Unit hours on Fridays

Dicker

Dicker

Well-Known Member
Heard a rumour that unit was going to extend the hunting time on Fridays till 8pm
If that happens, birds won't get a chance to roost in the marsh overnight, hence, not many birds on Saturday for anyone!
Just sent in my sustaining membership too
Anyone else hear this rumour?
 
Last edited:
Dicker
Yes Friday afternoon shooting will be re instated for this season . There are several reason for this , Lost revenue and after tracking the results of Saturday shooting over the last few years quitting at 4 has not impacted Saturdays hunt . Also the friday afternoon hunt is minimal it is not like the marsh is full of hunters many guys come in early to get a pick for Saturday . Also and this is just my 2 cents on the subject after hunting this marsh for the last 35 years .There are just as many birds in the marsh on Saturday as any other day and that will continue with or with out the Friday evening hunt . And i know no one wants to hear it but it is a small percentage of the birds in the area at any given time that roost in the crown marsh ! they roost in CWS on the other side of the causeway and they roost in the CWS area stretching between our marsh and the Long point company also many birds that roost in all these areas come into roost long after shooting time and the worst for scaring of birds is the guys that consitantly shoot past shooting time . Our birds are thieves they come to the feeders and feed and then they leave . Again just my opinion but 80 percent of the birds you see at first light are comming to the marsh not jumping up from roosting in it It is just as easy to take a limit in the crown marsh on a saturday as any other day of the week If you want to be honest about the Saturday hunt the only real issues to a good hunt is there is more pressure . We are trying to get more people to come out and hunt and support the unit and negative posts dont help ! i would hope that if you had known about friday evening hunts that you would still have paid your sustaining membership and continue to hunt and support the unit . Last year everyone kept posting that there were no birds in the marsh ? Everyday i shot last year we seen lots of birds and had great shooting . It would be nice if we had more positive posts and less negativity . I have hunted all over Canada and the USA and guys need to realize how great we have it with this marsh ! Hey a blue bird day is a blue bird day you have to put in your time but dont worry there will be birds in the marsh on Saturdays
Glenn
 
Dicker said:
Heard a rumour that unit was going to extend the hunting time on Fridays till 8pm
If that happens, birds won't get a chance to roost in the marsh overnight, hence, not many birds on Saturday for anyone!
Just sent in my sustaining membership too :mad:
Anyone else hear this rumour?
Click to expand...
The rumors are correct. Long term analysis of statistics that suggested there was significant benefits to the Friday afternoon closure were challenged by the Late Dr. Dave Ankney. Simply explained there are no differences if Saturday is a decent duck day. There was however a significant difference in participation. Before restricting Friday night shooting, Friday was only exceeded in popularity by Saturday. After implementation Friday soon became the least popular day to hunt and there was zero increase in Saturday usage. In 2012 the Unit operation lost $6000 and directors realized we could no longer afford the luxury of maintaining the Friday closure. Directors fully realized that 2012 was exceptional for a lot of other reasons but we no longer had a cushion to cover another loss. Money raised for marsh rehabilitation cannot be used to subsidize hunting. All 11 directors and officers unanimously approved the recommendation.
 
I will be using the Unit more often now that Fridays hunt is extended. Much easier to take friends out on a Friday afternoon for a hunt than to convince their wives to have them away for a Saturday. I am a sustaining member but my pals are not. I believe it would have been irresponsible not to have reinstated the Friday hunting time based on our current financial situation.
 
Any birds that roost in the crown marsh over night are bumped out in the mornings by boats other then in ponds that dont have boat traffic, I cant see any negative impact on this change. We shoot migrating birds for the most part and I find the best time to be in the duck blind is between 9 and 2, Like glen ive been lucky enough to hunt all over ontario and the western parts of canada chasing ducks, last year I hunted the long point company and i will tell you what after 6 hours in a skiff and having 8 ducks I looked at kyle and said imagine we were up the creek or in 27, 39 we would be done by now sitting around a fire having a beer. The unit is a great place hands down.
 
I agree with most of the sentiment on here, particularly Ankney, Donald and Hanson. It's a big marsh with lots of spots that get hammered 7 days a week all season and lots of roosting spots that aren't hunted at all. An extra couple hours of hunting on a flee on an elephant isn't going to make a lick of difference as far as good opportunities go on Saturdays.
 
I hope your all right
Too much hunting pressure scare birds away, that's plain and simple
Birds I scare up in the dark while in the marsh with the boat, don't generally fly too far before landing back down
Guess we'll all have to dig deeper and fill the corn hopper up more from now on....just incase!
 
I for one will use the unit on Fridays sometimes my sone and I go out in the bay because we cannot shoot on FridayFriday
 
If the unit was truly concerned about revenue they would go to a lottery system for blind selection. Seems to work perfectly at Rondeau.
 
Good for some, bad for others I suppose. I'll appreciate the opportunity to hunt longer Fridays. I generally don't hunt the unit Saturdays as its too busy for my taste, and I'm a shift worker (booked 150+ hours off this fall and didn't take a single Saturday shift off). But I understand how it would be perceived by those who only have weekends to hunt.
 
Yes presuure is the worse thing for good ducking hunting, everyone knows that, but in november it will be a extra 1 if that of shooting time.
Thats very little for a big place that gets shot that much. Dose Rondeau cut channels, dig 10 acre roost ponds and feed? Ive never been there im just curious.
Lines ups for saturday will be shorter and im probably going to buy a sustaining membership now that i can get down and hunt 4 or 5 night shoot on fridays from noon.
 
Hello Guys,

I hunted the Long Point Waterfowl Management Unit (LPWMU) from 1978 to 1986 while I lived in Mississauga and from 2004 to 2012 after I moved down to Port Rowan in 2004.

I believe that the hunting was better between 1978 and 1986 than from 2004 to 2012 with both representing an eight (8) year period for comparison.

As I recall, several years ago the Long Point Waterfowlers' Association (LPWA) Board of Directors decided (after receiving numerous complaints from LPWA members) to "cut short" the Friday hunt at 1600 hours (4:00 PM) in an attempt to potentially improve the Saturday morning hunt. After a few years Mr. S. Kozak and Dr. D. Ankney presented a request to the LPWA members during our 2010 Annual General Meeting (AGM) to return the Friday hunt to normal hours.

Although I normally only hunt the LPWMU on a Monday or a Wednesday up to 1400 hours (2:00 PM) I supported them and their request as I believed that there had been no significant difference in the results of the Saturday morning hunt based upon the data that they had conveyed to me.

However the LPWA members voted to maintain the early Friday afternoon closure and the LPWA Board of Directors respected their decision.

We are now facing a new and different problem ... one that threatens the financial viability of the LPWMU if nothing is done.

Our financial position was disclosed (as usual) at this year's AGM and various suggestions were presented to the LPWA Board of Directors to consider. One of those suggestions was to return the Friday hunt to normal hours in an attempt to increase revenues.

A few points to consider:

1) The Board of Directors is made up of volunteers who donate their experience, knowledge and time to make the LPWMU work and consequently permit it to continue to exist.

2) The Board of Directors is made up of individuals who were voted into office by the LPWA members ... members who believed that the candidates could do a better job than they could do.

3) The Board of Directors can not and will not be able to please all LPWA members regarding all issues that arise within the LPWMU every year.

4) The Board of Directors has been willing to listen to suggestions in the past (perhaps not to everyone's satisfaction) but I would encourage anybody with an idea to prepare a written presentation and submit it to the Board of Directors for consideration.

As we all prepare for a new waterfowling season let us remember that we are all here for the same reason ... to maintain and to improve (where possible) our waterfowling heritage.

Have a great season!

Sincerely,

Jerome Katchin, D.V.M.
 
Good post Jerome :)

Speaking to the financial situation. Why is a fundraiser dinner not held every year? I understand the one a couple years back was a big success. Both Delta and DU have one in our area every year. I'd be inclined to for go either (between dinners and shooting events, I've supported both) and attend a dinner for the LPWU.
 
Nice to get a post of support !
Hello Jello the main reason we do not have a fundraising dinner every year is that it is alot of work and big commitment from the guy that volunteers to run it . That being said i believe it might be time to start talking about another one .
Jerome you made an interesting comment that you feel the hunting was better in the late 70's and 80's and as i myself hunted the unit threw this time period i agree that the hunting was better in that period . If you look at the bird yearly populations of differnt species they have fluctuated over the years but i think we still have as many birds we did then the biggest difference is there have been contributing factors to the area we hunt and were the birds feed and roost
1) back then there was not as many marshes feeding birds , the long point company did not feed and the birds moved back and forth more from the crown marsh .There are several marshes feeding now along Big Creek We used to be one of the only feeders in the area now there are many
2) there were thousands of more acres of ponds between our East end feeder and The Long Point Company now most of that area is marsh meadow and frag . Blinds 1,2 and 3 all had water all around them . we used to take a canoe up the trail to blind 2 and we used to launch boats in the ditch behind the parking lot where you park for blind 1 and 2 . Blinds 1,2,12 ,38 used to have double limits twice or three times a week . Back then we had 10 - 15 blinds that were almost Gauranted limits we probably have 5 or 6 now
3) Back then after Thanksgiving Long Point was a ghost town There were only a very few year round residences and hardly any boat traffic in the inner bay . Now there are perch fishermen and boat traffic well into November and they prevent the roosting of divers in that area ( not complaining about the perch fishermen )just saying that back then the bay was less well traveled we used to have several floaters out there then . I would say that the bigget differnce in the two time periods is that the diver shooting has had the biggest impact .I bet the unit shoots 20 % of the amount of divers as it did in the 80's
just my 2 cents
Glenn
 
Hello Glenn,

Thank you for the explanation regarding my past observation from years ago.

1) I have seen the fluctuation of the "fall flight" on graphs in articles and I agree that overall the two periods that I had referred to both had "highs" and "lows" within them.

2) I also remember that ditch along the parking lot (from the 1970s and 1980s) and a few years ago when I went to launch my kayak there it was gone!

I plan to hunt the unit more often this year now that my outside projects are completed.

Jerome

PS Jello ... the LPWA had a fund raiser dinner in 2007 and 2011 (4 years) ... went to both and both were great.
 
for you guys who seem to like the way rondeau runs their hunting unit please feel free to go there and quit whining about how its done here the majority of us [by a long shot] believe our system is fair and works very well ,,, hunting is like life the more u put in the more u get out,,,so please head on down to rondeau im sure they would love to have some whiners down there to complain about their unit...see you all on friday YEEEEHA!!!!!!!! GAME ON!!!
 
I believe the reason the comment about rondeau came out is because of all the talk about LPWA not making enough income year to year.
 
As most of you know I have been a longtime opponent of the Friday early closures and partnered with the late Dave Ankney in trying to get the change made . While we were unsuccessful then I am sure Dave is smiling up there now . At the Spring AGM I privately suggested to Jim Malcom to take another look at this issue as strictly a revenue source not involving the other issues and at the time he said he really didn't want to open up that can of worms again .
I was very pleased to hear that the Directors had looked at the issue as a revenue stream. Fridays used to be before the change the second most popular day of hunting and now is the least popular day by the numbers of hunters that use it .After the change was put through I sent an "open" letter to John Marchington showing how much revenue had been lost after 2 years of using the early closing. Obviously I didn't get anywhere with that letter but the lost revenue was easy to see and I always thought that if Friday night hunting hours were ever going to be restored to normal all other issues (birds roosting ,birds scared out of marsh etc) wouldn't matter as the only thing that would evoke change was the need for more revenue.
If we can just average 15 more hunters using the Unit on Fridays and there are usually at least 10 Fridays that you can count on then that would mean 15 x10x$20.00 = $3,000.00 in extra revenue .
I hope that a lot of hunters take advantage of this opportunity to hunt the Unit - I know the father and son I had out with me on Saturday's Heritage Hunt said that they would be using the Unit on Fridays after he pulls his boy out of school after 12 noon .He can only hunt walk outs so he should be able to find a blind to hunt then .
Good luck to all and have a safe and successful season and I hope to see most of you @ the Unit Office at some point over the fall.
Sonny Kozak
 
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