San Jacinto Wildlife Area Blind Clean-up/Workday Rescheduled for July 13th, 2019

San Jacinto Wildlife Area Staff would like to invite hunters to participate in a Volunteer Clean-up/Workday at the Wildlife Area on Saturday, July 13^th, 2019.  Volunteers are to gather at the SJ Check Station parking lot at 7 am.  This will be the first of probably three work days before the season so at this point there are NO palm fronds are needed at this time.  (But start thinking about where to get them around September).

Work will be assigned at the start of the morning.  A mid-day BBQ pot luck lunch will be held for the volunteers.  Work will continue after the BBQ.

Also, during this workday Boy Scouts will be engaged in an Eagle project repairing the kiosk near the entrance to San Jacinto.  Anyone who has roofing expertise and/or tools that could assist the Boy Scouts is welcome.

Please be prepared for the following:

Trash removal from hunt sites

General clean-up of hunt areas

Bring work gloves, sturdy boots, mud boots, covered shoes, waders (All ponds are still holding water)

Be sure to bring plenty of bottled water as the weather will be HOT!  Also, mosquito repellant would be a good idea.

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.

Questions?  Contact Tom Trakes (951) 236-3040.

California Fish and Game Commission Sets 2019/2020 Season Regulations

The California Fish and Game Commission, during their April 17th meeting in Santa Monica, California, adopted changes to the waterfowl season dates and regulations for the 2019/20 waterfowl season.

Regulations adopted for the Southern California Zone (which will cover San Jacinto Wildlife Area):
Seasons: Ducks and Geese: October 19, 2019 through January 31, 2020.
Special Youth Hunt Days: February 8 and February 9, 2020. (San Jacinto’s Annual Youth Hunt will be February 8th, 2020).

Limits: Ducks: Daily bag limit: 7. Which may consist of 7 mallards, of which only 2 can be female; 1 pintail; 2 canvasback; 2 redheads; 3 scaup. (Scaup may only be taken November 7th, 2019 through January 31st, 2020 – so be careful the first two and a half weeks of the season this year).

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 occasionally a few seem to show up at San Jacinto): November 9, 2019 – December 15, 2019. Daily bag limit: 2 per day. Possession limit triple the daily bag limit.

“Electronic” Spinning wing decoys (AKA – mojos) will be allowed from December 1st until the season ends (statewide) – non-motorized /wind-powered mojos are allowed all season. (NOTE – As far as I could find this was not mentioned in the season regulation changes at the Commission meeting so I’m listing the dates based on last season’s regulations (assuming no changes). This has been December 1st for as long as I can remember but check with the official regulations once they are posted on the DFW web site or the printed regulation books when they come out, probably in a couple of months but still well before the season).

Among the regulations that most affect San Jacinto hunters are, of course, the extended end date for the season. The federal framework allowed for the season to end on the last day in January and, due to overwhelming support from hunters who contacted DFW, the Commission adopted the extended season. This will end the season on Friday, January 31st but, in effect, for San Jacinto, it will mean only one more hunt day and the season ending there will be on a Wednesday, which would be January 29th. If you have a place you can hunt that is not on a state or federal refuge or wildlife area of course it means 5 more days for you to hunt but if you only hunt places like SJ it only results in one more day, but one more hunt day is 100 times better than not having the extra day. This extended season will also have the effect of pushing the annual Junior Hunt at San Jacinto (and everywhere else) back a week to Saturday, February 8th, which will likely mean a little better hunting for the juniors. Also, as a result of the extended season, Scaup, which have usually opened two weeks after the season opens will actually open 2 ½ weeks after the season opener, which will actually be the day after the third Wednesday of the season (opens November 7th, 2019, a Thursday) This means there will be 6 hunt days at SJ were Scaup are verboten (not allowed for the non-German speakers) instead of the usual 4 hunt days at the beginning of the season. Another change, one that Southern California hunters won’t be happy with is that this season the Pintail limit was dropped to 1 bird. Unfortunate for us in this part of the state as sometimes pintail are the most numerous bird harvested, even with last year’s 2 bird limit, especially down at Wister. Other than that, most other regulations stayed pretty consistent with last season’s regulations.

So, there you have it. The regulations are set, and San Jacinto Wildlife Area will soon be on the way to become ship shape for the 2019/2020 season. (Don’t forget to pitch in on the upcoming workday on July 13th and/or the subsequent work days if you’re able – Info will be posted here when I receive it). AND Mystic Lake is back and completely full which should go a long way to enhance the hunt results at good old SJ!

This above information is provided as a general guide only. Although they haven’t updated it to the newly adopted regulations when they do, probably in a month or two (still well before the season) please check the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website at:

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

…or printed regulation book (available probably not long after they update their web info at most license agent locations) for official information and/or for regulations in other waterfowl zones in the state.

Hopefully, we’ll get some weather this year up north early in the season to push the birds down to us and we can all look forward to another great season at San Jacinto Wildlife Area.

San Jacinto Wildlife Area Work day Scheduled for Saturday, May 11th CANCELED

The work day / clean up that was scheduled for the San Jacinto Wildlife Area this coming Saturday, May 11th has been CANCELED due to circumstances.  The new date for this work day is now set for Saturday, July 13th.  Mark your calendars and hopefully we’ll have details soon about the July 13th work day.  This post is just to get notice out there to any that were going to attend this Saturday so they are aware of the cancelation ASAP.