One of the state’s proposed changes to hunting rules, dates and regulations for 2008-09 is a ban on mudboats or air-cooled propulsion engines greater than 36-h.p. on the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area, where the Wax Lake Outlet is one of the best duck hunting spots in the Teche Area.

If you’ve got a beef with that proposal, or any of the changes proposed during the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting in February, you can get it off your chest at a public hearing scheduled to be held here at 6 p.m. March 11.

The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has scheduled eight public hearings around the state this month to give people a chance to review and comment Resident Small Game and Deer Hunting Seasons and Regulations and Wildlife Management Areas seasons and regulations for 2008-10.

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The New Iberia meeting will be held in the Sliman Center on Main Street. It is one of three scheduled for that night with the others at the Ponchatoula High School Auditorium and the Hemphill Aviation & Computer Science Building on the Louisiana-Monroe campus.

The first public hearing is set for March 10 in Winnsboro. Others are March 12 in Alexandria and Opelousas, and March 13 in Baton Rouge, Bossier City and Lake Charles.

Kenny Ribbeck, the department’s biologist program manager, said the length of the meeting depends on the number of people who want to speak. Ribbeck said Tony Vidrine from the department’s district office in Opelousas is in charge of the public hearing in New Iberia.

The LDWF plans to show a deer tagging video that department personnel were editing last week, Ribbeck said Friday.

“We’re going to show that. It goes through the whole process of buying a license, harvesting a deer, handling a deer and going through possession tags for the deer when you split up the meat,” he said. “It’s kind of like an instructional video. We’re shooting for no longer than a three-minute video.”

The intent is to make people aware of using the license tag correctly in the field but also using tags printed in hunting pamphlets that must be attached to the meat if it is divided up at the camp.

“We don’t want people to be confused,” he said.

The LWFCalso has a proposal to include 16- and 17-year-old hunters in youth hunts, he said. The way the law is written, teens that age can’t participate.

About 12 department employees will be at the local meeting, he said. They will make a presentation on the proposed changes and then record public comment.

The department’s presentation should take less than an hour, Ribbeck said. The rest of the time will be dedicated to public comments.

Area outdoorsmen should take advantage of this chance to comment on the proposals.

The LWFCwill take public comment through the end of April, finalize the regulations packages in May and ratify them in June.

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Teche Area Top Ten Bass Classic entries are being accepted by this year’s host bass club.

The tournament, which is the Teche Area’s answer to the Louisiana Top Six, a statewide event, is scheduled to be held March 30 on Lake Dauterive-Fausse Pointe out of Marshfield Landing.

Area bass clubs send their Top 10 bass anglers from the previous year to the annual tournament, which started in 1999.

This year’s Classic is being hosted by the Louisiana Bass Cats. Entry fee in the winner-take-all format is $250. Entry deadline is March 15.

For more information call 280-8022.

The Louisiana Bass Cats team won the tournament in 2007.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.