Junction City, Oregon, artist Buck Spencer won the 2023 Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp Competition after his rendering of a pair of buffleheads was judged best among 19 entries submitted by eight Louisiana artists along with artists from Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington. It's the 35th annual contest and Spencer's work will serve as the Louisiana Duck Stamp for the 2023-2024 waterfowl season.
Junction City, Oregon, artist Buck Spencer won the 2023 Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp Competition after his rendering of a pair of buffleheads was judged best among 19 entries submitted by eight Louisiana artists along with artists from Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington. It's the 35th annual contest and Spencer's work will serve as the Louisiana Duck Stamp for the 2023-2024 waterfowl season.
In Louisiana outdoors circles, Saturday brings the most anticipated season.
If you’ve sat in a duck blind minutes before legal shooting time on opening day, then you’ve had an experience to last a lifetime.
Saturday begins a 60-day run in our state’s newly drawn West Zone. It’s the first day of a new three-split season. East Zone waterfowlers get their first shots the following Saturday in the first of their two-split breakdown.
Youth and military veterans got the first shots this weekend for their special West Zone hunts, and the same two groups will get a one-day early hunt Saturday in the East Zone.
Yeah, hunters pray for cold weather, and it looks like a cold front will make its way south just in time for a dry front to push in here sometime Friday with next Sunday’s morning low descending into the mid-40s in the our far-south climes.
Usually, the succession of cold fronts brings birds, certainly not in the numbers seen years ago, but enough of a migration to make for successful first-split hunts.
A handful of reports from Grand Chenier and Little Chenier in Vermilion and Cameron parishes proclaim there are more bluewing teal running the rice fields and marshes than have been seen in the past handful of years.
Even better, it appears the marshes there have recovered from the ravages of recent hurricanes and will provide enough submerged aquatic vegetation to keep the birds there through the first split.
Those reports also included enough gray ducks and shovelers — aka spoonies — to possibly include these larger ducks (teal are the smallest ducks we hunt), and there are some lingering tree ducks that have hung around before they make their way south to Mexico for the winter.
And, with the duck season comes reminders about needing federal and state waterfowl stamps along with a basic hunting license. If you have a lifetime hunting license, your state stamp is included. And don’t forget to sign the face of the stamps.
Last week, state Wildlife and Fisheries issued a report from The National Veterinary Services Laboratory which found the H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza — bird flu — in a bluewing teal taken by a hunter in southwestern Louisiana. The report also stated “several captive birds have died from HPAI in northeast Louisiana.”
This bird flu has been found in both wild birds and/or domestic poultry in 49 states. The national lab’s report stated some 3,000 wild birds and nearly 48 million domestic poultry have died from the flu.
The report further stated waterfowl can become sick and die from the disease, but there are some birds that carry this disease and do not show “clinical” signs.
While the Center for Disease Control considers bird flu a low risk to public health, “it is important to avoid contact with sick birds. Also, be mindful that hunting equipment may transport the virus. If you hunt waterfowl and have backyard poultry, plan for added biosecurity measures to keep your flock healthy.”
Other CDC safety guidelines for hunters and others handling wildlife include:
If you need more information, email LDWF veterinarian Dr. James LaCour: jlacour@wlf.la.gov or LDWF assistant veterinarian Dr. Rusty Berry: rberry@wlf.la.gov.
Veteran Ascension Area Anglers’ Tim Carmouche and Dwight Minogue from the Westside Bassmasters will represent Louisiana in respective Boater and Nonboater divisions in this week’s TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Championship.
The Wednesday-through-Friday bass tournament will be held on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Alabama, where the 100-plus bassin’ guys will be shooting for one of three spots in the 2023 Bassmaster Classic.
The field brings fishermen from 48 states, nine foreign countries and includes Paralyzed Veterans of America Angler of the Year Kurt Glass.
The full field will compete Wednesday and Thursday when the field will be cut to the top 10 in the Boater Division. The Nonboater Division champ is crowned after Thursday’s round and the remainder of the final-day field will also include the top two Boater Division guys from each of the five regions (if they’re not in the Top 10), along with the Nonboater champion and any Nonboaters who have enough weight to be in the Top 10 overall.
Bassmaster’s website — bassmaster.com — will carry the live weigh-in beginning near 2:30 p.m. daily.
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