The first open season for waterfowl hunting arrives Sept. 1, but area goose getters and duck devotees can check out the tentative 2009-10 listing of seasons released last week for hunting in New York State.

On Friday, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service held the first day for sale of the 2009-10 Federal Duck Stamp. This year’s version features a long-tailed duck, formerly called an old squaw.

Talk has it the duck stamp fee will be raised, but the price this year remains at $15 for all waterfowl hunters age 16 and older. The stamp has been required since 1934 and proceeds from stamp sales have raised more than $700 million to purchase and maintain 5.2 million acres of wetlands on 548 national wildlife refuges. From stamp sales, 98 percent of proceeds go to the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund.

Hunting seasons across the state remain essentially the same. The early “Residential” goose season allows hunters an eight-bird bag everywhere except on Lake Champlain, which has a five-bird limit. Other tentative waterfowl dates for Lake Champlain cannot be posted, because the lake areas comply with tentative dates set for Vermont.

The Youth Hunt for ducks in Western New York goes Oct. 10-11, before the Oct. 24 opener in the DEC Western Zone.

Final confirmed dates complying with federal requirements will be available in late summer, but hunters can plan trips and outings with a check of the tentative listing of waterfowl hunting seasons set for New York State at dec. ny.gov/outdoor/28503.html.

Making hay

Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama is accepting sealed bids on 166 acres of grassland hay. Six separate fields, ranging in size from 27 to 81 acres, will be open to cutting from the total of 1,400 acres of grassland available for wildlife.

Bids will be accepted until noon Thursday. For details and inspection of fields available, call Dawn Washington at (585) 948-5445, ext. 208.

A slice of knife

Sportsmen and women devote considerable time, effort, and financial contributions to efforts that they hope will maintain and further their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear firearms. But a dedicated organization has focused its efforts on retaining our rights to keep and use popular models of knives.

Knife Rights opposes legislation that limits or eliminates U. S. citizens’ right to keep and use knives. A recent U. S. Customs pocket knife proposal, supported through the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, has drawn opposition support from the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action and other pro-gun organizations, prompting a Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus to withdraw the pocket-knife proposal.

The word “switchblade” is not used, but the DHS proposal would ban all knives that can be opened with a single hand, including many popular skinning and utility knives sportsmen use when hunting or fishing.

A comment period has ended but the proposal has yet to take effect, noted Doug Ritter. For an update, go to kniferights.org.

Bass big wheelers

Charter captain Eric Elenfeldt Sr. took first place and Big Fish honors in the 2009 Wagon Wheel Opening Day Smallmouth Bass Contest. Fishing out of Sturgeon Point on Lake Erie, Elenfeldt topped 95 entrants with a two-fish total of 11.30 pounds and a 6.54-pound heaviest bass entry.

Lake Erie was big on smallmouth sizes for second-place winner Tom Zafuto with an 11.18-pound total and for third-place finisher Brendan Walsh, who weighed in two smallies for a 9.91-pound finish.

Prize walleyes

New York Walleye Association has $15,000 in prize money waiting for winning teams in the 16th annual Amara-Can Walleye Classic. A two-to-four angler team event, out of Dunkirk Harbor on July 11-12, the Amara- Can comes at a time when big Ohio ’eyes begin cruising into WNY waters.

Along with 10 team cash prizes, entrants can win big fish honors and cash prizes each day, and there’s a big fish $100 prize to NY-WA members. For details, check with Robert Zoeller (875-8148) or Dayton Kane (875-8872).

Clarification

Chuck Godfrey, past president of the WNY Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Erie County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, points out a wire story on this page June 14 detailing a two-fly steelhead trout-catching technique legal in waters in the Detroit area and much of the upper Great Lakes is illegal here. Godfrey points out New York State fishing regulations require anglers use a single hook only while fishing in trout and salmon Great Lakes feeder streams from the lake up to the first impassible barrier.