Acadiana’s rabbit hunters who enjoy hunting public lands have the No. 1 rabbit hunting Wildlife Management Area here in their backyard, the Atchafalaya Basin.

Based on last season’s numbers plus those of 2022-23, there’s no better rabbit hunting on WMAs in the Sportsman’s Paradise than Attakapas Island WMA in the Lafayette Region. Nowhere.

How successful was rabbit hunting in 2023-24 in our backyard WMA? These “lapin” numbers jump off the page when you put your eyes on them – 6,615 rabbits harvested in 2023-24 after 2,105 rabbits were bagged on the 27,962-acre WMA in 2022-23, a result the region’s biologist manager called “incredible.”

If that rabbit hunting season was incredible at Attakapas Island WMA, then 2023-24 was beyond belief or, as the Lafayette Region’s biologist supervisor, Arthur Hebert, said, “… even crazier.”

How crazy? The second-highest rabbit harvest on a WMA in the state was 354 on the Atchafalaya Delta WMA, a hop, skip and long jump south-southwest of Attakapas Island WMA. Atchafalaya Delta WMA is in the Coastal Lafayette Region.

The third-highest rabbit harvest on the state’s public lands last season was 219 at Maurepas Swamp WMA in the Hammond Region.

There’s a reason for the 4,510-rabbit increase on Attakapas Island WMA in the harvest from 2022-23 to 2023-24, Hebert said in early August while talking about the overall hunting outlook (deer, ducks, squirrels and rabbits) in the Lafayette Region.

The veteran biologist said several natural factors combined for the rabbit hunting bonanza. The Atchafalaya River dropped to a low level in timely fashion and exposing shoreline with a good mixture of different soil components, mostly sand and clay.

As a result, vegetation grew and spread to provide prime cover for wildlife, including rabbits. Beaucoup rabbits took advantage of the conditions to produce at least two litters before the hunting season started in 2023.

All those rabbits munched on a bumper crop of forage, mostly blackberries, dewberries and greenbriars, the latter which provides food and cover.

And the river rose before the season, thus concentrating the rabbits.

“Hunters had everything going for you,” Hebert said.

Rabbit hunters with dogs had a veritable field day each time out. Rabbit dogs are allowed after the last primitive firearm season.

“People take advantage of it. We get a lot of dog hunters,” he said.

Hebert believes rabbit hunting will be way above average again this season, weather and water conditions permitting. There should be plenty of tasty rabbits for stew, sauce piquant, roasting, deep frying, etc., once the season gets underway Oct. 5.

“Coming off back to back dry summers, the rabbit population has responded with excellent recruitment. Rabbit populations follow boom and bust cycles. When conditions are favorable their populations can respond quickly,” Hebert wrote in his annual report earlier this year for the Louisiana Sportsman.

He’ll more than likely sample the rabbit hunting on the Attakapas Island WMA just like he did in 2023-24.

“I went out a couple of times and got eight on foot,” Hebert said, emphasizing the last two words.

In other words, hunters don’t need a rabbit dog to limit out on that sweet spot along the Atchafalaya River’s natural loamy ridges.

“Along the river is a great spot. Anything out of Myette Pointe. Right there. You don’t have to go far. Get on one of the sandbar islands and walk one,” he said.