BY JIM NIEMIEC
LAKEVIEW— Despite heavy rain this past winter that lasted until the early spring months, the outlook for the upcoming waterfowl season is not all that promising. While nesting conditions were good to the north of the Sacramento Valley, the lack of available food has been of concern as have the size of brood chicks. Also of more concern, is the long-term effect of wild fires in Northern California and up into Oregon.
Recent duck counts by DU, CWA and CDFW indicated that the mallard hatch was just a tad under average, while pintail and green winged teal numbers showed an increase. There appeared to be good counts on spoonbills and gadwall in some areas, while information on widgeon and diving ducks was not available. Overall, the waterfowl outlook for the state could be at or just about average, but the southern part of the flyway could see more dabbling and diving ducks, along with hopefully more widgeon than were harvested this past season.
Western Outdoor News contacted refuges, DU, biologists, and private club owners to get an idea on how waterfowl season was progressing and to get some kind of an idea as to what hunters can expect come opening day.
The first state refuge contacted was the San Jacinto Wildlife Area, 951-928-0580, and this senior hunting writer spoke with Scott Sewell, Wildlife Habitat Supervisor II.
“The refuge is just starting to see the first of the early migration coming through. Mallards, gadwall and teal are the species we are holding right now. The ponds are loaded early in the morning with ducks that fed all night and loafed. Lift -offs have been great to watch, as the birds head (likely) over to Lake Perris or other larger lakes to spend day time hours,” said Sewell.
Sewell then went on to add, “Our crew, and those hunters who volunteered to come out and work on dikes, blinds and clean up trash did a great job, and the refuge is now ready for ducks. This refuge had a pretty good local hatch of mallards, gadwall and surprisingly teal. There is plenty of feed on the refuge to hold newly arriving ducks, consisting of millet, wheat, swamp-Timothy, and bulrush. Many of the ponds had lots of carry-over swamp-Timothy and we are disking some to ensure that this duck food will continue to provide an ample food sources that waterfowl really like.”
Hunters like to hunt the SJWR refuge that can give up some pretty good duck gunning during stormy or windy days. Come opening day there will be 50 blinds open and 3 handicapped blinds. In addition to the ponded water on the refuge, Mystic Lake will be open with a full set of dedicated blinds and small ponds of Bridge Street will be huntable.
Moving a little southeast of Niland, the Wister Refuge, 760-359-0577, is also starting to see the arrival of early migrating puddle ducks, said refuge manager Cris Crecelius, Habitat Supervisor I for the refuge.
This heavily hunted refuge filed the following update with WON. “Planting and irrigation of watergrass, swamp-Timothy, bulrush, and Jap Millet was seeded on as many hunting units that were manageable. Most of the hunt area is currently being flooded and we expect to be 100% flooded by the opener, given no disruptions in water conveyance. In addition, the Wister staff spent the spring/summer clearing invasive vegetation in an effort to increase hunter access and provide optimal waterfowl habitat.”
Crecelius then stated, “Field staff are observing large numbers of resident and early season arriving ducks holding on the refuge and the outlook is for a great opener.”
The Kern National Wildlife Refuge, 661-725-2767, headed up by Miguel Jimenez, Project Leader for the refuge, passed on the following.
“Water allocation for the Kern National Wildlife Refuge is down to 77% compared to 100% from last year. This refuge will likely only flood roughly 4,000 acres versus the 6,700 acres flooded last season. We started flooding up in mid-August, but currently we have only flooded about 1,500 acres,” stated Jimenez.
The refuge manager then added, “The refuge staff did work in unit 2, removing around 300 acres of emergent vegetation between unit 2 and 1A, to create more open water and favorable nesting habitat for colonial nesting birds. To date, the refuge is still begging to see some new ducks on the wetlands, as of right now the few ducks that are on the refuge are only local birds.”
OF NOTE: The Palo Verde Ecological Reserve, 760-922-9189, located just a couple of miles north of Blythe on the California side of the lower Colorado River, is in the Colorado River Zone and duck hunting will open on at this refuge on October 23, three days ahead of the general season for the Southern California Zone that opens on October 26. WON checked in with refuge manager Rick Francis, Habitat Supervisor I, to obtain information on hunting this desert refuge.
“California Waterfowl CWA has re-lasered all our pond swales and removed one of the bigger levees making it now 3 big ponds to hunt. We now also have a mobility impaired site and parking area for the disabled and the road to this hunting site has been graveled. All other areas are walk-in only. The ponds will be seeded and flooded prior to the October 23 opener,” said Francis.
Francis then added this update, “Currently there are very few ducks on the refuge, even though the river is adjacent to the ponds. This will change as the migration gets going by the middle of November. No reservations are needed to hunt this refuge, and it is on a first come first served basis. Hunters should be advised to bring their own blind coverage (arrow weed suggested), but all material needs to removed from the hunt area after the hunt.”
There are 3 duck clubs behand Prado Dam, but only one offers a hunting option for general hunters, that being Raahauge’s Duck Club, 951-735-7981. This well-established club shoots from dedicated blinds. Unattached public hunters can opt to hunt this club on Wednesday afternoons or on Sunday, but need to make advance reservations to hunt. For the Wednesday hunt, all shooters need to check in at the club house by 1:00PM to secure a blind location.
WON checked in with Lincoln Raahauge, to get a status report on the duck population in Prado basin, located behind the dam, “Right now we are seeing lots of mallards and teal that hatched locally. The ponds look great and there are more ducks in the basin than I have seen in years. I would think that come opening day hunters will enjoy some awesome duck hunting.”
Lake Barrett in San Diego County, the most southern public waterfowl hunting area, will offer duck hunting this fall on Wednesday and Saturday. Last season, this lake enjoyed pretty darn good duck hunting from shoreline blinds with a mix of dabbling ducks and divers harvested. Hunters should log on to the City of San Diego web site to find out more details about hunting this lake and to make advance reservations to hunt.
Duck hunting south of the border was excellent last year for the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, while Baja Norte gave up great hunting for black Brandt on the protected waters of San Quintin Bay. This past week’s hurricane, Ileana blew through the vast farming mecca of Los Mochis and dropped heavy rain as far south as Culican. Rain fell hard and flooded lots of farming fields and filled channels. The long-term effect of all this rain, and too much standing water, could have affect duck hunting early this fall, at least though the first couple of weeks of the season. Mexico allows duck through mid-March.
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