WWA conducted a survey in February designed to solicit WWA members’ desires for the upcoming waterfowl season, with 360 respondents providing their input. Here’s the raw data:
- 360 Respondents
- 154 of whom have actually hunted the Open Water (OW) and were able to answer the questions focused on the big water zone decisions
- 55 hunted OW only 1-2 years
- 27 have hunted it 3-5 years
- 72 hunted OW > 5 years
Representing about 435 days of open water hunting on the Big Waters in 2020
- Species Harvested last year by the OW respondents :
- Scaup – 294
- Goldeneye – 263
- Longtail – 210
- Redhead – 191
- Mallard – 143
- Canvasback – 101
- Scoter – 98
- Black – 24
- Other – 182 (geese, teal, buff…)
- Launch locations – (from North to South)
| · Green Bay (49)
o Fish Creek – 1 o Egg Harbor – 1 o Oconto – 9 o Pensaukee – 7 o Geano – 12 o Suamico – 8 o Private west shore – 4 o GB Metro – 5 |
· Lake Michigan (29)
o Sturgeon Bay – 2 o Algoma – 1 o Two Rivers – 9 o Manitowoc – 3 o Sheboygan – 2 o Port W – 0 o Milwaukee – 7 o Kenosha – 1 o Winthrop Harbor (IL) – 2 |
- Gear used:
-
- Layout – 78
- From boat – 118
- Who owns the gear?
- Respondent – 56
- Buddy – 37
- Split – 20
- Guide – 28
- Open Water Season Open date: Fairly evenly split across the month of October. WWA position: mid-October (10/16).
- 10/9 – 48
- 10/16 – 69
- 1023 – 54
- Open Water Split. Strong preference for no split, but that only takes the season to mid-December.
- 10 days – 33
- 5 days – 46
- None – 96
- Open Water Split. If a split is required, then early is preferred. Several comments that the scaup show up the 3rd week in October consistently.
- Early – 77
- Mid – 57
- Late – 26
- Scaup restriction. Most want the restricted harvest early in the season—maybe the first 15 days.
- Early – 126
- Late – 58
- Greatest OW Concerns:
- Safety – 126
- Bird Availability – 56
- Competition – 30
- Launches – 16
- Other – 7
Other Zones decisions. WWA did not survey for the other season structure issues so we are relying on last year’s well-responded-to survey. However, the calendar jumps quite a bit this year, so this would influence what makes the most sense.
- North should open as early as allowed, with a short split early in the season [calendar jump may make a split less desirable if the season ends after normal freeze-up]
- South should open a week (or two) later, with a 9-day split a couple of weeks into the season. [This could be subject to the “calendar jump” consideration: don’t want to miss the migration timing that frequently occurs late October, first week in November].
- “Zone-hopping” was more apparent in 2020, and commented on in the Open Water one as a problem by some few respondents.
- Scaup restrictions in these two zones were uniformly preferred to be applied early in the season for both North and South Zones. There were a couple of comments that suggested it should be uniform across all the state’s zones (easier for regulations understanding and enforcement too). Also, several respondents (in 2021 survey) said to restrict them entirely as they are hurting so badly as a species. But they were the most harvested species in the Open Water survey
