2 goose rule? Come on.

[nitroant]

Was out this morning and we took our 6 birds for 3 guys. We could have easily had 15 birds today. Is the DNR thinking we are going to run out of these things? Come on, these have to still all be local geese.

[poutpro]

Where we are they arent local geese. There has been a pretty good number of geese coming down.

[lawdog]

Dude up until this year we could only get one for the regular season. ONE!!! What a joke.

[dirtking]

I think the feds set the limit. The state can set the limit less than the Federal limit like ducks - 4 instead of 6, but you cant go over. The limit is higher on the early season cause those are the locals.

[nitroant]

Getting any geese at the farm Dirt King??

[dirtking]

just one on the pond last weekend while hunting ducks, haven't been goose hunting since 9/10 - The one I shot duck hunting was big though - it was a hair over 7 lbs fully plucked cleaned and dressed. Gonna try for some ducks, combine soybeans, and and get a little time in the deer stand this weekend. Sounds like a nice weekend - hopefully I won't spend the whole darn weekend in a tractor!

[Guest]

Quote:

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I think the feds set the limit. The state can set the limit less than the Federal limit like ducks - 4 instead of 6, but you cant go over. The limit is higher on the early season cause those are the locals.

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I used to think the feds set the limit too... then it was pointed out to me you can harvest 10 ducks daily drake/hen, species(makes no difference) in Alaska.. I didnt believe it and argued it. I learned soon after I was wrong.

[madtown04]

the federal duck limit for us actually is just for the mississippi flyway and alaska isnt in the mississippi flyway so the six duck limit doesnt apply to them.

[jbell1981]

There are different limits in different flyways. The fed do set the limit. With ducks it is 6 in our flyway, but minnesota decided to go with 4. For geese, someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the fed set the limit at 3. But minnesota keeps it at 2 for the epp geese I believe.

[lawdog]

Yep what madtown says. The Feds set the season framework and they do it by flyways and then the states within that area set their rules in accordance with what the feds allow for that specific flyway. So PA or OR may well have very different regs than us, but they are still within what the Feds set for their area just like ours are within what the Feds set for our area.

[hanson]

2 geese is alright with me in the regular season.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I'm cool with it. It's twice as good as the 1 goose limit we used to have.

[deepportage01]

Who wants more than two SKI CARP anyway?

Two is fine with me, I only take one or two in a season anyway

[Mark Christianson]

I believe the main reason for the lower limits now is because this time of year the EPP(Eastern Prarie Population) sub species comes through. Up until recently they had been struggling with reproduction. I think I read that they had a population increase, hence the limit raised to 2.

Basically if it were left at 5 all season, there was a chance of over harvest of that specific species.

The EPP's are one of what some people call Lessers. They are much smaller in size than the Giants that we have that nest within MN for the most part.

There is a reason to the madness. Sucks if you have the Giants dumping in and you cant take out 5 each. But it is what it is.

[pathogen]

This past weekend we did see several flocks of lessers, so they are around. I don't mind regulations that are intended to help out these little guys. Over the last 5 years or so, they've generally had a tough time in their nesting range.

[nitroant]

I see why they do it, but man, yesterday those geese we shot were huge. Flock after flock kept coming in and that was while we were out picking up decoys. Maybe the thing to do is let the early season start sooner so we have a little more time to try and thin the local population.

[hanson]

Nitroant-

I thought I had read somewhere (Outdoor News maybe??) that the DNR was looking at even more ways to thin the goose numbers in the early season. I can't exactly remember the specifics but I thought they mentioned unplugged shotguns, earlier/longer season, and stuff like that.

In my opinion, the only way to cut the resident population down is to open up the Twin Cities to goose hunting. Geese everywhere but nowhere to hunt them. I don't think these critters migrate either as there is plenty of open water in the winter for them. Allowing a couple special hunts in parks & golf courses is really doing nothing.

[Quackaddict9]

accept. 2 is better than 1, and better than 0!

[walleyewacker]

The reason it was one was because of the EPP geese. Regardless of the subspecies its about time they changed that to two, one was a joke no mattter what subspecies. I have a hard time believing that a lot of geese that go through extreme eastern SD are not EPPs and they keep that at three. I still think MN should go to three in most of the state during regular season, I think it makes it all more worth it for guys to spend the money on sreads and scouting if you give them a few more birds. If you want to thin the locals give us every day in the month of september with a five bird limit and give us more late december season instead of cutting the seasons off. I would be up for unplugged guns but I think starting any earlier would be tough because they dont really flock up and feed away from roosts until late august anyway. The metro hunt would be the way to go, especially in the bottom areas where you could acutally get away from the housing.