Waterfowl Opening Day 2008

The regular waterfowl season opened on September 27th, this year.  The morning hunt on opening day produced good results.  43 stakes were chosen in the morning, with the majority of those not chosen along the southern edge of the Butterball and Whistler pools.  Many stakes limited out or came close to it and only 5 had a zero harvest.  The total harvest for opening day was 348 ducks, with 314 of those in the morning.  The average harvest in the morning was 7.3 ducks per stake hunted.  The species harvested included mallard, wood duck, blue and green winged teal, black duck, pintail, shoveler, widgeon, common merganser, and hooded merganser.

The afternoon hunt was not as successful as the morning, with far less stakes being hunted (18) and fewer ducks harvested at each stake (total 44).  The average harvest in the afternoon was 2.4 ducks per stake hunted.

The total harvest for 2008 opening day (348) was much better that the total harvest for the 2007 opening day (261) and attendance improved with 43 stakes hunted in the morning of 2008 compared to 40 stakes hunted in the morning of 2007.  The average ducks harvested per stake in the morning of 2007 was 5.5. 

The discrepancy between the two years is due the drought that kept duck numbers down last year and the large amount of rain this year, which kept water levels high and formed good duck habitat.

This year Sunday hunting was allowed, in addition to the Saturday hunt, and a draw took place for stake picks.  Only 19 stakes were hunted and 44 ducks were harvested.  This means an average of 2.3 ducks were harvested per stake.  This is slightly less than Saturday night’s harvest, however the numbers might have been caused by poor weather conditions.