No birds(waterfowl) in central valley yet!

[Muzz16]

Every year gets worse and worse

 

[Hunt4more]

hold onto your duck call they on their way!

 

[blktljunkie]

The klamath basin had a huge botulism outbreak which isn't helping but we're slowly seeing a few more birds, this weather should help. Good luck to everyone

 

[ART_SKYD]

I’ve seen flocks of geese flying over every evening.

 

[Skykarp]

About 15-20 days ago we started getting honkers stream in very consistently. I would say they were on time for their migration. Been putting the wood to them since. We had a pile of ducks migrate in in the middle on November then disappear which was odd.

It looks like SLC is getting ready to get a good blast so I wouldn't lose hope yet.

 

[Bossbrott]

Fantastic weekend around Marysville. Good weather moved em around pretty good. Should stay good as long as we don't get another heat snap.

 

[eelgrass]

I was down looking for Brant on Humboldt Bay Friday and the bay is packed with ducks. Duck hunting has been good now.

 

[Muzz16]

has some friends hunting the grasslands and said there was more birds so i guess well have a descent last month like always!

 

[Buckbrush]

We whacked em pretty good between Gridley and Colusa with the storm on Sunday.

 

[ducksbucksandbulls]

lots of birds today

 

[Paul_Crawford]

Mendota? pc

 

[eelgrass]

For the 3 of us, the total so far this season is 107 Aleutians and about 25 ducks. The birds seemed to have moved south for now. We got skunked yesterday.

 

[canyoncrosser]

Fantastic weekend around Marysville. Good weather moved em around pretty good. Should stay good as long as we don't get another heat snap.

You just jinxed yourself

 

[cacklercrazy]

You just jinxed yourself

Been a bad year so far,but got a little love on Thursday. Took my oldest daughter and my cousin hunting in a honey hole we usually save for 1 special day.

 

[newguy]

Things are finally picking up a little on the delta. Got our first limit of the year today, mostly wigeon.
Mark

 

[newguy]

We wrapped up our season yesterday. Ended up being the worst year we have had in the twenty years we have been hunting the delta. Just did not see very many ducks at all. I hope some of you guys had better luck.

Mark

 

[cacklercrazy]

We wrapped up our season yesterday. Ended up being the worst year we have had in the twenty years we have been hunting the delta. Just did not see very many ducks at all. I hope some of you guys had better luck.

Mark

No it was a bad year
We got into some geese to keep it from being a complete disaster.

 

[DeerHunter53]

I was down looking for Brant on Humboldt Bay Friday and the bay is packed with ducks. Duck hunting has been good now.

Eel
what do those Brant taste like are they good to eat?

 

[eelgrass]

Eel
what do those Brant taste like are they good to eat?

Brant are the best tasting of all the waterfowl, IMO. They are strictly an ocean bird feeding mainly on eelgrass in bays and estuaries. They only showed up for a couple days here this year and I missed it. We used to have a late season that ran until about Feb. 20th when they were migrating back north. I killed 60 one year. The limit was 4/day back then.

 

[eelgrass]

Two of us got 18 Aleutians today on the late hunt. A good north wind kept the birds moving.

 

[DeerHunter53]

Two of us got 18 Aleutians today on the late hunt. A good north wind kept the birds moving.

Eel give me a call I am free to hunt...LOL would love a good goose hunt just don't know where to go.
Went two years ago wasn't much flying that day we got 5

 

[eelgrass]

They were decoying so good yesterday even Stevie Wonder could have limited out. I proved that. The guy I hunt with is a master at hunting Aleutians.

 

[oilcan]

They were decoying so good yesterday even Stevie Wonder could have limited out. I proved that. The guy I hunt with is a master at hunting Aleutians.

View attachment 34158

Nice Birds eel but who’s the old guy in the picture. ?

 

[eelgrass]

Nice Birds eel but who’s the old guy in the picture. ?

That's my grandpa. He still shoots the old 870 Wingmaster too.

 

[huntindad4]

Way to go Eel!

We are struggling up here. No birds. My kid saw a flock of 50 while at football practice Tuesday. A property owner friend of mine saw 9 sitting his property and jumps hot two of them today. One had a collar. He's an Aleutian killing fool. Said he heard there are about 100,000 down in Humboldt County. Less than a week for them to show here....

 

[eelgrass]

We struggled yesterday. Only 2 killed. There were too many sitting on adjacent properties. Our 4 dozen decoys can't compete with hundreds of live birds. I hope some move north for you Bill.

 

[huntindad4]

When the state used to allow cattle to graze on state park and fish and game land we had a lot of birds that would stay here in the fall and the spring. They would sit a park field by the thousands first thing in the morning then once they grazed it down they would trickle off of the park land to adjacent private property and we would get great shooting. You can't hunt 6he public land in the late hunt so it was a refuge for them.The state hasn't allowed grazing in 10 to 15 years.

We had one good shoot last late season and then a few good shoots this early fall. I have 3 dozen Dave Smith lessers painted as Aleutians that may eventually be sold for lack of use....they're worth quite a bit, maybe a nice gun?

 

[eelgrass]

Generally, Aleutians are pretty picky about which fields they prefer. Grass not too tall or too short. Grazing land seems to be the best. I say generally because sometimes I don't think Aleutians even know where they are going. LOL! A lot of our birds are roosting on the bay at night. The Wildlife Refuge gets eaten down to bare dirt because the geese eat roots and all.

And the City of Arcata bought a bunch of grazing land just to make a "refuge" for the geese. Wasn't that nice of them? Management for hunting really doesn't exist in California anymore.

Those Dave Smith decoys really look great! They really do a great job with the paint. About $600/dozen but worth it, I think. I was going to buy some but we have about 12 dozen of other kinds. Eventually I'll own some.

 

[huntindad4]

Yeah I feel they make a difference. We land most of the birds that work. I would say 95%. And when they hit the ground they just start eating without a care in the world.

My kid had a young bird land this year and he sat up to flush the bird to shoot it from his layout blind, the bird didn't jump so he yelled and the bird kept feeding, then more birds started coming so he layed back down, those birds passed without coming so he stood and walked towards the bird, as he approached the bird it would just keep about 10 feet or so of distance so he ran at it with plans to catch it and the bird jumped so he pulled up the gun and the bird landed again, lol. He did it again and only then did the bird attempt to fly off and when he tried to shoot it in the head/neck because the bird was close he missed the first shot and got him with the second.

I had a landowner stop and watch a flock land in my decoys then as he got out i sat up and shot a few birds . I looked over and he was getting back in with his shotgun. He went down the road and shot a shellcracker (essentially a small mortar in a shotgun shell) at another flock. So I know thats what he was getting ready to do to my birds. Haha.

 

[eelgrass]

I think those Dave Smith decoys are actually that good. The color match and size is perfect.

Opening day this year we had a flock of about 15 birds land a couple hundred yards out. We were worried they would draw the next flock to come by so Curt decided to walk out to them and scare them up. They let him walk right up to them with no cover, so he killed 5. That surprised all of us. Those young birds probably never seen a human. They get wise quick though.