Has anybody else heard this...

[flare_king]

I had a guy from Louisiana tell me that the reason there was a chit load of ducks over there was because of the hurricane that came through last fall made it extremely hard for the farmers to harvest this year. He said there was a large area of unharvested fields in the La delta and they are all full of ducks. He also said the federal wardens wouldn't allow these areas to be hunted. State guys are arguing that is was a natural disaster and to let the folks hunt but feds say no way. Anybody else heard this.

[DuckslayerSX2]

new news to me

[DUCK-HUNT]

It's true... after the hurricane they had to shred ALOT of the fields for insurance reasons and this is not a normal AG process according to the feds so there are thousands of acres flooded with thousands of ducks sitting on them that you can not hunt.... Sucks

[H20fowlkiller]

I know that Sabine NWR or WMA whichever it is was done this way the first split and i believe there were able to harvest it during the break and hunteres are now allowed in but not killing much, the ones that arent being allowed to hunt on are public land that is farmed by the state

[Bankermane]

They call better in La. They all got together and started calling and walla ducks.

[Blackduck]

I don't know how many acres we are talking about bit I think it is substantial. I've heard reports of this from Lake Charles to north of Baton rouge. Several folks who hunt well inland in Louisiana have been having terrible seasons. I would hope that the Feds would do something constructive with all these areas like a bird count but I'm not bankink on it.

[curcio13085]

Well yea its called the louisiana delta. It's 60k acres. Loads of ducks on it.

[Click]

Typical Fed.

[Faithful Retrievers]

From what I have heard as we saw a small portion here was that there was alot of rice on the ground. Once the rice lays down and you have to drop the header the waste is more than normal. I would guess that it left a good bit for the ducks to feed on.

[mudsucker]

From what I have heard as we saw a small portion here was that there was alot of rice on the ground. Once the rice lays down and you have to drop the header the waste is more than normal. I would guess that it left a good bit for the ducks to feed on.

Damn DU!

[Bourbon]

It is Delta Plantation. This is the description from there website.

Louisiana Delta Plantation consists of over 26,000 row crop and rice acres and nearly 7,500 Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) acres.

Here is part of the article from the Advocate.

Tough to take

Most Louisiana duck hunters get ready for the next duck season the day after the previous season ended.

Imagine how Baton Rouge hunter Steve Uffman and the hundreds of duck hunters felt this week when their hunting area — Delta Plantation in central Louisiana — was shut down by federal agents.

Uffman explains: “The Feds have ruled that the entire plantation is not to be hunted. It’s considered baited. The problem is that some fields had milo crops that were deemed an insurance loss due to the hurricanes (mostly Gustav) and the insurance companies would not allow the farmers to disc until they made the inspections and adjustments.”

That took several weeks, Uffman said, and farmers disced the fields in early October.

“Since the seeds have not regerminated, a few weeks ago the federal game agents ruled those specific fields unhuntable,” Uffman said.

He said that on the eve of the season opener in the East zone, federal game wardens went further and ruled all fields regardless of crop or agricultural practice on the 30-square-mile farm are too close to those fields and are also considered baited since hunters would benefit from such fields.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/outdoors/34532024.html?index=1&c=y

[hntrpat1]

Sabine refuge doesn't even have crops on it where in the hell did you here that? It is all marsh. It was closed the first split because of damage but now that it is open they aint killin $#!+ anyways. You must be thinking of Delta farms south of Catahoula lake. They have something like 70,000 acres total that they lease for duck hunting. Because of Gustav they didn't harvest most of the crops, once USDA came and looked at it the folks on the leases thaught they could get away with discin the crop. Federal GW got wind of this and shut down most of the operation. So while tryin to fight to get the right to hunt it they kept water on their fields, basically making a huge refuge, screwing up everybody hunting in central La. Well it went to court and they sided with the feds and I think Delta farms did not refund lease money either. Screw those dudes they knew they were doing wrong. They got what they had coming to em. The law should have made them pull the boards draining the fields but that ain't gonna happen.

Oh and forgot they did a fly over count last month estimated 750,000 birds on that place.

[flare_king]

I know the weather has played a major role in the low number of ducks in the Ms Delta, but after looking at the migration map even when the ducks were this far south they were in La. I guess what I am getting at is did this impact our numbers?

[hntrpat1]

Maybe a little I would guess.

[Click]

I am curious what qualifies as "normal agricultural practice." What about duck clubs that plant simply for the ducks and leave the crop standing? Is this considered normal agricultural practice?