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A wet spring usually means a good duckling hatch and plenty of water in the breeding ground up north. This seemed to be the case as all would agree that we saw many more ducks in the fall migration as they headed south through the Sacramento Valley.

When the season opened, duck hunters that had flooded fields to hunt from, experienced great results despite the warm weather and clear skies. That soon changed as ducks became aware of increased danger from hunters in the field.

By November the weather was a major factor in the low hunter take numbers as ducks stayed in the safe areas with no hunter pressure and no need to frequent the rice fields for food. Most stayed on the refuges during hunting hours and only ventured out after dark to feed at night.

In December when the hunting usually improves, duck hunters were disappointed with no good stormy weather and lots of ducks. The few times the weather would cooperate with a good south wind storm for a day or two, followed by a morning of fog, the north wind would begin to blow. Don't get me wrong I like a good north wind, especially for goose hunting, but this year it never lasted more than one day. It really takes a few days of it to see limits in the field.

All duck hunters know that the fog can be a real good thing for duck hunters and it was, on the one or two days we saw it. What we really needed was a week or two of fog. That never happened and the duck hunting never really got good, just a few lost ducks flying around in the first hour or two of the day and then it was over.

The good news is that when the north wind was blowing everyone saw mass quanities of geese flying and even some good duck hunting. It seemed a day by day thing some areas would shoot good one day and other areas the next. I have always maintained that in order to kill ducks you have to be in the blind and take your chances. If the weather cooperate on that day, you will get some action.

When the general seasoned ended, the ducks made it back up to the rice fields for the junior hunt the first weekend in February. All the reports for the junior hunts was that the hunting was exceptional and the kids had a great weekend.

The clubs on the east side of the Sacramento River had great results during the season on white fronted geese as did the hunters fortunate to enough to get on one of the area refuges. I can't remember a time when I saw as many specks in the east side are as I did this season.

On the west side it was another story. When the decomp water faded away and without any rain fall to keep water in the fields, all the ducks headed east to that big water. The east side rice fields managed to keep water on their fields throughout the season. Even the clubs that were running well water to stay flooded couldn't hold all the ducks from making their exit from the area.

Who knows what next season will bring or even if we will have enough water to flood the fields. It's too soon to make any predictions as March can bring a lot of rain fall to the valley.