Early teal season? Symposium discussion should be good

Hard to believe we’re only a week away from our annual Waterfowl Symposium. For a link to the agenda, click here. One of the main focuses of this year’s symposium is blue-winged teal. We’ll have biologists from both Minnesota and Wisconsin talk about them.

It’s no secret that teal are really important to hunters in Minnesota. But the main reason we’re highlighting them at this year’s symposium is because of all the chatter surrounding the potential for an early teal season in Minnesota and other production states.

The Mississippi Flyway council, of which Minnesota is part, has recommended that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allow production states to hold early teal seasons. The Service hasn’t said yes to the idea, but, more importantly, it hasn’t said no, either.

The idea is still in the early phases, so it’s too soon to know exactly what an early season would look like in Minnesota. Nevertheless,it’s easy to see a few sides of this issue.

As duck hunters, we all know how many blue-winged teal often are around during September. In some cases, a whole bunch of them have left by the time we get the chance to hunt. An early season would potentially give us an opportunity for some fantastic shooting. And the weather likely would be warm – or comfortable, at least – so it could be a good opportunity to get new hunters into the field under some pretty good conditions.

On the other hand, if there’s one complaint about the Youth Waterfowl Day, it’s the belief some have that it drives ducks out, or at least moving them around. And Youth Waterfowl Day includes about 5,000 hunters. Following that line of thinking, can you imagine what it would be like during an early teal season, when anyone who wanted could head to the marsh?

We’ll have to wait and see how the early teal season turns out. It seems unlikely it would happen as soon as this fall, but you never know. Regardless, we’re looking forward to some pretty good discussion on the topic at this year’s symposium.