Today, being the last day of the season at San Jacinto Wildlife Area, (since they don’t hunt Sundays), SoCalHunt was back after a short break due to illness, for a last try at the ducks for the 2011/2012 season. Since none of my regular partners were available, and considering that my last afternoon refill hunt resulted in a limit, I decided to do another afternoon refill.
Being it was the season’s last day I did leave a couple hours earlier then I would usually leave for an afternoon hunt. I figured there would be a few more hunters trying to get in a last hurrah then on a normal Saturday, so the extra couple hours might help improve my spot on the refill list.
When I arrived at the check station it didn’t look too bad, as there didn’t appear to be as many vehicles in the parking lot as I had expected. I went up to the check station and signed in on the refill list, which revealed that my initial impression wasn’t accurate, I was down on the third page. I guess some of the folks on the list, and their pickups, were away getting breakfast. At the time I signed in on the refill list no one had checked back in from their blinds to leave yet, although it was still kind of early for that.
Over the next hour or so about six hunting parties checked in with results ranging from zero to three ducks. Although the wind was howling, which usually bodes well for hunting at good old SJ, no one so far was checking in with any impressive numbers. Over the next couple hours a few more hunters checked in, some from blinds that have usually produced decent numbers, with, again from zero to three ducks. One hunter did manage to come in with five birds and, of course, that blind was snapped up quickly by a pair of hunters near the top of the first page of the refill list.
As hunting sites were checked in, hunters waiting to refill would sign up for the surrendered blinds and head out. There were a few not so “hot” blinds that checked in that no one wanted to refill and I was beginning to think taking one of these would be my only option however, finally, a pretty good blind was checked in, although the hunter had only bagged one bird, and I grabbed it when no one ahead of me wanted to refill into that spot.
I headed out to my assigned spot and when I arrived I discovered one of the reasons I’m not so hot on the concrete culvert pit blinds that are at a few of the hunting sites at San Jacinto. My blind, which was on an island, had about 8 to 10 inches of water in it. Fortunately, even though the wind was blowing hard, it was a fairly warm day so having my feet submerged for the duration wasn’t too much of a problem today. If it had been really cold I might have been a little unhappier with that situation. Another problem this flooding presented is that there was no dry place in the blind to set my blind bag and camera case. Fortunately there was a good seat in the blind already (courtesy of the San Jacinto staff) so I used my regular seat to sit my blind bag on and hid my camera case in some of the brush surrounding the blind, but within reach. Now I just had to be careful not to drop anything in the water.
As I settled in things started out pretty slow and it was probably at least a half hour before my first opportunity presented its self. A nice drake pintail came in towards the blind and exited just as quick after my first three shots missed the mark. Not long after that a drake spoony came in and experienced the same reception, and the same results, as that first bull sprig. The wind was really ripping and I figured it would eventually push more birds around but it still seemed a little slow for the conditions.
At about 2:15 another drake pintail came straight in towards the blind with the wind. As I stood up to shoot the bird saw me and pulled up sharply and turned 180 degrees, right into the wind. The quick climb caused me to miss the first shot, but turning into the wind had the effect of stopping his momentum and I connected with the second shot and he splashed down about 40 yards from the blind. I quickly retrieved the bird and settled in to wait for another. A few more opportunities came by but I didn’t connect on them and then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a drake gadwall riding the wind, passing low about 25 yards out from the blind. I swung quickly and knocked him down with one shot. Not long after that another nice pintail drake wrapped around the blind and I nailed him with a single shot also. So, I now had two nice drake pintails in the bag, which meant I had a limit, a limit of pintail of course, since the limit on them is two.
Now I had to be careful not to shoot another pintail, which, of course since I had a limit now, I had several opportunities to do so. Other then several pintails buzzing by the blind, which of course I couldn’t shoot, the only bird I could have legally shot was a little green wing teal that rocketed by about head high which I didn’t see in time. So at the end of the day I had three real nice birds, a great way to end the season.
Well, that’s it for another waterfowl season. The mostly sunny and usually warm weather this year was a great contrast compared to last season with all the rain and having to walk out to the blinds a large portion of the season. As the sun sets at the end of the final day I would like to extend thanks to Tom and his crew, Tim, Durk, Aurelio and Jesse for another great season at San Jacinto Wildlife Area. If all state employees cared as much as these guys and went the extra mile like they do there would be far less problems in this state.
SoCalHunt 
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