Bag Limit

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is setting hunting seasons and bag limits for waterfowl this fall, and while it is almost set in cement that there will be no days for migratory Canada geese in the Atlantic Flyway, there are some interesting possibilities for duck hunters.Last year, with predictions of a fine fall flight of ducks, the USFWS chose a combination of liberal bag limits and seasons. In Maryland, that resulted in a 50-day season and a bag limit of four ducks per day.But many hunters in the state will admit they rarely came close to getting a limit, despite the great numbers of ducks that were expected to be flying south last fall.

DEER SEASONSMajor change would be establishment of a three-day muzzleloader season on Oct. 20, 21, 22 in addition to traditional season in December. During the early muzzleloader season, bow hunters would be required to wear hunter orange and any deer taken with a bow on those dates would count toward bow-season limit.BOW SEASONS* WHITE-TAILEDDates -- Sept. 15-Nov. 25, Dec. 12-16, Jan. 2-31.Areas -- all counties.Bag limits -- One antlered or antlerless with standard license. Additional antlerless white-tailed deer may be taken in Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties.

SHOWSSaturday: R. Madison Mitchell Chapter of Ducks Unlimited annual benefit dinner-auction at the Chesapeake Club on Aberdeen Proving Grounds, 6 p.m. Live auction, silent auction, raffles, door prizes.Dec. 11-12: Gun and knife show sponsored by Camrod Hunting Club, Putty Hill Shopping Center, Parkville, 9 a.m. both days. Admission is $4.FISHINGThrough Tuesday: Fall rockfish season for charterboat and recreational anglers in Maryland's Atlantic coastal waters and tributaries. 28-inch minimum, no maximum.

Over the next two weeks, hunting hits full stride in Maryland with the openings of seasons for rabbit, quail, pheasant, dove, brant, ducks, Canada goose and the two-week firearms season for deer.Although the season for cottontail rabbits already is open in Garrett County, the season in the rest of the state opens tomorrow, with a bag limit of four. The season closes Jan. 31 in Garrett and Feb. 7 in all other counties.The quail season also opens tomorrow, excluding Allegany and Garrett counties, with a limit of six per day. This season also has a split closure, with the western portion of the state (west of Interstate 83 south to I-695 to I-95 south to Virginia)

Maryland officials, concerned that the state's population of migrant Canada geese decreased to its lowest level in 30 years last winter, yesterday suggested a plan to cut this fall's hunting season to 30 days as part of a continuing effort to rebuild the flock.The Department of Natural Resources' proposal, which still may be altered before it is submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for final approval, would allow hunting through only half of the days possible under federal guidelines.

TRAPPE -- Shortly past first light yesterday, the geese were beginning to rise from their rest and babbling among themselves as they exercised their wings and looked for a place to light and feed. And, from the darkness in the corner of the blind, Kevin Lyon was talking back.For more than 30 minutes, ducks had been pitching in to a pond beyond a tree line to our east. Locking up and gliding into a continuum of silence in the distant shadows.A flight of more than a dozen Canadas, having abruptly broken off a brief exchange with Lyon, banked toward the far pond and locked into a glide.

Unable to reach an agreement, the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission yesterday sent back to the Department of Natural Resources two modified proposals for the upcoming Canada goose season, and also a suggested minor change in the snow goose shoot.It will be up to DNR Secretary Torrey C. Brown to decide the honker issue. One proposal would have the season open a day earlier than originally proposed -- Monday Nov. 11 and close Nov. with one bird a day, then reopen for a two-bird-a-day shoot Dec. 9 and close out Jan. 18.The other calls for the same opening day, beginning with the same one-bird bag limit, but from Nov. 27 through 29, the bag would be two -- and the two-bird bag would also be implemented during the Dec. 9-Jan.

Fishing is so productive it's difficult to realize that hunting starts Monday. Don't expect much with railbirds, but the shooting should be as hot as the fishing for mackerel and blues in much of the Chesapeake.Once again, it appears we have a bumper crop of dove throughout much of the state, and considering how poor much of the corn crop is because of the drought, there is considerable bushwhacking of crops to further entice the game. In addition, as more shooters turn to planting sunflowers, more doves fly into the fields.

Good news for Canada goose shooters; probably more days afield this year -- also, more days with a bag limit of two. Yesterday, waterfowl managers of the Department of Natural Resources made modestly liberalized recommendations to the Wildlife Advisory Commission, but it will be a month before a final decision is made.DNR assistant secretary for wildlife Don MacLauchlan said the proposal involved a 60-day season as compared with 54 last year -- and six additional days with a bag limit of two rather than one. Maryland Outfitters Association would have liked more, but the DNR is playing it conservative, as it should.

SMYRNA, Del. -- The only thing hot about yesterday's opener of Delaware's Canada goose season was the weather. Shooting started with record low fall populations matched by the lowest hunter turnout in decades.The only consolation for many shooters was the psychological uplift of filling their bag. But that wasn't too difficult for those who had geese within range, not with a limit of one a day.Maryland hunters looking to Delaware for indications of what is to come when our season opens Nov. 14 have to be disappointed.