suggestions to improve waterfowling

[oilguy]

Now that the season is about finished, I thought a suggestion box thread may be interesting. Lets try to focus on local or Minnesota issues where we might be able to make noticible changes as opposed to flyway issues.

Here are my top two.

Minnows. Commercial bait dealers have devastated the small waters around Ottertail county. With no food in them, the ducks don't even use these waters in the spring any more.

Fishermen. One boat can bump any lake in this county. and the ducks never come back once they've been roosted.

[Guest]

The lake we hunt north of Bagley has drastically changed over the last 20 years.

The lake levels were increased and the duck habitat is slowly disappearing. Bigger fishing boats get into areas to fish that weren't passable 10 years ago. The cattail bogs are breaking apart and floating across the lake. I think the wake action of the bigger boats is speeding up the erosion of the bogs. The reads are thinner and offer little cover.

The worse thing that has happened is that milfoil has infested the back bays and it makes it impossible to get into the areas we used to hunt puddlers. This looks like the native northern milfoil, not the Eurasian milfoil. Nonetheless, I think its still changing the lake and not for the better.

We have had to adapt to the changes. We use blinds on our boats and use more decoys now, but the hunting isn't what it used to be.

My guess is we have maybe 10 years left at the rate the lake is changing and it will no longer be a stop for the migrating ducks.

[Sartell Angler]

START THE SEASON LATER!

even if it freezes up north, the hardcore hunters can drive south to hunt the remaining couple of weekends. that way we won't miss the migration like we did yet again this year. I'm sick of hunting late geese and having big flocks of mallards dumping into my decoy spread...yeah, its fun to watch, but i'd like to be pulling the trigger on 'em!

also, we need to establish some better habitat in this state and quit eating it all up with urban sprawl. water quality is an issue as well. Bring back the shrimp. And also....hunters can help out individually by refraining from shooting hens...I know I shoot some here and there, but I try and go out of my way to only shoot drakes if we are getting plenty of action.

Good season guys.

SA

[Finlander]

Pray for normal fall weather and a total freeze line just north of the Canadanadian border eh!

[hanson]

"More habitat on the ground means more ducks in the sky"

I believe that is a DU slogan. I think it is as simple as that. Later season is fine. Shorter season is fine. Smaller bag limits are fine. Predator control is fine. But all the regulations in the world seam to be a band aid for the real problem and that is less habitat or destruction of habitat.

I hunt NW Minnesota mostly. There is not a farmer's field up there that doesn't have drain tile under it. These fields also don't have potholes like they used to 10-20 years ago.

We also might need a metro duck season. I could limit out on Greenhead mallards in the middle of January all week long if I wanted to. A lot of the birds just never seem to leave. So much for calling them migratory waterfowl.

[danny berg]

Later and/or split season, lots of praying to the weather gods....

[FlyingV]

Buy a fur coat. Insist on it being made from wild fur. A fox, a mink, maybe a raccoon.

[Riverratpete]

I do believe we have to do something in this state about the duck seasons. After having hunted in the south and the east I feel that a split season would be best. 2-3 weeks starting end of Sept then 3-4 weeks the end of Oct/Nov. Most of the hunting is finished over water early to mid Nov depending in ice up anyways. IMO this break in October would also help keep more birds in the state with less pressure. my 2 cents.

[Riverratpete]

I do believe we have to do something in this state about the duck seasons. After having hunted in the south and the east I feel that a split season would be best. 2-3 weeks starting end of Sept then 3-4 weeks the end of Oct/Nov. Most of the hunting is finished over water early to mid Nov depending in ice up anyways. IMO this break in October would also help keep more birds in the state with less pressure. my 2 cents.

[g'eye pilot]

I strongly agree with a couple of major themes mentioned here: season dates and bag limits are something we can address today. (The habitat issue is a tougher one). We need to to let the DNR how we feel these issues! Openning the duck season in late Sept. is getting ridiculous. It often seems to result in the local birds leaving early, and then we wait around for migrants that never show up. What good does that do us? Maybe a split season would be the answer, or a later opener? The other area we need to be heard on is bag limits. There have been several good articles (one in the Mpls Tribune not too long ago). pointing out that the beaurocrats show plenty of ducks on paper, but most hunters are not seeing the same thing afield. Personally, I've seen it for myself in central ND. I do believe most waterfowling enthusiasts support lower bag limits in order to preserve our sport. Biology, not politics, should dictate our bag limits and season frameworks. Let's not let our waterfowling heritage slip away as a result of politicing.

[joshb]

stop accomidating the waterfowl season to fairweather meathunters.......there is plenty of open water in this state well into december to hunt. IMO, the first three weeks of the season is barely worth going out. they say that we have the best success in the first week of the season......but do they take into account how many people stop going out after the opener?. or how many of the birds shot are locals?. it is always the same......the first week is alright and then when all the locals have been shot, gotten wise or moved on, the next two weeks are absolutely horrible, unless you are the type that loves to wade through miles of loon **** and kick birds off their roosts - and even then it is ony marginal at best.

someday hopefully the dnr will realize that the duck and deer season will never completely coincide with one another. most of the people i converse with all agree that the season is just starting to get good the weekend of deer opener. so that leaves us with like three weeks of "decent" waterfowl shooting?.

i am frustrated to the piont of disgust with this states waterfowl management.

[icecold]

I also am fed up with MN dnr , They need to take lessons about laws and such from the Dakotas or wisc, These states have there s**t together

[Mike Walerak]

In my opinion the only solution is habitat. The first step would be to plug up and remove the drain tile in western MN. (Good Luck). Next cut shoreline development totally. (Good Luck) Many of these new pretty homes are nestled in what used to be cattail shorlines, now they are sand beaches. The DNR does have to issue permits for development but they are fairly easy to get unless you are in a critical area. I have not seen to much wild celery (one of mallards favorite foods) growing on sand beaches.

Seasons, maybe? In SD the season opens at about the same time as MN. We don't have any less ducks after 3 weeks, they just stack up where people can't get to them. Many times on private land, but MN don't have as many sloughs on private land because they are all drained!

I think you can catch my drift, the issue is habaitat. Since there is a lack of "ideal habitat" the becomes new management issues regaurding seasons, bag limets etc. It is really all the DNR can do.

I have no problem with the DNR, I think they do a great job and have some great biologists. I personally think they are controlled and influenced too much by congress rather than the stake holders and their own personal efforts. My feelings are if you want something to change, write your congressman not whine to the DNR.

I did not intend this to be a rant. I have very strong feelings regaurding habitat degredation.

mw

[Guest]

Can you guys explain what the drain tiles are?

I assume its to drain wetlands for planting, but can you describe how they do it?

[Rost]

A drain tile is a perferated (sp) tile that farmers run under the ground from a low area (that is often flooded) to some form of drainage system such as a drainage ditch. I grew up in SW MN and things look drastically different now from 15 years ago. Many of the potholes we used to hunt are dry every year now.

If you ever see a fence post standing out in the middle of a field with some sort of marker on it (jug, flag etc..) and it is in a low area, you are looking at a tile. More than likely, that spot was a dandy duck hunting pot hole at one time.

In the farmers defense, I should mention that laying a tile line must be permitted by the government. The DNR and ag department has strict guidlines that a farmer must follow. A farmer may not lay tile on established wetlands.

Does the fact that MN has a lot of drainage tile in the ground affect your waterfowl...absolutely.

[Dean Schellinger]

Lets try to consult with farmers about not using so many drain tiles!!

[Sartell Angler]

THIS SITE DOES NOT CONDONE YOUR ATTEMPT AT AN ILLEGAL ACTIVITY. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM SUCH POSTS IN THE FUTURE.

[TrashDux*]

The best thing ya'll could do would be to convince all the hacks, posers, and wannabe's to give up.

Well, next year when all the pi$$ing and moaning leads to another 30/3....most will go away.

The funny thing is, the last time we had restrictive framework, everyone pi$$ed and moaned about the season being too short.

[Donkeypunch]

First off, all you who think a shorter season or less of a baglimit, need to re think your ideas. Righr now there is a about a 10% of the hunters who actually shoot limits. the average hunter is shooting around 2 birds per day as it is now.

The population can handle a more liberal season than we already have.

Second, what good is it to restore the habitat if all we are going to do is make an duck egg buffet for the skunks, raccoons, and other preds. like feral cats.

Here is what I suggest, raise the limit of mallards to be at least 6, start the season the first week of October, close all public hunting at 1:00pm, make more lakes have motor restrictions after 1:00pm,

reinstate a preditor controll program.. we need to kill the egg eaters.

These are the best ways you can help improve the hunting in MN, there are alot of other things that we can not do ourselfs, like make NO/SO Dakota dry again, make the snow fall and lakes ice up in canada in mid october.

that should be a good start, I'll try and think up more later.

[PikeTipper]

Obviously something has to be done but I think one of the problems is that everyone has a different opinion on what exactly should be done. Ducks Unlimited believes that habitat is the key and we need to lock up as much land as possible to save what habitat we have left. Delta adds in that as long as the land we do have is managed to control predators then duck numbers will increase. Another group has a different idea and they go with that. Who is right? The answer is all of them but if one groups ideas aren't exactly what you think then it seems like the latest craze is to start your own group.

Like it or not, politics are key to helping us out with land management. One of the reasons the big groups like the NRA can be so successful is that they are one very big group and not a bunch of smaller groups. I don't know how to go about doing it but I really think most of these smaller groups should merge under one for a common goal, more ducks.

Before the election you read post after post telling you to get out and vote because the sportsmen and women need to be heard. Vote for who? If 50% of the sportsmen vote Democrat and 50% vote Republican then what did we accomplish? What we need is one voice to really draw attention to ourselves.

Sorry for the rant and such a long post.

[FOOT]

The key is simple HABITAT and MORE HABITAT. But it has to be the right habitat. A small pot hole might look like it provides great habitat but if there is not enough grass land surrounding the wetland it won't do much good. The predators (skunks, fox, etc:) will find every nest and feast on the eggs. However, predator control is not the answer and not even part of the answer. There is no way for anyone to kill off enough predators to make a difference. More will be born or move in to the area to fill the gap. The only thing you could do is fence off the land around a wetland and then kill off the predators.

1) We need to work with the landowners to establish wide enough cover belts around the wetlands so the nesting hens have a better then average chance of raising young.

2) We need to get farmers to stop draining and tileing marginal land.

3) We need to improve marginal wetlands.

4) More waterfowl hunters need to put their money where the mouth is. There are approxiamtely 150,000 waterfowl hunters in Minnesota and less then 1/3 of them belong to Ducks Unlimited and far fewer belong to the other waterfowl organizations such as MWA or Delta Waterfowl.

If you want to play you have to pay and the cost of your license, tax on shells and guns aren't enough. Every waterfowl hunter in Minnesota can afford a $25 membership to DU and they should pony up and become members, if not DU then MWA or Delta.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

good topic...unfortunately its not one thats going to go away anytime soon either...ive seen first hand the effects that tiling, the county's (swift in western minnesota) willingness to dig more drainage ditches, and fencerow to fencerow farming have done to the local duck populations in western minnesota. growing up near the famed danvers wildlife area, i grew up accustomed to seeing thosands of birds circling the cattails in the spring and fall, and knowing that the coming season would bring much meat to the freezer and maybe a few bands for the lanyard. now hunting on the same wma, im lucky to get two birds a day if i hunt all day and walk farther and farther into the cattails to find un-hunted openings. where did all the ducks go? i dont know but i do know that everybody can do something to help; wether its join D.U., calling dnr regional managers, etc. but i think the most important thing to to is establish relationships with farmers and discuss ways to improve lands that could benifit the nesting birds or attract the migrant birds. after 10 years of asking, i finally got my grandma to enrol some land in CREP and plug some tiles; and i actually shot a wooduck off that property for the first time in oh....12 years? if everybody gets active in someway we will see the ducks again. imo. sorry for the three chapter paragraph but i guess its an important issue to me!