Hunting Wister or Salton Sea ?'s

[andygrand]

I work a schedule where I routinely get days off during the week. I have read about the reservations at wister, and the non reservation draw the night before. My question is, is wister open on weekdays, and if it is are there enough people that I would need to check in the night before to go and hunt during the week? I hunted ducks when I was at camp pendleton however, I have not hunted anywhere else in socal. I moved to yuma and I am looking for places to hunt around here! I have decoys and licenses for both cali and AZ so if anyone needs someone to go with let me know. Also if anyone has suggestions on where to go that would be good also!

[keepwhatyaeat]

Wister is open Saturday,Sunday and Wednesday. I personally have never hunted there on a Wednesday so I don't know what the crowd is like. Sundays can be pretty light but the duck counts are almost always lower on sunday than saturday I guess from the hunting pressure of saturday. There is a book at the check in station with the blinds and the numbers of birds harvested. Wister is a big place and will take some time to learn on your own. I end up hunting in the same areas over and over rather than doing what I should which is trying new spots. Another thing you can do is wait for hunters who have limited out early and give up their bilnd,that way it will be light so finding your way around will be much easier than stumbling around in the dark looking for a spot you have never been to before and you know birds were in the area.

[One Track]

Wednesday can be good, when there are birds down there. It's going to suck pretty bad for the next month or so. The opener was horrible. We need the big weather to push the birds down there. Weather is looking good in that respect. Wednesdays are usually much lighter than Saturdays.

KEEP made a good suggestion. Go to the check station about 8am and sign up on the Refill list. You can see people check in with their birds and then Refill into that blind. After this week, there probably won't even be a list. Should be able to refill without waiting. Good way to hunt. Birds have to come back from the sea to eat. I've shot limits in the afternoon on a refill. That's what I did on the opener.

[carl]

You should be able to get on Wister through the "sweatline" on Wed. am.s...Filling in a checked out blind has been a favored technique of mine for years also...However this has become more difficult in recent years. Due to people leaving their blind and sitting in their trailer in the campground all day instead of checking out. This seems to be especially popular with the retired crowd that hunts on Weds.
I would register for the sweatline on Tues. night, research the books at the checking station, as suggested, and pick a blind in the am...If it sucks, pick-up go to the checking station and try and fill-in....
Or buy my broke ass a license, and I'll handle it from there...PUT IN RESI. CARDS!

[brant48]

There are other places near there you can hunt......How far is the Sea from Yuma?

[blanked]

Put in some type "A" reservation cards for Wednesdays. When you get drawn you will be able to get a prime blind. They only cost $1.30 cents each. They need to be to the DFG in Sacramento 17 days before the shoot day. I would just buy enough for the rest of the season and mail them. If you get drawn great, if not just do the sweat line the night before. You can figure it out from there by watching the birds and driving around on hunt days to scout. Good Luck