TPWD Questionaire for Extending Waterfowl Season

[WestEndAngler]

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/business/feedback/public_comment/

Voice your opinion today! Both Teal & big duck!

[Milkjug]

Looks like it starts later and ends later. Didn't last year begin Oct 31?

I am all for it as I do better later anyways. Not too many birds as there is too much open water up there early.

[WestEndAngler]

they are attempting to push it back by a week looks like?

[Milkjug]

Looks that way. Just submitted mine.

[GHSmacker]

If the idiots in TPWD could ever get this right.......

It's common sense to anyone that has hunted this state enough on how the season dates should be set among the different zones. Let the boys down south open up early and end earlier. The coastal guys always get a really big push of birds in October/early November. Those are the birds that are pushing on way down south(deep south TX/Mexico) that we won't see again until the northern migrations starts back in the middle of January.

Let the guys in the north zone and the HPMMU open up later and end as late as possible. This gives those guys the best chance to kill more mallard ducks, which are often the last of the migrants and our a highly sought after bird.

Wouldn't it be nice if TPWD would actually break up the dates in our state's zones so that hunters could hop around from zone to zone to extend their hunting season? What a concept.

So who wants to put some money down in a pool and bet on when they open the season to each zone?

[Robalo]

I bet two dyed shrimp and one slightly used popping cork with a rusty hook that they don't change anything.

[single prong]

Or we could go back to the way it was back in the late 50's-early 70's when the season opened on the first Saturday of November and ended the second weekend of January with no split for the entire state. When the northern states receive their cold fronts and enough to move waterfowl down South is a huge factor on what densities Texas will see each year and what regions.

[GHSmacker]

SP...it doesn't matter, we'll never see those birds ever again...not in the same numbers anyways. Not to beat a dead horse, but the Yankees hold the birds to the north of us for most of the season now. When is the last time we saw a good push of mallards in south central Texas? 99?

[single prong]

Oh, I know what you mean, I personally witnessed the decline in duck numbers over the years, from the marsh and sky black with ducks prior to the season and even before legal shooting time to sitting in the blind and hoping a few teal MIGHT come by with an occasional mottled duck/black mallard as we called them in Galveston County.

Less and less farmers are growing rice, soybeans and what have you since the costs have sky-rocketed and either they have gone to another source of income or sold their properties off to developers (yuck and losing what wintering waterfowl habitat we had in those areas and lessening even more) - look what happened to the waterfowl habitat along I-10 from Brookshire heading to Katy on the South side. All those wetlands and an area they flooded each year, gone and the Rooms-to-Go or Room Store took in a large portion along with other development. We're losing habitat by leaps and bounds and very few folks don't worry about it, but where they want their new home or department stores.

Gotta get off the soap box, already worked-up with habitat loss and lack of space for our wildlife species from 4 legged to those that fly.