Proposal would alter south zone duck season in Minnesota

St. Paul — A Minnesota DNR proposal that would increase late-season duck-hunting opportunities in the state’s south zone this fall is pending approval by the DNR commissioner’s office.

Under the proposal, the 2025 60-day duck season in the south zone would run from Sept. 27 through Oct. 5, close for 12 days, and then continue from Oct. 18 through Dec. 7. Adding season days into early December would allow waterfowlers in the south zone to target late-migrating ducks, particularly mallards, state officials say.

The season structure for Minnesota’s two other waterfowl-hunting zones (central and north) would be unchanged from the 2024 season. The north zone would open Sept. 27 and run continuously for 60 days, while the central zone would run from Sept. 27 through Oct. 5, close for five days, and then continue from Oct. 11 through Nov. 30. 

“Season selections are due to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by May 1, so a decision doesn’t need to be made until then,” said Nate Huck, Minnesota DNR migratory game-bird consultant in Brainerd, who has meet with the DNR’s top wildlife brass during the past couple of weeks to discuss the proposal. That includes DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen, with whom Huck met on Monday afternoon.

“But right now it’s still a proposal. The commissioner has the final say,” Huck said.

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‘My phone was ringing off the hook’

Waterfowl zones allow states to set different season dates in different regions to match waterfowl migration patterns, freeze-up dates, and hunter preferences.

Last year’s duck season in the south zone ran through Nov. 24. Huck said he began fielding calls and emails from concerned waterfowlers near season’s end as the year’s biggest push of mallards finally was migrating through Minnesota’s central and southern reaches – many after the season had officially closed.

Those hunters, Huck said, expressed a desire to have a longer split and more days later in the year, which, he notes, is far from unprecedented. Minnesota had the same season structure as the new 2025 proposal from 2012 through 2020. 

“For about a two-week window beginning right before the season ended last year, my email lit up and my phone was ringing off the hook,” Huck said. 

Hunter survey

However, he said the new proposal to increase late-season hunting opportunities in the south zone wasn’t a function of hearing from upset waterfowl hunters. The proposal came from some of the findings in the DNR’s Survey of Waterfowl Hunters-2023 Season.

As part of the survey, the DNR sampled 4,000 Minnesota waterfowl stamp holders (ages 18-65) from around the state. All participants received a letter in the mail inviting them to visit a website and complete a questionnaire. A total of 1,257 eventually responded.

For those waterfowl hunters who said they had a preference for hunting in the state’s south zone, 55% said they’d prefer a 12-day closure and, by extension, more hunting days later in the year, according to the survey. In other words, more late-season duck-hunting opportunities. (The results regarding “season dates and splits” can be found on page 24 of the survey.)

Huck brought the proposal to the Minnesota DNR’s Migratory Gamebird Committee. The body, which as of this week has 13 members (including Huck), voted Jan. 21 to approve the proposal.

“It wasn’t unanimous,” Huck said. “We had a few dissenting votes.”

The new proposal, if approved, would have ramifications for those who hunt over the four-day Minnesota Education Association (MEA) holiday, which begins Thursday, Oct. 16. Under the proposal, the season would be closed in the south zone Oct. 16-17, before reopening Saturday, Oct. 18.

“That’s the reality of having such a long split, but it doesn’t preclude hunters from pursuing ducks in the central and north zones,” Huck said of the four-day hunting window. “When you’re setting seasons, it’s tough to balance everyone’s needs.”

What hunters are saying

Hunters contacted by Outdoor News were mostly in favor of the proposal.

Alex Culp, of Lakeville, hunts multiple days a week during the waterfowl season in the Twin Cities south metro, most in picked agricultural fields for Canada geese and mallards. He said he hopes the proposal for a later duck season in the south zone is approved. That way, he said, he and his friends will have a better chance of targeting late-season mallards. 

“It’s gotten pretty frustrating over the last couple of years, and I’m not alone in saying that,” Culp said. “When you see birds showing up just after the season closes, you want those additional days.”

Culp said having a longer split has other advantages, too.

“In the past, when we had a longer split, it was like we had another opener when the season reopened,” he said. “New, fresh birds would move in that hadn’t been pressured in a while.” 

Scott Doheny, of New Prague, said it’s impossible for the DNR to satisfy the desires of every waterfowl hunter when it comes to season dates and splits.

“I really don’t have a strong opinion either way on the proposal,” said Doheny, who hunts primarily in the south zone. “I like hunting for multiple species earlier in the season and mallards and certain divers later in November after deer hunting. Some years it’s going to freeze up early, and some years it won’t. That’s why it’s impossible for the DNR to make everyone happy.”

Peter Krog, who guides goose hunters in Fergus Falls, started a Facebook group, Minnesota Late Season Duck Hunters Alliance, earlier this year. As of Tuesday morning, it had 75 members. The group is “for Minnesota duck hunters who share a passion for late-season duck hunting …”

Krog said he’d like to see later duck seasons in all three state zones, which, he said, would allow hunters to target late-season mallards as well as goldeneyes and other divers.

“Having the season run into the first week of December in the south zone is a good start,” he said.   

For more information on the state’s 2023 survey of waterfowl hunters, visit here.