Duck duck, goose goose

If you’ve got a good duck hole with good water, you have to be excited about the opening of the second

Duck hunters will again be hitting the rice levees and flooded woods this weekend.

split of duck season in the Eastern Zone this coming weekend. Reports from the field show there are quite a few ducks  – and geese – in the area.

Earlier this week there seemed to be more, but some of them left before the storm front that blew through with a fury on Monday. Here’s the latest from Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Duck Leader Larry Reynolds:

“We did a flying waterfowl population survey (by plane, not duck) in North Louisiana, and while the final numbers are not in, we saw exactly what hunters had been describing: good numbers of ducks wherever there was water.”

The survey focused mainly on McGowan Brake, Wham Brake, flooded ag fields around Monroe and Mollicy Farms. A little further to the south, concentrated counts were done on Grassy Lake, Spring Bayou, Pomme-de-Terre, flooded ag fields in the Marksville/Bunkie area and the Catahoula Lake area.

“We probably saw more gadwalls than any other species, but there were good numbers of mallards, pintails, greenwings, and ring-necked ducks.” Reynolds said.  “Catahoula Lake had a big increase in ducks from the November survey, with big numbers of pintails and canvasbacks.”

There are no official harvest estimates for North Louisiana from the first split yet.  Hunting reports were good from some of the WMAs that held water from early-fall rains and from ag habitats that were flooded. Stay tuned…