2011 Regulation Changes

[Stringerless!]

Even during the regular season there are geese everywhere.

[Meyer8043]

+1 Vexipro!!!!!!! Hard to pattern geese and do what the early goose season is meant for which is lower the resident population when people are busting all of their roosts! Shooting geese over water is cool if you are the guy that hunts opening day only and doesn't care about the rest of the season, but for the guys that hunt multiple days during the early goose season it makes it pretty hard to stay on them.

[jparrucci]

Goose hunting is becoming more popular than duck hunting in this state. But it is also a game of haves and have nots. There are far too few fields available. Without access, it is not a very fun game. I moved from the south metro to the north metro about a year ago. I spent many days scouting around me in Forest Lake. I found where geese were feeding and roosting all around here. I asked permission dozens of times, and did not get a single yes, and most of the responses were very, very, rude. Offering to help out on the farm or yard got me nothing. Unless I was willing to plop down a couple of grand, it wasn't gonna happen.

Opening morning came, and I busted a roost. Next weekend came, busted another couple of roosts. I can be sure that the hunting went south fast for those nearby that did not want to share their fields, but I have no remorse. They could have offered to let me hunt a week day, join them whenever they hunted, met a new hunting buddy, and gotten some help with some yard work.

Another problem I see is that geese are smart and dominant over other waterfowl. I believe they are chasing mallards and other puddle ducks off the prime nesting spots. The geese seem to stay where it is safe in city limits as well. Geese live much longer than most other waterfowl, and they find where it is safe. We as waterowl hunters could have some pretty successful hunts if we were allowed to hunt where the geese are. But most cities have bans on firearm discharge. I know we could clean up if we were allowed to actually hunt the golf courses and city ponds, which can be done safely.

[NR]

Life is about haves and have nots. Life isn't fair. Get over it and make your situation better. For you (and many MN's) that obviously means busting roosts. That doesn't mean it's good for the overall quality of hunting in the state. You'd have a lot fewer geese adopting the urban lifestyle if over water hunting was prohibited and the goal of controlling the resident goose population would be much closer to a reality. There would also be more ducks around on opener if goose over water and YWD were "changed".

The science is clear: Disturbance moves waterfowl. This will come to light when the season opens at 1/2hr before sunrise and the opening Sunday shoot is reduced to very little.

The science is also clear that geese do not push ducks off nesting sites. Each species will defend a territory from other members of the same species, but seperate species get along just fine.

[jparrucci]

I agree with the elimation of early season goose over water. It probably means less geese in the bag for me each year; in this situation I am defintely a have not. I have seen first hand myself a pond that once produced plenty of mallards now produce none, nothing changed except that there are now tons of geese on this pond.

[life=outdoors92]

food availability affects whether ducks or geese leave. not so much disturbance. geese down in rochester have all the food in the world, and getting shot at every day, and you still see thousands of them till season ends. the problem here is ducks have nowhere to go once they are shot at. and 10 hour shoot on YWD will not push ducks out of an area for 2 weeks. if anyone has solid proof of that i would love to see it...

[RumRiverRat]

We should be allowed to Kill Geese Year Round.

They truly are Sky Carp.

Hunting Geese over water during early season is about the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off.

[Vexipro]

Yes, they stay in Roch by the thousands cause they have this thing called a REFUGE. Where they can go and not be harassed...

[surewood]

If they close hunting over water up here there would be very few spots to hunt. It's not an agricultural area, mostly hay fields. They go to our rice lakes, and that's where I shoot them. Any year I've saw alot of ducks flying around during early goose they are still there during regular season. Point is if we had more ducks all this would be a non topic. More duck habitat more ducks. All for three wood ducks and opening the season half hour before.

[dan z]

We should be allowed to Kill Geese Year Round.

They truly are Sky Carp.

Hunting Geese over water during early season is about the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off.

you got that right