Possession limit bumped up to three days limit… what do you guys think?
I think its a good thing. I’m sure they’ll be keeping a close eye on how it affects harvest numbers this year and make changes if necessary. Canada did this a couple years ago I think… but correct me if I’m wrong.
Since you don’t have a location under your name, I have to ask.
What state are we talking here?
I believe all flyways adopted it. I checked and Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota all have it posted on their respective 2013 waterfowl regs too.
I live in Iowa.
It’s amazing how far wildlife has come since the late ’60’s – ’70’s.
Pheasent season was closed.
Bucks only.
1 drake mallard
3 wood ducks only one hen….
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It’s amazing how far wildlife has come since the late ’60’s – ’70’s.
Pheasent season was closed.
Bucks only.
1 drake mallard
3 wood ducks only one hen….
we now have mote critters, less hunters and a lot less skilled hunters.
True dat.
We also have big companies who stand to lose a lot of money if waterfowl limits/days of season were ever to be reduced.
On this subject I beleive the driving force of pocession limits of waterfowl was to eliminate the sale to restaurants back in the marketing gunning days. Like the rule is practicle to enforce anyways…
In my local area, the posession limit means almost nothing to anybody. I can’t imagine being able to kill enough ducks to reach it regardless of what they set it at. All of the beaver ponds we used to jump shoot mallards and woodies in are now void of ducks. Geese are very common, but to shoot a limit of ducks is a tall order indeed.
It’s sad how few ducks Minnesota has now days.
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It’s sad how few ducks Minnesota has now days.
Two words “drain tile”
No kidding. Eastern SD has started. It’s so sad. Our children’s children will pay the price for this. The last two years we have not had a mating pair of ducks on our ponds. In previous years, we had at least one set, usually more.
I really think the flyway has shifted west, talk to some buddies out in the Black Hills who would never see ducks past the first couple weeks, now they go gang busters all season and they can’t believe the numbers. Eastern South Dakota is still the mecca. So is the Dakotas impoundments of the Mo. river system.
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It’s sad how few ducks Minnesota has now days.
Two words “drain tile”
That may be true in farm country(and it appears to me that it is). But here (iron range), it sure as heck aint drain tile. When i was growing up, we used to grouse hunt lots of trails that skirted beaver ponds. We would sneak in and jump those ponds and shoot lots of mallards, ringbills, and woodies. It was rare to find a barren pond. Now……i can hit 6-8 of those ponds and jump zero. Late fall we would hit the bigger lakes in this area and pound the blue bills. Now the lakes that used to have big rafts are barren. It isnt all due to drain tile……. Something is wrong here.
T
Drain tile may have some effect, but I believe the shift to the West (Dakotas) has more to do with two other things,
1) Pressure
2) Water in the Dakotas. Take Devils Lake and NE SD as examples. There is more water there now than ever before. What was once a swamp in SD is now a lake, DL in ND is 4 or 5X larger than it was in the 80’s. More water means less pressure, the two are working together. Too much water to cover by hunters.
It’s actually good news for the overall duck forecast, just tough on MN and WI.
ET 
My info is a bit dated, but when I lived in Watertown, if I saw another 1-2 duck hunters over the weekend I was surprised. There just wasn’t the pressure out there. I could get permission to hunt 9 out of 10 places. The turn downs were always because family was coming to hunt soon. Usually they told me to check back later in the season.
I agree with you Cougareye. But I also agree that the days of high numbers on the prairie are limited. Unless something changes… the days of lots of pheasants and ducks in the Dakotas is numbered…
“You don’t know what you got til its gone” 
Sadly you are right. Fewer CRP programs and $6.00+ corn is making people crazy. We have 80 acres in CRP that as far as Dad and I are concerned will remain that way forever. The other 60 we are continuing to plant trees and eventually it will become a wildlife sanctuary also once Dad retires.
It’s going to be nice not having to cook up so many birds right away when the fly days hit. They usually only last 2-3 days anyways.
It won’t effect the harvest at all. 9 out of 10 hunters I know don’t abide by the possession limit laws and most end up making jerky out of 100’s of ducks/geese at the end of the season.
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It’s sad how few ducks Minnesota has now days.
Eastern Iowa is the same way. We don’t have hardly anything for local birds. The old timers always talk about back in the 70’s when the sky would be black with ducks on a big NW wind during Nov. The refuges would go from 2000 to 120,000 birds overnight on a fly day. Now we see maybe 5-10,000 on a fly day and only once or twice a season.
Western Iowa still does pretty good. Seems the VAST majority of the birds are staying in the central flyway.
The oil boom in ND is going to have a negative effect as well.
ET
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