ถถา๕h took an important second step to a first special season on black-bellied whistling ducksย when theย Wildlife and Fisheries Commission voted a nine-day opportunity for 2026 during its meeting Tuesday in Baton Rouge.
The season will run Oct. 3-11.
The first step was applying to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a season in this expanding species in Louisianโs marshes. The season dates needs to be approved by the USFWS, which appears to be a formality at this point.
Duck hunters also paid attention to a second straight nine-day special teal season scheduled Sept. 19-27 this year, and learned the West Waterfowl season segments will run Nov. 14-Dec. 6 and Dec. 19-Jan. 24, which means the 2026-2027 season will close days ahead of the Jan. 31 federally mandated close. The youth- and veterans-only special weekend is set for Nov. 7-8.
East Waterfowl Zone hunters will have Nov. 21-Dec. 6 and Dec. 19-Jan. 31 segments with youth- and veterans-only special hunts set for Nov. 14 and Feb. 6.
Otherwise, in the presentation of the proposed 2026-2027 season, there were only calendar adjustments in resident-game seasons from the current seasons (deer, squirrel, rabbit and quail) and other migratory species like geese, rails, gallinules, mourning doves and snipe, and the customary Dec. 18-Jan. 31 woodcock seasons.
State wildlife managers worked for the past four years for the special whistling ducks season. The species is growing in numbers in ถถา๕h and hunters were prohibited from taking them during the teal season, but faced the bird moving south by the time the bulk of the main 60-day duck season.
The only amendments offered in the proposal package came when commission member Jonathan Walker sought moving the ban on using โinternal combustion enginesโ from a 2 p.m. to a noon deadline on wildlife management areas except Pass a Loutre and Atchafalaya Delta WMAs.
A second amendment came from commissioner Andy Brister, who sought a plan to improve the age structure of bucks in State Deer Area 1. Brister offered a one buck, one either-sex deer and four antlerless deer to the hunting package (to change from a three-buck, three antlerless allowance.)
Both amendments passed.
The commission also passed a notice to change the on-the-water regulations on speckled trout and redfish fillets. Current rules ban water transportation of filleted fish in the coastal area, a rule that kept camp owners from processing their catches at camps accessed by water.