# Early Canada Goose Season



## fieldgeneral (Feb 12, 2013)

Are they opening up the entire state for non-residents to hunt canadians in August? What does every one think about this??


----------



## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

This should get interesting...

I don't think most guys are real passionate about the early goose hunt; most just do it as a little warmup before the real season, and I kind of doubt a ton of NR will come out when it's 80 degrees to hunt geese. Undoubtedly, some will however. Areas with lots of corn and soybeans and canola and sunflowers (which seems to be much of the state now) don't have a ton of harvested fields in the early season so that could cause some crowding in some areas I am sure.

I think most, including myself, just see it as another step to letting ND get overpressured and commercialized. Bills to allow more days during the regular season will follow (already has). More privileges for NR will undoubtedly lead to more leasing of land and more outfitters.

On another note, I wonder if the early goose pressure is changing duck behavior. Seems most of the local ducks leave almost as soon as regular season opens.


----------



## the professor (Oct 13, 2006)

You'll probably not notice any increase in Non-resident hunters with SD and MN (possibly) both having August seasons this year.


----------



## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

I see SD is going to try a spring hunt on Canada geese: http://tinyurl.com/d55dcmh That must be a first and will be intersting to see if other states adopt it also.


----------



## fieldgeneral (Feb 12, 2013)

I for one believe that the added pressure of the early goose hunting does effect the naiveness
of the ducks. It causes them to move around more often in search of a safe field to eat because most of the small grain fields are holding a honker spread. It's just unwanted pressure that the birds don't want to tolerate.


----------



## KurtR (May 3, 2008)

Dick Monson said:


> I see SD is going to try a spring hunt on Canada geese: http://tinyurl.com/d55dcmh That must be a first and will be intersting to see if other states adopt it also.


pass shooting only and not that many license will do little to nothing. If they really wanted population control a guy with surpressed .22 would do more than all the hunters added together for that whole season will


----------



## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I'm not saying it doesn't affect the ducks but in the probably 30 early season hunts I have been on I have only had ducks come to the decoys twice. In both instances they landed then left on their own without being disturbed. Where I have hunted it doesn't seem like the duck start using the field untill the temp starts to drop..............

It seems like it would be more of a disturbance where there is a lot of hunting over water................


----------



## Juststartin' (Jun 4, 2012)

I feel like ND is over hunted by NR's. I live in Indiana and all i heard around the public hunting areas was ND this, ND that. These guys in my DU commitee has been going to ND since the 80's and all they say is that guides been taking over the area and this year might be thier last year. I know i dont have a word in this. The one guy has been wanting to do early season. I might head up there this year since i graduate and i want to go before the stop going. Hopefully its a wet year.


----------



## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

The area I have been hunting the early season has 2 groups of hunters besides myself and there has been room for all. Most of the time I hunted weekdays and had the area to myself and never saw a NR hunter. I could have gone 20 miles in any direction and found a City lagoon loaded with geese and few if any hunters. As a note I averaged 7 birds per hunt and was only shooting a dismal 40% and with and O/U (2 shots sometimes 3) My points is there were ample numbers of birds in an area that was not high profile so it had minimal pressure and it made for excelent hunting.

Everyone seems to want to blame NRs for all the problems but I don't see it that way... Overal hunter numbers are very similar to what they were in the late 70s. The only difference is the resident /non-resident composition of those numbers. I don't recall anyone compaining about hunter numbers in the 70s. As a matter of fact we enjoyed those hunter numbers back then because it kept the birds moving around.

NRs are blamed for the excess pressure put on birds. While there is some merit to that idea I don't believe it applies statewide. The idea is that NRs putting weekday pressure on birds is driving them out. I would counter, that more residents than ever are also hunting weekdays due to flexible work schedules that were not prominent back in the 70s and also make note that there was more weekday pressure back in the 70s than many realize. We used to hunt 2-3 weekdays of every week, after school......

I actually think areas like Devils Lake have LESS hunting pressure now than when I started hunting.............

Limiting NRs might be a solution but not for the reasons most would think. Limiting NRs is only going to reduce the overall number of hunters. If for some reason the number of resident numbers started to climb and fill that gap the exact same problems would re-occur.....................

I honestly don't think most resident hunters under the age of 35 know what tough hunting and pressure is......................We have been spoiled with unprecidented waterfowl numbers for many years now.

I would add that in the areas I hunt I rarely encounter NR hunters and on those occassions I do, generally they and myself are the only hunters around for miles..........There are vast areas of ND that have very little pressure and ample numbers of birds but everyone seems to want to hunt the high profile areas.........


----------



## KurtR (May 3, 2008)

dakotashooter2 said:


> The area I have been hunting the early season has 2 groups of hunters besides myself and there has been room for all. Most of the time I hunted weekdays and had the area to myself and never saw a NR hunter. I could have gone 20 miles in any direction and found a City lagoon loaded with geese and few if any hunters. As a note I averaged 7 birds per hunt and was only shooting a dismal 40% and with and O/U (2 shots sometimes 3) My points is there were ample numbers of birds in an area that was not high profile so it had minimal pressure and it made for excelent hunting.
> 
> Everyone seems to want to blame NRs for all the problems but I don't see it that way... Overal hunter numbers are very similar to what they were in the late 70s. The only difference is the resident /non-resident composition of those numbers. I don't recall anyone compaining about hunter numbers in the 70s. As a matter of fact we enjoyed those hunter numbers back then because it kept the birds moving around.
> 
> ...


that is about spot on i will include pheasant hunting in sd. Plennty of places to hunt as long as some one is willing to look


----------

