Another unanswerable question concerning the permit hunt system?

On Thanksgiving Day I was putting in my boat at a local GL ramp with a bunch of other permit hunters and one of them mentioned he had not even put in for that hunt but that it was a leftover hunt permit. That is all fine and dandy but two of my buddies had put in for that same day at that same location and neither one had been drawn. You would figure that if someone had put in for that day they would have been drawn before the permit was thrown into the leftover pool. I do know that the goal of the permit system is to provide as much opportunity to as many hunters as possible. For those of you who sit down with a calendar and seriously ponder picking days that you know you may actually hunt you are basically wasting your time. The system draws your name first, not the pool of hunters who all picked the same date as their first choice on that particular GL. That would increase the odds of some hunters geting more permits than others. Who knows, pick the right days and You may actually get drawn for 4 or 5 hunts instead of one or possibly two. It is now rare that someone gets 3 or more hunts on a particular GL. And we all know that 3 or more hunts would just not be progressively fair.

Heading to the Gulf states in the morning for a week long guided and not government sponsored duck hunt so you guys have fun!

It happened to a buddy of mine several years ago on a turkey hunt draw. I believe it cost him an extra $5 to get a permit for something he's already applied for.

Did they apply for other hunts on that same date? I don't apply for the waterfowl hunts but have had this happen to me on other hunts when I applied for multiple locations on the same date.


Also, I never saw any of the late season waterfowl hunts on the leftover permits page this year.

Sometimes it also depends on quota for # of hunters. For example. Only 10 hunters allowed BUT Group 1 selected had 4 hunters and Group 2 selected had 5 hunters. === only 1 slot left available and all applications were put in by groups

Therefore, it goes to leftover permits.

I'm not going to mention details but I have a theory about how to apply for hunts that greatly increases odds of being drawn. I do pretty wel

My friend's turkey hunt was a youth only hunt. No reason for any applicants to be left out with advertised "leftovers".

Helium said:

Sometimes it also depends on quota for # of hunters. For example. Only 10 hunters allowed BUT Group 1 selected had 4 hunters and Group 2 selected had 5 hunters. === only 1 slot left available and all applications were put in by groups

Therefore, it goes to leftover permits.

I'm not going to mention details but I have a theory about how to apply for hunts that greatly increases odds of being drawn. I do pretty wel

Click to expand...

I didn’t know there were permits that had the option of having 5 in a party. I thought 4 was the max for parties. I know I wouldn’t hunt a futch blind or any other permit blind with 5 guys.

Maximum party size is 3.

JD1107 said:

I didn’t know there were permits that had the option of having 5 in a party. I thought 4 was the max for parties. I know I wouldn’t hunt a futch blind or any other permit blind with 5 guys.

Click to expand...

It was just an example... my main experience is with the ? and ? permits

FIFY - I do know that the goal of the permit system is to raise as much revenue as possible while limiting hunter access.

Clark, that is about the most ludicrous statement you’ve made in quite some time. Really?? If revenue were the goal, they’d increase the paltry $5 per application fee to much, much more and you wouldn’t see much, if any, drop off in permit applications. And limit hunter access? Do you really believe those places can in any way sustain more pressure?? It can’t. Take it from someone who sees it about every week and hunted just about every open day there was when it was open 3 days/week for many, many years.
You’re living in you’re past life believing it can. You and I killed the piss out of the birds back in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. But things started changing and you didn’t/couldn’t adjust accordingly, thus you put most, if not all the blame on the WRC. You now come down here driving your 8 hour plus round trip thinking all you need to do is just get out there and you’ll be in the birds. No scouting the day before, no “reports” from eyes on the ground. Nada. If you do nothing, you get nothing. Simple as that. I was/ have been fortunate enough to scout every weekend before our hunt last week and although there were very, very few birds using it, my choice of spots produced 9 birds- triple of what we saw shot throughout the whole impoundment system. Not bragging, just an example of what it now days takes to have some success in our state impoundments.

I thought you were getting more realistic in your post until now. Didn’t want to retort but felt it needed it ... again. Carry on .... hope you kill some over this way in the future.

If revenue is not involved, why charge a fee at all? I don't know the numbers, but based on my draw success I think there are a lot of unsuccessful permit applications @ $15/pop. Agree they could charge more and not dent the volume. Wish the funds could be designated to increase opportunities.

Couple differences... then and now.
First, we were down there 3 days a week and could stay in contact with where the birds were using. Hard to do that when you get to hunt the spot one time every 2nd or 3rd year.
Second, we could hunt the weather. Wait for the cold or wind and make sure we went down there when it was right. With a permit you are locked into a date, regardless of weather being good or a bluebird day.

8 hours in the car is too long for a scouting trip for me (getting old). So now I try to make it a 2-day hunt, go down the day before and hunt close enough to see where we need to be the following morning or at least get a look from the levee. Hope they will legalize Sunday hunting so I can get 2 days for each drive.

Did spend Thanksgiving am scouting a place about 1.5 hours from home for a hunt this Sat, found out my plan for getting into this place will not work at this time but did find a good plan B for access - plus got to see where the birds were working.

Might disagree a little about the pressure, we did OK hunting 3 days a week, did not see much benefit when reduced to 2 half-days a week. Not facts, just anecdotal opinion.

Yeah, sometimes I'm ill about the WRC policies, but the WRC individuals I know are great, very helpful and the make the best of the bad situation.

Trying to adapt. Killed a 9-pointer on Sat (and I said I'd never deer hunt), but not nearly as much fun as ducking. Booked a few days with guides, not as satisfying as doing it myself but a lot easier and they are a lot better at it than I am. Got a layout boat and trying to learn to hunt divers, but it scares me to leave my son in that thing in open water. Son will still hunt with me, but every once in a while I need to come up with some birds or he'll wise up.

You are correct, though, I am living in the past. Sigh.

Yeah man, I absolutey loved those “good old days” and still can recount many, many a good hunt. Heck, I even use to get out of class (ECU) and rushing there in time for afternoon hunts ...and still have good success! No permits needed, plenty of ducks, and a close drive. Still, a lot of hunters but desire, innovation and strong legs (and words sometimes, lol) kept hunters away and us in birds ...

Like you, I loved the 3 day a week opportunities. I agree, I saw no immediate benefit or increase in bird use when they cut it back to 2 days. Only thing that seemed to do at the time was put even more hunters on top of you. But eventually the writing appeared on the wall, bird use decreased, hunter use increased.. and so the permit system was devised .. and now add some sore thumb blinds in that futher decrease your odds vs making your own hide. But the problem now and has been for years is lack of consistent bird use. Food is there but bird patterns have changed. I’m not sure if we will ever see that area again remotely close to what it once consistently was. But I’m still gonna keep trying regardless!?

Interesting comments. So, if the system was set up to pool all of the hunters that picked a certain day and then drew hunts for that day (if not enough hunters picked that day to fill the quota you would pull from the pool who picked that day as their second choice, and so forth) would it increase the changes of getting drawn? And for those that didn't get drawn it's no one's fault but your own for not picking that day. Some days there are a lot of no- shows. Maybe if folks seriously picked days as their 1st choice that they would actually show up and hunt it would reduce the numbers of no-shows.

Had a great hunt in Louisiana by the way. Mixed limits of Pintail, Teal, Wigeon and Mallards.