<p class="p1">After a period to allow for public comment, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has released the dates for the 2018-19 duck and goose hunting seasons.

<p class="p1">It’s basically the same as last year with the coastal and west zones opening a week earlier than the east zone for duck hunting and then the east zone closing a week later.

<p class="p1">Splits for the coastal zone are Nov. 10-Dec. 2 and Dec. 15 – Jan. 10 with a youth hunt Nov. 3-4.

<p class="p1">The west zone will have the same splits and will have youth hunts on Nov. 3 and Jan. 26.

<p class="p1">The east zone will have its first split Nov. 17-Dec. 2 and its second Dec. 15 – Jan. 27.  Youth hunts are Nov. 10 and Feb. 2.

<p class="p1">The difference being that the east zone goes only a week in the first split and then goes a week longer in the second split.

<p class="p1">Teal season kicks things off on Sept. 15 and runs through Sept. 30.

<p class="p1">Geese are batched into only two zones – north and south and the dates for those hunts are the same in both for light geese (snow, blue, ross) and for speckle bellies (first split Nov. 3-Dec. 2, second split Dec. 15 – Feb. 10).

<p class="p1">Splits for Canada geese are Nov. 3-Dec. 2 and Dec. 15- Jan. 31.

<p class="p1">The dates for the conservation order for light geese (allows the use of electronic calls and unplugged shotguns and eliminates the daily bag and possession limits) are the same for both zones, Dec. 3 – Dec. 14 and Feb. 11 – March 10.

<p class="p2">•

<p class="p1">The daily bag limits remain the same. Six ducks can be taken daily with no more than four mallards (no more than two females), two canvasback, one mottled duck, one black duck, three wood ducks, three scaup, two redheads and two pintails.

<p class="p1">Daily bag limit on light geese is 20 and daily limit on speckle bellies is two while the daily limit on Canada geese is one.

<p class="p2">•

<p class="p1">According the final report by Larry Reynolds, the waterfowl program manager for the LDWF, on last year’s duck population survey, there were almost 50 percent more birds in our area at the end of January than they were the year before.

<p class="p1">The air survey produced these numbers for Southwest Louisiana: mallard (174,000), mottled duck (18,000), gadwall (444,000), wigeon (13,000), green wing teal (530,000), blue wing teal (41,000), shoveler (360,000), pintail (256,000), scaup (104,000), ringnecked (169,000) and canvasback (37,000).

{{tncms-inline content="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Louis Bonnette&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;has written about local golf for the&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;em&amp;gt;American Press&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/em&amp;gt;since 1971. His column appears each Sunday. Contact him at 274-5689 or lbonnette@mcneese.edu&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;" id="6da222d8-446a-4f0d-99f1-217b0c419e0a" style-type="info" title="LOUIS BONNETTE" type="relcontent"}}