DFG changes hunt days

C

calamari

Member
I know it's late but DFG has reduced the number of pheasant hunt days on the wildlife areas this year for the first time in decades. Normally the entire first week of the season was available for hunting on Gray Lodge with the first 5 days available on several other areas. This year it is only open on the traditional three waterfowl shoot days: Sat., Sun., and Wed. Read the post I made about the pheasant counts and the impact the mosquito abatement district has made on Gray Lodge's operating budget for reason why.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/news10/2010110301-Pheasant-Hunting.html
 
People were NOT happy with DFG for waiting until 1 week before opening to list this on their site. (Their site and reg book needs to be ditched and reworked from top to bottom btw- but I digress). I hunted Gray Lodge Saturday. 60 pheasant and 59 turkeys bagged by about 250 (or more) hunters. I tried for Little Dry Creek Sunday but didn't hit the lottery so went back to GL. 28 pheasant and 17 turkey. Pheasant hunting is not in decline in CA, its in collapse.

If they are killing pheasant to eradicate mosquitoes its not working. They ware as bad as I've seen them anywhere, anytime.
 
I agree about their web site. The search feature is useless and it goes downhill from there.
10 days is not a reasonable lead time for a notice of that sort when people have become accustomed to the longer hunts and have scheduled their vacation accordingly. I bet there were already guys camped in line at Gray lodge when the notice came out. Actually, maybe not because of the low bird numbers but there would have been in the mid 90s.
It's funny but the ratio of daily counts of birds bagged seems to be the same as in the best years. However many birds they shoot on opening day is almost exactly 1/2 of what they shoot for the season with the second days number being 1/2 of opening day and each subsequent day being 1/2 of the day before. It's only approximate but funny how it works that way.
That's good to hear about them allowing turkey hunting. Notice how many turkeys were shot in relation to the pheasants. So, how did you do? Did you get a pheasant, a turkey or both?
 
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We were in the first come first served line at 2:30 Friday and got number 65. We got on as did about 60 guys behind us. I hunted the northeast corner and only had one shot of 50 yards that I didn't take. We did kick up our fair share of hens. The only turkey I could have had sounded like someone practicing their calls so instead of climbing the levee and possibly into a bad situation I let it alone. Someone else got it an hour later.

We tried to get on Little Dry Creek Sunday (Sat=18 birds for 35 hunters) and didn't make the draw so went back to GL and walked right on. More hens, no roosters. So my 'boys' worked so hard I took them to Raahauges. A 25mph steady wind made it interesting. It sure instilled the value of working downwind as my guys were picking them up from incredible distances. My 9 month old got his first rooster and was SO proud.

I heard there were holdover birds at the Feather river but we couldn't find the entrance. It's online but not in the book.
 
Thanks for sharing, my brother, the dogs and I were going to try Sacramento nwr or colousa tomorrow but I guess we'll stay put. We got 2 wild birds today, here they are.

IMAG0154.jpg


More quail up here than I've ever seen, we must have flushed 2-300 birds today. My dog kept looking at me like wtf when we didn't shoot any.

BTW thanks webguy for our own spot to vent on Ca dfg.
 
I went today to Gray lodge but late because of a poor excuse. I went to the East side and as I was about to get ready to leave the parking lot a guy pulled up and started to put his mountain bike together. I asked him where he planned to go and since it was where I was headed I left for the West side. Allowing bikes on the areas is a pain. I've humped it out a couple of miles and then was passed by guys on bikes WITH THEIR DOGS PULLING THE BIKES! It's supposed to be hard.
Everybody, such as there were, went where I wanted to go so it ended up as a walk and a swim for Morgan. I talked to a guy in the parking lot who shot a turkey that morning so they're still getting them. It will be interesting to see how the pheasants do next year given the reduction in turkey numbers that this fall hunting has resulted in. Mosquitoes were not an issue so Calisdad, you must taste like vanilla ice cream to them.:)
 
LOL. I've never been accused of that before. ;)
Hopefully you got some of that wind. I put deet on, which I never do, and it lasted about an hour.
 
No wind but very few mosquitoes for some reason. I was there late so I wasn't there at dusk and dawn when it's the worst. Seriously, when I've been in tropical areas where the mosquitoes are very bad the number of bites decline the longer you are there like you build up a strong taste they don't like or maybe it's because they don't like to drill through some other mosquitoes spit!
 
I cant believe that DFG changed the hunt days so soon before the season. It doesnt take too many people to man the refuges and I bet the days they canceled would have paid for themselves wiith the area day passes they sell.

With so few pheasants around, the DFG refuges are one of the only places to actually get a wild pheasant.

Lets hope they get he budget sorted out and this is a one time thing.
 
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