The waterfowl report is published each week during the waterfowl hunting season on this site, usually updated on Monday afternoons. We encourage hunters to send photographs and updated information to augment this report. Our goal is to make this report the most comprehensive waterfowl hunting report available for Southern California hunters -- with all of the information in a single place. Updates, photographs, and comments should be e-mailed to Jim Matthews at odwriter@earthlink.net.
 

January 8, 2008

San Jacinto Wildlife Area sees a
bump in harvest thanks to new birds

The duck harvest as San Jacinto Wildlife Area doubled from with previous week. Wild weather over the past week apparently pushed more waterfowl south into Southern California public hunting areas, with all three popular hunting areas seeing improvements in duck hunting.
San Jacinto, where hunters had averaging about a bird each two weeks ago, saw averages jump back up over two birds each in the past week. The bulk of the harvest has been northern shovelers, but a more teal and gadwall have also been showing in the bag.
While there are still a good number of geese in the San Jacinto Valley, none of the big waterfowl have been taken for over two weeks.
Hunters at the Wister Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area and the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge have watched goose harvest numbers go in the tank over the past two weeks. The total goose bag over three shoot days at both areas was just 46 geese, 29 of those from the federal refuge. While that is up from the 31 taken the previous week, it is well below the weekly harvests of well over 100 geese per week from earlier in the season.
The duck hunting, on the other hand, has continued to be good at Wister with averages approaching three birds this past Wednesday and Saturday and nearly two birds even on Sunday. The big influx of greenwing teal has really translated into an improved bag.
The Kern National Wildlife Refuge continues to have the best averages of any public shooting area in the region, with averages over three both hunting days this past week. Last Wednesday, hunters nearly had four birds each. But those averages were buoyed by limits taken by hunters in blind sites 10 and 14, both with three hunters each. Cinnamon and greenwing teal, gadwall, and shovelers made up the bulk of the bag at Kern.

What follows is the area-by-area breakdown for public hunting this past week:

At the SAN JACINTO WILDLIFE AREA, there were 92 hunters this past Wednesday, Jan. 2, who shot 227 ducks and two coots for a 2.49 average. The duck bag consisted of 114 northern shovelers, 25 gadwall, 21 greenwing teal, 12 pintail, six redheads, four cinnamon teal, four ruddy ducks, three bufflehead, two mallards, two wigeon, two ringnecks, one canvasback, and one scaup. On Saturday, Jan. 5, there were 98 hunters who shot 200 ducks for a 2.04 average. The duck kill was made up of 119 shovelers, 27 greenwings, 24 gadwall, 10 cinnamons, five redheads, five bufflehead, three wigeon, three pintail, two ruddies, one ringneck, and one scaup. San Jacinto is open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system or a daily drawing for remaining sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are also permitted until 2 p.m. Shoot days are Wednesday and Saturday. For more information, contact the wildlife area at (951) 928-0580.
At the WISTER UNIT of the IMPERIAL WILDLIFE AREA on the Salton Sea, there were 142 hunters last Wednesday who shot 393 ducks, six snow geese, four Ross’ geese, and five coots for a 2.87 average. The duck bag included 194 greenwings, 126 shovelers, 34 pintail, 15 gadwall, nine wigeon, six cinnamons, two mallards, two bufflehead, two ruddies, one ringneck, one scaup, and one goldeneye. On Saturday, there were 262 hunters who shot 619 ducks and two snow geese for a 2.37 average. The duck kill was made up of 274 greenwing teal, 200 shovelers, 67 pintail, 21 gadwall, 20 cinnamons, 16 wigeon, five mallards, five scaup, three bufflehead, three ruddies, two redheads, one ringneck, one ringneck, and one merganser. On Sunday, there were 82 hunters who shot 105 ducks, five snow geese, and one coot for a 1.35 average. The duck bag consisted of 41 shovelers, 34 greenwings, 18 pintail, four gadwall, three cinnamons, two wigeon, two ruddies, and one ringneck. Wister is open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system and a daily drawing for sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are permitted. Shoot days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. For more information, contact the unit at (760) 359-0577.
At the SONNY BONO-SALTON SEA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, there were 14 hunters last Wednesday who shot 44 ducks and eight snow geese for a 3.71 average. The duck bag was made up of 18 greenwings, 12 shovelers, seven pintail, three gadwall, three wigeon, and one cinnamon. On Saturday, there were 45 hunters who shot 84 ducks, nine snow geese and six Ross’ geese for a 2.20 average. The duck kill consisted of 43 shovelers, 24 greenwings, 11 gadwall, four pintail, one scaup, and one bufflehead. On Sunday, there were 24 hunters who shot 38 ducks, five snow geese, and one Ross’ goose for a 1.83 average. The duck bag included 29 shovelers, four greenwings, three pintail, and two ringnecks. The refuge is managed as part of the Wister Unit. For more information, contact the Wister Unit at (760) 359-0577.
At the FINNEY-RAMER UNIT of the IMPERIAL WILDLIFE AREA on the Alamo River south of the Salton Sea, there were a total of 18 hunters from Monday through Sunday this past week who shot 24 ducks for a 1.26 average. The duck bag was made up of 10 greenwings, six shovelers, three mallards, three cinnamons, and one pintail. Finney-Ramer is open to hunters seven days a week under a self-registration and self-reporting system. For more information, contact the Wister Unit at (760) 359-0577.
At the KERN NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, there were 116 hunters this past Wednesday who shot 440 ducks and one coot for a 3.80 average. The duck bag was made up of 110 greenwings, 105 shovelers, 98 gadwall, 40 cinnamons, 25 mallards, 24 wigeon, 11 pintail, 10 bufflehead, six redheads, three canvasback, three ruddies, two scaup, one ringneck, one bluewing teal, and one European wigeon. On Saturday, there were 123 hunters who shot 391 ducks for a 3.18 average. The bag consisted of 113 gadwall, 112 shovelers, 63 cinnamons, 58 greenwings, 17 mallards, 15 pintail, seven wigeon, three bufflehead, one redhead, one ringneck, and one bluewing. Kern is open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system or a daily drawing for remaining sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are also permitted throughout the shoot day. Shoot days are Wednesday and Saturday. For more information, call (661) 725-2767 or the comprehensive hunter's hotline at (661) 725-6504, normally updated after each hunt day.
At the SAN DIEGO CITY LAKES, no information was available for BARRETT LAKE or SUTHERLAND RESERVOIR. Barrett is open to waterfowl hunting on each Wednesday and Saturday, and reservations are available only for Wed., Jan. 23. Sutherland is open on a Thursday and Sunday schedule. There are still openings for all shoot days. For information on the City Lakes waterfowl program, call (619) 668-2060.
At LAKE HENSHAW, no hunting information was available for this past week. Hunt days are Wednesdays and Saturdays. The fee is $25 for adult hunters and $10 for juniors. For more information, contact the lake at 760-782-3501.
At MIKE RAAHAUGE’S DUCK CLUB in Prado Basin, the public hunting program kicked off just before Christmas. Public blind sites are limited because flooding three winters ruined most of the ponding. Cost for a two-person blind is $175 and hunting is allowed on a Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday schedule. For information on the public hunting program here, call Raahauge’s at 951-735-7981.
The CIBOLA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE on the Colorado River is a popular spot for goose hunters who set out large spreads of decoys in groomed goose fields. Reservations are issued through a drawing, but there is also a daily waiting line for unfilled blind sites. Hunt results from this past week were not available again. For refuge information, call 928-857-3253 or visit the web site at http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/CibolaNWR/index.html.

Hunters who would like to contribute information and photographs to this report should e-mail the information to Jim Matthews at odwriter@earthlink.net.

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