San Jacinto’s September 21st Volunteer Blind Brush Up / Work Day -Things are Looking Good at SJ

Saturday, September 21st, was the final volunteer blind brush-up work day at San Jacinto Wildlife Area prior to the opening of the 2019/2020 season. About 20 volunteers showed up at the SJ check station parking lot at 0600 ready to get at it. Tom briefed the volunteers and they headed out to various locations around SJ to finish rebuilding and to brush-up several of the blinds.

 

The San Jacinto Staff has obtained some hay bales and these are being utilized to provide seating in some of the area’s blinds. Work was finished up on some of the blinds and F-1, F-2, Walker 12 & X blinds were finished being brushed-up. 

 

While out on the wildlife area the group took some time to check out Mystic Lake, which still has plenty of water and is currently holding a couple of thousand ducks! Thinks are looking good for the coming season!

 

One of the blinds, ready for brushing. Hay bale seats in place already.

 

Brushing up a blind.

 

Walking out to check out Mystic Lake.

 

Ducks EVERYWHERE! WOW!

 

After the hard work in the morning, some of the volunteers who didn’t have other obligations to get to and the SJ staff headed over to Marcello’s Pizza in Nuevo for a well-deserved lunch. 

 

Finishing up the PIZZA!

 

Once again, Tom and San Jacinto Crew would like to shout out a big “thank you!” to everyone that came out and worked hard to finish getting the blinds ready for the upcoming duck season, and I echo that sentiment. 

 

The SJ Staff is flooding up the area big time and the food that has been planted for the birds over the last few months has got a lot of duck and other birds using the SJ waterfowl area. Mystic Lake still has plenty of water and should help hold birds in the area throughout the season. Tom and his crew will continue to tweak things, finish up a few blinds that still may need a little attention, and in general, make sure things are ship-shape for the October 19th opener.

 

Get your license, passes and get your reservation request in soon and hopefully, we’ll see you out there at SJ for what appears to be shaping up to be a great season. 

San Jacinto Wildlife Area’s 26th Annual Junior Waterfowl Hunt Giveaway – Donations Needed

Due to the extended regular waterfowl season this year the last regular hunt day at San Jacinto Wildlife Area is Wednesday, January 29^th, 2020.  A week and a half after the last regular season hunt day, on Saturday, February 8^th, 2020, the Junior Hunters will have a unique opportunity to end their season with a bang by participating in the 26^th Annual Junior Waterfowl Hunt.  SoCalHunt will post more details about the actual hunting opportunity for the Junior Hunters at a later date, this post will be more about some important preparation for the Junior Hunt and what you can do to help if you’re so inclined.

Besides the hunting, one of the things our Junior Hunters look forward to at the SJWA Junior Hunt is the lunch and giveaway at mid-day.  The Junior Hunters hunt cards are entered into a drawing for all kinds of great prizes and usually there’s enough to go around that the Junior Hunters walk away with at least two giveaway prizes each!  The San Jacinto Staff puts in a great deal of work on the Junior Hunt as do many volunteers. The SJ Staff and the volunteers truly believe the annual San Jacinto Wildlife Area Junior Hunt is an important event to keep the Junior Hunters interested and create memories for the Junior Hunters, who are, in fact, the future of our sport.

This year is the 26^th Annual Junior Hunt and it would be great to have a copious amount of donations for the giveaway prizes to make a really memorable event for our wonderful Junior Hunters.

In 2015 there was a change in state policy regarding donations for the annual Junior Hunt.  Per the change in policy, by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, donations of money, food or merchandise cannot be accepted unless the donations go through a formal acceptance procedure. (You can read SoCalHunt’s post on the 2015 donation procedures change at this link:

https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/new-procedures-for-donations-for-the-annual-junior-hunt-at-san-jacinto-wildlife-area/     This post has been edited to reflect this season’s dates and info.)

Attached below are two letters from Scott Sewell, Senior Fish and Wildlife Habitat Supervisor for the area, regarding the purpose of the Junior Hunt event and detailing some more information regarding Junior Hunt Donations:

 

 

I should note that this donation procedure will not affect San Jacinto’s Annual Toy Drive for the Bryant Park Preschool as, in that case, they are just collecting the toys for the preschool and the donated toys are not being donated to the DFW, they are just the middle-man in that situation so the toy box will be at the check station as usual.  There is not formal acceptance procedure required for the Toy Drive donations.

So, if you are of a mind to contribute anything to the Annual Junior Hunt, which will be held on Saturday, February 8^th, 2020 this season, you need to contact Tom Trakes at either his phone at 951-236-3040 or email at Thomas.Trakes@wildlife.ca.gov  by the deadline of January 8^th,  2020. Tom wanted me to make sure I noted that this information is not a solicitation for any donations but information for anyone who may want to contribute.

To make it simple for anyone wanting to donate prizes for the Junior Hunt, SoCalHunt has cut through the red tape for you.  I’ve have tried to make it as simple as possible if you’d like to donate a prize or two, or more.  What the bottom line turns out to be is simply sending Tom Trakes a simple email (at his email address above) detailing what you intend to donate.  To make it easy I’ve included a link below to the SoCalHunt website’s “Maps and Downloads” page.  Scroll down to the very bottom of this page I’ve posted a link to a MS Word file of an example email to send to Tom Trakes, so you can make your donation.  Just follow the instructions at the top of the Word file. Just copy and paste this into an email and plug in what you’re donating and the details in the underlined sections.  The Donation Email MS Word file will be found at the very bottom of the SoCalHunt website “Maps and Downloads” page. Just click on it to download the Word file to your computer.

http://www.socalhunt.com/maps-and-downloads.html

Hopefully this season’s Junior Hunt will be another record event, both in birds bagged and giveaway prizes donated.  This is a wonderful opportunity to show our Junior Hunters how much they are valued as they are the future of our sport.  Hopefully you are able to contribute to this great event.

Thanks in advance to all who can donate and/or volunteer this season!

Dove Hunting Results for San Jacinto Wildlife Area – Opening Day 2019 Dove Season

Opening day of the 2019 dove season, September 1^st, at San Jacinto Wildlife area dawned bright and hot.  By the end of the day 163 hunters had utilized San Jacinto for their pursuit of the little gray rockets, coming away with a total of 238 dove.  That averaged out to 1.46 birds per gun.  Not fantastic, but SJ isn’t really know as a dove mecca.  There were some that came away skunked, a few managed to bring down limits and many harvested 2 or 3 or so.  So, as was expected it wasn’t gangbusters on the dove but it wasn’t bad and it did give many that couldn’t dedicate a whole day or more to drive down to Niland or Brawley a place close to home to give it at least a couple hours of effort and maybe scratch out a few birds.

San Jacinto is opened for dove hunting until the end of the first half of the dove season on Sunday, September 15^th.  Today (September 2^nd) is the last day the waterfowl side of SJ will be opened for dove hunting so, as I write this, you only have a little less than 6 hours left for hunting dove on the waterfowl side.  Also, don’t forget that it’s non-toxic (steel) shot only for all hunting everywhere this year so don’t mistakenly bring along any lead shot shells.  That’s a big no-no.

Also, while I’ve got your attention, San Jacinto needs palm fronds to complete brushing up the waterfowl area’s blinds for the duck opener, which is Saturday, October 19^th.    The next volunteer blind brush-up work day is set for Saturday, September 21^st.   Check the below links to either bring in some palm fronds any time before the work day or for info on the work day its self, if you’d like to volunteer or both.

https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/2019/08/26/another-blind-brush-up-day-coming-soon-more-palm-fronds-needed-at-san-jacinto-wa/

https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/2019/08/29/another-volunteer-blind-brush-up-work-day-set-for-san-jacinto-wildlife-area-september-21st/

If you have any questions about either subject or want to make arrangements to drop of some palm fronds contact Tom Trakes at (951) 236-3040 or the SJ Staff at (951) 928-0580.