Photo by GRADY HARRISON, JR.

In just a few months, the 2006-07 archery season for whitetails will begin, and serious Bayou State bowhunters are already out and about, diligently shooting targets and fine-tuning their archery tackle.

First of all, hurricanes Katrina and Rita without doubt dampened the lives and spirits of archers statewide. The entire Louisiana coast took direct hits from the two gigantic storms, and thousands of acres of coastal marsh were laid waste by tremendous surges of salt water. As a result, some hunting season dates were lost last year --’ among those, archery days.

However, David Moreland, wildlife division leader with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, reported in April that white-tailed deer in the delta areas of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya seem to have suffered less direly than had been feared earlier. Observations made in these two areas revealed the survival of adequate numbers of deer despite extensive habitat destruction and pervasive intrusion by salt water.

“I don’t see a problem with archery season opening in the delta areas for 2006-07,” said the biologist. “Although we did experience high winds and salt water, especially in the Mississippi Delta, I don’t foresee closing off lands there to hunters unless there are more storms this summer and fall.” Regarding the deer herd statewide, Moreland holds to estimates that put the number of whitetails residing in the Bayou State at some 1 million animals.

And --’ to get straight to this article’s theme --’ he reported that, according to LDWF surveys, approximately 20,000 whitetails have annually been taken by bow over the last several seasons.

Moreland also observed that although some 30,000 archery licenses have been sold at one time in the past, actual Louisiana bowhunter license sales have dropped off to somewhere near 24,300 for the 2004-05 season. “This could be due to a large chunk of baby boomers reaching the non-licensed age segment,” the LDWF official suggested. “These numbers have been slowly declining, and many older hunters will be using crossbows.”

As usual, Louisiana bowhunters enjoy an either-sex harvest for much of the archery-only season, the exception being Area 6, where a bucks-only rule is mandated for the period Oct. 1-15. Also, the daily harvest of one antlerless and one antlered deer will remain in effect on both private and public lands unless otherwise prohibited. Archers are advised to review the 2006-07 edition of the Louisiana Hunting and Wildlife Management Areas pamphlet prior to heading afield on the opening day of archery season.

Bowhunters are also urged to check regulations regarding the carrying of harvest documentation cards on their persons. At the time of this writing, proposed regulations would impose seasonal bag limits limiting hunters to taking three bucks and three antlerless deer, which would need to be documented immediately. If adopted, these regulations will appear in the 2006-07 edition of the Louisiana Hunting and Wildlife Regulations pamphlet, which is available at local LDWF headquarters or wherever licenses are sold; current regulations are also downloadable from the LDWF’s Web site, www.wlf.state.la. us/hunting/regulations/. (Continued)