Lake Champlain hunters 2012 Season input

C

Cheech Kehoe

Active member
If the 60 day season for the flyway holds again this upcoming season, I was hoping to get some input from the guys on this site that hunt Champlain. The last few years I have been very disappointed with the season structure. In 2011 the goose season opened on the 4th day of the split in the duck season. I don't see how the marshes can get a rest when the goose hunters are there for all but 3 days of the split. I believe that if the seasons stay to form, this Champlain duck season will open on a Saturday in 2012. This would mean the either October 6th, 13, or 20th.

Here is my idea for what the 2012 Lake Champlain Season should look like. I attempted to maximize the Weekend hunting opportunities for those guys that do not have the option of hunting week days. My other goals included resting the marsh during the split and keeping the season open late enough to enjoy some late season Goldeney hunting.
Ducks opens 10/13-10/15. Second half 10/27-12/22.
Geese 10/27-12/22.
I intended to forward this information to Vermont State Biologist Bill Crenshaw.
 
Looks good to me Cheech. I don't get why the goose hunters ever needed a separate opener anyways.

The past few seasons have been pretty crappy with high and low water changing dramatically during the season and it being way warmer then usual. Up here I didn't see the big push of divers until the last week of the season. In 2009 I saw that push in early Nov.

Personally I liked the later opener in mid Oct. this year. The birds I shot were more colored up and had a little more fat on them then earlier birds. The straight season in Missisquoi bay I thought allowed me more time to get out and hunt when the birds were here. I've heard some talk about more hunters being else where in the lake after the int. zone closed but I never really saw that many boats on Missisquoi bay after the opener anyways.

I think we need an average weather year to decide if this switch was a good thing and I also think that the goose hunters need to open the same day we do.

eddie
 
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Great idea to forward your info . It could help them try to better fit the second duck split with the Canda's season, which the Fed's set. Does Vt run the same format for setting duck season as over here in NY's Task force?
 
Hey Ed I agree with you on the later start in Oct for the lake and later days in December . O9 was cold one , And this year way to warm .
 
I thought this season was perfect date wise because it was so warm, we were hunting parts of the lake on the last few days that are NEVER open at that time.......there should have been a pile of ice fishermen out there. It was very nice to hunt closer to home, vs. travelling more to get to open water at the end, but I know that may never be the case again. For us "down south" if we get a later season and it gets real cold early we have a ton of traveling to do.......is it a big deal? no, we would do it no matter what, but it is nice to be closer to home.

The warm weather and high water were very strange this year, I can tell you the high lake level sucked, but even with the warm weather there were alot of bunches of migratory mallards/blacks seen and decoyed from T-giving week till the end. But here is where it gets stranger, we killed more ducks from migrating bunches on south wind days than when they were "supposed" to move. Case in point: there was a day with 25mph south winds and 50* temps and we put 12 bunches of high fliers in the decoys like taking candy from a baby.....the day before, light north with 18* in the morning, not a bunch to be seen.

Then to throw this in we were killing banded local mallards (from 2011) right up untill the last Saturday of the season........

Cheech, as you know there is no way to please everyone with only a 45 day goose season, we all know the vast majority of "northern" geese come thru when the season is closed in early October, and Bill has said most of the Canadas killed in the state are VT raised birds. But I know I could have killed a PILE of geese after our season closed on the later migrating birds........6 in one/half dozen in another, I kind of personally like the 21st opener, but I would also like to shoot some later geese.

As I am sure we may agree the split in the duck season is just to rest our local ducks, not waiting on migrating mallards (at least down here) the far northern part of the state may have a different say. How much pressure is put on the lake when the goose season opens has to vary alot, down here it is nil. Most people are shooting them over freshly cut corn.

It all boils down to if the season is late, I will be hunting, if it is early same thing. I just want a normal water year! My .02$
 
Kevin,

I honestly don't know the how the process works in Vermont. I don't have any affiliation or pull with fish and wildlife. I was mostly interested in hearing the opinions of other guys that hunt the lake. Being that the lake is 125 miles long, there should be some very different perspectives.
 
Hank,

I admit to having very little experience hunting the Lake south of Charlotte. I would imagine that the lake freezes up earlier in the southern narrower portions of the Lake. The high water has messed with the season for the last two years. The warm weather too. My experiences on puddle ducks was very different from yours this year. We were just not seeing any puddle ducks on the Lake. In past years when everything freezes up we see the puddle ducks show up on the Lake, but this year, the only bad weather that we had was around Thanksgiving and that got us our first good hunting opportunities of the year on the Lake.
As for the goose season, maybe you could shed some light on a couple of things.
When do the farmers cut corn down your way? Up here, it is often late November. Goose hunting in the fields is not a possibility around here.
I would be very happy to have the goose season go later and or earlier with a split. I don't think the feds will open up the goose any earlier, but I ALWAYS have a ton of opportunities for geese after the goose season is closed.
Like you, I'm going to hunt when and where I can, but I do like to at least see birds flying when I'm hunting.
 
Since I hunted with Cheech most of the season, and saw the same things he did, there's no sense in me echoing what he saw for lack of puddle ducks on the lake. All I'll say is that it was very confusing.....I will say that I would like to see the goose season start and end later than what it has been the last couple of years.

John Bourbon
 
I will add my 2 cents....I agree with the goose season opening with ducks at the reopening. However, I wasn't ever under the impression that the split was to let things "rest". I've always believed it was to extend the lake zone later into the migration season to allow the lake hunters better late season hunting. And to extend our "whole" season to more then 60 days. BUT with that in mind, if we must have a split (and I agree we should keep it), then leave the ducks alone to "rest" by opening geese with ducks and not earlier.

Bill Crenshaw has always been pretty easy to approach and discuss the season with. We should all make a point to voice our thoughts to him, there may be things we haven't thought about.

Dave
 
The Waterfowl Advisory Committee and the Fish & Wildlife Board with input the department ( i.e. Bill) and the feds. The committee is a citizen board appointed by the Commissioner of Fish & Wildlife.
 
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Dave you are correct, the split is to have the lake go later than the interior, but it also acts as a chance for our local ducks to get a bit of a rest. I was trying to say at that time of the season we are not getting giant pushes of migratory mallards that build up.

Cheech, corn is usually coming down the end of September into early October, this is chopped for silage. Picked corn is the end of October into November, and it is all obviously weather dependant.
 
I passed on the link and our input to Bill Crenshaw (hell of a good guy) and Vermont wildlife biologist. His response is below.

Hi Cheech,

Thanks for the email and suggestions. I know the duck hunting was pretty poor this year. Even in spite of the December 22nd closing, the whistlers didn’t appear to be down in any numbers, even toward the end of the season.

A few comments:
1. If we hold to tradition, this year will be a Saturday opener. The most likely dates will be October 6th or 13th.
2. The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board will set the regular duck season at their August meeting (likely will be on August 15th).
3. Most migrant (Atlantic Population) Canada geese move through Vermont and the Champlain Valley during the first three weeks in October. AP geese make up ~ 50% of the regular season harvest in Vermont (the other 50% are resident geese). Opening the goose season in late October would miss most of this migration. In addition, many of the corn fields are fed out and plowed under by then. Under current U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service frameworks, Vermont can’t open the regular Canada goose season prior to October 20th. This is earlier than most AP states can open. The regular Canada goose season also cannot exceed 45 days in length. With an October 20th opening, it ends on December 3rd.
4. I noticed a comment about the Vermont Waterfowl Advisory Committee. This Committee is a 5-person committee appointed by the Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife. The don’t advise the Department on waterfowl seasons, only matters that pertain to the Vermont Duck Stamp Program.
5. Regarding the zone boundary changes that went into effect last year, I didn’t hear a lot of comments about it, but what I did hear were positive. Hunters were appreciative of the extra days of hunting opportunity to hunt the Missisquoi area, even though the hunting last year was below average. The area north of the West Swanton Bridge is part of the Vermont Interior Zone and closes with it.

Hope this helps.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions. They are always welcome.

Bill
 
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