With the Bow season in full swing, Seppe Crovetto, a former Hahnville High School graduate, made the best of the early deer hunting. He hunts in North Louisiana near Tensas and bagged a beautiful 8-point two weekends ago. This is Seppe’s account of his successful bow hunt.
A cold front had just passed Friday during the day. Raining all day kept the deer from moving. With a full moon after the front, I decided to sleep in Saturday morning at home. My theory was the deer would be moving in the middle of the day. I arrived at our property in North Louisiana at about 11 am.
I drove directly to my stand and put out two bags of soybeans and a bag of corn 20 yards to the right of my lock on. I then went back and parked the ATV about 500 yards from my stand. I had packed a lunch planning on being in the stand all day. After pulling up my PSE Bow Madness. I settled in around 11:30 am. In theory my plan was wrong because I did not see a deer all day. At 6 p.m., the wind was blowing at about 5 to 10 mph from the north. Blowing my scent away from the feed. I felt I wouldn’t see a deer because the wind was blowing so hard.
I also hoped the wind would lay down at dark and lead to a good evening. I was facing into the wind, when I heard something moving behind me. It was very thick and I couldn’t see the deer. A young 6-point was walking behind a larger deer. I slowly turned and followed the deer walking into an opening. I picked up my binoculars and saw what looked like a good rack deer. So I grabbed my bow preparing for a shot. The deer crossed the road about 50 yards from my lock-on. At first, I thought they were walking away but they turned and headed right for the feeder. I sat motionless, not wanting to make a sound and spook the deer.
As the deer started eating, I waited until their heads were down to turn and raise my bow. I drew my bow and waited for the larger deer to turn broadside. Finally, he turned at 20 yards and I let my Rage 2 fly. Both deer ran off not knowing if I made a good shot. The thought of making the shot on the large deer set in and I started shaking.
I was shaking so hard I could not climb down out of the lock-on stand. I watched the deer run into some thick stuff and I heard him crash. I let the deer lay down for about 15 minutes, and then I went to track him before it was too dark. After walking about 75 yards from the stands, I found the deer lying next to an oak tree.
After a few Tiger Woods’ fist pumps I called my dad to share the news of my kill. The theory was wrong but the conditions were right!
Opening of duck season
This coming weekend, duck season will open in the West Zone. Many hunters this past weekend were brushing blinds and making preparations to hunt. The daily bag limit for ducks is six and may include no more than four mallards, two of which may be females. one pintail, one black duck, three wood ducks, one mottled duck, two scaup, one canvasback, and two redheads. The daily bag limit on coots is 15.
The daily limit on Mergansers is five, only two of which maybe hooded. Mergansers limits are in addition to the daily bag limit for ducks.
Lake Cataouatche has had plenty of grass on the Western end holding big numbers of coots. With the passage of recent cold front new ducks and coots have made
Lake Cataouatche and the Lake Salvador Management Area a winter home.
Ducks Seasons
West Zone (2 Splits) Nov. 14-Dec. 6 Dec. 19-Jan. 24
East Zone (2 Splits) Nov. 21-Dec. 6 Dec. 19-Jan. 31
Deer Hunters
Bow hunting has been open since Oct. 1. and runs until Feb. 15. Primitive arms opens this weekend, Nov. 14-20. The second splits for primitive arms closes out the season Jan. 25-31. All deer hunters should be aware of the deer tagging procedure. Prior to deer hunting, all deer hunters, regardless of age or license status, must obtain deer tags and have them in possession when hunting deer. Immediately upon harvesting a deer, the hunter must tag the deer with the appropriate carcass tag before it is moved from the kill site and complete the harvest report card. For further information, refer to the Louisiana Hunting Regulations 2009-2010 pamphlet.
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