Commission sets duck, goose seasons
Bobby Cleveland •
bcleveland@clarionledger.com • August 18, 2010
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Mississippi duck hunters will have a three-day weekend season in November, a four-day one in December and then will be able to hunt the remaining 53 days in a row, under a plan passed Tuesday by the Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.
The 60 total days include three seasons for ducks, mergansers and coots:
•Nov. 26-28
*Dec. 3-6 .
•Dec. 9-Jan. 30.
A special youth weekend will be Feb. 5-6.
The daily limit for all duck seasons is six ducks, including no more than 4 mallards (no more than 2 of which may be females), 3 wood ducks, 2 redheads, 2 scaup, 2 pintail, 1 canvasback, 1 mottled duck, and 1 black duck. The merganser daily bag limit will be a total of 5 mergansers, only 2 of which may be hooded mergansers. Coots will have a 15-bird daily bag limit. The possession limit is twice the daily bag limit for ducks, mergansers, and coots.
"We saw a slight decrease in the overall breeding duck populations, but it wasn't significant," state waterfowl biologist Ed Penny told the Commission. Penny said the numbers are very similar to last year when Mississippi wintered near record populations.
"We had a very cold winter and we had a lot of ducks, but that didn't necessarily lead to an increased harvest," he said. "Yes it was cold, but it was also very wet and it scattered the ducks and made them tough to hunt. One encouraging sign this year is that the weather has been ideal for creating good habitat. We have had success with plantings at our Wildlife Management Areas."
Commissioners also set the goose seasons on Tuesday:
•Snow, blue, Ross' and white-fronted geese - Nov. 20-Jan. 30. Snow, blue, and Ross's geese will have a daily bag limit of 20 birds. White-fronted geese will have a daily bag limit of 2 birds.
•Canada and brant geese - Nov. 22-Jan. 30. Canada geese will have a 3-bird daily bag limit and brant will have a daily bag limit of 2 birds.
In addition, a special conservation order allows hunting of snow, blue and Ross' geese from Oct. 1-Nov. 19, Jan. 3'-Feb. 4 and Feb. 7-March 31. There is no limit and restrictions are eased to allow electronic calls.
