Waterfowl Seasons Altered Only Slightly

Idaho waterfowl hunters will have about the same season and rules as last year but there will be no canvasback shooting this year. Meeting in Driggs August 8-10, Fish and Game Commissioners decided not to add in the 38-day "season within a season" allowed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for canvasbacks this year. Citing a desire to avoid more complicated regulations, the Commission voted to take canvasback ducks out of the permitted bag. The federal move to allow a short season on canvasbacks came only a few days before the Commission met to finalize waterfowl hunting rules. Few canvasbacks have been taken in Idaho in recent seasons and they have not recovered from a long-term decline in numbers. The Commission adopted the recommendations of the department to set a 107-day duck season and 100-day goose season, opening on October 6. These are the maximum season lengths permitted under the federal waterfowl hunting framework. Except in the Fort Hall zone where the duck season will run straight through, the general duck season will be split with no hunting on October 18-19, ending on January 20. The general goose season will have a nine-day break, October 18-26, ending January 20. Goose hunting on Fort Hall will not be split. This year's youth waterfowl hunt is set for September 22-23. Young hunters accompanied by nonhunting mentors 18 or older can hunt ducks and geese on that weekend under the general bag and possession limits. The daily bag limit remains at seven ducks with no more than two hen mallards, one pintail, and four scaup. Goose limits remain the same as last year. In northern and eastern Idaho, the goose limit is four per day with only three light geese or two white-fronted geese. In the southwest third of Idaho, the limit is three geese, only two of which can be white-fronted. The Commission agreed with department recommendations to remove the Hells Canyon goose closure and to modify the Mann's Lake hunting boundaries to reduce depredation there.