Not sure where to post this report so I tried this section.
Got out of town on Wednesday afternoon in hopes of some trap shooting and some scouting. Drove through the town of Mecca and posted up along the Coachella Canal for some trap shooting. Blew through a couple boxes of shells. Saw a few birds flying and they were heading into the desert.
Opening Day came quickly. Idiots (my nephews) didn't want to sleep. When they finally gave up the ghost, they didn't want to wake.
Hit up our usual spot. Thank God the locals didn't show up. They had been an issue the past 2 seasons. Property owners told them no more hunting.
My oldest nephew had his usual spot about 100 yards North of me. He usually gets a few bird lead on me but I rally back and get the first limit. Not this year. He had 14 birds and went through 3 boxes of shells to my 3 birds. I only shot at 5. I gave in and moved. He did have a better spot but the heavy flights had diminished to an occasional single. Made a walk around the vineyards to jump shoot some birds.
Decided to call it a morning. Picked up breakfast and headed to our camping spot.
I setup my Mojo decoys and some stationary decoys. We were impressed on how effect the decoys works. Birds kept coming in all day and night.
Sept 2
Went back to the spot that was productive for the opener. Very different. The birds just vanished. We managed a handful of birds but it wasn't anything like the opener.
Went back to camp and setup the decoys again. Got countless shots throughout the day. After the evening shoot, we packed up and headed home a day early. Seemed pointless to sit around for a 3rd morning shoot that had all indications of being a poor shoot.
We had a mixed bag of morning, whitewing and a few Eurasian. We were averaging 7 whitewing per limit. Temperature seemed much hotter on the opener. Believe there was a 3 degree drop in temp on Friday but it was noticeable.
I would like to get back out on Saturday, but the odds are stacked against me. We will see.