A long-time saltwater fishing/slash waterfowl hunting guide was pleased, extremely pleased, and wholeheartedly satisfied early last week when he talked about the 2018-19 duck hunting season that ended Jan. 20 in the Coastal Zone and the West Zone in Louisiana.

Kirk Stansel, who fishes in Calcasieu Lake and hunts in the marsh nearby as co-owner of Hackberry Rod & Gun, said the recently concluded season was the fourth-best the lodge’s guides and guests have enjoyed since 1997. The results in the southwest corner of the state were head and shoulders higher than many other parts of state.

There’s a good reason for that success, as the January aerial waterfowl population survey proved when the state’s waterfowl study leader and his staff flew transect lines in the Coastal Zone Jan. 9-10 and Jan. 15. There were many more ducks in southwest Louisiana at the time than the rest of the state compared to nearly even distribution across the state in December.

Larry Reynolds, waterfowl study leader for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said as much in his report Jan. 17

“Distribution of ducks was skewed toward southwest Louisiana with 63 percent being counted in that region compared to nearly even distribution in December. Dabbling ducks made up 80 percent of the estimate in southwest Louisiana, an increase from 70 percent in December,” Reynolds said, “while diving ducks fell from 76 of the estimate in southeast Louisiana to 41 percent on this survey due to a large decline in ring-necked ducks (425,000 to 129,000) in that region.”

He said a large concentration of ring-necks in the upper Terrebonne marshes south of Amelia in December was gone when the survey was conducted in January.

Where were the biggest concentrations of dabbling ducks located during the recent survey? 

Reynolds said concentrations of mixed dabbling ducks were on Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, Rockefeller Refuges and the marshes near the western side of Grand Lake, and a group of ring-necks was on the sewage lagoon near Rayne. Also, he said, large groups of mostly snow geese were spotted southwest of Gueydan and north of Lacassine NWR.

Many area duck hunters disappointed by their harvest in the 2018-19 waterfowl hunting season, which concludes overall today when the last shotgun roars in the East Zone,  won’t be surprised by the bottom line of the mid-January aerial waterfowl survey.

Reynolds said they counted an estimated 2.05 million ducks, slightly more than the estimated 1.94 million ducks counted in December. That is 33 percent lower than January 2018’s estimate of 3.07 million ducks and 31 percent below the long-term average of 2.99 million ducks. 

While there was an increase in dabbling ducks in January compared to December, it was balanced by a decline in diving ducks especially at Catahoula Lake where there were 152,000 fewer scaup, ring-necked ducks and canvasbacks compared to December, he said.