Goon's Ramblings 8-6-2006.

The 2006 Hunting Regulations Laws have been posted.
Ducktober is just around the corner and there are some new rules that hunters need to be aware of. The North Dakota Waterfowl season opens for North Dakota residents on the 23rd of September. The following week the season opens for Non-Residents on September 30th. There are some subtle changes to the proclamation that hunters need to be aware of: this season you will be able to take 5 ducks in stead of 6, you can take 5 mallards but only one of them can be a mallard hen, one canvasback, or one pintail.

Mallard Drakes
This could be problematic and I predict there will be a lot of mallard hens stomped into the mud (as one poster mentioned on another web page) or left in the bulrushes for the coyotes to eat. Hunters are going to have to be careful to identify the ducks they are shooting at before they pull the trigger. I would also suggest getting a waterfowl identification guide and study it. You are going to want to make sure that your shooting a mallard drake. Shooting too many mallard hens only reduces the number of ducks that you will have to hunt next season. I once read in an article that for every mallard hen you shoot you potentially erase 15 ducks that could have been born next season.

Hen Mallard

The New Rules-Posted in the Grand Forks Herald
Service OKs liberal regulations; N.D. season likely to begin Sept. 23, Minnesota's on Sept. 30
By Brad Dokken
Herald Staff Writer
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approved a "Hunter's Choice" aggregate duck limit for North Dakota and four other Central Flyway states during the 2006 waterfowl season.

The service also approved the "liberal" package of waterfowl regulations for the upcoming season. Federal waterfowl managers use a formula called Adaptive Harvest Management, which looks at spring mallard numbers and Canadian wetland conditions, to set fall hunting seasons.

Spring conditions were good enough to warrant the liberal package again this year, officials said. The other options are "moderate" and "restrictive" packages with shorter seasons and reduced bags.

Paul Schmidt, assistant director of migratory birds, made the announcement Friday during a conference call with outdoor writers from across the country. The liberal package means a maximum 74-day season in the Central Flyway and a 60-day season in the Mississippi Flyway, which includes Minnesota.

Three-year test

With approval of the Hunter's Choice regulations, North Dakota hunters will have a five-duck limit instead of the traditional six that liberal regulations traditionally allow. Basically an aggregate limit, Hunter's Choice eliminates the "season within a season" for less abundant species such as pintails and canvasbacks. Hunters can have one mallard hen, one pintail or one canvasback in their five-bird bag.

Other species restrictions include a two-bird limit on scaup and wood ducks. In the category of abundant ducks, hunters can shoot five birds of such species as teal, wigeon and mallards, but only one of those mallards can be a hen.

Other Central Flyway states offering Hunter's Choice regulations are South Dakota, Wyoming, Texas and Kansas. The goal of the three-year experiment is to reduce the harvest of pintails and canvasbacks.

The remaining Central Flyway states will be "control" states adhering to the traditional limited seasons for pintails and canvasbacks.

"That's going to be really exciting to see how that works," said Randy Kreil, wildlife division chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck.

Residents-only opener

Approval of liberal regulations clears the way for North Dakota to open its duck season Sept. 23. Kreil said the state again this year is recommending to set aside the first week of season for resident hunters only. Nonresident hunters could begin hunting waterfowl Sept. 30.

Despite drought conditions across North Dakota and other prairie pothole states, Kreil said he wasn't surprised the service opted for liberal regulations over the moderate or restrictive packages.

"What people need to realize is the factors that determine whether we're in a liberal package are the mallard population, which is still high, and the habitat on the Canadian prairies," Kreil said Friday. "Water conditions all across the prairies and boreal forest (of Canada) are excellent, so that is going to lend itself to very good duck production in Canada."

In Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources again this year is expected to offer a 60-day season beginning Sept. 30, according to Steve Cordts, waterfowl staff specialist for the DNR in Bemidji. Bag limits have yet to be determined, Cordts said Friday, and the DNR likely will issue a news release with more information this week.

Minnesota last year had a four-duck limit, even though they could have offered six birds under the liberal package. That's likely to be the case this year, too, if spring population surveys are any indication. The DNR estimated spring mallard numbers in the state at 161,000 - 33 percent lower than 2005 and the lowest recorded since 1983.