My ideal duck season dates, what's your?

[Dogface]

Originally Posted by B-Stealth

Considering we keep a 60 day season give or take a few days, what would you want to see?

I will start.

For simplicity, the whole state is one zone.

1st Split opens 1st weekend of November and season ends last weekend of January.
3 splits with 10+ days in the splits, to spread out the season hopefully appeasing the majority of the state.

Youth hunts would take place during the splits.

This sounds good to me but would let the youth hunt either before or after regular season so the birds could rest during the splits.

[B-Stealth]

Originally Posted by Dogface

This sounds good to me but would let the youth hunt either before or after regular season so the birds could rest during the splits.

Y'all are prob right

[seachaser250]

Dates don't matter much when you have a warm winter.

[boatdriver]

Originally Posted by seachaser250

Dates don't matter much when you have a warm winter.

If anyone argues this, you are not a duck hunter...

[Quackhead62]

Originally Posted by boatdriver

If anyone argues this, you are not a duck hunter...

100% truth to that statement.


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[seachaser250]

Originally Posted by Quackhead62

100% truth to that statement.


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You can wiggle the dates and zones around all you want. If you don't get the big freeze north of LA the ducks just don't come down like they would if it did. Plenty of food and moving water. Why would they leave that?

EDIT: I'm not saying the dates and zones don't need to be changed. I'm just not blaming that on my below average season.

[Lreynolds]

Originally Posted by seachaser250

You can wiggle the dates and zones around all you want. If you don't get the big freeze north of LA the ducks just don't come down like they would if it did.

Excellent point, and the foundation of my support for traditional dates in the Coastal Zone. In 2014, we set the seasons a week later, and we got a very early freeze pushing the birds into the state such that our November survey was the highest since 1995. In 2015, we set the season a week earlier, and the warm weather and excessive flooding up and down the flyway reduced our number of birds.

Leave the dates alone and just deal with the annual variation in weather and habitat conditions. The harvest data clearly show that on average, we kill lots of ducks in the Coastal Zone in November, and noticeably fewer by late-January (both total and birds/hunter). There is no magic formula to maximize kill every year, and no way to satisfy everyone every year.

Hell, our hunter-opinion surveys show those hunters who have hunted the longest, hunt the most, and kill the most ducks are the LEAST satisfied. But they won't quit.

Tough crowd .........

[B-Stealth]

Originally Posted by boatdriver

If anyone argues this, you are not a duck hunter...

I will argue that a season spread over a longer period will "capture" more birds and the longer splits will help settle the birds down, local and newcomers.
At the very least you will benefit from an additional "opening weekend".