by Jaime Koon
As California’s waterfowl season nears its end, honker hunting tends to heat up. Canadian geese are hearty and they are one of the last birds to migrate south. While California has healthy populations of local geese, the northern birds provide great late season hunting when they arrive!
These birds are not the most naive creatures by the time they get here. They have been battle tested and seen many a decoy spread on their journey south. During the cold winter months they are seeking food and if you can …

by Ryan Friend
It was a cool day in the fall of 1998 when a friend of mine, Brian Hideman, invited me to join him in the duck blind to check out his newest invention. As I settled into the blind, Brian walked out about 20 yards from the blind. After staking this thing in the ground and hooking up a couple of wires, I was at a loss of words. It looked like a white football wedged between two goal posts. The blade emitted a white flash about 3 to …

by Jamie “Jewelry” Koon
It was a cold November day, the ducks were piling into a flooded grain field with tule clumps mixed in the field. It provided a perfect mixture of hiding spots for us and feed for the ducks. This is a public land hunt so first come first serve. It didnt matter though, we knew where the ducks were going because we had scouted the night before. We raced in and launched the boat, we were the first ones to the SPOT.

By know we’ve all had our opening day fun. The local hatch produced some great shoots with a lot of mallards. I missed the opener but was able to get out on the refuges Sunday afternoon and again Wednesday morning. My dad and I bagged 24 ducks and 9 specs to start off the season with a total of 19 Greenheads. Mike Friend even scored a band. In the upcoming 3-4 weeks hunting is likely to get tough. Every year I refer to this time of the season as the …

When you think of “Opening Day”, you think of lots of birds and lots of shooting. Realistically speaking, the opener can be as demanding as a late season hunt in January. The weather is usually warm and ducks aren’t in any hurry to search for food. Local birds have begun to mix with early migrators and are still in the process of developing a pattern. As the hunter you have to adjust. The most common mistake I see on the opener is definitely “over calling”. Everyone is excited and …

Did You Know?

- California sells about 325,000 hunting licenses per year.
- Sprig limits have not exceeded 1 throughout the past 12 years.
- California hunters posted one of the highest Specklebelly harvests nation wide last season.

by Ryan Friend
photos by Tony Bynum
Two Pintail! How long has it been since you’ve heard that? The answer is 12 years. Due highly in part to CWA (California Waterfowl Association), California waterfowlers are likely to be carrying out an extra bull sprig on many hunts this season. With that out of the way, just what else can California waterfowl hunters expect for the upcoming season?