Nevada Duck and Goose Hunting Report Archive

Posted By:
desert duck
Web Member

South Fork Reservoir 10-24-2011 18:32
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Jump shooting from a canoe in the weedy West side. More Gadwall than mallards. Hunting is fair. Here’s an oddball sighting: Got out on the island to stretch my legs & let the dog take a leak. Flushed a pair of pheasant on the island!? No row crops for 50+ miles & we must be 5700 feet elevation. Go figure!!

Posted By:
shpfvr4
Web Member

N.nv, 01-07-2010 17:56
Arctic Blast – –
still in the frozen mode, the rivers are partly open and tons of geese some ducks…just need to find open water when it thaws.would a good wet warm rain be too much to ask for???

Posted By:
shpfvr4
Web Member

northern nv 12-26-2009 17:15
Arctic Blast – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
from December 6th to the 27th will be 3 weeks of frozen tundra……no time to panic as we have all of january (well till the 30th)keep looking to the sky…..

Posted By:
shpfvr4
Web Member

washoe lake 12-04-2009 20:18
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 30-34 Degrees – Ice
Swans 200, mallards 500, Mergansers 100,too bad theres not enough water to hunt.

Posted By:
shpfvr4
Web Member

stillwater 10-28-2009 16:14
Cloudy, High Winds – 35-40 Degrees
tuesday was great if you were able to get out.mallard.pintail.gaddies.widgeon.red heads.water still pouring in from main canal.looking for more weather and water.best of luck.

Posted By:
shpfvr4
Web Member

stillwater 10-19-2009 16:41
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
opening day was warm with an abundent amount of ducks.position and knowing the area helps.day two was a lot slower but if you could hit them it was fun.Teal,Gaddies,Mallards,Spoonies,Widgeon…some red heads..some honkers…Waiting for Northern storms to deliver more birds…best of luck.

[Edited By shpfvr4 on 2009-10-19 16:51]

Posted By:
shpfvr4
Web Member

stillwater 10-05-2009 17:43
– – –
youth waterfowl hunt was crowded,but that means people want to share the expirence.water is low…but they are adding.expect a lot of people.good luck!!!!

Posted By:
huntandfish345
Web Member

northern washoe 10-18-2007 22:18
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
I ended up jump shooting five duck in the Gerlack area opener. Not very many birds. I bagged 2 mall, 2 teal, 1 spoon. I was woundering if anyone looks at this site anymore? If you do, how was you opener? I am thinking about hunting washoe lake or greenhead this weekened and wanted to know if anyone has hunted there.

Posted By:
huntandfish345
Web Member

south east reno 08-15-2007 22:17
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
I was recently out bow fishing for carp in south east Reno. I notice that there were very few if any waterfowl in the area. This area normally holds a large number of birds this time of year. While I was out bow fishing I began seeing dead and dieing ducks everywhere. By the end of the trip I saw about twenty dead birds of many species. Is there some type of disease, west Nile? Has anyone else noticed this die off? Or heard anything?

Posted By:
pskaggs
Guest

07-30-2007 16:47
– – –
I’ve hunted Mason Valley WMA since 1979. I think I’ve averaged 8-10 trips a year, every year, for 27 years. That’s a BIG bunch of time spent there. I don’t know how many hundreds of ducks and geese I’ve taken there. Up until a couple of years ago, Mason Valley could be an awesome place for a guy who wanted to get away from the crowds, and, when the conditions were right and the duck gods smiled, have a pretty good chance of getting into birds. One of the good things about Mason Valley was that, while the ponds weren’t huge, some of them were deep. You couldn’t drive a vehicle to them and therefore you couldn’t launch a boat bigger than you could drag or carry and they were too deep out in the middle for chest waders. This was a good thing, because those deeper ponds provided a safe area for the birds to sleep and rest. The birds were always there, and usually lots of them. Windy days were incredible, because–well, you know what wind does to ducks.
No more. Something has changed. Even during the high water years of 2005 & 2006, the ponds weren’t being filled. Ponds that once covered 25 acres and were 8 feet deep in the middle with extensive shallow borders that provided rich nesting/rearing/feeding habitat and deep center areas for safety during the hunting season, are now being filled to maybe a foot to 18 inches deep. I’ve asked several WMA officials why, and I was told that ducks like shallow water more than deep water, and what they’re doing is scientific management.
The scientific management has just about destroyed one of my favorite places in the world. Half the ponds have been dry for years. The ones with water (except for North Pond, NDOW’s showpiece) are shallow mudpuddles surrounded by armed crazies on opening day and every Saturday thereafter. Guys tough and serious enough to carry a float tube or Poke Boat along with all their other gear for half a mile to Upper or Lower Gadwall, or lower Pintail, or Widgeon, or Ringneck or a dozen other ponds might as well just wear rubber knee boots and forget about getting away from the crowds. Makes me wanna cry.
The point. I recently picked up a rumor that several years ago, NDOW quietly transferred about half of Mason Valley WMA’s water rights to Walker Lake. The REAL reason they don’t fill Mason Valleys’s ponds is that they’ve given away the water. SOMEBODY TELL ME–IS THIS TRUE? Did they really sacrifice an incredible wetland and duck heaven so the water could be sent to a lake that has been steadily drying up for the past 10,000 years? A lake whose continued drying–while unfortunate–is inevitable? Please–somebody tell me it isn’t so. Tell me that my duck stamp and license fees aren’t being flushed down a toilet like that.