In the central Illinois river valley we will lose a great week of shooting those little brown ducks, they make a larger percentage of our bag and they will be moving on before our opener some of those years. I guess they cant make everyone happy, just the ones with the most money.
Exactly, it goes against the data and my observations. I hunt the lower Illinois River a lot after duck season. I can confidently say we are not missing any kind of duck shoot in this neck of the woods. Where does the push for late seasons come from? I know southern IL is a different ballgame but I see no evidence for later seasons in the northern and central zones.
Don't understand the change to teal season. It was always the first Saturday in September, I remember it even being on September 1st, dove season opener. Now September 11th, same as Louisiana I think. I see teal going through on average the third week of August. Think teal season will be a little more of a challenge.
this old man thinks the dates or secondary to getting our birds back on this side of the river. i hunted ducks last yr, and geese till march 30 and saw very few flight days. COULD HAVE SHOT PINNIES BY THE 100'S IN Early March. it's been since the 80's so few mallards. i think teal very on which end of the state u hunt. i havn't looked but a 2 week interval between zones might help. the club zone needs those greenheads .
I have always contended that the Central zone should be centered on November. Any days over 30 should be evenly split front and back
Having spent 25+ years working as a fishery biologist, mainly on the Mississippi, but also hitting other rivers, including the Illinois, I will say that I started seeing teal around the 20-25th of August and there was a big build up thru 10-15 Sept, then often a swift drop. This is just a personal, nos-scientific boat observation. I don't know what the survey flights indicate.
