2022-2023 Season Recommendations

[Huskermut]

Just got my waterfowl survey from the state. In it they mention there has been talks of lowering duck limits to five a day in the Central Flyway. Here's the exact quote: "The Central Flyway has discussed options to simplify regulations and lessen harvest impacts on some species (e.g., canvasbacks). One option would be to reduce the overall daily bag limit. How supportive or unsupportive would you be of a decrease in the overall daily bag limit from 6 to 5 to align with the daily mallard bag limit?"

 

[Backwards bleed]

I can agree with your assessment. However this past fall on 11/17 there was a massive move of waterfowl in Canada, pushed EAST towards the northern Mississippi flyway. I can show the Bird Alert loop documenting this erratic behavior. This coincided with a snow storm event where the front moved across Canada west to east.
I tried hard to ignore the research and the evidence, at first. But after that date, almost all ducks were GWT, obstensively those reared north of NE but south of mid-Canada.

I was out on the 12th of November and we shot our limit of honks easily. It was an afternoon hunt. Radar was lit up all day and nobody saw the birds streaming through. There was low cloud cover all day long. The birds did not drop below the clouds until 2pm were we were hunting. We saw no birds and only shot a handful of ducks before 2pm. The only reason we stayed out is because we could see that piles of birds were on the move according to radar. That night I went outside several times during the night.. I heard geese on the move everywhere. The next day was opening day of the 9 day rifle season. I saw flock after flock of geese south from sunrise until noon. Nobody realized how many birds came through on those 2 days. I also witnessed lots of honkers big and small throughout the 7 day rifle season. The biggest push of those days happening on the 21rst. I hunt almost every day from Nov 1 through December. Not many of those birds stayed in my area. I did not see another push that brought through more birds thqn those pushes until the reverse migration started in mid January.
Bottom line is anyone can go back and look at birdcast and see all the big push days. They don't happen late in the year. Radar doesn't lie or get mixed up about what direction birds are moving and how many are moving. You will always miss out on some of the best hunting of the year if are waiting for noticeable concentrations of birds to build. I realize hunting concentrations of birds on the dinner plate is productive. The only draw back is that people that hunt that way have already missed half of the migration and they don't even know it has happened.
For me hunting and watching the migration days is the reason I love waterfowl so much. I feel sorry for those that wait for the concentrations to appear. They will always miss out on the best part of the season in November.

 

[Backwards bleed]

I can agree with your assessment. However this past fall on 11/17 there was a massive move of waterfowl in Canada, pushed EAST towards the northern Mississippi flyway. I can show the Bird Alert loop documenting this erratic behavior. This coincided with a snow storm event where the front moved across Canada west to east.
I tried hard to ignore the research and the evidence, at first. But after that date, almost all ducks were GWT, obstensively those reared north of NE but south of mid-Canada.

Also I have notice the pattern you are talking about. Even the birds that use to come strait down from the Missouri River in SD now seem to cut accross around Souix falls. Radar has been showing them cut along the MN and IA. boarder over to the Mississippi River corridor. I don't know what the change is all about but they are definitely doing it. Have been for a good number of years now.

 

[jkern]

Just got my waterfowl survey from the state. In it they mention there has been talks of lowering duck limits to five a day in the Central Flyway. Here's the exact quote: "The Central Flyway has discussed options to simplify regulations and lessen harvest impacts on some species (e.g., canvasbacks). One option would be to reduce the overall daily bag limit. How supportive or unsupportive would you be of a decrease in the overall daily bag limit from 6 to 5 to align with the daily mallard bag limit?"

I would certainly hope the feds cut limits, days, or both. Unless weather patterns drastically change we are shooting ourselves in the foot with liberal regs.

 

[Backwards bleed]

I would certainly hope the feds cut limits, days, or both. Unless weather patterns drastically change we are shooting ourselves in the foot with liberal regs.

It will be a 3 mallard limit with no more than one hen if the regulations follow the same template as the lean years regulations did. I remember the 39 day seasons well. It was the point system then. Drakes were 35, hens were 100, lbd 20 points. Canvasbacks, pintail, were 100pts. Dont remember if redheads were 75 or 100pts. I don't remember if blue bills were 35 or 20pts. Divers always coast over my decoys safely, so it was never much of a going concern for me what their point values were. We had no problem with duck numbers in Nebraska back then. The rest of the country was crying. I remember Hartford sand and gravel near Valley had over 400k mallards on it one year during the "lean years"!
It will be interesting to see what happens. I would be fine shooting less ducks. The duck numbers have definitely declined drastically in the years I have hunted. Imo they are much more lean now then they were back in the "lean years". It wouldn't hurt my feelings any if they dropped the dark goose limit back to 3 either.
I would rather be able to shoot less ducks and hunt more days. I hope they don't go back to the 39 day seasons.

 

[Huskermut]

It will be a 3 mallard limit with no more than one hen if the regulations follow the same template as the lean years regulations did. I remember the 39 day seasons well. It was the point system then. Drakes were 35, hens were 100, lbd 20 points. Canvasbacks, pintail, were 100pts. Dont remember if redheads were 75 or 100pts. I don't remember if blue bills were 35 or 20pts. Divers always coast over my decoys safely, so it was never much of a going concern for me what their point values were. We had no problem with duck numbers in Nebraska back then. The rest of the country was crying. I remember Hartford sand and gravel near Valley had over 400k mallards on it one year during the "lean years"!
It will be interesting to see what happens. I would be fine shooting less ducks. The duck numbers have definitely declined drastically in the years I have hunted. Imo they are much more lean now then they were back in the "lean years". It wouldn't hurt my feelings any if they dropped the dark goose limit back to 3 either.
I would rather be able to shoot less ducks and hunt more days. I hope they don't go back to the 39 day seasons.

I'm with you. I'd take more hunt days and lower bags. I'd do it for specks now. The only real opportunities I've had at them is when the season is closed mid-January.

 

[Littlesturgeon]

Wish the corp and or the state would do something on the Missouri River. Progressively getting worse, had a guy shoot at us last year as we were driving down a main channel past him. It’s turned into the wild west!

 

[negooseman]

So if the limits go lower, what does that do for the tier 1 and tier 2 system of choosing which one you wanna use for the season? Not very fair if the tier 1 guys get a lower limit but tier 2 stays at 3. And if the populations are hurting, isn’t it better to have hunters out that can ID what they’re shooting instead of letting guys shoot anything?

 

[jzoo]

So if the limits go lower, what does that do for the tier 1 and tier 2 system of choosing which one you wanna use for the season? Not very fair if the tier 1 guys get a lower limit but tier 2 stays at 3. And if the populations are hurting, isn’t it better to have hunters out that can ID what they’re shooting instead of letting guys shoot anything?

Stop pretending all of these regs are based on logic and reason

Also, have they published how many tier two license's they sold? I'd be curious to know...

 

[negooseman]

Stop pretending all of these regs are based on logic and reason

Also, have they published how many tier two license's they sold? I'd be curious to know...

Haven’t seen anything