thejigger

We had our task force meeting today. Season dates are as follows;

Duck       Oct 12 thru Nov 3, and Dec 7 thru Jan 12

Youth      Sep 28 and 29

Veteran   Nov 9 and Jan 18

Brant       Oct 5 thru Nov 3

2 Scaup   Dec 24 thru Jan 12

Goose -  West Central    Nov 9 thru Nov 24, and Jan 11 thru Jan 24

Goose -  South Central   Oct 26 thru Nov 10, and Nov 23 thru Jan 25

What GillT said about moving the anchor. Many times when I have picked the anchor off of bottom, I would circle back to casting distance from the disturbed bottom and catch perch. Sometimes the swinging back and forth while on anchor will help you catch fish.

Western Zone duck dates are Oct 12 to Nov 3, Dec 7 to Jan 12. This is for 3 years, not 5. We meet on the 24th to decide the goose season, youth, veteran, scaup. This fall there will be a 30 day, 3 bird Canada season.

Hunters Choice sells a 3 tube pack. Brown, green and black. It is easy to remove. I wear glasses so facemasks fog my glasses when it's cold out. 

Yes, 3 goose limit for 45 days

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My brother and I are looking at different options for running 300 copper. We run them off our planer boards now but are wondering if it would be easier to run them off of in-line planers. Sometimes we put a 12oz torpedo weight in front of the copper to get more depth and it's 200ft less of copper to have to reel in than if we were running 500ft copper. The Ninja looks to be the in-line that is easiest to get off the line in a hurry, I'm just wondering if it has enough balls to keep it out to the side and  not pull it behind the boat running our set-up. Any advice?

"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours." Gordon Lightfoot. 

I used to troll with streamers on Cayuga. I used them on a double rig. Take a 3 way swivel, tie a 18" piece of mono on one and a 3 to 4 foot piece on the other. Put a stick bait on the short mono  and the streamer on the long one. The stick bait will take the streamer down to a desired depth, depending on the stick bait. I netted a double of Atlantics one day for my son on this rig, that was interesting! Good luck

On 3/20/2023 at 8:40 AM, Roys Boys said:

What if I get a bunch of hunters signatures for late January season and present it to the task force? Would that change the dates?

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10 hours ago, Frogger said:

TJ, thanks for offering up the chance for me to get more information from you. I for one understand the time put in in addition to your normal work. I sure wasn’t looking for an answer today to my questions.  Looking forward to reviewing the highlights. 

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That's cool, hide behind your keyboard. If you knew anything about the seasons, you would already know there would be no January dates this year because this is year 5 of the 5 year plan, which NO task force member is in support of. Did you expect your wishes to come true just because you filled out the survey? Do us all a favor and skip it next time. I expect comments on the season dates when I post them, just hoping you would take the time to hear the facts. 

11 hours ago, Missdemeanor said:

And yet again.... No January Season for Ducks!  I'd say I'm surprised, but I'm not.

    Glad I wasted my time filling out that survey.

 

 

I love it when I take my time to inform LOU members of waterfowl items and I get responses like this from people who are uninformed about this topic.  Please, please call me. If I don't answer tonight, call tomorrow, I will be at work and have all day. As for the rest of the replies to my post, I look forward to talking with you and anyone else who has questions. I will PM you my phone #, after I talk to Missdemeanor, so we can have a discussion and not have to rely on my typing skills. Thanks

Misdemeanor, PM sent

We had our Western zone task force meeting yesterday. We were tasked with making our 2024-25 thru 2028-29 season RECOMMENDATIONS based on several different factors. We are meeting again in April to discuss those season recommendations and submit them to the DEC for the final decision. This fall the Mallard limit is back to four birds, no more than two hens, and the Goose season is forty five days with a three bird limit.

Here are the Western zone seasons for 2023-24

Ducks...10/14 to 11/5; 11/25 to 12/31

Geese... 9/1 to 9/25; West Central... 10/28 to 11/26, 12/26 to1/9/2024; South... 10/28 to 11/18, 11/25 to 1/21/2024

Scaup... First 40 days is a bag limit of 1, 2 bird limit is from 12/12 to 12/31

Youth weekend 9/30, 10/1

Veteran... 10/7 and 1/20/2024

Brant... 9/30 to 10/29

Just got word the mallard limit is going to return to 4 birds and there will be a 45 day, 3 bird goose limit for the upcoming season. The meeting to decide the goose season is next month and I will post more after that. 

Hank and I hunted pheasants today. We killed one and he put another up on the other side of a group of trees, offering no shot. Looking forward to the waterfowl opener this Saturday.

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Made it home Thursday from a 12 day trip to Nebraska with my brother and our dogs. We made the most of every day hunting waterfowl, pheasants and mule deer. I killed this buck on opening day and my brother killed his first muley on Monday. His buck was wounded and he was happy to harvest it rather than feed the coyotes. Lots of great meat and a boat load of memories.

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End of day 2 in NE. Tired dogs. We shot widgeon, gadwalls, mallards and a spoony today. One of those days when circumstances prevented us from shooting geese. Hunting pheasants tomorrow. Take a bird Hunting trip out west, you won't regret it.

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Hunted Wednesday thru yesterday with Hank. Wednesday was hot by the time we started. Hank put up 2 roosters off the area we had to hunt so no shots. My brother killed 2 over his dog Raider. Hank is jet black and I am deathly afraid of him over heating so we went back to the truck after about an hour of hunting. Thursday was a great day. I shot 6 green wings in the morning and 2 roosters in the afternoon. I had one tired lab at the end of the day. We killed 2 roosters Friday and drew a blank yesterday. I am working the next 4 days and leave for Nebraska early Thursday morning.

My son came home from college yesterday. We decided to hunt pheasants this morning and had the best day. Hank put up 5 birds and we killed 4. That capped off a very special week. 4 years ago my brother suffered a spinal cord injury which left him partially paralyzed. He recently got a track chair and it has been a game changer. We shot pheasants together Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week. He shot 2 pheasants yesterday on his own. We leave for Nebraska next Thursday for 13 days of bird and mule deer hunting. So blessed. 

That's great. The dog work is what it's all about. I had to work this weekend but have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to hunt. Good luck!

We had another youth pheasant hunt today. Hank put up 9 roosters and the two kids that were with me killed one. Hank caught 2 birds. I had a girl with me today. It was her first time hunting pheasants. She only shot at 2 birds and watched the others fly away. If you decide to take kids hunting, it is so much fun, just make sure they get some practice in before. Hank was unbelievable today, a pleasure to hunt over. Good luck!

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Hank and I started the pheasant season yesterday with a northern zone youth pheasant hunt put on by the CNY chapter of PF. After Hank decided to run all the way to the other end of the field on his own, he settled down and we were able to get the 3 kids with me their birds. After that, there was a kid that had shot only 1 bird and we took him out and got him anther one. I look forward to the youth hunts all year. Its great to see the kids out in the field and not on their phones. I have 2 more youth hunts for the western zone and can't wait.  We are heading to Nebraska again this November and the more birds over Hank the better. Good luck!

Fixed cheaters with spoons are great. We run a 6 foot leader. We wrap a rubber band around the rigger wire to hold it. We run duo snaps and run the main line (from the rod) thru the inner part of the snap and hook the rubber band to the outer part. Make sure BOTH snaps are beefy and have fun!