New regulation changes!

[RumRiverRat]

Split Season.

Open Saturday closest to Sept 21st for 5 days, close until Saturday closest to October 15th and run until we hit the limit on days for the season.

[Gordie]

Loved reading in the past the early goose season drives the ducks out. The youth day hunts drive the ducks out and the dove season would drive the ducks out. Those guys and vegetarians make me laugh...

AMen brothua Mutha

[Gordie]

Seems like there are more hunters hunting duck than ever!

Fact is were loosing waterfowl hunters every year

may just be more closer to you cause of economic pressure

there are places that see virtually no pressure thru out the year just have to do home work.. I know it bites that you cant just walk out to the nearest slough and shoot a limit but for me it more than that.

I also remember a time when the old man took me out it was the nearest slough and it was loaded with ducks that slough is now a housing deveopment and they are now city ducks.

What really bites is the urban sprawl that has messed up more than any hunts no matter what the date

JMO

[bemidjibasser]

Mutha- Sanctuary is vital I agree. However the birds down by Rochester that get pounded day after day are a heck of a lot tougher to decoy than they would be if left alone for a few days a week...and you aren't likely to be able to hunt the exact same spot day after day and continue to have great success. As you said, you have to move according to the flight...

[dan z]

an early open date would not be good for me, to many mallards in the end that will just get to wave at me while I waite for the ice to be thick enough to start ice fishing, as most of you guys know I have no problem finding open water some were and shoot ducks/geese till the season closes.

I wouldnt mind a close in early november so I can shoot some later in the year

three wood ducks isnt that important for me But I hope they hold it off a couple more years as to there is finally a good number of them around, they could even close it a year and just think of how many there would be the next year.

[PierBridge]

Good debate!

I'll be having fun sitting in a boat or blind either way and will leave the haggling/nitpicking up to you guys!

Goose opener here we come!!!!

[SledNeck]

Minnesota duck season is just practice for me anyways

[Gordie]

Minnesota duck season is just practice for me anyways

And I thought July crow season was practice

[certified jumbo]

I love this proposal. I would even consider buying a license. Where i hunt we have very few mallards. Mostly woodies and teal. This is great idea!!!

[Maxxed Out]

Mutha- Sanctuary is vital I agree. However the birds down by Rochester that get pounded day after day are a heck of a lot tougher to decoy than they would be if left alone for a few days a week...and you aren't likely to be able to hunt the exact same spot day after day and continue to have great success. As you said, you have to move according to the flight...

I have to say I respectfully disagree with this. On Lac qui parle birds go across the firing line EVERYTIME they go feed. This is a fact of life on the refuge day in and day out.

We have days when the birds decoys so well you'd think it was first day of early season. And some days they are so tough you want to pull your hair out. And a lot of time those days are back to back.

I've ran traffic in a field one day and had to work our tails of to scratch out a handful of birds and hunted the same field the next day and limited. What makes the difference on the friendliness of birds is weather, weather, weather.

[lilwalter]

Does anyone know if you are allowed to use a robo opening morning or are they still not allowing that?

[Quackaddict9]

Does anyone know if you are allowed to use a robo opening morning or are they still not allowing that?

I would think it's the same as the past years but who knows, wait until the offical regulations are out in the waterfowl/hunting handbook

[Maxxed Out]

My guess would be they would get rid of them all together before you could use them on opening morning.

[Muthagoose]

I got no problem with restricting use dont want to see them banned heck I just got a couple new luckies and will be selling my mojos to a bud. They do suck field mallards in late season....

Yep Maxxed weather weather weather.. I used to just wait for the first north wind to stack geese up early season.

I stayed FAR AWAY from the skybust line...Never had much trouble decoying but I hardly ever sat in the same field 2 days in a row.

The DNR has a couple lakes up here on the table for santuary and it would only help.. They used to shut down part of a major area lake but to many people buzzed the area and divers dont put up to long with that...

[morefishplease]

This is the way I look at, for yrs now people have been complaining including me about how the DNR is not doing anything to improve hunter success. My point is for years now people have been expressing how they want to see some change and now it looks like this year there will be some changes. Are they good or bad?? I don't know but we will find out. The last hunter servey I took from the US Fish and Wildlife Service I commented that "duck hunting is becoming so poor and people are leaving the sport in droves I don't care what you do but DO SOMETHING!" So I'm glad they are atleast trying something, you got to give them that atleast.

[Farley]

I say the later the better for duck season. The boys up north will probably disagree though.

[Muthagoose]

Not me. I'm up for chase'n greenheads south,later the better..

[Feathers Rainin]

Split Season.

Open Saturday closest to Sept 21st for 5 days, close until Saturday closest to October 15th and run until we hit the limit on days for the season.

Wow haven't heard that proposed. That's a pretty good idea Franny!

Every year they say that less and less people are duck hunting but every year it seems like there are more and more people in the swamp. I guess the numbers who are coming out aren't just the one weekend a year guys.

The only thing I don't want is two different openers for the north and south. This will just fill up the swamps even worse for opening weekend from all the people who want an extra weekend or the northern boys who want a shot at unspooked ducks. If they do a split season I hope they split the whole state with the same dates.

[pulleye16]

How is hunting pressure changing duck hunting? I think we are way off base here. There were way more duck hunters back in the day and hunting was done more days of the week. Many many folk who grow up out west in samll towns are seeing there towns dwindle while people are moving to the big cities. That means there are less hunters out there pressuring them every day. People are working more and that also decreases time spent out duck hunting.

Fact is...The duck hunting we are seeing has nothing to do with hunter pressure, time we can hunt, scaring local ducks away, scaring the northern ducks out of here. Put simple-less duck ponds due to urban developement leaving less swamps and more hunters per public area then ever! Have you driven around larger cities and see all the ducks and geese? There here in numbers.

Stricting hunters of times and dates won't accomplish much as ducks and geese over time will flock to areas with less hunting pressure...it's called evalution and since year after year they can remember and pinpoint their flight, the only resonable solution is to allow for more hunting areas to "move" the ducks!

Ducks still fly right? Won't hunting pressure "increase" your success getting them out and moving? Until duck numbers dwindle so low that allowing 2 extra hours in the morning on opener for one day, i say do it.

[pulleye16]

How would split season increase hunting?

If 50,000 (random figure) ducks fly through MN ever year, what would this do? It's still the same amount of ducks right?

Are you guys saying there more skiddish or pushing them out early? I guess I don't get it. Whats the difference if you take a pop at them in Sept or Oct?

[Scott M]

Can't make everyone happy, but I'm glad things are loosening up a bit. We have more "gentleman's rules" in the books about opening day than any other state and many of the summer and early fall ducks are long gone around here by the time the season starts. I utilize all 60 of my days, so it doesn't matter to me when they close it. More often than not you don't get 60 days with freeze up in this state, so why not start earlier? (yes, I know there are still rivers and I could buy a $2,000 ice eater or drop another huge chunk of change for a more robust field set up) October is very precious time for me so if we can start early, I can actually mix in another trip that might have been spent in MN for the duck opener just to see a couple birds all day after 90% of the teal and woodies have departed. Now I can go west for ducks, pheasants, antelope, etc. that weekend. Color me happy if the changes take place. Now, as others have alluded to, if we could convince the DNR to follow the flyway recommendations and bag 3 woodies...I never understood why MN hunters were handicapped while the southern states enjoy an average yearly bag 3-4 times greater than ours. And why we can only shoot two birds of the 3rd largest continental duck population (scaup)

[surewood]

Earlier would be fine with me, but it would be fine if it stayed the same. It's freeze up around her the first weekend of November so I'm biased, but later would give me less oppurtunity. I'd be for opening half hour before sunrise on opener though. I don't like a split season. One cold front during the week it's shutdown and I have to stare out the window thinking I should be out there. Can't count on mother nature to be predictable. Rather have the chance to be ready when the north wind starts blowing.

[TylerS]

How is hunting pressure changing duck hunting? I think we are way off base here. There were way more duck hunters back in the day and hunting was done more days of the week. Many many folk who grow up out west in samll towns are seeing there towns dwindle while people are moving to the big cities. That means there are less hunters out there pressuring them every day. People are working more and that also decreases time spent out duck hunting.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you there. Even though there may be less duck hunters today, the ones who are hunting are doing it a LOT more than in the past. Used to be a group of guys might go out for a weekend or two a year. Shoot a couple ducks, let the dogs work, then do something else. Nowadays, you have people taking a WEEK or two off at a time and hunting every single day during that timespan. Even if they're not limiting every day, they're still out scouting, setting decoys, calling and shooting at birds. That does a number on educating birds. Just look at North Dakota. With the time-limit restriction on licensing, nonresidents come up and hunt a week or two straight all the time. We might not have as many hunters as we used to, but I think the pressure on the birds has gone WAY up regardless. That, and with more and more public land disappearing because of the loss of CRP acreage and PLOTS access, those people are going to find fewer and fewer places to hunt, resulting in more and more pressure on birds in concentrated areas.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Split season is the only thing that makes sense. As long as I get to shoot mallards in the corn when I'm home for thanksgiving I will be a happy guy.