# Opener 2019



## Ecpk91 (Jun 13, 2018)

Wow where were the ducks?? I’ve been going to Harold Crane for the opener hunting the same spot for the past 25 years, we have always limited or come within 2-4 ducks of limiting. This year out group struggled to shoot a box, just not near the duck numbers. By the sounds of shooting around us it sounded similar to our experience. We shot 13 ducks our group consisted of 7 hunters. It was a sad slow day. To top it off someone with a trailer decided they need my wire locking pin for their trailer more than I needed it for mine, btw these cost $3.57 at Lowe’s, I am guessing if you can afford a duck boat and trailer you should be able to afford a locking pin but instead you steal one off someone else’s trailer. Whoever you are if you read this post Pathetic you risk the safety of someone else because of your laziness in buying a $3.00 part for your safety. Luckily my trailer has an automatic locking mechanism, the pin is insurance that doesn’t fail. Anyways if you stole my pin you suck.


----------



## quackaddict35 (Sep 25, 2015)

I hunted Harold crane as well yesterday and thought the same thing. 2 years ago I shot my limit In 30 minutes. There was hardly any pond weed this year from what I noticed, At least in the main impoundment. The shots all seemed to be coming from the pond you have to winch your boat over the dike to get to. I started to get worried at about 640 I did t hear as many flying over as I’m used to on the opener. The ducks just didn’t want to be there because there was no food from what I could tell. 

Also the water levels out side of the channel were super low so all the people that wanted to wing it and find a spot that morning said screw it and everyone started to pile in right on top of each other. I had to groups sandwich me 100 yards to each side. Definitely affected my hunt negatively in top of the numbers being low. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## sheepassassin (Mar 23, 2018)

I was at FB and I noticed a significant decrease in birds from last year. We still knocked down our 7 limits, but we had to work for it and start pass shooting at higher birds


----------



## quackaddict35 (Sep 25, 2015)

sheepassassin said:


> I was at FB and I noticed a significant decrease in birds from last year. We still knocked down our 7 limits, but we had to work for it and start pass shooting at higher birds


We had a lot of high fliers as well. They almost seemed educated a little bit. They stayed away from the edges and **** straight up to pass over the dike. Seemed weird to me but also on my way out I saw just how many people had set up down from that I didn't hear through out the night

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## ReadyToHunt (Jan 31, 2019)

I was at Bear River and the same is to be said there. Water levels are super low and the vegetation is worse than I have ever seen it. We shot a couple but no where near our 3 man limit. We went out again today and had a little more luck. After talking to another set of guys they were there from first light to sunset and didn't even manage to come home with their limit.


----------



## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

I seem to remember that they had drained the main pond at HC for some water control structure work? Or maybe it was last year? Last time I was up there was lots of pond weed in the motorless pond, but that was a couple of years ago.


----------



## quackaddict35 (Sep 25, 2015)

paddler said:


> I seem to remember that they had drained the main pond at HC for some water control structure work? Or maybe it was last year? Last time I was up there was lots of pond weed in the motorless pond, but that was a couple of years ago.


Yes that was last year, they dug out a new channel. The opener report on the DWR website said there was "good to excellent pond weed" I definitely did not see that. I usually have to lift up my prop out of the water to get the pond weed off, didn't even have to do that once. There was some pond weed, I definitely wouldn't call it good to excellent though.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## APD (Nov 16, 2008)

quackaddict35 said:


> We had a lot of high fliers as well. They almost seemed educated a little bit. They stayed away from the edges and **** straight up to pass over the dike. Seemed weird to me but also on my way out I saw just how many people had set up down from that I didn't hear through out the night
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Because they went to Farmington Bay University..... Higher education for ducks!


----------



## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

You can add me to the tally of disappointed hunters who chose Harold Crane for the opener. Slowest I've ever seen it. I hunted every minute of the day and fired 18 shells.


----------



## moabxjeeper (Dec 18, 2012)

We were up at Public Shooting Grounds. Easily the worst opening day we’ve ever had. Pulled 1 duck and 1 goose that happened to come right over my old man. Should have had maybe a couple more that we couldn’t hit but normally we have ducks all the over the place. They just weren’t there.


----------



## brendo (Sep 10, 2013)

We had a great day at Utah lake! Although our scouting really paid off. Most people we talked to didn’t do well and the warden confirmed it was a slow day.


----------



## Raptor1 (Feb 1, 2015)

We went up North as well for the opener. Duck numbers were super low compared to the youth hunt. No blue wings, I suspect the cold front we had between the youth hunt and the general opener pushed a bunch out. Of the 3 in our party we had a total of 14 ducks. Saw a lot of pintails (high flyers), but the teal numbers were down. Not a lot of shooting in our area either. 2 Gadwall, 2 Greenhead, 1 Pintail, the rest were green wings. I was going to take Tuesday, Wednesday off of work and go out, but I may save those days for later in the season now.


----------



## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

It was a lot quieter than normal for opening day. We thought maybe more people chose elk hunting over duck hunting. We did okay, but didn't hear a lot of shots or see a lot of people.

I hit Farmington yesterday. I heard the same comments in the parking lot as I always do about how slow it is, there are no birds, only fired a couple of shots, this place sucks, blah! blah! blah! I set out 40 decoys and had my first duck in 15 minutes, finished with 6 total and left well before shooting hours ended....I can't wait for this Cold Front to get here Wednesday and Thursday.


----------



## Luhk (Aug 16, 2017)

Talking with a couple biologists. It ess the worst opener in nearly 18 years on bird numbers.


----------



## utahbigbull (May 9, 2012)

Was absolute dead meat at OB yesterday evening. Dog never even got wet. At least I didn’t have to give her a bath before bringing her back in the house last night.


----------

