Would you hunt the teal season in Sept if offered in MN?

[get-n-birdy]

Have a slough 1/2 a mile from my front door. It loads up with good sized flocks of teal a week and a half to two weeks before the season. Most come and go with in a 3-5 day period. It's a short window. But there are lots of nice flocks of teal around, then they are gone. Have talked to guys scouting the slough. Then they are confused where all those teal went opening weekend. It's no secret teal migrate early.

[get-n-birdy]

It would be fine by me if we'd just open duck season the first Saturday of September. Not just a teal season. I'm just not into special considerations of any kind. If the teal season was only 2 days, it probably wouldn't have too bad of an effect. Similar to the first year we had the splits. That year, we had 2 days on, 5 days off in the central zone. This was WAY better than what it is now...8 days on, then 5 day split.

A full week or more of teal season...may as well just open the season for everything...or suffer the consequences on opening weekend. What is more important???

I think the light bulb is flickering with some of the shut downs and the second opener results guys are having. It's like having 2 Christmas's. The reason imo is closing the season and giving birds a chance to rest. In ND there's a substantial blue plate migration on the non resident opener close to the SD border. Birds hop the border into SD and are happy as clams. We use to scout the border road and it was ridiculous.

Giving birds a brake is a huge deal. It creates actual hunt-able bird populations on hunt-able ground. That is one of the biggest things that's missing in Minnesota waterfowl hunting, other than habitat issues.

Instead we are currently creating refuge type scenarios on un hunt-able ground for the most part.

We are pushing birds off public areas we can hunt if we hunt from sun up to sun down all season long. Birds need time to be able to come back into areas and rest. They will come back into areas after hunters have left. Mud lake is a prime example on the SD/MN border. Hunters leave, birds come back. It might take away opportunity to hunt afternoon or evening ducks for some. But if we start understanding to protect some of the more important roosting areas or give heavily hunted areas a chance to rest, the benefits could far out way the little we'd have to give up.

Some areas don't need it, but many do.

Thief Lake is one that doesn't seem affected by the pressure to badly in mid October. Weekend traffic seems heavy. But mid week traffic is fairly light. Guys go out in the morning, then come in late morning, early afternoon. Birds have a refuge area and are left alone in wide expanses of water. The birds have the ability to rest.

Sherburne and Carlos are kind of the opposite examples. There's windows where hunting can be decent but you really have to count on luck more than anything. If Carlos and Sherburne were managed more like areas in say Missouri or other southern states, these areas could have some good hunting. Noon shut downs and reservation type hunts could turn these into highly sought after hunts.

[Bullet21XD]

I don't really care either way, but if ya'll believe a teal season won't have negative effects on our first week or so of "duck season", you're ignorant.

Not sure if this was directed at me. I hope not.

It was not.

For the others in fantasy land that pressure doesn't affect ducks

[Fish Felon]

For the others in fantasy land that pressure doesn't affect ducks

So we shouldn't have a teal season because if we go out and shoot ducks it will put pressure on the ducks...and affect the ducks...for when we shoot ducks later?

That makes a lot of sense.

I'll take your logic a step further; let's open the season on what should be the last day, and have it open only a day. That way no one can complain about pressured ducks for opener or anytime after that!

Even if your logic wasn't completely misguided, I'd still trade having a bonus 5 day teal season over the potential loss of a couple chances for pinny mallards on opening day, always.

[tyler]

For the others in fantasy land that pressure doesn't affect ducks

So we shouldn't have a teal season because if we go out and shoot ducks it will put pressure on the ducks...and affect the ducks...for when we shoot ducks later?

That makes a lot of sense.

I'll take your logic a step further; let's open the season on what should be the last day, and have it open only a day. That way no one can complain about pressured ducks for opener or anytime after that!

Even if your logic wasn't completely misguided, I'd still trade having a bonus 5 day teal season over the potential loss of a couple chances for pinny mallards on opening day, always.

dude

[Bullet21XD]

For the others in fantasy land that pressure doesn't affect ducks

So we shouldn't have a teal season because if we go out and shoot ducks it will put pressure on the ducks...and affect the ducks...for when we shoot ducks later?

That makes a lot of sense.

I'll take your logic a step further; let's open the season on what should be the last day, and have it open only a day. That way no one can complain about pressured ducks for opener or anytime after that!

Even if your logic wasn't completely misguided, I'd still trade having a bonus 5 day teal season over the potential loss of a couple chances for pinny mallards on opening day, always.

It makes perfect sense.

People bitch about a lack of opening day success as it is, and name the biggest contributing factors, aside from low duck numbers, as early goose hunting over water, and the cripplefest. Whether or not these are contributing factors is beside the point.

Add extra hunting pressure prior to the opener, on top of less ducks, and I can't see it having widespread support. Ducks "refuged" up, and maybe 50,000 already dead...could lead to a shyt first week of hunting...the week the bulk of waterfowlers rely on to shoot ducks. The 50k...just number thrown out...as I'd guess 12-15000 hunters would participate, and maybe average 3 or 4 ducks for the season.

If all aspects are considered, I can't believe the DNR would actually move forward. It would be a step backwards from what they've gained the last couple years.

[greatwhitehunter3!]

If there is an early teal season, will that not affect the wood ducks that are already around at that time? I don't know about everyone else but I would take shooting a limit of wood ducks over teal any and every day.

[Nershi]

Opener is over rated. How much do we want to alter our season to cater to the duck hunters who only go the first and second weekend? I don't feel bad if an early teal season affects the group of hunters who aren't really that in to duck hunting any how. A teal season may mean a few less birds on opener but how many do you think you could shoot in the teal season?

I am not sure a Teal season is a good idea because there will be a lot of casualties by dummies who can't ID birds. But I do not think the decision should be based on how it affects one day of the season-opener.

[Trigger]

If there is an early teal season, will that not affect the wood ducks that are already around at that time? I don't know about everyone else but I would take shooting a limit of wood ducks over teal any and every day.

If you're hunting teal the same place you're hunting wood ducks you're probably not going to be as successful as you could be. And why would you take a small but good tasting duck you can only shoot three of, over a small but good tasting duck you can shoot 6 of?

[greatwhitehunter3!]

If there is an early teal season, will that not affect the wood ducks that are already around at that time? I don't know about everyone else but I would take shooting a limit of wood ducks over teal any and every day.

If you're hunting teal the same place you're hunting wood ducks you're probably not going to be as successful as you could be. And why would you take a small but good tasting duck you can only shoot three of, over a small but good tasting duck you can shoot 6 of?

I personally like decoying wood ducks better than teal. I like the honey holes I have for wood ducks better than teal too; which comes back to where teal season probably wouldn't affect wood ducks either. Who knows, was just another thought.