[Lreynolds]

It's interesting to see responses to website postings. I got a couple of responses saying, "I see there is discussion about adding 7 days to the first split; I'm against that". Now I see where that was coming from.

Honestly, I do NOT like public comment periods without structured hunter-opinion survey tools in place. Why?

1) People who are OK with what you have proposed tend not to participate. A higher proportion of those who disagree or have strong specific desires expend the effort to make the contact.

2) It gets political. People rally like-minded individuals (or others that don't really have an opinion but will help out a friend). I've had calls where they passed the phone around to a bunch of buddies or co-workers to get all their opinions ...... which were all the same, of course. I've even received e-mails from women that tell me they are expressing their opinion on behalf of so and so.

3) People want to speak for many others. Lots of e-mails claim to be speaking for more than 1 person. "Our club of 12 members want ........"; "I'm speaking for myself and my 3 brothers and our 8 children who all hunt ......."; etc.

4) Soooooo many comments are just not useful like those that want to close the season over holidays, or want to hunt a straight 60 days starting November 1rst, or want to hunt a straight 60 days counting back from January 31, or want to hunt Friday, Saturday, and Sundays only from Nov. 1 until our 60 days runs out, or people who want to change season dates in Arkansas or Missouri, or those that want statewide seasons so the guys in those "other zones" won't come over and hunt in their zone.

5) A few get nasty with their remarks, and virtually all of those that do make fools of themselves not realizing the limits of federal law, or how many times in the last 20 years we have opened the season on November 8th, or how many ducks Louisiana hunters actually kill in the month of November, or how unpopular their particular opinion has been on the last 3 formal hunter-opinion surveys, etc.

It is always a learning experience, and I appreciate all of you that have contacted me with your well-reasoned opinions. That includes those who want 7 extra days in the first split.