Great pics Steve! Why do think there are more ducks on the club than on Wister, hunting pressure?
BRU-TAL Duckin' 12-30-17
- Thread starter ilovesprig
- Start date
Great pics Steve! Why do think there are more ducks on the club than on Wister, hunting pressure?
Scott,
I actually think there's more ducks on Wister.....Wister has plenty of feed, but there's close zones that have always been hunted and they're closed now.....Why?.....I have no idea.....I've talked to Rick and have never really ever gotten a logical answer.....The Salton Sea has always been the close zone.....Now with places like Lake Wister, 114's, Y16C (just opened Y16a & b), S20, and many areas that aren't really huntable (tules & salt cedar), the birds have plenty of fresh water during the day.....The fact that we've basically lost our spoonies and green-winged teal is IMO, a direct result of the dropping sea level.....Back in the 70's, the main bird were pintail.....The last two seasons, it's been gadwalls, widgeon, and even mallards early in the season.....In the 70's you rarely saw a gadwall or mallard.....When the sea was at it's highest, there were clouds of spoonies & teal on the backwaters and barnacle reefs that the rising water created......I'm sure with dropping water, the food base has changed and they've found a better place (Mexico?).....The dynamics of the valley and Wister is changing, and with that, they'll be a change of migration routes and habits.....Probably not for the better.
With a one pintail limit (2 next year), how much pressure can the other species take? And no relief with spoonies and teal.....You're just hunting the same birds over and over again.
The club only gets hunted by two guys, two & half days a week.....It's also near the Sonny Bono NWR, and has good food for all species.....Yesterday, like I stated, was slow too (Moon & dead calm?).....Birds seemed to be very decoy shy.....Maybe it's just that time of year, because these birds are not pressured much.
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Sprig! You are amazing and your wealth of knowledge is priceless for guys like me who are only 5 years into hunting in CA. Thanks for the detailed reply.
Sprig, thanks a ton for the info. Like 2dogs said you are always full of helpful knowledge. We appreciate it
Thanks guys.....I really do feel for all you newer hunters.....I had so many places to hunt and fish being raised in California....It's very troubling watching our hunting heritage circle the drain.....We need to stick together and fight anyone that tries to take it away.
Steve,
I agree with all of this. I think the major factor this season is the lack of significant weather events, local and up north, that make for good duck hunting. When you can't get weather to get the ducks up in the air then you tend to start analyzing other factors that may have already been there or recently started changing.
We have had similar complaints here in Colorado about, "where are the ducks"... and "slowest season ever", but we (personally, our group) have had a great season and I have zero complaints about the hunting.
I still would tell people it was slow though if nothing was happening outside our "X" we found this year. I also would say it was slow when I could kill 5 green heads and couldn't buy a 6th duck! (We can only shoot 5 mallards in the central flyway)... but cry me a river on that one...
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Wister was not good again today and San J was even worse (.59 of a duck average).....But, the club saved the day in the afternoon.
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