Thankfully, my duck hunting partner of 38 years (Michael Johnson) and I got over there early, and hunted an out of the way spot, avoiding the masses. This had to be the worst opening day I have seen in my lifetime. Michael and I saw 3 ducks all morning 
Thankfully, two of them were a pair of Mallards, and they pitched to their death around 9:00 a.m., just as were opening the foil that was covering our sandwiches. Saw one other Mottle do a fly by and keep going, and that was the sum total of the birds we saw while hunting..........unbelievable! Got reports from 8 other people that I knew were hunting, and it was the same sad story everywhere. The majority of shooting in Chocolatta was at Coots and Commorants from what I was told. Others that did kill some birds, were happy to have a few Buffleheads buzz their decoys. Between the warm weather, and the hundreds of new hunters with their surface drives, the birds are gone!!!!! Apparently, no one has educated these young guns, and their version of scouting is to run all the ducks up in the bays to see what is there...........over and over 
The birds have no resting area, save the open bay, and they damn sure aren't gonna stick around long. Back in the 70's. we had the same issues with hunters using air boats. Something has got to give, or we can kiss our duck hunting in this area good bye. Our resource isn't getting any bigger, but our user group has exploded.............and we are gonna have to make some major changes.Michael with our opening day bounty:
