While musing the hunting regs annual booklet published by the GA DNR I noticed something unusual. Under the section that lists species and bag limits in the duck section, mallard, teal, woodies, blacks, canvasback, pintail, redhead, scaup, fulvous whistling, eider, long-tailed duck and scoter are listed. No others, including gadwall. After searching carefully for gadwall and knowing we have been taking them here every year for many years I began to wonder if I had been breaking the law. So, I texted a longtime friend GA game warden who, after a long career in the field has moved up in rank. I asked him about this, why gadwalls were not listed in the regs as having an open season and a limit. His reply left me baffled. I quote him: "If a species isn't listed then the bag limit is 6."
Whaaat? So, any duck species not listed in the regs is fair game, and the limit is six? I've never heard of such a thing, always having understood that if a species is NOT listed with the others which have open seasons, then it does NOT have an open season on it.
I intend to keep shooting gads as the opportunities arise, and will have the warden's reply on my cell phone in case another warden contests it. Color me puzzled in paradise. If you see this Gil I'd appreciate your take on it, including from a legal perspective.
https://georgiawildlife.com
