Hello guys long time me no post

[Spec]

Just wondered how most of you guys season has gone the rice country season has been very differant this year on my club! I think the weather patterns and fewer birds are changing our flyways this year. I haven't hunted as much this season in fact my season is over for this year but on the overall how has your seson been!

 

[KID CREOLE]

Spec,

I read about your reason for your season ending early on the other board, hopefully everything works out for you.

 

[d trees]

Hey bout time you post up here Suckah !!

forum must be down

,d

 

[cali duckhunter]

hey you ole pogogee hows the knee ? the reason you havent had a good season is you cant call or shoot .

neither can d trees and while your trying to figure out who i am let me get prepared cause i dont want anyone to know i am associated with the likes of you 2

there thats better heres a lil hint they call me crazy. my season has been very weird extremly hit or miss with the birds for the season i am at 105 ducks and 4 geese

 

[d trees]

More like nutz if you ask me

, lets set up a duck meat drop for next weekend what ya say , im heading north in a about an hour

,d

 

[cali duckhunter]

D next weekend sounds good for me to drop of the meat i am at home this weekend i have the flu bad i will be up for the last 9 days of the season so let me know what days you will be there and i will stop by. have a good shoot this weekend

 

[Tree Doc]

I got yer Meat...you meatheads! Dang, Crazy....you hit 105? That sickens me!!!

I was thinking of putting in for State support, you know...duck meat welfare. I'm digging through my freezer now lookin' for any birds that I forgot to process last year so I can get enough food to have for 2Cougars and I. Jack will have to fend for himself!

Have fun Derek, I won't be up this weekend so I'm sure the shooting will be real good

Get better Ron, 3 of my workers are out with it in a bad way. I just broke down my foreman's front door because I thought he was dead. He went home home sick on Wednesday and hasn't answered his home phone, my work cell phone he carries, or his doorbell in a day and half. I woke him up when I broke in, he's been sleeping since Wed late afternoon! I even had a touch of it when I was up at the club but I went in and got Meds when I came home Tuesday, I'm better now but I still can't hit anything I shoot at!

 

[mudhen]

Hey Spec,

Really sorry about your knee problems.

I may be a pain in your butt sometimes, but only because I wanna be just like you when I grow up! (Not that either of us will ever grow up)

My rice club in Willows has been slow, but maybe not as bad as I thought. We will get 3-4 birds every time out and that's with VERY few birds around. A spec and a couple of ducks make for some good eating. We hunt just outside of Willows, Sundance is further east, almost to the river.

My other club in Colusa was doing fine until the highwater hit. Can't even get out there due to draining floodwater.

My old rice area has been very, very, slow. I saw you driving around there New Year's weekend, at the corner of Aguas Frias & AB Hwy - I waved, you glared at me like you knew who I was! I belonged to a little club right there for many years. It has really gone downhill since 1998, they shoot almost nothing now, even in storms.

As much as I hate to admit it, you are really not missing much.

Heal up fast and well!

mudhen -CA

 

[Spec]

Mudhen Never saw you but that doesn't mean a thing was I by myself or did I have 2 others in the truck! New years I had just left the Mallard ponds duck club from a hunt with OLY! You a Pain in my butt nope I never pay attention to all the crap that goes on at the refuge most of the time!
I only get upset when personal issues get brought up like a bunch of kids when we are suppose to be grown men!
Thanks for thinking of me to get better I hope these 2 operations make me much better!

D'Trees and Tree DOC I will address you later on personal issues!!!!

 

[Tree Doc]

Uh oh! Looks like I'm in for another Trailer shakin!

BTW Spec, that's a nice lookin' Penguin in your avatar!

 

[mudhen]

Yep, you had other guys in the truck, heading north on AF like you were going to Chico or 162.

mudhen - CA

 

[HUND]

Jack is sure going to miss Buster this weekend

I'll be up around noon ........ I had to work late

 

[Tree Doc]

Ahhhh...a weekend without Buster. Maybe my backside will have a chance to heal!

 

[H20 Fowler]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

New years I had just left the Mallard ponds duck club[/b]

my uncle hunts there, you might know him don fowler. hunts there every once in a while. gets limits every time that rat. my dad and i have close to 100 ducks and 3 geese this year in the rice. blind is off of road 68 out of princeton. season started off real good but has dropped off really badly.

 

[cali duckhunter]

tree doc this is the worst i have had the flu it is just hanging on i cant seem to shake it but come friday next week i will be in my blind for 9 days wether i am sick or not i will have plenty of time to heal after the season

 

[mudroller]

Thanks DFG and the bird huggers.

Just east of where you live at the Yolo Bypass closed zone has been crowded with ducks ALL SEASON!

Ducks are scattered all over the valley in small groups, rather than concentrated in certain areas in big flocks. My job entails tons of driving all over the valley, this year I have seen the fewest amount of duck and goose flocks ever. In contrast, I have never seen so many swans, kerlews and comorants.

I drove around the tourist loop at Sacto Refuge and the USFWS tour guide told me the waterfowl count at the closed zone there was down 50%-60% VS last year. ALL I SAW that day was spoonies, coots, some teal, a few (very few) mallards, even less sprig, and some snow geese.

While zooming around in the delta near Franks Tract and up to Tower Park Marina searching for stripers, I have seen more geese and ducks than I have seen in recent years.

Living here in Fairfield, there used to be a great deal of ducks and geese flying to and from Grizzly Island. I have not seen or heard any this year. (They used to wake me up at night there were so many and flying so low).

My best friend's father inlaw owns West Butte duck club, RIGHT ON the Butte Sink, they said it was their worst year ever too.


I have averaged 2.7 birds this season, with only 1 day that I didn't fire my gun. I have had better afternoon shoots this year. The mornings have sucked, for the most part. Storms all night, stops at shoot time. But the birds seem to work to the decoys better this year. ( I don't use a robo)

 

[spectr17]

Good to see you posting Spec.

 

[Spec]

Jessie you trying to change my mind? Thanks again for the good to see you posting.

 

[Colusaduckhunter]

Spec...like many on JHO, we've noticed a change for the worse over the last few years. We gave up our rice blind. We couldn't justify the cost to the number of birds we were shooting per season. Unlike my Sac Valley resident father and brother-in-law, I also had to bear the additional costs of flying up 2 or 3 times a month on top of my 1/3 of the blind lease. The last couple seasons of our blind found us putting in for lotteries at the refuges and using our blind as a place of last resort. Not good!

Now I take the money I save on the blind lease and do one really good out of state duck hunt and at least two extended NorCal refuge and honey hole hunts a season. I also have a local membership at a club near Wister. I still come out ahead. I have more birds in my freezer than we did the last few seasons of club shooting!!

I think it's better to stay fluid and mobile, and like mudroller, said...go where the ducks are!!

 

[mudhen]

Great post Colusaduckhunter! You really know what's going on. Things have really changed since the mid to late 90's.

This season is my first to ever set foot on a Cali refuge to hunt. I got a few draws and had some nice hunts. I plan to double my effort for next season.

I have a deepwater club in Colusa that flooded out this year for a month, and a rice blind in Willows that I really like, but is truly not worth anywhere near what they charge for it.

So your comment about staying mobile is very accurate.

I predict someday, maybe not too soon, there will be a mass revolt against the $7,000 - $10,000 rice blind clubs. Folks will eventually stop paying to shoot no ducks.....

mudhen - CA