Early season opens Saturday

The early wood duck/teal season will open in Tennessee on Saturday with a bag limit of four birds per day, but only two of which can be wood ducks. The season runs through Sept. 17. 
An important note for hunters to remember is that the bag limit for wood ducks, in this early September season, is two per hunter per day. The late waterfowl season, which starts in November, allows for a bag limit of three wood ducks per hunter per day, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency as approved at the August meeting of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission.
Hunters are reminded that in addition to their regular hunting licenses they must have in their possession a Tennessee Migratory Bird Permit. That permit is also needed to hunt mourning doves, which had its season opener on Labor Day (Sept. 1). Early Canada goose season opened on Sept. 1 and runs through Sept. 15. The early goose season allows hunters to bag as many as five Canada geese per day.
Waterfowl hunters also need to remember that they must plug their shotguns so that no more than three shotgun shells can be loaded at anytime and they must remember to use steel shot or other accepted non-toxic loads.
While it is legal to manipulate standing crops and hunt doves over it, it is not legal to do so for hunting waterfowl, which includes ducks and Canada geese.
Ducks and geese cannot be hunted over standing crops that have been mowed, burned, knocked down or manipulated in any other manner.  It is also illegal to hunt waterfowl over top sown grains such as wheat.  While these practices are legal to hunt doves over, again they are not legal to do so for waterfowl. 
More information about early waterfowl seasons can be found in the 2008 Tennessee Hunting & Trapping Guide.
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The Tennessee Wildlife Re-sources Agency will present commercial fishing proposals during the meeting of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission Wednesday and Thursday.
The September meeting will be held at the TWRA Ray Bell Building located in the Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville.
Commission members will also continue their discussion begun at the August TWRC meeting regarding future permits, rules and regulations pertaining to shooting preserves.
Committee meetings will be conducted during the afternoon Wednesday, beginning at 1 p.m. The TWRC meeting will begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday. The meetings are open to the public.
TWRC serves as the governing body for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Published in The Messenger 9.12.08

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