tony Vidrine, the department’s Mississippi Alluvial South Region manager. “The hunter efforts were one deer per 35 hunter efforts.”
“This is about the same as other WMAs in region. Deer hunting is pretty good at Thistlewaite. There are other WMAs that have a little higher average, but not many. The deer herd is pretty good there.”
According to Vidrine, the data also reflects well for Thistlewaite, which at 11,000 acres of bottomland hardwood, is considered one of the state’s smaller WMAs.
Vidrine attributes the WMA’s squirrel harvest numbers to the length of the season, which opens in October and closes in February.
“It’s such a long season, and after deer season, some hunters go back to hunting squirrels,” he said. “It’s (the popularity of hunting) pretty close between ducks and squirrels. There are lots of waterfowl hunters. There are lots of small game hunters. And there are lots of hunters who do both.”
“The squirrel harvest fluctuates,” he continued. “If the mast crop is good, the following harvest is good. Duck harvest numbers also fluctuate. It depends on breeding grounds up north, which are a big factor. If the weather gets cold, hunters here do pretty good.”
Sherburne WMA, located partially in neighboring Point Coupee and St. Martin parishes, is also a popular hunting spot for St. Landry Parish hunters.
According to self clearing permits, bag checks and weigh station checks, 425 deer were harvested at the WMA for a harvest rate of one deer per 101 acres. More than 6,400 squirrels were harvested, by 3,907 hunter efforts for an average hunter effort of 1.6 squirrels per hunter effort.
Almost 350 hogs were harvested at the WMA, and more than 1,800 ducks were harvested. About 175 rabbits were harvested by 1,411 hunter efforts, and many of the rabbits are taken by squirrel hunters during squirrel season, which usually has the same dates as rabbit season.
Waterfowl is no doubt one of the most popular forms of game to hunt in St. Landry Parish, and according to LDFW waterfowl study leader Larry Reynolds, things are looking fine for this year’s duck season.
“The breeding population was extremely high, but the number of ponds was down 12 percent,” Reynolds said. “There was a high breeding population but a lower hatch. We should still be in pretty good shape with fall flights coming down the flyway.”
Duck habitat along the coast, as well farther north into the state, is also looking good.
“We have good submerged aquatic vegetation across the coast, and good water quality in the state,” Reynolds said. “We are not suffering from drought. Rivers are high, and we are doing OK as far as water. We could probably use a little less. The habitat here is average to above average. With the hot weather, some people will probably have to pump up dry habitat on managed water.”
According to Reynolds, waterfowl hunters in the coastal zone did well last season while hunters in the east and west zones did not do so well. The portion of St. Landry Parish east of La. 167 is located in the east zone, and the portion of the parish west of La. 167 is located in the coastal zone.
“The cold weather early was good for coastal hunters but not for east and west zone hunters,” he added.
Reynolds hosted several public meetings on waterfowl and waterfowl hunting this month at locations around the state, and information gathered at the meetings will be taken into consideration for planning future waterfowl seasons and regulations.
The biggest change this year is that the season is opening a week earlier in coastal zone, on Nov. 7, and will close a week earlier, on Jan 17.
Each year, Reynolds participates in aerial surveys before the seasons open to monitor the migrating waterfowl numbers, and he said he expects the trend of low September survey numbers to continue this season.
Local hunter Willie Burson chases three of the top four game in St. Landry Parish — deer, squirrel and rabbit, and the hunter reported a sub par teal season last year.
“We did not do too good during teal season, but we killed a few during big duck season,” Burson said. “We just didn’t kill a whole lot of ducks last year.”
Burson does his duck hunting in Basile and Tepetate, squirrel hunting near Kinder and deer hunting in the Atchafalaya Basin. “I got about 15 squirrels last year,” he said. “I didn’t kill any deer, but I only hunted once.”
“I hope we do better on ducks this year.”