Hunting
Dove tails
Don’t have a private field at which to shoulder a shotgun at the dove population? No problem: Bring plenty of shotgun shells to one of the Gulf Coastal Plains North Region WMAs — specifically Elbow Slough WMA.[…]
Statewide LA
Inshore Fishing
Attacking the Invader Gumbo
Eighty snails should produce about 2 ¼ pounds of meat. The roux in this recipe calls for a 2-to-1 ratio of oil to flour. Less oil can be used to reduce the amount of oil in the finished gumbo.[…]
Bass Fishing
Bass fishing breaks is all in the approach
Effective use of shoreline breaks requires a mental balance of the opportunities and risks. In some cases, break represents a damage hazard to your boat, while other cases just present potential fishing disruptions.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Crappie scents in suspense
Even for the tournament types, crappie fishing doesn’t always need to be a high-strung tension fest. No doubt, you’d be amazed at the therapeutic benefits of dropping the anchor and deploying a few float rigs baited with something smelly.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Tippets
September is a month of transition as water temperatures begin to drop: slowly at first, due to radiative cooling, and a bit more toward the end of the month as cool fronts invade the state.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Scented crappie baits – the facts
Crappie anglers have many products from which to choose. Some may be marketed more heavily to the bass world, but a shad is a shad and garlic is garlic, regardless of who’s smelling it.[…]
Hunting
Don’t get lost on the water
It’s easy to get turned around while floating on creeks and sloughs in flooded timber because the channel can be difficult to see.[…]
Hunting
Expert survival tips
Lt. Lane Kincaid of the Wildlife & Fisheries offered these pointers to help keep Louisiana sportsmen safe:[…]
Deer Hunting
How the deer rut forecast is made
This forecast is based upon camera survey work that has always found major scraping to begin sometime between the new and full moons.[…]
Deer Hunting
Brain abscesses in deer
There has been quite a bit of research in the Southeast on the issue of brain abscesses, and researchers are finding that more bucks die because of this natural mortality than from hunting in some areas having a good adult buck component in the population.[…]
Deer Hunting
How to scout deer like a biologist
I am always looking for sign when I am hunting — what plants deer are browsing on, where acorns are falling, are the rubs fresh, what direction is the deer coming from when it makes the rubs, are the scraps fresh, are they being worked regularly?[…]
Columns
Trout Masters excerpt: Pursuing big specks with live croakers
Pursuing trophy trout can be a slow, pain-staking process – but Charlie Lieux would rather catch five big fish than 25 2- or 3-pounders.[…]
Bass Fishing
Sulphur firefighter catches 11.41-pounder at Toledo Bend
Daniel Burnett Jr. is used to dealing with plenty of heat, but not the kind that was coming from his camper’s air conditioner earlier this month near Toledo Bend.[…]
News Breaker
Teal season opener a mixed bag
Louisiana’s opening weekend of teal season played out a lot like a beginner’s class in real estate basics: It all boiled down to location, location, location.[…]
Bass Fishing
The Terminator Weedless Football Jig
On a hot July day in Knoxville, Tenn., Ott DeFoe was sorting and arranging his fishing tackle while preparing to go fish Bassmaster tournaments at Lake Champlain and the Deleware River.[…]
News Breaker
Recent duck population increases masking detrimental wetlands losses
While many duck species populations are at or near historic levels now, officials are concerned that continued loss of wetlands in the U.S. Prairie Pothole Region, combined with the inevitable return of dryer weather there, will have serious implications for the future.[…]