Iowa Teal Season Opens September 5           - Iowa Wildlife Federation

Iowa Teal Season Opens September 5          

Washburn's Outdoor Journal /

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.

This year’s Iowa duck seasons begin September 5 with the opening of a special, 9-day early teal season.    The teal only hunt is offered statewide, with shooting hours running from sunrise to sunset each day.  The daily bag limit is 6 [blue-winged or green-winged] teal; possession limit is 18 teal.

September Blue-wing – A blue-winged teal dines on aquatic plant seeds.  Given their choice, migrating blue-wings avoid vast areas of open water, preferring instead to utilize shallow, food rich

Initiated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, special teal seasons are designed to take advantage of fast moving, early migrating populations of blue-winged teal – a popular and abundant species whose numbers generally peak and then dwindle before regular duck seasons commence.  Teal seasons are offered as a ‘bonus hunt’ that do not subtract from days allotted for regularly scheduled duck seasons.  Iowa began participating in the bonus hunts in 2014.    

Rest Stop – A flock of migrating blue-wings visit a shallow public wetland.

Popular with young and old alike, Iowa teal seasons offer plenty of positives.  The early autumn weather is mild, and southbound blue-wings are never more abundant.  Teal flocks are typically dispersed across a wide variety of habitats ranging from our largest cattail marshes to the tiniest Back-Forty potholes.      The result is lots of ducks, being hunted by lots of people, in lots of places.   For those who wishing to avoid the crowds, there’s plenty of room to spread out.  Public walk-in areas offer prime, out-of-the-way locations for tossing out the decoys and enjoying a morning of solitude.  For Iowa outdoor enthusiasts, the teal season is a recreational windfall.   

Shallow Wetland — For those wishing to avoid the crowds, public walk-in areas offer prime out-of-the-way locations for tossing out your decoys.

Since blue-winged teal lack the wariness exhibited by most waterfowl, hunter success – regardless of a person’s age or level of expertise — runs high.    But the fact that teal flocks are easily lured to the decoys doesn’t necessarily mean that these feathered rockets are easy to bag.  They’re not.    When pursuing blue-wings, it is always a good idea to bring plenty of ammo.    Although hunters can expect plenty of misses, those teal that are brought to bag provide superb table fare.    In the wide wide world of waterfowling, only the famed canvasback offers superior flavor. 

September Teal – Preseason scouting is paramount to teal hunting success.  In this photo, migrating blue-wings have stopped to feed on a shallow wetland containing beds of nutrient rich, submerged sago pondweed.

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