Volunteer Work Party / Blind Brush Up at San Jacinto Wildlife Area a Huge Success!

This past Saturday, 7/30/16, around 40 volunteers, made up of hunters that utilize San Jacinto Wildlife Area, assembled at the SJ Check Station parking lot at 6:30 am to assist the staff in getting the wildlife area ready for the upcoming 2016/17 waterfowl season.  The volunteers were divided into groups and dispersed throughout the Wildlife Area to take on their assignments.

Volunteers Assembling

With the large turnout several tasks were accomplished on Saturday morning.  The volunteers brushed up some blinds, cleaned water control structures, set up some new blinds and also set up the area’s 30-acre alfalfa field with sprinklers.

Some of the volunteers hard at work

 

“Playing” in the sprinklers (might have been the best assignment for a hot day, LOL)

New blind at F-2 being brushed

F-2 Ready to shoot (except for the water, LOL)

Flooding of the area has already begun on some of the ponds and there are already a lot of ducks utilizing the area.

After the work party, many of the volunteers met at Casa Mexicana Restaurant for a well-deserved, and tasty, lunch break.

Some of the volunteers chowing-down

Much was accomplished on this work party with a great turnout of volunteers from the hunting community.  This work will help San Jacinto put on another successful waterfowl season for we Southern California hunters.   As of this writing another work party day at San Jacinto is going to be scheduled, probably for late August.  Check back with SoCalHunt often for that announcement, and, of course, I’ll get a blog post out on that as soon as the date is set.

For information on the upcoming blind brush up day, or to donate more pam fronds (they can always use them), at San Jacinto Wildlife Area you can call the refuge office at 951-928-0580 or Tom Trakes 951-236-3040.

Tom told me, (regarding all the volunteers), “I can’t express how much we appreciate everyone’s help you all are awesome.”

I would also like to extend my personal thanks to all the volunteers that came out and worked so hard.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend and I am thankful for the great turnout for picking up my “slack”.  I truly appreciate the work that the volunteers do and I know the San Jacinto staff appreciates it also.

DFW Commission Sets 2016/17 Season Regulations

First off, sorry I’m a little late of this.  The DFW adopted the 2016/17 regulations about 4 months earlier than they did last year and this just snuck by me.  That said…here ya go.

The California Fish and Game Commission, during their April 14^th  meeting in Santa Rosa, California, adopted waterfowl season dates and regulations for the 2016/17 waterfowl season.

Regulations adopted for the Southern California Zone (which will cover San Jacinto Wildlife Area):

Seasons:
Ducks and Geese: October 22, 2016 through January 29, 2017.

Special Youth Hunt Days: February 4 and February 5, 2017. (San Jacinto’s Annual Youth Hunt will be February 4^th, 2016).

Limits:
Ducks: Daily bag limit: 7. Which may consist of 7 mallards, of which only 2 can be female; 2 pintail; 2 canvasback; 2 redheads; 3 scaup.  (Scaup may only be taken November 5^th, 2016 through January 29^th, 2017 – so be careful the first two weeks of the season again).

Geese: Daily bag limit: 23 of which 20 may be white geese and 3 may be dark geese.

Possession Limit Ducks and Geese: Triple the daily bag limit.

Black Brant (Although a “sea goose” I’ll add this because the last few years a few seem to show up at San Jacinto): November 9, 2016 – December 15, 2016.  Daily bag limit: 2 per day.  Possession limit triple the daily bag limit.

“Electronic” Spinning wing decoys (AKA – mojo’s) will be allowed from November 30^th until the season ends (statewide) – non-motorized / wind powered mojo’s are allowed all season.

The regulations that most affect San Jacinto hunters are the fact that, again, scaup cannot be taken the first two weeks of the season. Most other regulations stayed pretty consistent with last season’s regulations.  Even though geese aren’t a big worry at SJ, as far as going over limit, this year’s regulations dropped the limit slightly on geese to a still astonishing 23 (WOW!) of which 20 may be white geese (which is actually 5 more white geese then last season) and only 3 can be dark geese (down from 10 last season).

So, regulations are set, the bird counts should be coming out any time now (hope for the best), and San Jacinto is well on the way to being in ship shape for the upcoming season.  (Don’t forget to pitch in on the upcoming Blind Brush-Up days if you’re able – Info at the below link).

https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/date-set-for-upcoming-2016-volunteer-blind-brush-up-day-at-san-jacinto-wildlife-area-july-30th/

Hopefully we’ll get some much need rain to help things along, although last season’s predicted El Nino kind of bypassed Southern California, we can always hope.  We’ll see you all out at good old SJ!

This above information is provided as a general guide only. Please check the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website at:

https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Regulations

…or printed regulation book (available soon at most license agent locations) for official information and/or for regulations in other waterfowl zones in the state.

Date Set for Upcoming 2016 Volunteer Blind Brush-Up Day at San Jacinto Wildlife Area – July 30th

Tom Trakes, from San Jacinto Wildlife Area, advised that they have scheduled a volunteer “blind brush-up” work-day for San Jacinto Wildlife Area. The date is Saturday, July 30^th.  Volunteers are asked to gather at 6:00 AM at the SJ Check Station Parking Lot. In addition to brushing up the blinds other activities that might be handled are cleaning out water control structures on the wildlife area’s duck ponds, building new blinds and/or repairing old blinds and generally cleaning up the blind areas (pulling out a glut of tumbleweeds that always seem to take over some of the blinds). Tom advised that anyone coming out to volunteer should bring gloves, shovels and/or hoes, fencing/wire pliers and lots of water, since it is expected to be hot. In addition, a few of the blinds might still be surrounded by water, so it would be handy to bring waders also so work can be done on these blinds too.  As always for this time of year, sunscreen and mosquito repellent are suggested as good ideas.  After the work is done we will get together at El Comal Restaurant about noon for a well-deserved lunch (each person responsible for their own bill).

Hopefully we’ll have a good turnout as there is lot of work to do to get ready for the coming season. As always, when it comes to work days, the more volunteers the better (meaning less work for each person).  Also, if you have access to palm fronds please bring as much can for use in brushing the blinds. (see the flyer below for the proper type of palm fronds – don’t bring any with the thorns on them, also know as wader ripper palm fronds).

Even if you can’t come to the work-day if you have palm fronds that you’d like to donate prior to the work-day, and can drop them by SJ, that would be appreciated.

A good turn out for these work-days will help get things “ship-shape” condition at San Jacinto.  This will make for a good start to another great season of waterfowl hunting at San Jacinto.

If you have any questions contact Tom Trakes at the San Jacinto headquarters at (951) 236-3040.