San Jacinto’s 25th Annual Junior Waterfowl Hunt Event a Rousing Success, February 2nd, 2019

To start this off I want to say that there were so many great sponsors, volunteers, and so many that supported the Junior Hunt event with prizes, assistance, and the food they deserve another big thanks from all of us.

As the top-off to the season, the Junior Hunt is a great event and the Junior Hunters had some good waterfowl hunting and also came away with some great prizes at the lunch and giveaway at mid-day.

As is tradition, the Juniors and their adult accompanists were treated to a great breakfast of pancakes and sausage with coffee and hot chocolate.

After all the Juniors and their accompanying adults fueled up on breakfast, they headed out to the Wildlife Area to set up and wait for the starting horn to sound.  The hunting was pretty good this year and many waterfowl were brought into the check station.

(In case you missed it you can read the hunt results here…

https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/hunt-results-for-san-jacinto-wildlife-areas-25th-annual-junior-hunt-saturday-2-2-19/  )

At lunchtime, everyone retired to the Check Station workshop for lunch and the prize giveaway.    Lunch was great with the Juniors and their adults downing BBQed hamburgers and hotdogs and some fantastic cakes provided and decorated by Tom Trakes’ wife and daughter, Cindy and Bonnie.

This year’s Junior Hunt was dedicated to the memory of Richard Seville, one of the SJ regulars, that sadly passed away early in 2018.

This year Tom’s daughter has produced a video slideshow covering San Jacinto Wildlife Areas 25^th Annual Junior Hunt Event.  Rather than run through a list of prizes and happenings at the event I’ll let the video do the talking this year.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and there’s a bunch of them in the video.

(Video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvoGnRRnXtM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0Xde_WYUSFiN8jykESvKCcmnVl_IQjNGrgicDCe-b8TNcNBNdltEpFbbo  )

After the raffle, many of the Junior Hunters went back to their blinds to finish out the day hunting.

The Junior Hunt was an outstanding event, as it usually is.  As I’ve said every year, and will repeat again as I fervently believe it, the Juniors are the future of our sport, so it is vital to keep them interested and involved in waterfowl hunting.  San Jacinto’s Annual Junior Waterfowl Hunt definitely goes a long way towards that goal every year.

Tom told me he’d like to thank, as well as I would myself, everyone who donated prizes, food, labor or anything else towards this event.  We all should also thank the San Jacinto crew for, as usual, going the extra mile to help make this event happen. We all appreciate all your hard work.

So, another Junior Waterfowl Hunt is in the books.  Check out the pictures below of the 85 Juniors Hunters that participated this year and the beautifully decorated cake Tom’s wife and daughter worked so hard on.  Also, don’t forget to view the wonderful video of the event that Tom’s daughter worked so hard on. (link above within the article).  This was a great event to celebrate the 25^th annual waterfowl hunt and a great kickoff to the next 25 years, and beyond for the Junior Hunters.

Great lookin’ Cake!

The Junior Crew!

San Jacinto Wildlife Area – Free Hunter Education Course Offered, Saturday, April 27th

San Jacinto Wildlife Area will be hosting a free state-mandated Hunter’s Education course on Saturday, April 27^th, 2019.  If you want to get a hunting license this is the class you need to take to get your license.

Tom Trakes, of San Jacinto Wildlife Area, advised that the students should assemble at the SJ check station by 6:30 am with the course beginning promptly thereafter.

The Class is free to all, no tuition or materials fee. Students must read the Hunter Education manual prior to attending this class and bring it along to the class. (Check a little further down for more about the manual).  The weather at San Jacinto in April varies but can be quite warm and it’s suggested that everyone attending would probably want to bring a good supply of bottled water.

Lunch will be at noon, food provided, sponsored by Quail Forever.

The class should last until about 5:00 pm and everyone successfully completing the course can then head out to their local DFW license agent (aka: sporting goods store, Walmart, DFW Office, etc.) and buy their hunting license.

Every person who wishes to take this course must register for the class. Before registering the student must obtain a Get Outdoors (GO ID) number.  Students must download, sign, and bring to the class with them a Student Consent Form.

To get a GO ID number, start here:

https://www.ca.wildlifelicense.com/InternetSales/CustomerSearch/Begin

To register for the class and get your Student Consent Form, go to:

https://www.register-ed.com/events/view/139960

…and follow the instructions to register.

On the registration page, they request that you “Please read your manual before April 27^th and be prepared for a 9 hour class…”. printed copies of the Hunter Education Manual are available at your local DFW office or, as soon as they get them, at San Jacinto Wildlife Area.  I checked with the DFW Los Alamitos Office and the manual is not available online as a pdf, however, I did obtain a printed copy and on the cover is a web address that takes you to a Hunter Education page.  If you scroll down that page a short way you will see a link to the “Official California Department of Fish and Wildlife hunter safety course”.  Click on that link and it takes you to the “Official California Hunter Safety Course Online” page.  At the very top of that page, right in the middle is a link that says “Study Guide” (there’s also another link to the same study guide further down the page). Click on either of those links and it will take you to an online version of the Hunter Education Manual.  I checked a few pages of this link as compared to the printed manual and it appears to follow the printed manual I obtained from the DFW Office fairly closely. If you can’t make it to a DFW office or to SJWA before the class to pick up a manual this is a substitute, although I believe the manual is slightly more detailed.  Here’s the link to the web address to find the online version of the manual:

https://www.hunter-ed.com/

Here’s a link to a page with a map and addresses for all the DFW Offices so you can find the one near you:

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=55162&inline

Direction to the San Jacinto Wildlife Area:

From the 215 South freeway:

-Exit Ramona Expressway going east towards Lake Perris, go 7 miles to Davis road, turn left and go up Davis road 2 miles to the Wildlife Headquarters office.

From the 79:

-Exit Ramona Expressway going west towards Lake Perris, go to Davis road, turn right and go up Davis road 2 miles to the Wildlife Headquarters office.

Any questions regarding this free Hunter’s Education course should call Tom Trakes at 951-236-3040.