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 29, 2008

‘Duck’ weather doesn’t help waterfowl
hunters the last weekend of the season

Waterfowl hunters didn’t fare well the last week of the season on the two most popular waterfowl hunting areas in Southern California, in spite of the “duck hunting” weather on both shoot days. Hunters at the Wister Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area on the south end of the Salton Sea and the San Jacinto Wildlife Area near Lake Perris had averages of less than two birds apiece.
The Kern National Wildlife Refuge in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley again had the best averages with just over three birds per hunter reported the final Saturday.
Lake Henshaw has continued pretty good, with the hunters reporting back in this past week averaging about four birds per hunter, and there were seven limits reported over the two shoot days.
Ryan, Mike and Eric Lovelace, all Wildomar, shot one bird shy of full limits at Henshaw last Wednesday. Ryan bagged two cinnamon teal, a pair of greenwings, two wigeon, and a spoonie, while Mike had four cinnamons, a pintail, a gadwall, and a wigeon. While Eric was one bird short, he still had four cinnamons, a pintail, and a gadwall. On Saturday, Adam Thompson, Poway, had three cinnamons, two bluebill, and two wigeon for his limit. Craig, Cheyne, and Max Heyer, Vista, had four wigeon, a cinnamon, a mallard, and a pintail.
The general waterfowl season closed Sunday, Jan. 27, but there is a special junior’s only hunt this coming weekend, Feb. 2-3. Most of the public hunting areas are having special events for juniors. Hunters should contact each area, numbers below, for specifics.

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

At the SAN JACINTO WILDLIFE AREA, there were 113 hunters this past Wednesday, Jan. 23, who shot 181 ducks, two coots, and a speckled belly goose for a 1.62 average. The duck bag included 60 northern shovelers, 26 ruddy ducks, 19 wigeon, 19 greenwing teal, 18 pintail, 14 gadwall, 13 cinnamon teal, five mallards, three mergansers, two redheads, and one ringneck. On Saturday, there were 127 hunters who shot 141 ducks, two coots, and one Canada goose for a 1.13 average. The duck bag consisted of 57 shovelers, 34 cinnamons, 11 gadwall, 11 ruddies, eight wigeon, six pintail, six bufflehead, five greenwings, two canvasbacks, and one mallard. 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 131 hunters this past Wednesday who shot 223 ducks and 18 snow geese for a 1.84 average. The duck bag consisted of 72 greenwings, 64 shovelers, 30 pintail, 24 cinnamons, 15 gadwall, nine wigeon, three mallards, two scaup, two ruddies, one ringneck, and one goldeneye. On Saturday, there were 250 hunters who shot 302 ducks, 25 snow geese, and six coots for a 1.33 average. The duck kill was made up of 148 greenwings, 47 shovelers, 42 pintail, 36 cinnamons, seven mallards, seven ruddies, four gadwall, four wigeon, two canvasback, two ringnecks, one scaup, and one goldeneye. On Sunday, there were 80 hunters who shot 52 ducks, 13 coots, five snow geese, and two Ross’ geese for a .90 average. The duck take included 17 greenwings, 13 pintail, 12 shovelers, four wigeon, three gadwalls, one mallard, one cinnamon, and one redhead. 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 25 hunters last Wednesday who shot 61 ducks, 12 snow geese, and nine Ross’ geese for a 3.28 average. The duck bag included 36 shovelers, 17 greenwings, three pintail, three canvasbacks, one wigeon, and one ruddy. On Saturday, there were 39 hunters who shot 80 ducks and two snow geese for a 2.10 average. The duck take included 23 greenwings, 20 shovelers, 11 cinnamons, eight canvasbacks, seven ruddies, five pintail, three wigeon, one redhead, one ringneck, and one scaup. On Sunday, there were 29 hunters who shot 21 ducks, 12 snow geese, and eight Ross’ geese for a 1.41 average. The duck kill was made up of nine cinnamons, six pintail, two mallards, two wigeon, one gadwall, and one greenwing. 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 eight hunters from Monday through Sunday this past week who shot 18 ducks for a 2.25 average. The duck bag included eight greenwings, seven shovelers, one mallard, one gadwall, and one cinnamon teal. 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 no results available for last Wednesday. On Saturday, there were 132 hunters who shot 416 ducks, five coots, and two white-front geese for a 3.20 average. The duck bag included 138 shovelers, 104 gadwall, 103 cinnamons, 21 greenwings, 13 bufflehead, 10 wigeon, 10 pintail, nine mallards, five ruddies, two redheads, and one ringneck. 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, BARRETT LAKE had 10 hunters last Wednesday who shot 26 ducks for a 2.60 average. The bag was made up of 20 ruddies, two ringnecks, one bufflehead, one gadwall, one shoveler, and one wigeon. No results were available for Saturday. There were no hunters at SUTHERLAND RESERVOIR. Barrett is open to waterfowl hunting on each Wednesday and Saturday. Sutherland is open on a Thursday and Sunday schedule. For information on the City Lakes waterfowl program, call 619-668-2060.
At LAKE HENSHAW, there were 11 hunters this past Wednesday with five hunters reporting a bag of 24 ducks, including three limits, for a 4.80 average. The kill included 12 cinnamons, four wigeon, three greenwings, two gadwall, two pintail, and one shoveler. On Saturday, there were 33 hunters with nine reporting a bag of 35 ducks, including four limits, for a 3.89 average. The duck bag included 17 cinnamons, 10 wigeon, three mallards, two scaup, one greenwing, one gadwall, and one pintail. 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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