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Dec. 28–29
After cold temperatures and being mostly frozen, a warm-up and rain came through just before and during the late split.
Duck numbers in the refuge dwindled while we were frozen, but birds were still feeding on the area. As soon as we thawed in earnest they poured back from the lake. We had around 8,000–10,000 birds on the area to start the late split.
Hunting zones were at lake level and the refuge was about 60% pumped down for the split.
We had only 187 hunter trips total for the two-day split. Our largest draw was Saturday morning with 28 parties and our smallest was Saturday afternoon with 18.
Conditions changed dramatically leading up to the split, as we were frozen to the point where no boats could access the area Thursday, but by Saturday afternoon almost everything was completely thawed. We had a great weekend, harvesting 311 ducks and 33 geese total, with 211 ducks shot on Saturday and 100 shot on Sunday. This brings our totals for the year to 7,218 ducks in 6,797 hunter trips for an average of 1.06 ducks/trip this season, as well as 157 total geese.
We pumped water out over the holidays and the refuge is now almost entirely dry. There is still some ice and water trapped in hunting zones which we’ll get out as soon as conditions allow.
The area is open to all users Jan. 2 through Aug 3. The final late goose season is Feb. 1–10. The area is not part of the late urban archery season and is now closed to deer hunting.
Thank you to all our hunters, partners, and staff who made this a successful year. We’re looking forward to next year already!
