2021 Potential Zone Changes

I understand that old argument. Been hearing it for years. Times change. If we are to get moderate or restricted seasons don't you think other zones would also like the ability for later seasons?

 

Shhh. Don’t tell the river guys that their migration mirrors that of the current southern zone. They don’t like that.

 

No southern zone mallards don’t show up until the day after season closes. That’s when every corn field in sight fills up with fat greenheads

 

i want to know at how many consecutive years of 60 day seasons is this not a valid argument anymore , what are the odds we will have a 30 day season and even if we did, why are we willing to sacrifice decades of opportunity out of the fear that we may someday have a single (not to mention 5 in row) 30 day season again?

 

Blame Toye, he’s the only one who thought up that nonsense and got just enough people on his band wagon to restrict duck hunting for the rest of us.

 

Here is some data:

My Observations for the last twenty-two years show the duck numbers (mostly mallards, black ducks and goldeneye) increase in Lake Michigan from about November 30th to December 15th.

 

Why no option for Hwy. 8 and more than one option for 64? The way the options are listed we might as well leave it the way it is.

With the lack of votes that should tell you what’s offered isn’t what’s wanted.

 

We ran the data and have discussed Hwy 8 as the North Zone option. We looked at duck harvest by county and using Hwy 8 as the line, less than 5% of the total state duck harvest occurs north of Hwy 8. After having the discussion with the committee all agreed that it was not worth creating a zone that represented less than 5% of the total harvest.

 

To those in favor of the MRZ, what advantage is there to have 2 additional weekdays? I could see if it was more than a week but 2 weekdays seems wasteful at best. The 60 day season isn’t going away anytime soon. If the MRZ zone aligned with the southern zone and the southern zone had a longer split, why not just go that route and add a Lake Michigan zone? There is a lot more opportunity for birds on it and for a much longer time. It could literally add nearly a month to the number of total days duck season is open.

Ideally I think adding a separate sea duck season on LM would be the best option and leave the 3 inland zones to their own.