Late Goose Opener

The geese had been thick in my fields in Sutter prior to the late goose opener but as it got closer to go time the numbers seemed to dwindle a bit. After the scouting mission on Friday I had renewed hope that it would be a slaughter as the geese appeared in the fields again! We were up and ready to roll at 3:30  AM and begun the daunting task of putting out decoys! We started in on the task and by 6:15 AM we had over 2500 decoys set, layouts brushed, and everyone patiently waiting! It didn't take long and some birds started to fly but just didn't want to finish, which is typical for a cloudy day with not much wind. As the morning wore on the winds picked up a bit and by mid day the birds were working in well and they were raining out of the sky!!! The flight lasted until around 2:00 before we called it quits and packed it in! We ended the hunt with a mix of specks and snows totaling right at 42 birds. There were several missed opportunities as well as a few birds that must have been wearing their bullet proof vests, as they just wouldn't fall!!!

Duck Season is over!!!

Duck season is finally over! All of the blinds are cleaned up, decoys put away, and we are in the process of cleaning up all of the atv's and putting them away for another season! For many of us this will go down as the worst duck season in history, but may go down as the best season in history for a lot of hunters on geese.

This season was full of sunshine and if my memory serves me right it was the first time in my life that I have not hunted in a single rain storm during the season! In my opinion this year was not a shortage of birds as some may claim it was just the non-existent weather. We had a ton of birds in the valley but they just needed to be mixed up by a good 3 day storm with south wind and rain, but it never happened! All of our best hunts came in the bright sunshine and North winds, luckily we have a couple blinds that produce in those conditions or it would have been a long season!

As soon as the post season storms hit there were birds in every field that still had water and the morning flights were incredible! All we could do is sit and watch the show with hopes of what next year may bring.

I for one am not to optimistic about next seasons outlook! At our current stored water capacities in the reservoirs it looks as if the farming water will be cut by at least 50%, resulting in half of the rice production in the valley this year. If we do not receive any more rain fall between now and the start of next season, no one in the valley will get district winter water to flood for straw decomp or duck hunting!! The only ones in the valley with winter water will be the guys that can afford to run their wells and pump the ground water. That is the worse case scenario, we can only hope that the rains come and the reservoirs fill!!!
      

Cade's first Jr. duck season!!

This was Cade's first year as a licensed hunter, and a first for me being to take him on the junior hunt! I had looked all over and had a ton of birds using one of my small wetlands, so that is where we went. As we parked the truck it was silent and I had hoped it would be, thinking that the ducks were feeding in the rice and then loafing  in the wetland during the day. As soon as we started walking to where we would set up the wetland exploded with ducks and geese both, apparently they were already there but being silent. We continued on with hopes that the birds would return as the morning wore on. Right at legal shooting light Cade killed a greenhead and then almost immediately after that a nice widgeon. It slowed down after the initial barrage of birds but they were still coming in here and there so we stayed with it and he ended the morning with 2 ducks and 2 specks!! The second day of the season I picked the wrong spot and the hunting wasn't as good but again he managed a big old speck and was super excited about it! It was a lot of fun finally having a Junior of my own that could participate in the action and by next season Quinn should be ready as well! We are looking forward to next season when we can do it again!!