# any waterfowl reg you'd like to see changed or added??



## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

at all WMA's a 15 shell limit if hunting from a dike or 50 feet from one.. at timpie springs I think they should close it all cause that place sucks.. at ogden, nothing except every hunter should have to bring back an arm full of phrag.. BRBR eliminate the rule against shooting raccoons.. at public and salt creek, open it up to swan hunting..Other than that I am happy..and I really think we have it so good here, with liberal bag limits and a long season,, just a conversation sparker thats all.


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

and I would be flexible on the shell limit on the dikes cause last time I took my bike out, someone must have had a hole in their jacket cause I found 9 shells on the dike..and they fired great


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Rotate resting areas every couple of years on the WMA's.


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## 2bands (Oct 14, 2009)

Fowlmouth said:


> Rotate resting areas every couple of years on the WMA's.


.That or open them up every so often to youth or handicapped people.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

One box limit of shells on all dikes. I think thats decent. A shell belt full and thats it. Most fo the guys out there skybusting go through a box in a hurry with three shots at birds way out of range every time they go over. 

That and I don't care how good your dog is... if you're on the dike without a set of waders in your party, everyone thats with you gets a ticket. 

If you come off the dike without as many empties as you have empty slots in your box you took out there with you... ticket. Doesn't matter if they're your brand or not... but something has to be done about the trash being left on the dike. 

If you shoot a bird and leave it because its not worth your time to take it home, ticket. You don't want it? Don't shoot it. (this one is already on the books I think, but must not be reported very much.)

Swan hunters.... you wound it, you better find a way to get it or you're done, punch your tag. If you wound a bird and shoot another because you weren't able to get yours, then you're over your limit and get a ticket. They're big and white.... thats not something that is going to hide real well in the phrag. :?


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

I like most of the ideas above, but what they really need is a waterfowl id test and a shooting test.


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## Surf n turf (Oct 27, 2008)

Mojo1 said:


> I like most of the ideas above, but what they really need is a waterfowl id test and a shooting test.


My thoughts exactly, make it mandatory to pass some type of competency test in regards to waterfowl hunting. That should eliminate the shoot first and ask questions later hunters.

I would also like to see the Duck stamp price raised to 50 or more dollars. That should help to weed out the slobs and put more money into the future of waterfowl


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

I like the waterfowl I.D. test..not sure about the 50 bucks tho for a stamp,,waterfowling is already becoming too much of a rich mans sport..all hunting is in that regard..


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## APD (Nov 16, 2008)

utahgolf said:


> I like the waterfowl I.D. test..not sure about the 50 bucks tho for a stamp,,waterfowling is already becoming too much of a rich mans sport..all hunting is in that regard..


i don't really like paying the feds extra cash but i would support a local wma fee like some of the canyons and parks have. something simple like $2 to enter or $10 for a "season pass". i think it might help with some funding for the smaller areas that don't get much of a big budget.

as for the 1 box limit on dikes, count me in. that would save some birds and improve hunting success for all in the marsh.


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## lunkerhunter2 (Nov 3, 2007)

Open the dark goose season for the first month, close it for 6 weeks and let us hunt into the second week of march. These stupid park geese are ruining the goose hunt in UT and the migrators are showing up later and later each year.
I would also like to see some sort of competency test before you are allowed to hunt waterfowl.
Also, authorize an automatic beat-down on skybusters that don't wear waders or have the brain capacity to be on the dikes. :roll:


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## hunter_orange13 (Oct 11, 2008)

i agree with all of this! except for the 50 buck stamp. ouch! that would discourage duck hunting. escpically at 10 bucks a box of shells for the cheapies!


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## LETTER-RIP (Sep 14, 2007)

i like a lot of the ideas you guys are throwing out. not to big on the 50 for the stamp, considering i buy my dads to. i wish they would do more to keep the birds here after the freeze. create current through the wma's with flood gates ext.. +1 on swans at sc and public. prag needs to be a top priority also.


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## duck jerky (Sep 8, 2007)

Allow swan hunting at public and Saltcreek, extend the northern goose hunt.


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

I have already imposed the one box limit on myself when dike hunting. I just can't justify wasting more shells than that if I am shooting that poorly. In fact I usually give up around 15-20 or even less if I am not hitting a high percentage.

I am more likely to approve of a 50 _person_ (OR LESS) limit on the dikes, than a 50 shell limit or whatever. TOO MANY IDIOTS. No matter how many shells they have. Only problem with this is it seems like the bigger the D-bag, the earlier they get to the marsh to make sure they get the "best" spot.

No waders, No dog, NO HUNTING. Waders at minimum, both as available. 
We hunt with dogs, and 100% of the time at least one of us has waders. 99.9% of the time, BOTH of us have waders.

Swan hunt dates should not start until NOVEMBER 1, October is a complete waste of time for swans, and November thru Late Dec.-Early Jan is when their numbers are at their best.
Swan should be open AT LEAST as far north as Salt Creek.

Not liking the $50 stamp fee much, but on the other hand, it MIGHT thin out the dipsticks, though it seems like the D-bag convention ALWAYS has money to waste in buckets. Otherwise how can they afford to shoot at 200 yard birds?
So that actually might backfire and eliminate those of us with limited money and increase the numbers of bubbas.

Arrange some way to hunt the Golf Courses. They do that back east with a special kind of gun choke/barrel, and sub-sonic loads, and they are slaughtering them. City geese not to be included in the bag limit with Marsh/Field Geese.
That is what I got for now. :mrgreen:


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## Swaner (Sep 10, 2007)

Riverrat77 said:


> Swan hunters.... you wound it, you better find a way to get it or you're done, punch your tag. If you wound a bird and shoot another because you weren't able to get yours, then you're over your limit and get a ticket. They're big and white.... thats not something that is going to hide real well in the phrag. :?


I totally agree with this one. I watched some asshat knock down 4 swans tonight. The first 3 were winged and glided a few hundred yards before dropping in to the thick stuff. He didn't even bother looking for them. Every flock that flew within 150 yards of him was getting shot at. The sad part is he folded up the fourth one. That just gives him and the other bubbas motivation to keep doing it.


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## katorade (Sep 23, 2007)

Yes, I would support the 50 bucks for duck stamp.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

While I agree that something needs to be done about several of the problems that have been mentioned, some of you guys are really starting to sound like elitists. Almost like the artificial flies/lures only and barbless only crew. 

What needs to happen is education and standing up for and enforcing the rules we already have. If you see someone breaking the rules, turn them in! Mention your own tactics and self-imposed rules that you follow that allow you to take quarry in a more ethical manner. Teach the new generation of hunters the RIGHT way to do things, and hold them to it when in the field. Pick up after yourself and others, and maybe make a trip or two out to the WMAs just to pick up trash and not hunt. There is a whole mess of things we can all do to improve things before making our sport more restrictive. It is hard enough for a newbie to learn things the right way (even as an adult), with the rules we have now. Making it more restrictive would only mean more rules would get broken, and increase the issues with enforcement.


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## cornerfinder (Dec 4, 2008)

Can you really not shoot raccoons? That seems like proper waterfowl and upland game management. I know that they must eat a lot of eggs in the spring. Or is that only on WMAs.


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## 357bob (Sep 30, 2007)

Personally, I prefer the current swan regs to the alternative that were given at the time of the impact study, which included keeping the longer season and north hunting area but you face possible arrest and conviction for killing a Trumpeter. The concession to there not being a closed season on Trumpeters(they are technically in season) was to close the time and areas the FWS thought were most likely to cause problems. I would hate to see swans stomped in the mud for fear of getting busted with the wrong one, and we all know, it would happen.


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## 10Tenner (Oct 7, 2007)

> close it for 6 weeks and let us hunt into the second week of march.


 That would run into the mating, and nesting season. :shock: Need seed for the next season. 10tenner


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## hunter_orange13 (Oct 11, 2008)

i think that they defiantely need to do something about the phragmites. i've lost one to many birds in there this year (only 1) but i could find other peoples birds in it :roll: i hate losing birds! 
i think more fish cops out there would be a good place to start. i love being stopeed by on of them! it makes my day.


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## lehi (Sep 13, 2007)

Why can't you shoot ***** at BRBR? It would seem logical. :?


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## Fowl habits (Dec 4, 2007)

Chaser said:


> While I agree that something needs to be done about several of the problems that have been mentioned, some of you guys are really starting to sound like elitists. Almost like the artificial flies/lures only and barbless only crew.
> 
> What needs to happen is education and standing up for and enforcing the rules we already have. If you see someone breaking the rules, turn them in! Mention your own tactics and self-imposed rules that you follow that allow you to take quarry in a more ethical manner. Teach the new generation of hunters the RIGHT way to do things, and hold them to it when in the field. Pick up after yourself and others, and maybe make a trip or two out to the WMAs just to pick up trash and not hunt. There is a whole mess of things we can all do to improve things before making our sport more restrictive. It is hard enough for a newbie to learn things the right way (even as an adult), with the rules we have now. Making it more restrictive would only mean more rules would get broken, and increase the issues with enforcement.


I would have to agree i think that education is the only way we are going to see improvement
I get frustrated alot with guys who don't have the respect to follow the rules, and it's not going to matter how many new rules we make, I dont think that will change them. But for those who would follow them i think that educating, and then enforcing them would help alot.
After Ladouche's expierence last week, it sounds like the parks and rec guys could use a refresher course on rules and regs too. Gee had to remind the officer of the differant regs for a "under 16' boat" :shock:

Of all the things i would like to see, the one thing i would like to see the most is a formalized process to report problems, and give constructive feed back to the entity that uses our tax money, a process that we could have faith in that something would get done. I realize that the guys that run the WMA's are probably over worked and underpayed (serious, i dont mean that facetiously) and they have a large area to manage, but i lose confidence in the "system", we rarely see any consequences for the retards who continually break the law. I see things like i saw at OB on saturday(every hour the same guy going out in the boat to stir the birds up) and i say to myself "i can report him but nothing is going to happen" and the only thing that make me do it is principle. Just my .02


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## hitech2redneck (Nov 2, 2009)

Bring the 10 shell limit too all utah dikes or make them considered a road and cant hunt from them at all.


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

lehi said:


> Why can't you shoot ***** at BRBR? It would seem logical. :?


Just another form of Federal assininity. You can't shoot any other kind of predators or shoot *snipe* there either.
No reason that anyone can come up with, but don't you DARE to break it and get caught. :roll:

Kind of along the lines of you can only shoot so many shells in certain areas, and only shoot certain kinds of birds in certain area, and access is allowed in certain areas, but only for certain things, but there is not ONE sign anywhere on the road system that actually tells you what dike you are on at any given moment, so you never know whether the access point you are coming up on is for Waterfowl in general, Swans, in particular and therefore restricted, or the FISHING ONLY area that is in there. You are just supposed to follow all their rules and never break any even by accident, or they throw the Federal book at you.

There ARE signs on THREE dikes telling you that you can only possess ten shells if hunting within 50 feet of the center of said dike, but the regs only list TWO dikes with that restriction, so go figure.
I saw all this on Saturday, and barely dared to get out of my truck. :evil:


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## 357bob (Sep 30, 2007)

Artoxx said:


> There ARE signs on THREE dikes telling you that you can only possess ten shells if hunting within 50 feet of the center of said dike, but the regs only list TWO dikes with that restriction, so go figure.
> I saw all this on Saturday, and barely dared to get out of my truck. :evil:


Two of the three signs you saw are on the same dike. One on the north end and one on the west end. They have long done away with the "swan only area". It's really not too bad once you go out and poke around a couple of times(and the map available at the entrance doesn't hurt :wink: either)


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## lehi (Sep 13, 2007)

****! Feds suck! The only good **** is a dead ****!


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

there some good ideas above. beside the 50 bucks duck stamp. I buy mine and my wife the 100 just right there.then on top of that a couple case of shells and linc man that adds up. No in that sorry. I would be done paying ten dollars for a prim t for the wma.AS long as the money go right back in to the WMA for Frag. i would all like to see public and salt creek open back up for swans. But if not im ok with it as it is.I would like to see more fish cops out there checking and writing tickets out.I would like to something done about dike hunting (not saying all dike hunters are bad ).Give them a box of shells works for me. I agree if you don't go after your birds then you get a nice tickets and if you have no waders or dog no hunting sorry. all so only have some many people on the dike at one time have them sign in and out and how many ducks and geese.Like said above change the rest areas so many years. all so give the youth hunter the hole weekend to hunt. open swans Nov 1 and close middle of Jan.


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

There are some great ideas being tossed around here! I think we could afford a Utah waterfowl stamp or fee, if it was dedicated to improving the marsh habitat (phrag mostly) and not allowed to enter the general fund. I also like the idea of a *small* fee to enter a WMA. This would raise funds to improve habitat and also let birdwatchers help out with some of the costs. It could be done with a "Steel Ranger" system like the fee system to drive up to the Uintas, you just put a couple of bucks in the envelope and write your license nunber on it, and drop it in the slot. The DWR obviously doesn't have the dinero to do all that is needed, so this would be a great way to help out. 
This is a great thread!
R


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

Most of these are great ideas. I would like to see the whole state opened up to swan hunting and shut down all hunting within 50 yards of all dikes and roads. I would also like to see more wardens out in the field checking on the hunters.


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## Phragmites (Sep 12, 2007)

I would like to see more area's at WMA managed strictly for geese. Also a online test attached to getting your hip number on shooting distances much like the swan orientation course. Also it would certainly be nice to get some of the royalities from the GSL for habitat restoration. I find it perplexing that we will grant 27 million dollars for a road but won't even throw a million at managing and protect the GSL which in my opioun is one of the states greatest treasures. Also I think there need to be a split in our season if the private clubs aren't happy with that the need to be able to make a CWMU and our able to submit season dates that follow federal guidelines for such allowing them to control there own hunting season for a small fee of course to cover the adminstration fees and related cost.

That is all I got now


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## Truelife (Feb 6, 2009)

lunkerhunter2 said:


> authorize an automatic beat-down on skybusters that don't wear waders or have the brain capacity to be on the dikes. :roll:


Man I would love this one. Especially if the birds they are skybusting at are working towards somebody else's spread. That makes me soooooo mad! :x

Maybe they should start something like the dedicated hunter for waterfowl. You work your hours improving the marshes and you get an extra week or two at the end of the hunt.


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

Truelife -I think the dedicated waterfowler idea is awesome!

Phragmites - Your take on royalties from GSL extraction idustries should be mandatory reading to all legislators.
R


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## Phragmites (Sep 12, 2007)

rjefre said:


> Phragmites - Your take on royalties from GSL extraction idustries should be mandatory reading to all legislators.
> R


It is basically the rape of the resource with no oversight and no putting back to one of the greatest avian systems on the planet and it is just sad. People that have been trusted with the welfare of the lake have broken the public trust with the lack of response to invasive species on the lake as well as other issues that will effect the ecosystem forever all for the almighty dollar. When the gsl expansion does go thru, because if you think it won't it would be a small miracle if it doesnt, the money that comes from the mitigation should go directly to protect the lake and restore it back to the productive system that it once was, period. And I hope that all legislators get a big earful from people that do care. I will be on of those people. I hope many of you our as well.


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