Photo by BillKinney.com.

Louisiana hunters looking for a deer season option that’s both inexpensive and good should seriously consider the wildlife management areas within the state this fall. The phrase “inexpensive and good” can set off warning bells, as people -- assuming that there has to be a catch somewhere -- often feel that anything claiming to combine the two probably isn’t going to be worth the effort. But the only catch with the WMAs is one that many hunters create themselves by bypassing these promising public areas in favor of hunting clubs or leases.

Of the 39 WMAs within the state, not all, naturally, are big producers. But Jackson-Bienville, Sabine, Clear Creek, Red River, Three Rivers, Sherburne, Peason Ridge, Fort Polk, and West Bay WMAs all have a history of strong deer populations, some yielding deer in the Louisiana trophy class.

JACKSON-BIENVILLE WMA
“Jackson-Bienville is always a good area,” said David Moreland, Wildlife Department chief for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “It’s owned by a timber company with which we have a lease on the land. Generally it’s an area that produces a lot of deer, and it does produce some quality deer.”

Jackson-Bienville Wildlife Management Area, 12 miles south of Ruston in north-central Louisiana, consists of 32,185 acres in Bienville, Jackson and Lincoln parishes. Numerous routes are available for entering the area, the major ones being U.S. Highway 167 and state Highway 147. The major landowner, the Weyerhaeuser Company, maintains an extensive system of gravel roads that are available for use by the public. Limited ATV use is allowed on marked ATV trails and on company-maintained gravel roads and woods roads.

The terrain at Jackson-Bienville WMA is primarily gently rolling hills bordering the Dugdemona River and five intermittent streams. Approximately 10 to 20 percent of the area can be considered bottomland. Weyerhaeuser and the private landowners intensively manage the area for timber. Habitat is highly diverse owing to the varying timber harvest schedule, the scattering through the WMA of hardwood areas, and over 40 miles of utility rights of way. A prescribed burning program conducted by Weyerhaeuser in association with its management for red-cockaded woodpeckers is a significant source of major habitat improvements.

Forest cover is predominantly pine, except in the bottomland regions; there, water, willow, overcup, and cow oak, sweet and black gum, beech, and various other species of hardwood dominate. Understory vegetation, which is dense, consists of a variety of shrubs, vines and annuals.

“The rut on that area occurs basically in December,” said Moreland. “The season opens about mid-November, but the actual rut is a little later. That tends to be when the hunters are successful with the bigger bucks.”

CLEAR CREEK WMA
This area lies south of Jackson-Bienville in southwest Louisiana. “The overall size of these deer is probably not as large as what you might see on Jackson-Bienville,” said Moreland, “or on some of our Mississippi Delta WMAs, but generally they produce some nice deer for the type of habitat.”

John Robinette of the LDWF describes Clear Creek as pine plantations with rolling hills and lots of draws. “We are harvesting 300 to 500 deer a year,” he said. “It just depends on hunter turnout and weather. Hunters are killing some quality deer there, 180- to 200-pound deer with nice racks.”

“That rut occurs early,” said Moreland. “The season opens at the end of October, and that’s generally when the rut is going on. It’s a pretty good area for hunters to go visit.”

SABINE WMA
Robinette’s description of this area lying approximately five miles south of Zwolle in central Sabine Parish: “(a) sleeper WMA which could use a lot more hunters.”