White Lake Rice Field hunts
 

Anyone got reports from the rice field hunts. Supposed to be going in the morning but wanted to check on what the water looked like.

NO water. Bone Dry. I hunted blind 1 (Dec 28) and didnt fire a shot. Blind 3 was closest to body of geese and they killed a few specs and 2 mallards. They only have about 2 dozen shell spec decoys set up at each blind.

Good Luck.

Went last week, scratched. Hunted blind 1. Field was just a plowed pasture, hasn't been planted in rice for 2 years because of salinity. It was bone dry. Blind 3 was the only other one hunted that day, it has a little sheet water by it in a pasture, they limited out on specks by 8 and had one teal. We had a group of 4 specks work but land in the field 75 yards out, that was the only group that came remotely close. Good luck if you dont get blind 3.

that's what i thought, Now i just need to fugure out if i should go waste my time or head to another blind in back of Delcombre. They are busting the grays. I will just loose my money, but will get some birds.

50/50 shot in getting blind 3. Seems they are only hunting 2 blinds at a time now. Maybe call and see how many groups are coming in.

Question for those with knowledge of "White Lake Preserve".
How many acres?
How many blinds?
Why so few oportunities for Louisiana residents to hunt there?
Why don't you ever here of loads of ducks being killed on the property?
How much money did the state forgo as settlement against the prior owners for ownership?

I understand I have asked alot of questions but have done so to get everyone thinking about the state of Louisiana owning and controling a public entity that tax payers are subsidizing without any benefit of use.

x2 never understood whitlake

70,000+ acres Not all for hunting
3 rice field blinds. probably 2-3 marsh blinds
None of the rice field blinds were flooded.

I have hunted the rice fields a few times and there was always the same field about 500 yards away full of geese. Must be a habitat for them or they are being fed there.

Like RaginRob said, its a big chunk of property. For years we got drawn for a permit to fish the canal system, the whole complex is a paradise. 3 rice blinds that I know of, not sure of how many marsh blinds. All the marsh hunts have gotten cancelled this year, which includes all the corporate hunts held on the place. Manager said they are missing out on 300 thousand bucks from the cancelled hunts. Ive asked about the acess issue before, but it doesn't look like the place will ever get opened to the public. For whatever reason most people think it is best served as a refuge. It does cost 1 million a year to maintain/run it, and if it was a public area they may go broke trying to maintain it. You would think with all the money they are bringing in from the leases they just bidded out they would have sufficient funds to open more public access.

Who you hunting with behind delcambre?

Ill tell you this I hunt not far from it and have rode through it a couple times and it holds so many waterfowl its crazy at least when i went

Another boondoggle for the state and the taxpayers are saddled with it from now to eternity. Why buy something you know you don't have money to maintain? Rockafella has been a money pit for the state for years. Why did it take this long to figure out there might be oil under the surface and if extracted could make it self sustainable??? A third grader could make better decisions about our resources than those in baton rouge or Washington .

A good friend of mine leases a blind down there. Been a couple of times. Killed ducks on every hunt with one really good hunt.

Man that's some big *** specks

White Lake was gifted to the state, the state did not buy it, so it was kinda one of those 'gee thanks i guess' when they got it. It takes a LOT of money to manage a place like that and the few extra duck stamps that might be bought to hunt there aint gonna cut it that is why they don't let the public hunt there outright. You would need extra game wardens, biologists, technicians, etc. and that place is very hard to navigate, you just can't drive over to a water control structure on the back 40 on an ATV. This is where you need surface drives, airboats, etc. in order to navigate the place, which cost big money. They can't just borrow this from Rockefeller because the Rockefeller funds are set aside just for that place, and unfortunately BP didn't set aside a million dollars a year to the state to manage it properly.

BP was satisfying a judgement to the state that former Gov Foster steered White Lake Preserve into the deal instead of BP paying the judgement.
http://www.lawildlifefed.org/content.cfm?new=230&id=178

Checkout what they are getting for leases on the property. At the time in 2002, it was said only those with $$$$ would ever hunt on the property.

http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/whitelakeleases

Good lord!:eek:

It was not a 'gift' per se, but it was not bought. It sorta reeks of politics as usual, BUT it is much better to get money from leasing than having to pay an arm and a leg to manage it for public use. We already have hundreds of thousands of acres of public land to play on anyhow. And the whooping cranes out there are having a tough enough time as it is, imagine how long they would last if 100 t-boy jeansonnes and boudreaux thibodeauxs were out there:rotfl:

State should have taken the $38,000,000 plus intrest judgement but in the end they would have probably sqandered it like they have so much of our money.:pissed:
Sure would have helped with the budget deficits LDWF are always having to deal with.

x2....

Thats what I'm talking about. Nice