Early goose season regulations
The early goose season offers a great opportunity to check out your favorite shotgun, insert a plug to comply with shell limitations and lay in a supply of non-lead shot. To participate in the early goose season, hunters must possess all of the following:
- Current Wisconsin Small Game Hunting License
- Current Early Canada Goose Hunting Permit
- Harvest Information Program (HIP) registration
- Federal Migratory Bird Stamp (not included with Conservation Patron License)
- Wisconsin Waterfowl Stamp
- Hunter Education Certificate if born after Jan. 1, 1973 (not required if hunting under the Youth Mentorship Program)
Start time is 5:44 a.m. on Sept. 1 (Add eight minutes in Zone C and 12 minutes in Zone D). The bag limit for the early season is five daily, 10 in possession.
It's hard to believe the hunting season is upon us. And what a difference a couple of days make. The dog days of August ("skeeters" and hot, humid weather) were in full effect over the weekend as the kids and grandkids piled in for a camping outing down on the bend along the Pecatonica. Now, it's still hot, but less muggy, and the nights are cool and refreshing.
Despite the weather, it was great to sit around a campfire late into the night, talking ducks, deer and turkeys (my fall permit came in the mail yesterday). The apple tree nearby, its branches drooping with fruit, will soon attract enough deer to fill any hungry hunter's larder. And the various food plots around the farm - featuring everything from corn to clover, soybeans to sugar beets - will prove difficult to resist when the farm fields nearby have lost their produce to the combine's mighty sweep.
My summer weight sleeping bag was perfect for the weather the only problem being my big feet poking into the side of the tent, thereby allowing dampness from the outside to penetrate the bag.
I awaken next morning to fog and the distant honking of a double V-shaped formation of geese coming off the pond to the north. They pass over just across the river and are barely discernible through the haze.
It occurs to me that the early goose season opens next Wednesday, Sept. 1, and it's time to review this year's season structure.
In July, DNR officials attended the Mississippi Flyway Council (17 states and provincial representatives) meeting in Mobile, Ala., to work on management of the shared resource. The DNR Migratory Game Bird Committee, United States Fish & Wildlife Service Committee and the Conservation Congress Migratory Committee have all weighed in to put together the 2010 season structure. The Natural Resources Board approved the recommendations at its August meeting.
Highlights include an increase to a two-bird daily bag limit on pintails and the elimination of the Burnett County sub-zone closed area. That sub-zone is now open to goose hunters as part of the Exterior Zone. The Collins sub-zone will also be eliminated in 2011. The 60-day duck season for 2010 is split with a five-day gap in mid-Oct.
This year's Youth Waterfowl Hunt is set for Sept. 18 to 19. Youth may hunt ducks and geese in all zones, but the bag limit and/or tag requirement applies for the respective zones. The youth hunt overlaps with open goose seasons in most areas so adults are allowed to hunt geese as well (no ducks).
Canada Geese: The state is divided into three hunting zones: Horicon, Collins and Exterior. Other goose management sub-zones within the Exterior Zone include the Brown County and Mississippi River sub-zones.
- 85-day season.
- Daily bag limit of two.
- South Zone: Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, Oct. 16 to Dec.16.
- Check the regulation booklet for bag limits and season structure for light geese, brant and white-fronted geese.
Ducks:
- Southern Zone: Sept. 25 to Oct. 10 and Oct. 16 to Dec. 5.
- Bag limit: Six ducks with no more than four mallards (including one mallard hen), three wood ducks, two redheads, one black duck, two pintail, two scaup and one canvasback (for those not listed: Six total).
- The daily bag may also include five mergansers (not more than two hooded mergansers) and 15 coot.
Note: The rules regarding open water hunting changed in 2009, so check the regs carefully if you plan to hunt from a blind or boat. You must be within three feet of naturally occurring vegetation rooted to the bottom (stumps and dead trees don't count). In addition, the vegetation must provide at least 50-percent concealment from at least one direction and must extend above the height of the boat.
- Lee Fahrney is the Monroe Times outdoors writer. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
Despite the weather, it was great to sit around a campfire late into the night, talking ducks, deer and turkeys (my fall permit came in the mail yesterday). The apple tree nearby, its branches drooping with fruit, will soon attract enough deer to fill any hungry hunter's larder. And the various food plots around the farm - featuring everything from corn to clover, soybeans to sugar beets - will prove difficult to resist when the farm fields nearby have lost their produce to the combine's mighty sweep.
My summer weight sleeping bag was perfect for the weather the only problem being my big feet poking into the side of the tent, thereby allowing dampness from the outside to penetrate the bag.
I awaken next morning to fog and the distant honking of a double V-shaped formation of geese coming off the pond to the north. They pass over just across the river and are barely discernible through the haze.
It occurs to me that the early goose season opens next Wednesday, Sept. 1, and it's time to review this year's season structure.
In July, DNR officials attended the Mississippi Flyway Council (17 states and provincial representatives) meeting in Mobile, Ala., to work on management of the shared resource. The DNR Migratory Game Bird Committee, United States Fish & Wildlife Service Committee and the Conservation Congress Migratory Committee have all weighed in to put together the 2010 season structure. The Natural Resources Board approved the recommendations at its August meeting.
Highlights include an increase to a two-bird daily bag limit on pintails and the elimination of the Burnett County sub-zone closed area. That sub-zone is now open to goose hunters as part of the Exterior Zone. The Collins sub-zone will also be eliminated in 2011. The 60-day duck season for 2010 is split with a five-day gap in mid-Oct.
This year's Youth Waterfowl Hunt is set for Sept. 18 to 19. Youth may hunt ducks and geese in all zones, but the bag limit and/or tag requirement applies for the respective zones. The youth hunt overlaps with open goose seasons in most areas so adults are allowed to hunt geese as well (no ducks).
Canada Geese: The state is divided into three hunting zones: Horicon, Collins and Exterior. Other goose management sub-zones within the Exterior Zone include the Brown County and Mississippi River sub-zones.
- 85-day season.
- Daily bag limit of two.
- South Zone: Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, Oct. 16 to Dec.16.
- Check the regulation booklet for bag limits and season structure for light geese, brant and white-fronted geese.
Ducks:
- Southern Zone: Sept. 25 to Oct. 10 and Oct. 16 to Dec. 5.
- Bag limit: Six ducks with no more than four mallards (including one mallard hen), three wood ducks, two redheads, one black duck, two pintail, two scaup and one canvasback (for those not listed: Six total).
- The daily bag may also include five mergansers (not more than two hooded mergansers) and 15 coot.
Note: The rules regarding open water hunting changed in 2009, so check the regs carefully if you plan to hunt from a blind or boat. You must be within three feet of naturally occurring vegetation rooted to the bottom (stumps and dead trees don't count). In addition, the vegetation must provide at least 50-percent concealment from at least one direction and must extend above the height of the boat.
- Lee Fahrney is the Monroe Times outdoors writer. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
