Harvest numbers are ultra-impressive from last season for one of the wildlife management areas in the Coastal and Nongame Resources Division — so high that many hunters might do a double-take and make immediate plans to hunt it in 2016-17.
Atchafalaya Delta WMA is known for its great waterfowl hunting, attracting ducks and hunters like a magnet.
While the success rate was high in that duck hunting mecca last season, those aforementioned high harvest numbers weren’t for ducks — they were for deer.
Deer hunters who know that reaped the benefits last two seasons on Atchafalaya Delta WMA, according to game biologist Lance Campbell.
“Spoil islands” on the main delta serve as perfect semi-upland deer habitat, Campbell explained.
“I think the numbers will be pretty similar to last year, and last year was our second-highest number on record,” the biologist said. “I don’t see any reason the numbers will be any different than the last few years.
“I think the numbers (this season) will be pretty similar. If you look at the numbers over time, they kind of increase.”
In 2015-16, more than 190 deer were harvested by bowhunters and youth hunters (only five of those harvested deer were accounted for by youths with firearms).
There were 4,156 hunter efforts to translate into one deer per 21.5 hunter efforts.
The Atchafalaya Delta’s five-year average deer harvest is 180.
And there are quality deer to go with the quantity.
“From a size perspective, they’re pretty impressive,” Campbell said.
To wit: More than 10 deer had at least one main antler beam measuring 15 inches to 20 inches. Several deer had at least one antler base circumference of 5-plus inches, and more than 20 deer were 8- to 10-pointers.
“Historically, this area has produced some of the larger deer harvested across coastal WMAs, and there is no evidence that this trend will change over time,” Campbell said.
Only bowhunting is allowed on the Atchafalaya Delta from the Oct. 1 through the end of January, with the exception of Big Island, which is closed in October.
Of course, there are other coastal WMA deer-hunting opportunities, with the most-consistent being Pass-a-Loutre and Salvador WMAs, Campbell said.
At Pass-a-Loutre, 54 hunter efforts last season yielded six deer, while 122 hunter efforts at Salvador yielded nine deer.
Pass-a-Loutre WMA also is the second-best bet for harvesting a trophy buck, Campbell said.
“Although participation and total harvest were lower than Atchafalaya Delta, Pass-a-Loutre and Salvador both had higher average kill-per-efforts again this past year,” he said. “Hunters at Pass-a-Loutre harvested an average of one deer per nine efforts and Salvador hunters harvested one deer per 13.6 efforts. These are very good averages for coastal WMAs.”
Pass-a-Loutre has low deer-hunting participation because of its remoteness and accessibility, he said. However, it is a “great place to hunt deer for hunters who are willing to put in the effort,” he said.
Campbell said LDWF staff maintain shooting lanes on the property.
Campbell and biologist Shane Granier said overall habitat conditions on coastal WMAs is highly favorable. They noted the lack of extreme weather events (tropical storms, hurricanes, drought, flooding, abnormally cold weather) as bonuses.
“Fortunately, we have not had a significant storm in the last four years,” Campbell said. “Hurricane Isaac (in 2012) was the last storm to impact our coastal WMAs.”
He said many outdoorsmen go hunting in the morning and then go after redfish.
“All of our WMAs are unique for what they offer,” Campbell noted.
There is a reason the Atchafalaya Delta WMA is as much a duck hunting paradise as it is a deer hunting hotspot: It keeps growing, particularly the area outside the Wax Lake Outlet, to provide fertile delta with plenty of food.
Pass-a-Loutre WMA is right there with it as a popular duck-hunting destination because of its similar deltaic marshes, Granier said.
“We anticipate duck hunting on coastal WMAs to be average for the 2016-17 waterfowl season,” according to the report from Granier and Campbell. “Habitat conditions are very good on all coastal WMAs due to steady rainfall, high river stages and the lack of any significant tropical storms or hurricanes over the past four years.”
Records show coastal WMAs’ waterfowl harvest was down a little last season, but it remains enviable as far as public duck hunting goes. It went from 3.4 ducks per hunter effort two seasons ago to 2.2 ducks per hunter effort last season.
Hunter efforts also dipped to 5,040 in 2015-16 to 5,600 in 2014-15.
Campbell and Granier agreed that every coastal WMA offers fair to good duck hunting, with the possible exception of Salvador WMA — which has a problem.
Open water, which is preferred for duck hunting, is on the decline at Salvador because of encroaching water hyacinths and emergent vegetation growth, the biologists reported.
“Open-water habitat is disappearing,” said Campbell, noting that waterfowl numbers totaled just .9 ducks per hunter effort.
There was even more action on Pass-a-Loutre WMA, where 610 hunter efforts resulted in 3.6 ducks per effort.
As for Point-aux-Chene, 2,230 hunter efforts resulted in 1.7 ducks per effort.
Atchafalaya Delta WMA was the site 2,040 duck hunters chose last season. They downed 2.4 ducks per hunter effort.
With the Atchafalaya River high through June, the vast WMA benefited from a habitat perspective, Campbell said. Ditto to the east for Pass-a-Loutre WMA.
“It builds up those deltas and the waterfowl benefit” with abundant duck potato, he said.
On Atchafalaya Delta WMA, Campbell said there is a sweet spot.
“The Wax (Lake Delta) builds more than the main delta does.” he said. “There’s a tremendous flow going down the cut. The main delta doesn’t have near as much building of grounds.”
He anticipates highly successful duck hunting there this season, providing the ducks make the southward migration en masse.
He said some “really good duck hunts” away from the maddening crowd can be enjoyed on Pass-a-Loutre WMA.
“There’s minimal hunting pressure because it’s so remote,” Campbell explained. “There can be successful waterfowl hunting and deer hunting because there’s not as much competition for space.”
Some of the most-productive rabbit hunting should be on Salvador WMA, where approximately 2.6 rabbits were bagged per hunter effort last season.
Most of the success is enjoyed along canals, where the ground is higher.
Rabbit hunters also averaged 1.6 and .6 rabbits per hunt, respectively, on the Atchafalaya Delta and Pointe-aux-Chenes WMAs.
Shooting lanes have been kept up by staffers to benefit wildlife and small game hunters on the Atchafalaya Delta’s Big Island and Pass-a-Loutre’s Reservoir, although the rabbit harvest was minimal last season at the latter.
Point-au-Chene and Lake Bouef WMAs are the only coastal areas that have noteworthy squirrel populations, the biologists reported. Squirrel hunting is most popular at Pointe-aux-Chenes’ Point Farm Unit, which has approximately 1,500 acres of forested habitat and includes more than 500 acres of hardwood trees planted as part of mitigation projects.
Dove hunters should embrace Point-aux-Chene WMA, where LDWF staffers plant dove fields at the Point Farm Unit.
Hunters last season averaged .7 doves per hunt, although fewer doves than usual used the planted fields.
However, the 2016-17 dove hunting season there looks especially promising because the fields got adequate rainfall after planting.
