San Jacinto Wildlife Area’s September 10th Volunteer Clean Up / Brush Up Work Day in the Books

About 10 volunteers showed up in the early morning light on Saturday, September 10th at the SJWA check station parking lot for the second volunteer clean-up/blind brush-up workday for the upcoming season. This workday was to finish any repair, touch up, clean up, and brush up of any of the hunting area’s blinds that still needed it. Flooding of the ponds is well underway and there are already many ducks using the Wildlife Area. The volunteers were able to get just about everything that needed to be done accomplished so it looks like San Jacinto is almost ready for opening day. As usual, some of the volunteers retired to Marcello’s Pizza Restaurant in Nuevo for a well-deserved lunch.

As always palm fronds are still needed for the blinds at SJWA. There are always a few blinds that need some repairs taken care of throughout the season. Having the palm fronds on hand makes that easier for the SJWA Staff. If you can bring in any palm fronds you can drop them off at San Jacinto almost any time. Just call Tom at 951-236-3040, or the San Jacinto staff at 951-928-0580, and they’ll make arrangements so you can drop them off. Please make sure you don’t bring in the type of palm fronds with the thorns on their stalks unless you’re willing to strip off the thorns first. Those things wreak havoc with waders if the thorns aren’t removed.

As always, Tom and the crew at San Jacinto would like to give a massive thank you to everyone that came out and worked hard to help get things dialed in for the fast-approaching waterfowl season.

For the near future, it looks like the next “official event” at San Jacinto will be opening day on Saturday, October 22nd. If you haven’t already done so it’s time to get your license, duck validation, federal duck stamp, type “A” day, 2 day, or season pass so you’re all legal and ready to go for the opener. Clean last year’s mud off your decoys, get your gear in ship shape, and make sure you have your non-toxic ammo. Hopefully we’ll see you out there sometime this season.

Blind Clean-up Days Set for the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge Sept. 19th and 23rd

It was brought to SoCaHunt’s attention that the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge is having two blind clean-up days coming up soon and have put out a flyer asking for volunteers. If you’re not familiar with the Sonny Bono Refuge it is at the south end of Wister and, during hunting season, hunting there is accessed through Wister as part of their hunting program.

The clean-up days will be Monday, September 19th, and Friday, September 23rd. Volunteers will meet up at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge Office Parking Lot at 906 W. Sinclair Rd., Calipatria, CA by 6:30 am. Blind clean-up will be conducted until about 11 am. The SBSSNWR Staff is asking that anyone who wants to participate either email or call to be added to the list of volunteers and that volunteers be 10 years old or older. They will provide trash bags for the clean-up. As usual with clean-up days like this it will be hot so bring plenty of water along with mosquito repellant, and a pair of gloves probably would be handy too.

If you have any questions, you can email Rachel_noriega@fws.gov or call the Sonny Bono Refuge Office at 760-348-5278. Below is a Google Maps link to the location of the SBSSNWR Office:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/906+W+Sinclair+Rd,+Calipatria,+CA+92233/@33.1895809,-115.5976683,8718m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80d0aae4ecb29a4b:0x5565b6900b0ef968!8m2!3d33.1772929!4d-115.6155834?hl=en

…Just click “directions” and put your home address in and Google Maps will give you directions.

San Jacinto Wildlife Area Second Volunteer Blind Brush-Up Workday Scheduled for Saturday, September 10, 2022

Sorry for the late notice on this. Just got the go-ahead from Tom…Tom Trakes, from San Jacinto Wildlife Area, advised that the second volunteer workday for the upcoming season at San Jacinto Wildlife Area has been scheduled. The date is Saturday, September 10th. The workdays will be primarily for building, repairing, and brushing-up blinds and cleaning up the general hunting areas around them. Tom advised that volunteers should meet at the check station at 6:30 AM and anyone coming out to volunteer should bring work gloves, sturdy boots or shoes, Shovels, wire cutters, pliers, etc., and waders if you have them. Some of the ponds are in the process of being flooded. Also, obviously, the weather will be HOT so bring lots of water, sunscreen & mosquito repellent.

Tom is also requesting that anyone that has access to palm fronds and would like to get rid of them to drop them off at San Jacinto Wildlife Area any time. The palm fronds are needed to brush up the wildlife area’s blinds for the upcoming waterfowl hunting season as well as to have some on hand for repairs to the blinds throughout the season. Anyone who is trimming palm trees and wants to bring them around to San Jacinto to get rid of them or knows someone who is trimming palm trees and wants to save the fee the dump would charge them, give Tom a call at 951-236-3040 and he’ll make arrangements for someone to be there so you can drop them off. He also wanted me to remind people that they DO NOT want fronds that have thorns on them. Don’t bring the wader-rippers but other, non-thorny palm fronds are welcome. The thorn-laden fronds are okay to use, however, if you’re willing to strip off the thorns prior to bringing them in.

After the work is done, we will get together at Marcello’s Pizza Restaurant in Nuevo for a well-deserved lunch. (Each person responsible for their own bill).
Hopefully, we’ll have a great turnout so we can get the blinds and hunting area prepped for another waterfowl season. SJ is very short-staffed right now and needs all the help they can get to get ready for the season. As I always say, the more the merrier (and the less work for each person).

If you have any questions contact Tom Trakes at the San Jacinto headquarters at (951) 236-3040, or the San Jacinto staff at (951) 928-0580.

San Jacinto Wildlife Area 2022 Dove Season Opening Day Results

On Thursday, September 1st, the San Jacinto Wildlife Area opening day of the 2022 dove season dawned hot with the thermometer quickly heading even higher. By the end of legal shoot time, 110 hunters had utilized San Jacinto in their quest to bag a few of the little birds. This resulted in a total of 177 dove harvested. The average bag came out to 1.6 birds per hunter. That was way up compared to last year’s dismal average of 0.32. As I’ve said before, SJWA isn’t really known as a dove mecca. As is usual with any hunting some hunters came away with nothing, a few hunters were able to harvest several birds, and some bagged 1 or 2 or so. So, as typical for San Jacinto when it comes to dove hunting, it wasn’t wide open, but it wasn’t too bad. It did give a good-sized group of hunters a spot close to home to put in at least a couple of hours in pursuit of the little buff-colored missiles and maybe scratch out a few of them. Especially true for those that couldn’t put in a whole day or more to drive down to Niland or Brawley.

San Jacinto is open for dove hunting until the end of the first half of the dove season on Thursday, September 15th. Sunday (September 4th) is the last day the waterfowl side of SJWA will be opened for dove hunting so, if you want to give the waterfowl side a try for dove hunting you still have the first two days of Labor Day Weekend to give it a try. Also, don’t forget that it’s non-toxic (steel) shot only for all hunting everywhere again this year so don’t mistakenly bring along any lead shotshells. That’s a big no-no.