Well this season has turned out to be one of the worst waterfowl hunting seasons our group has ever seen. One of the main reasons the year ended up so bad was because of the poor weather. When i say poor weather though that actually means it was nice weather during our hunting season. During December and January the temperatures were too high and there wasn't enough snow. When the temperature is warm during the season it means that not as many birds will migrate into our area. Most of the birds that migrate through our region were still on the great lakes during almost our entire hunting season. The very last week of the season birds began to migrate into our area, because of this we were only able to have one good day of goose hunting.
Another factor that contributed to our poor season was a change in the hunting season. This year the hunting season was moved two weeks earlier in the year and there was also a one week period after the new year that waterfowl hunting was not allowed. By chopping the weeks off at the end of our season and taking away another week during January they removed a large portion of the best times for us to hunt. Most of our best hunting occurs in January and especially late January as the birds migrate due to cold weather. This season change made us lose very valuable time from our season.
There are some things that can be done about our poor season though. On the last day of goose season we ran into the county Game Warden. While talking to him we brought up how the season change had affected us negatively. As it turns out the season had been changed because of complaints from the previous year. The people in our area that hunt bodies of water had complained that their season was bad because the water froze too early for them to kill any birds. The warden told us that if we show up to a few meetings and voice our opinions the season can be changed back to the way it was previously or we could even get the season moved even more in our favor. I can guarantee that when these meetings start our group will be their with our complaints. Hopefully we can get the season changed positively for us.
The other idea that we have to make our season better is a big idea. Throughout the last few years we have been dreaming about having our own wetlands to hunt geese and ducks from. The time has come that our dream may actually come true. I have been talking to local wildlife agencies about creating a 10 acre wetlands on my grandmother's property. The local agencies, with help from the federal government would pay for the creation of the wetlands and also pay a yearly rent to keep it as a wetlands. If we are able to have our own wetlands to hunt we would be able to kill many more ducks and geese in the early part of the season before the major migration begins.
To end i would just like to say that I really enjoy hunting and i hope next year we wont have such a poor season of hunting. If we have multiple seasons like this pile up on top of each other it would lessen the amount of fun and enjoyment from waterfowl hunting that our group gets. Eventually it may even lead to us getting away from this type of hunting. I really hope we can get the season changed and that next year we can bounce back with one of our biggest years ever.
Thanks,
Evan Jackson
Team Zombie
Founding Member
