Waterfowl draw

B

blackstorm

Member
got the good news that we were drawn again this year for waterfowl, our land has a few ponds and our locals said that they are still holding birds and water. They said the public water is down a little but also has some birds. they also said they are seeing pheasants and they appear to be doing fine
 
Congrats! What area are you in?

I find the NR system to be more confusing every year but there is a lot of lobbying going on to spread the tags around to where the demand is. Problem is there are no more tags than when they started.

Wish that lobbying energy would go towards pheasant cover/laws where the impact might be a little bigger.
 
Got ours too.

blackstorm said:
got the good news that we were drawn again this year for waterfowl, our land has a few ponds and our locals said that they are still holding birds and water. They said the public water is down a little but also has some birds. they also said they are seeing pheasants and they appear to be doing fine
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So much nicer making a trip to SD and being able to hunt waterfowl also. When are you going out. We are heading out 11/4 to 11/11. Good luck with both.
 
As a non-resident who duck hunts SD I like the limited draw. It makes for much better duck hunting on the public lands! I think that SD does a service to the non-resident waterfowl hunters.
 
My dad, brother, and I applied for the first time for the larger, basically statewide, zone and were all drawn. If I understand correctly they raised the quota this year and pretty much everyone got drawn except for some of the 3 day zones. I always see plenty of waterfowl while pheasant hunting so we will see if that holds when I can shoot at them.

edited to add: It looks like the quota was the same as last year, not higher like I thought
 
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UGUIDE said:
Congrats! What area are you in?

I find the NR system to be more confusing every year but there is a lot of lobbying going on to spread the tags around to where the demand is. Problem is there are no more tags than when they started.

Wish that lobbying energy would go towards pheasant cover/laws where the impact might be a little bigger.
Click to expand...

There was leftovers for every unit this year including the statewide 10 day license. 100% draw rate fro anyone that applied so the amount of licenses exceeds the amount of people applying. Not sure that warrants more licenses. Access onto private lands, overran public lands in eastern SD, the cluster of what is the Non-meandering water deal, micro management of licenses by legislation/GFP commission for commercial hunting interests and dry conditions have NRs and Residents hanging up the waders. Sad to see. This year had the least amount of applicants for NR waterfowl licenses in 20 years
 
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Yes, I got drawn for the 10 day.
I normally hunt the Gettysburg/Eureka area. With the dry weather there I am leaning towards the Britton area. Can someone help me out with some reco's for lodging and restaurants in the area? Cooking in the room is what I am looking for with maybe a okay place to pick up a late meal.
 
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