MS FLYWAY TECH...ECT....LONG...

[walt333ms]

If your a duck hunter for over 20 years.....

If you hope to hunt another 20 years.....

then go to the above post and read it....and it is very long....very long....

but we all might get some insight to the people and organizations that determine how our favorite hobbie is regulated....

post bact to me to let me know who took the time to read it,.....it is good

take care
uncle walt and sam

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Now that my eyes are crossed and I have a headache from all that reading, a few observations and a question.

I think the robo data will eventually support what many have already observed in the field, and that is the robo is most effective early in the season, it is more effective on mallards than other species, and overall duck harvest will likely increase due to their use ---perhaps even more dramatically in the northern states than in the south, since they get the first crack at the ducks and a learning curve for the ducks has been demonstrated. Sounds like a choice will have to be made, either ban them or include the robo factor in the formulation of the season framework and bag limits.

Did anyone else notice that MS had very little information about anything to offer at this meeting. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Much of the discussion was about or premised upon duck harvest rates, figures, etc. Lots of scientific sounding harvest allocation talk. Question: how can they really be that specific when discussing hunter harvest data? What information is this based upon? Except for filling out the HIP questionaire provided with my sportsman license renewal form each year, the scientists get little if any information from me about my harvest figures --totals, species, etc. For example, my response on the questionaire indicates that I harvested over 11 ducks last year (I am so proud). That is it. No specific number asked nor provided. No breakdown by species. Nada. I strongly suspect that harvest information obtained from most hunters in MS and elsewhere is the same. So, how do they really know? Inquiring minds want to know.

[RN989]

I think they rely heavily on the wing mail-in program to gather info on species and other factors....Then again I could be guessing.. [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

[MSDuckmen]

Ole Bufflehead

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

Except for filling out the HIP questionaire provided with my sportsman license renewal form each year, the scientists get little if any information from me about my harvest figures --totals, species, etc. For example, my response on the questionaire indicates that I harvested over 11 ducks last year (I am so proud). That is it. No specific number asked nor provided. No breakdown by species. Nada.

The HIP questions you fill out are for the Feds. Let me try and explain.

Once you fill out the HIP application they may send you a form to keep up with the birds you kill for the season, numbers, species, sex, dates and areas hunted. They use the HIP data to determine who to send these request to. Many people volunteer to do this but you would have a lop sided survey if only the people that hunt many days were the ones that sent the data in. What they do instead is sort the people out by how they filed the HIP survey. That is the best way for them to get a cross section of hunters, People that hunt 5 days, 10 days, 20 days and so on. For the data to have any merit you must include all hunters even those that only hunt a day or two.

Many of the people that fill those questions out will mark less than 10 and that will help the department to spread the surveys around.

If they only used the active everyday hunters for the survey it would look as though MS hunters were wiping out the duck population when you start adding the formula to all hunters in Mississippi.

Not very well explained but what I’m trying to tell you is that the questions you filled out when buying the license is only a guide to see where you fit into the data formula. Nothing more.