5 of us from work go every year. First pic is Sept 2 on a pasture that has held doves for the past few years. 51 doves. Second pic is Sept 1 on a field that was recently chopped for silage. 54 doves. Also got a few Eurasians this year which was pretty sweet! Always do a wild game feed at work after pheasant opener so should have plenty of bacon wrapped dove jalapeño poppers for appetizers!
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Thanks for all the advice! I think I know a few of the guys at league that will let her shoot a few shots through their guns. Never looked at the Beretta A400 but definitely on the list now. Then I guess it’s time for a gun shopping date night! I’m still shooting my grandpa’s Belgium made Auto-5 Magnum with Special Steel 32″ barrel. Kind of a beast for trap, but would like to get a 25 patch for grandpa before I retire it.
For pre-emerge application the rule of thumb is to apply the herbicide when the lilac trees start blooming. Not sure where that rule came from but it works! Also, if you are doing the pre that is part of a dry fertilizer try to do it right before a rain or water the lawn right after even if it doesn’t need it.
Herbicide containing Quinclorac will kill it. Can get it off of Amazon. Make sure you get some Methylated Seed Oil (MSO) to mix with it or it will not work. I agree it is cheaper and easier to control it with a pre-emerge in the spring, but this will kill it as long as it is actively growing. Won’t work as well if you are in a dry weather pattern like we are here in NW Iowa.
I asked the Iowa DNR if they would ever consider reducing the limit from 25 to 15. This was their response.
Dan,
Good question. Many Iowa anglers share your sentiment: fishing is good and I want to keep it that way – is a regulation necessary? Below is an article that the Management Biologist for your district, Mike Hawkins (Spirit Lake), prepared for a web forum on this topic around the time that the 25-fish bag limit was imposed a few years ago. He does a nice job of explaining the reasoning behind the current bag limit.
“Bag limits in general don’t do much to control harvest. I know that doesn’t make sense at first. I’ll try to explain why that is. When you look at harvest distribution, how many fish anglers keep during their trip, it isn’t too surprising. Most folks don’t catch that many fish. In fact, even during the best walleye fishing years, 70 – 80% of walleye anglers don’t take home a fish. A very small percentage take home a limit.
Another example. During the best bluegill fishing we have ever seen on Spirit Lake, 87% of the fish taken home were by anglers keeping less than 15 fish. Starting to make sense? During the best harvest year ever recorded on West Okoboji Lake less than 2% of the anglers took home more than 25 fish. It should start become obvious a limit of 25 isn’t going to do much. In fact, the angler that did catch over 25 – he’s simply going to be forced to stop at 25. The reduction in harvest is just the difference between what he would have taken and 25.
If harvest was a problem and was adversely affecting your fishing (I’ll get into that in a second) a bag limit is one of the last tools I would resort to for control. Don’t get me wrong, a bag limit could control harvest, but I don’t think you would like how far it would need to be cranked down to get the job done. During the best fishing years, we’d need a bag limit of 5-8 bluegills to get a significant reduction in harvest. Probably not angler acceptable.
Now, this all begs the question why the limit? What’s wrong with how things are going? Is there a problem? The proverb among the old fisheries biologists is “the only thing worse than bad fishing is good fishing.” When the fishing is great anglers get really nervous. They don’t want to lose a good thing. Neither do I. The reality though is panfish fishing depends on strong recruitment (successful growth of small fish into big ones). Every shred of evidence we have collected in Iowa tells us that recruitment and quality of a panfish populations is a product of water quality and habitat. These two things work together to enhance recruitment. Great water quality and habitat can get trumped by environmental conditions however. Say you’re a bluegill fry and just as you use up the last of your yolk sac a big cold front hits and the zooplankton numbers plummet. You have about half a day to find something to eat! Late springs, water temps, water levels, timing of plankton blooms they all can have a huge impact on recruitment. As long as the lake is healthy though, panfish will most likely do well most of the time.
One of our research biologists did some ground breaking work a while back. He looked at bluegill populations in several lakes across the state. This research found several things, but the one most relevant to this discussion is that the lakes with the best bluegill populations (growth, body condition, density) sustained the highest harvest. How can this be? Does fishing strengthen the population? Could be. Harvest of this species does reduce competition in the lake and improve growth rates and reproduction rates. My guess though is that one has nothing to do with the other. A great bluegill lake is just that – great. The fish have what they need to be in great shape. Anglers simply know which lakes to go to catch bluegills resulting in higher harvest at those lakes.
Bottom line. This regulation will not improve fishing, it simply can’t. Continuing to improve habitat and water quality will.
Still haven’t answered the question have I? There are other reasons for a regulation. Even though there aren’t many folks harvesting over 25 in day, there are those that can and do. A small handful even take a lot more than 25. The pressure our bureau received on this one was from folks who thought this type of behavior was not acceptable. They said 25 is enough. There are a number of our regulations in place because of ethical or social reasons. Spotlighting deer, for example, certainly won’t drive the population of deer into jeopardy, but folks have deemed it unethical. It is against the law.“
So basically, the 25-fish bag limit was imposed for social reasons – from a biological standpoint it was not necessary to improve fishing. The same can be said about a further reduction in the bag limit – it would not improve fishing for your kids or their kids. Even with improvements in technology, angler harvest still plays a minor role in driving fishery quality. Your fishing success or lack thereof is dictated more by the weather and water quality in the lake you fish. The Iowa DNR is focused on improving water quality as good water quality almost always translates into better fishing in Iowa lakes.
Thanks for taking time to email the DNR. If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly.
Will definitely have to try that. Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the report! Got a group of us heading up there on Wednesday the 13th. Needless to say today and I’m sure tomorrow are going to go by very slowly! Were you able to drive on the ice, or did they transport you to the shack?
I believe it was a 95lb male. It was shot about 15 miles from where I live. Heard about it through the grapevine and on the news.
What about this one shot in NW Iowa?
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Fishing has always been fun for me, but now I enjoy it even more because of my kids. I have a 5 year old daughter and a 2 year old son. I know that time flies and before I know it, they will have more activities going. They will want to go out with friends instead of hanging out with boring old dad. The opportunities to go fishing together will get fewer and fewer as time goes on so we take advantage of every opportunity to hit the water or the ice that we can. Nothing beats the look on my 5 year old’s face when that bobber goes under and she hauls up a big bluegill! Having a big fish fry from time to time doesn’t hurt either!
