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FARMINGTON, Utah — Those snotty late-fall days that send most folks to their fireplaces should send serious Wasatch Front waterfowlers to Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area.

This 13,000-acre complex of wetlands, freshwater and saltwater marshes, canals and shoreline of the Great Salt Lake is one of the premier waterfowl hunting spots in the West, but it's at its best when winter storms strafe the lake.

The interior marshes act as both a cafeteria and a sanctuary for ducks when the wind kicks up on the big water, said Tom Aldrich, migratory bird coordinator for Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources.

"The birds rest on the lake for awhile, and then they make flights back into the marshes to feed," he said.

"When the weather gets rough, the birds also come into the marshes looking for a place to ride out the storm."

Good mix of fowl

And tens of thousands of them come to Farmington Bay WMA (801-451-7386), located just west of Farmington on West Glover Lane or north of the airport off 4000 West Road.

The WMA hosts hundreds of hunters on most weekends through early January. And most are seeing birds. Last year the average bag on opening day was just over two ducks per hunter.

But if you can pick your day — and the best days are the rawest, windiest, nastiest days of November — you can have quick limits on a mix of species, including mallards, gadwall, wigeon, both blue and green-winged teal, pintails and scaup.

You'll see more geese as northern birds descend into Utah, but this is primarily a duck spot, said refuge manager Rich Hansen.

"Our September surveys (which are a good measure of local production) at Farmington Bay indicated over 100,000 ducks and about 300 Canada geese," he said.

Waterfowl coordinators expect a decent addition of duck and geese from the north, but Aldrich said birds should stay in Utah longer this year, thanks to a gentle rise in the Great Salt Lake that has hydrated shoreline marshes like Farmington Bay.

How to

The WMA rewards big-water decoyers, but also hunters who call over just a handful of decoys and those that pass shoot birds as they arrive from and return to the lake.

Hunting is especially good in Unit 1 to the north of the WMA, but beware the closed northwest portion of the unit.

The South Crystal Unit, where boats are prohibited, is a good spot for hunters who want to carry just a handful of decoys and hunt dense cover.

On especially windy days the interior units can be good, but for hunters equipped with airboats and coffin boxes to decoy on the main lake, the periphery of Unit 1 can be a great spot for divers — redheads, ringnecks and canvasbacks.

Just note that airboats aren't allowed on the interior dikes of the WMA.

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