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

[bigdog]

Maybe I would go if Lumbertick needed a guide. Not in favor of an early teal season, not in favor of opener in September, not in favor of early geese over water or October fishing on the larger diver lakes. I have taken youth out for YWD but don't see that it is effective as a means of recruitment. YWD has a relatively low level of participation so don't think it has a major affect on statewide bird numbers, may cause some localised movement.

[Fish Felon]

YWD is a failure.

The worst thing it has done is created a whole group of guys who pat themselves on the back for taking kids out hunting for ONE day. Hunter recruitment is a season long, really a life long thing.

I would rather take a kid who is new to hunting out during the regular season. I have no problem letting them shoot first or watching them miss. There is nothing worse than having a kid cripple a duck and then having to watch him fumble around not knowing what to do...trying to reload his gun, find the bird, actually put it down while it's swimming on the water and before it hits cattails or dives. It's a stressful moment and the kid feels like crap if he loses the duck (which they often do). It's a heck of a lot easier to teach a kid to hunt when you can also have a firearm with you and dispatch of cripples, etc. Often times people learn faster watching something done than they do listening to instructions.

[Fish Felon]

The other thing is that YWD is misguided. We don't need Youth recruitment, we need New Hunter recruitment. Where's the day for me to take the 40 year old out who's never hunted? We need adult recruitment more so than youth recruitment. They're the ones who often have the time and the means to take up the sport.

What would be much more beneficial to hunter recruitment would be if the DNR offered a "free" weekend like they do for fishing where you don't need to buy a license. Have the third weekend of the season (or some other weekend) where I could take some of my friends who've never hunted out and mentor them. It'd be pretty easy to make work. Anyone who's never purchased a license could go as long as they are with a licensed mentor.

It'd get out a lot of guys interested in the sport who have never done it. It's hard to get people hooked without that first hunt experience. Once you have them hooked they're a lot more willing to do hunter safety, invest in gear, and start researching things for themselves. Kids are not the ones we need to work on getting hooked.

The other thing I disagree with is that you have to take someone on a great hunt to get them hooked. That is not the case. I've made more hunters on mediocre hunts than on great ones. By having a free hunting weekend during the season you can get a guy out on a hunt, hopefully show him some action and have him get a feel for what it's all about, and then make him hungry for the banner days...like opener. If that person you take out wants in on the action they're going to have to do some work, like hunter safety, to get there. People have to want it. You can't just hand it to them.

YWD is creating a whole demographic of kid hunters, who are already short on attention spans, that think duck hunting should be like YWD every time they go. I'd rather take a kid on an average day and get them a little action and tell them about the great days...make them hungry for it instead of just handing it to them. You have to stoke that fire in people...not dump gas on it and expect it to keep burning.

[greatwhitehunter3!]

Did so!

Did not!

Did So!!

Did Not!!

Did SO !!!

Did NOT!!!




Ahhh yes... the endless argument on roost busting....

Just **** sick of field hunters and their holier than you bullcrap. Shooting at birds has a negative impact of their habits. Land or water.

sent from your bedroom closet

While that is true and I have seen it a time or two, the vast majority of the time it is because they are shot off water. In my experience, geese go to fields to feed, they don't go their for a safe haven excluding grass (lawns, pastures and golf courses). Water is where they go to feel safe and roost. Now this is obviously different whether you're 30 miles from me or 300. Each area is different as to what is being offered to the geese.

We have a couple pastures that will hold early season birds but 95% of the birds in the area in September are using water to roost. I prefer not hunting water because I don't enjoy it as much as hunting fields, to each their own. Does it make me better than water hunters? Absolutely not.

There are correct ways to hunt water that birds are roosting on, unfortunately, I have yet to see people do it in a way that doesn't affect their roost ponds in my area.

[Trigger]

And BTW, I do consider any grown man who cries about missing out on a few ducks due to children having a special ywd all to themselves as greedy, especially if that person took part in ywd as a child, its the hight of hipocracy. GROW UP, its not all about you, pathetic. I try not to take part in internet smack talk but pathetic is the only word that comes to mind. A difference of opinion is one thing, blaming children on your poor success is completely different, its pathetic.

Haha this might be my favorite post ever. "I don't take part in internet smack talk, but I'm going to do it, then call the person I'm talking trash too a hypocrite". Do you hold the exact same viewpoints on every subject matter that you did as 14 year old? Or do your opinions change as you gather new info and have different life experiences? Because I wouldn't want you to be a hypocrite based off a new idea you tried as a 14 year old. I just want to know how on earth did waterfowling survive for 100+ years before heros like you were allowed to take kids on their special day is beyond me.

And I'm not sure where I said I was blaming kids. I'm blaming early goose over water, dwindling habitat, and Youth Waterfowling Day, and no point have I ever blamed children. I think kids should be out there hunting all season long, but to many heros think they only have to be a hero one day a year then forget about the kids again, now that is greedy and pathetic.

[Hansen]

I can't believe a weekend of teal hunting would have a big impact on anything.

Looking at the calendar for September the early goose is going to really late this year anyway, unless they open it on Labor Day (sept. 1st). After that there are only 3 weekends before the regular waterfowl season opener on the 27th unless they do a really early opener on the 20th.

[h2ofwlr]

A couple of points on roosts.

It is documented scientific fact that it is critical that the roosts not be disturbed by shooting if you want them to remain in the area. Especially evening roosts.

The study was the basis of the 4PM closure in MN to help keep local birds around.

And this not disturbing the roost and allowing them to feed in the PM keeps them around is also why in places like ND and CAN that the season on geese closes mid day for the 1st part of the season. The 2nd part of the season weather is the main reason waterfowl migrate. The 1st part of the season it is distrurbances, or lack of water and/or food to force birds to move.

There is a HUGE difference between motoring and the birds get up 1 hr before shooting and the nimrods that sneak up on them at dawn and waylay them on the water. Think not? A tactic I, my Dad, and many others have used is to find a pothole full of ducks at mid day after goose hunting and just chase them up without firing a shot and set out a few decoys and wait for the them to return in small bunches. And I have seen when someone shoots at the large flock - they do not return that day - as I sat there for hrs and not a bird returned. So it is actually "shooting the roost" that screws up everyones hunting--from the field hunters to the water hunters.

Myself if I was the waterfowl Czar for MN, for the Goose Early season - no shooting over water until 1 hr after sun up and no shooting after 4PM.



On another note, does shooting over water distrurb the waterfowl? Certainly it does. But if done like I mentioned on the previous page it would give 5 day rest periods for them to settle down. If you think it does not work, ask the how well the guys did on the 2nd "opener" after a split last fall. I heard more than a few comments of "it was almost like openaer all over again". Thus why rest periods do help to keep some birds around.

There is no way the current or new season in Sept will keep everyone happy. But the framework on the previous page that I laid out may be the best that we can get that'll satisfy the majority.

[Nershi]

We should lobby to ban wild ricing and ban any watercraft use on public waters September-opener to give the ducks good rest before opener. Then once the season is open ban watercraft use to anyone besides duck hunters. Too much disturbance is pushing all the ducks South.

If there is food ducks will put up with a lot of pressue. Our poor openers aren't attributed to YWD and early goose over water IMO. It's habitat.

[Trigger]

We should lobby to ban wild ricing and ban any watercraft use on public waters September-opener to give the ducks good rest before opener. Then once the season is open ban watercraft use to anyone besides duck hunters. Too much disturbance is pushing all the ducks South.

If there is food ducks will put up with a lot of pressue. Our poor openers aren't attributed to YWD and early goose over water IMO. It's habitat.

Then please explain the large concentrations of ducks that are commonly seen during the early parts of early goose season but vanish by the time opener rolls around.

[Nershi]

Then please explain the large concentrations of ducks that are commonly seen during the early parts of early goose season but vanish by the time opener rolls around.

Birds will move to different areas for better food and/or habitat. You'll see these birds when you are out for early goose. Sometime in late summer to Mid September most ducklings build up enough muscle to fly a decent ways and mama takes them elsewhere. Two or three years ago (can't remember for sure) North Dakota was packed with ducks in late summer because of excellent breeding conditions. 1 week before resident opener most of the ducks left and went to Canada for better habitat and food. A lot of Canada was flooded fields that year so it was duck paradise. This had nothing to hunting pressure.

Why do you think certain areas of the state hold more ducks at opener? Do you think they all got raised there? The ducks moved there to find better food. When we had the bad flood two summers ago it killed most of the wild rice crop in northern MN. If you found the good rice crops there were more birds than you could shake a stick at on opener. These birds were there through early goose season and YWD and stuck around because life was good. I scouted an area on YWD and there were tons of people out showing the kids a good time. There were even more ducks (of all species) on opener because the birds were finding the food. The old timers in our group were hunting the opener 45 minutes south of us and saw the fewest birds they ever have on opener because there was no food. The area they hunted raised birds but they had left by opener.

Same thing happens with many MN raised geese. Many fly to the Dakotas from MN before the season even opens for easier living. Of course all the elite field hunters think the roosts got busted.

If we could get the right habitat the birds will stick around.