Southern zone opens Sept. 29
MADISON – Duck hunters will enjoy a full 60-day hunting season in Wisconsin and again have expanded shooting hours when the duck season opens in the Northern Zone on Sept. 22. The season opens at 9 a.m. instead of noon as in previous years.
“Wisconsin waterfowlers should have a good hunting season,” said Kent Van Horn, Department of Natural Resources migratory game bird ecologist. “Overall, spring populations of ducks and Canada geese breeding in Wisconsin were average while duck and goose populations breeding in Canada were high in 2007.”
However, because of some very dry conditions in northern parts of the state, Van Horn says, hunters who scout prior to and during the season will have a better hunting experience.
“Hunters should remember that local water conditions, weather and time spent scouting are the most important factors to the success of their waterfowl season,” he says. “Wisconsin has a wide range of different habitats and locations to hunt waterfowl that are not always used very heavily, so take the time to seek out new areas this fall.
Many of the ducks harvested in Wisconsin come from birds that breed in Wisconsin, Van Horn says. “The four most abundant ducks in Wisconsin’s fall hunting harvest are mallards, wood ducks, green-winged teal and blue-winged teal.”
The Northern Zone season will run straight through to Nov. 20. The Southern Zone season will open at 9 a.m. Sept. 29 and run through Oct. 7, and then will close until it reopens on Oct. 13 and runs through Dec. 2.
The daily bag limit for the full 60 days is six ducks, not to include more than four mallards of which only one may be a hen, two wood ducks, one black duck, two redheads, two scaup, one pintail, and two canvasback. In addition, the bag limit includes five mergansers to include not more than two hooded mergansers. Coot daily bag is 15.
Van Horn notes that a record high canvasback breeding population supported an increase in the canvasback daily bag from one to two birds this year.
The boundary between the northern and southern duck zone remains the same as last year. This boundary extends from Highway 10 on the Minnesota border to U.S. 41 near Appleton and will follow U.S. 41 to the Michigan border at Marinette/Menominee.
Bag checks will again be performed at select hunting locations in the state this fall. Avian influenza testing will also occur at these sites.
More information is available on the waterfowl in Wisconsin pages of the DNR Web site.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Kent Van Horn - (608) 266-8841 or Kimberlee Benton - (608) 261-6458
