Waterfowl Seasons Set

Idaho waterfowl hunters will have the 107-day season, maximum bag limit and late closure most said they wanted. Meeting in Boise August 29-30, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to approve department-recommended waterfowl rules for the 2005-2006 season but with some tweaks. Season recommendations had been submitted for comment to the public in the seven regions in a random mailing to waterfowlers with a web site questionnaire and in a Commission public hearing August 29. Duck and goose hunting will run October 8 through January 20, 2006 in northern and eastern Idaho where earlier freeze-up can be expected, and October 15 through January 27 in southwest Idaho including the Magic Valley. The federal waterfowl hunting framework would have allowed a January 29 closure, an option supported by some hunters, but that alternative would have required a split in the season or a later opener. The Commission decided to try to keep rules as simple as possible and rejected the split season idea. Commissioners also expressed the desire to create more uniformity in the rules by approving a four-goose limit statewide. Waterfowl manager Tom Hemker said the recommended three-goose limit for the Magic Valley had been in place for years and that locally-reared geese were in a slight decline but noted that the vast majority of geese killed there and the rest of Idaho come from Alberta where the breeding pair count is about twice as high as the official objective. There will be no special restriction on the number of light geese in the bag limit as in years past. Hemker noted that the difference in goose limits had caused some enforcement problems at the boundaries. Duck limits were set at seven-all of which can be mallards-including no more than two mallard hens. The canvasback season remains at 60 days in the beginning of the duck season while a daily bag including one pintail runs the whole duck season this year. The take of pintails was restricted to 60 days last year, but improvements in that population of ducks permitted the change. The youth waterfowl hunt is set for September 24-25. Most of Idaho's fall flights come from southern Alberta where several years of drought has hurt populations, but water conditions improved enough over the last year to begin an upward trend in ducks.