2015-2016 Hog Takes in PR WMA

[Hoggin]

For the amount of trips I made to PRWMA this 2015-2016 hunting season the amount of hogs I took was embarrassingly low. I didn't see the amount of trails in 15-16 that I saw in 14-15 and chalked that up to the lack of early freezes (plenty of vegetation = hogs not moving a lot at night or certainly not moving a lot during the day). I saw plenty of droppings and rooting signs, but I didn't see the large superhighways of trails this year that I saw last year. I took a few hogs, I hit one or two that I could not locate, and I saw a half dozen that I couldn't get a shot on, but by and by I saw three times as many hogs in 14-15 that I saw in 15-16.

This was only my third hunting season so I'm still learning.

I'm wondering if you guys saw the same thing (significantly fewer daytime hogs this year) and what you think the cause is.

 

[mike84z28]

Yes it was considerably down from 2014/15. There was a large trapping and removal over the summer from what I heard. That I believe was a small part of it. The high water has a habit of washing all the acorns away, 2014/15 there were acorns everywhere, this year not so much. Winter was warmer than normal and that may have contributed to them being nocturnal a bit more.

 

[Blue Diamond]

Have u forgotten already about your friendly game wardens conducting helicopter raids on the hog population on PR Game Management Area? When u shoot them indescrimanately from the air it does have an impact to the area populations.

 

[whbonney26]

For the amount of trips I made to PRWMA this 2015-2016 hunting season the amount of hogs I took was embarrassingly low. I didn't see the amount of trails in 15-16 that I saw in 14-15 and chalked that up to the lack of early freezes (plenty of vegetation = hogs not moving a lot at night or certainly not moving a lot during the day). I saw plenty of droppings and rooting signs, but I didn't see the large superhighways of trails this year that I saw last year. I took a few hogs, I hit one or two that I could not locate, and I saw a half dozen that I couldn't get a shot on, but by and by I saw three times as many hogs in 14-15 that I saw in 15-16.

This was only my third hunting season so I'm still learning.

I'm wondering if you guys saw the same thing (significantly fewer daytime hogs this year) and what you think the cause is.

Went a few times this year but didn't get any myself. I see some sign but not nearly what I did a couple years ago.

 

[BlueShamu]

Have u forgotten already about your friendly game wardens conducting helicopter raids on the hog population on PR Game Management Area? When u shoot them indescrimanately from the air it does have an impact to the area populations.

^^^^This....wish it would have been me!

 

[Emperor]

This year was peculiar than others for many reasons. I know wild animals better than they know themselves and their patterns were different mainly because of the record rainfall which occurred almost entirely in the last quarter which, wait for it........is hunting season.

It was not just hogs either. Deer harvests were down all across the state. Even other mammals. There will be actual data to back that up when it is all collected from DMAP and tagging numbers. I would bet since this year ended up being in the top three of record rainfalls for the state, if you went back and looked at the other two, and you could find hard data; and some actual recollection from REAL hunters (that actually spend a good bit of time in the woods), you would see a pattern.

But I can't emphasize enough! It was the timing of the rainfall in relation to the season!

Now, I will admit I heard all kinds of theories and stories from hunters all over the state as to why, but as a man of science I tend to filter a lot of that wives tale ********!

When the deer harvest numbers come back, you guys can find this thread and post that I was right, yet again!

 

[jdavid1]

When u shoot them indescrimanately from the air it does have an impact to the area populations.

Isn't that the point?

 

[Blue Diamond]

I feel u are partially correct. I had spoken with a well known biologist during a late January hunt in Concordia parish and he mirrored what u said but with the high river in the late season the kill ratio tripled which will mess with the numbers.

This year was peculiar than others for many reasons. I know wild animals better than they know themselves and their patterns were different mainly because of the record rainfall which occurred almost entirely in the last quarter which, wait for it........is hunting season.

It was not just hogs either. Deer harvests were down all across the state. Even other mammals. There will be actual data to back that up when it is all collected from DMAP and tagging numbers. I would bet since this year ended up being in the top three of record rainfalls for the state, if you went back and looked at the other two, and you could find hard data; and some actual recollection from REAL hunters (that actually spend a good bit of time in the woods), you would see a pattern.

But I can't emphasize enough! It was the timing of the rainfall in relation to the season!

Now, I will admit I heard all kinds of theories and stories from hunters all over the state as to why, but as a man of science I tend to filter a lot of that wives tale ********!

When the deer harvest numbers come back, you guys can find this thread and post that I was right, yet again!

 

[Emperor]

I feel u are partially correct. I had spoken with a well known biologist during a late January hunt in Concordia parish and he mirrored what u said but with the high river in the late season the kill ratio tripled which will mess with the numbers.

That would slightly skew the numbers, but killing animals that huddle on high ground in an unusually high river stage in winter (also a rare occasion), will not be enough to dispel my assertion!

 

[mike84z28]

The deer harvest this year at PRWMA was up considerably from last season ( Although last season only 6 bucks were killed)

 

[Blue Diamond]

Was it up 30% to 8 bucks? Do they give u a count on the total # of hogs taken out of there? I was at Red River for the primitive hunt in January and the take was around 450 deer and 600+ hogs. Went for the Quality Deer Hunt and the 4 of us killed 11 bucks with a 7 point being the smallest and a 14 point being the biggest. You need to find a better place to hunt.

The deer harvest this year at PRWMA was up considerably from last season ( Although last season only 6 bucks were killed)

 

[mike84z28]

Was it up 30% to 8 bucks? Do they give u a count on the total # of hogs taken out of there? I was at Red River for the primitive hunt in January and the take was around 450 deer and 600+ hogs. Went for the Quality Deer Hunt and the 4 of us killed 11 bucks with a 7 point being the smallest and a 14 point being the biggest. You need to find a better place to hunt.

Those are great numbers, sounds like you had a great year. I do have many other options and hunt in different places across the state. None though are 45 min from my house which PRWMA is. Sounds like I need to try Red river though !

 

[Emperor]

Was it up 30% to 8 bucks? Do they give u a count on the total # of hogs taken out of there? I was at Red River for the primitive hunt in January and the take was around 450 deer and 600+ hogs. Went for the Quality Deer Hunt and the 4 of us killed 11 bucks with a 7 point being the smallest and a 14 point being the biggest. You need to find a better place to hunt.

In all fairness, the Pearl River WMA is a very unique place to hunt. It is essentially in the backyards of thousands of people, and it is close in proximity to a lot of others (The New Orleans Metro), including Mandeville/Covington.

I have hunted in their extensively when I was younger as well as a few trips to Red River. They are two different sides of the spectrum! The Pearl is constantly ventured on by people all year long, not just during deer season. It was inundated by people back in the 80's, I can imagine how it looks nowadays. It is certainly easier to hunt there by boat, then by car (which is VERY tough), but even then is no slam dunk. And there was never big harvest numbers from out of that place even though it has plenty of animals. Though Katrina REALLY screwed that place up for a long time afterwards. That herd was decimated by that storm.

If you hunt deer on public lands, you know you have to spend a lot of time in the woods to be really successful unless you are just going for the luck factor. The Pearl River tests the skills of the best hunters!

 

[mike84z28]

In all fairness, the Pearl River WMA is a very unique place to hunt. It is essentially in the backyards of thousands of people, and it is close in proximity to a lot of others (The New Orleans Metro), including Mandeville/Covington.

I have hunted in their extensively when I was younger as well as a few trips to Red River. They are two different sides of the spectrum! The Pearl is constantly ventured on by people all year long, not just during deer season. It was inundated by people back in the 80's, I can imagine how it looks nowadays. It is certainly easier to hunt there by boat, then by car (which is VERY tough), but even then is no slam dunk. And there was never big harvest numbers from out of that place even though it has plenty of animals. Though Katrina REALLY screwed that place up for a long time afterwards. That herd was decimated by that storm.
Agreed Emp ! If you harvest an animal from PR or Tensas, in my book you've done something special. That's some hard hunting
If you hunt deer on public lands, you know you have to spend a lot of time in the woods to be really successful unless you are just going for the luck factor. The Pearl River tests the skills of the best hunters!

Agreed Emp! If you harvest an animal from PRWMA or Tensas you've earned it the hard way!

 

[Hoggin]

Have u forgotten already about your friendly game wardens conducting helicopter raids on the hog population on PR Game Management Area? When u shoot them indescrimanately from the air it does have an impact to the area populations.

The Dept. of Agriculture executes the chopper pig raids (pun intended). An interesting note about chopper pilots is that they are not fond of flying low above a heavily wooded area with machine guns-a-blastin. Pilots are less concerned about flying low above marsh areas (like the Southern half of PR WMA) because if they need to make an emergency landing it's a lot easier to do so above marsh grass than above a canopy of trees. So these raids apply more to the Southern portion of PRWMA rather than the Northern portion. Finding the hogs in the Southern portion has always been a challenge to me and I didn't whack any down there this year. The Northern portion which is mostly wooded is where I didn't see the animal activity I expected and choppers are not wasting pigs above the forest.

Emperor... very interesting stuff. Thanks for the knowledge sharing.

 

[Hoggin]

Isn't that the point?

No, jdavid1, to me that is not the point. The point is not to waste the hogs. The point is not to kill the animals. The point of public management lands, to me, is to allow regular folks a place to enjoy raw nature and hunt/fish/gather. If there are too many hogs then release the restrictions on hunting them. I can only hunt hogs in PRWMA five months of the year and mostly I have to take them with a bow or .22. Let me put some snake guards on and chase those porkers down with a semi .223 or 12-gauge slug. Getting in there at night would be a big plus as would being able to drop some corn or use a game camera. Allow Joe Hunter greater access to the area to remove hogs. Let Joe Hunter feed his family, friends and neighbors on organic pork instead of PAYING people to waste the animals from overhead. It's illogical. The govt. restrictions on hunting are so severe that hunters are not able to kill enough hogs, so instead of easing the restriction they incur cost to manage the area and incur bad PR with hunters who want greater access.

I'm a LA NWCO and recently asked the Hammond office that manages the PR WMA if I could obtain a special use permit to trap hogs this off-season. The response I received was "...we no longer allow trappers into PRWMA during the off-season..." Way to go! Thanks a lot! So I moved on to another management area that was happy to have me trap hogs this off-season... so much so that they told me I had to trap a minimum number of hogs else I would not be invited back next year. That's what I'm talking about! Not only are they allowing me access to trap (under their guidance and with great many restrictions), but I have a minimum quota. They don't want me to under-perform. Ha! That's how you do it! That's better management more properly in line with the purpose of the land IMO.