SoCalHunt, once again, headed back today to San Jacinto Wildlife Area to wind up the season with a solo afternoon refill hunt. Because it was the last Wednesday of the season I figured there might be a few extra hunters wanting to refill today so I left earlier then usual, hoping to get a good spot on the refill list.
When I arrived at good old SJ it was apparent that my prediction was true as there were more trucks in the check station lot then usual. When I signed in I was down on the bottom of the second page, further down the list then I thought I’d be. Well, good thing I came in early. At least it looked like I might still have a chance to get out. After signing in it was apparent that I wouldn’t be going out for a while so back to the truck for a nap.
About 10:00 I went back to the check station to see about the progress on the refill list and it looked like only a few refills had gone out. As I waited for a spot hunters would trickle in from the refuge and check in their birds and hunters on the refill list would go out to refill the blinds. It seemed that, probably because of it being the last Wednesday, the morning hunters were sticking it out and not coming in.
I usually try to get out to the refuge by noon when I’m doing a refill and finally, about 12:45 a decent blind checked in. No one ahead of me on the refill list wanted this blind and I figured this was probably the best I was going to be able to do, especially with only an hour and 15 minutes to go to refill, so I grabbed it.
I headed out to my blind, set up and was hunting by 1:35. While I was setting up a hen spoony came right in to the blind but, being that I was out in the open setting my decoys, and nowhere near my shotgun, she veered off unharmed. Once I was set up I began the wait for the ducks to come pouring in. The skies were cloudy and the snow caped mountains were a little less snow capped then last week as there hadn’t been any precipitation lately. The clouds made interesting patterns in the sky over the mountains.
About an hour later a nice drake Green Wing came in low towards the decoys. I stood up to shoot and the bird saw me and climbed for the clouds. I poked 3 holes in the clouds and the bird headed for parts unknown, untouched. Another successful catch and release…LOL.
As the hours ticked away an occasional bird would come into the area but most did not come within range. There were, of course, a couple that were in range, if I had seen them in time, but sometimes that’s the way it goes.
As the day wound down no other opportunities presented themselves and when quitting time rolled around I was minus 3 shells and plus no ducks. Again, that’s hunting sometimes. As they say, if you could get a limit every time it would be shooting not hunting. It was a unique day with the cloudy skies and its always nice to be out in the marsh.
So, with the cloudy skies, the sunset wasn’t as spectacular as it sometimes is but it was different.
Since I can’t go this Saturday thus ends my 2012 / 2013 waterfowl season. Not as good as last season but I wouldn’t have missed any of it as this is what I love to do. And, as I type this, it’s 268 days 7 hours 32 minutes until opening day. Maybe I’ll see you there?
SoCalHunt 
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