Teche Area outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen who enjoy squirrel hunting but lack access to private lands have more than a shot at carrying out freshly bagged squirrels on public lands when the small game season opens Oct. 7.

Two Wildlife Management Areas within a reasonable drive rank high on the list of squirrel harvest numbers year in and year out. Both of those WMAs are in the Atchafalaya Basin – Attakapas Island WMA and Sherburne WMA.

While they don’t hold a candle to the amount of squirrels harvested in another WMA in the Lafayette Region, Richard K. Yancey WMA, Attakapas Island WMA and Sherburne WMA offer fair to good squirrel hunting and both are coming off productive seasons in 2022-23.

Squirrel hunters killed 2,599 squirrels with 1 squirrel per hunter effort last season on the Sherburne WMA, a 43,637-acre area in Pointe Coupee, St. Martin and Iberville parishes. Attakapas Island WMA, which covers nearly 30,000 acres in Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary parishes, yielded the highest number of squirrels per hunter effort – 2.5 (an increase from a highly respectable 2.0 in 2021-22) – in the Lafayette Region where 955 squirrels were bagged.

Those Lafayette Region harvest numbers pale in comparison to the state’s leading squirrel producer in 2022-23, the big, sprawling Richard K. Yancey WMA. The 70,872-acre area in Concordia Parish gave up 5,926 squirrels (1.6 squirrels per hunter effort) last season, according to results provided early this past summer by Tony Vidrine, who retired after a 39-year Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries career as the region’s biologist manager in July.

That WMA also had the distinction of giving up the highest squirrel harvest in the Sportsman’s Paradise.

Arthur Hebert, the Lafayette Region’s biologist supervisor who has a camp along Beehive Chute in the western part of the Atchafalaya Basin, hunts both Sherburne WMA and Attakapas WMA, which is accessible by boat only. He realizes many squirrel hunters might be concerned about any ill-effects from this prolonged, hot and dry summer.

Hebert said he believes the region’s mast crops may be impacted to some extent by the prolonged drought. That doesn’t necessarily cast gloom and doom for the upcoming squirrel season outlook anywhere.

“Squirrels are resilient. They’ll find something to eat out there,” the veteran biologist said in mid-summer.

Richard K. Yancey WMA’s eye-opening 2022-23 harvest was less than the previous season’s take of 7,879 squirrels (2.6 squirrels per hunter effort). Vidrine noted before last season began there was an average mast crop on that huge WMA.

Another LDWF veteran biologist said the saving grace for potential squirrel hunting success following this summer is water. Cliff Dailey, who oversees the Pineville Region’s WMA, also has some concerns about the mast crop.

“Luckily, the areas I manage have ample creeks and sloughs,” Dailey said.

“As far as mast crop, there might be an abortion of the mast crop … not a total abortion. There could be a reduction.”

His region, which is right above the Lafayette Region WMAs, has one of the top squirrel hunting areas in Louisiana – Dewey W. Wills WMA. Hunters averaged 1.2 squirrels per effort there last season while registering a harvest of 2,863.

“I think Dewey Wills is going to be about like it has been. If we get 2 ½ squirrels per hunter effort, that’ll be a good average for us,” he said.