Planning Your Deer Hunt Pt.2

Before we start driving for hours you should definitely be leveraging the resources you have available before you get there. Some “pre-scouting” if you will. Most people’s first stop is Google Earth and why not? It’s a great resource.

One of the things I quickly learned is this seems to be a heavily used lake. There’s a marina, cabins, boat rentals, several camp grounds all around the lake. This could mean many different things.. The deer may be used to people and stay in the area or it may pressure them away. IF I hunt this area I’m unsure at what time during the season I will hunt it. I will plan as if I’m going to hunt late in the season, which means this area will be heavily pressured.

As you can see from the above photo there are several roads zig zigging through the entire area. This is not a good sign for late season hunting. This area will likely be heavily traveled by road hunters and OHV users. Road hunters are people who’s idea of hunting is driving around until you see a deer and then shooting it, often times from the road. Shooting from the road, unless you are disabled, with the proper permit, is illegal and unethical.

We may be able to leverage this road hunting and general access pressure to our advantage. Below the lake is an area with very little vehicle access and it also has a pond in the upper left part of the circle. The arrows represent the potential pressure being placed on the deer by vehicle traffic.

Let’s take a closer look at that pond. In the summer time that pond may provide some relief for wildlife not wanting to go near the people at the lake. This would be a good place to look for deer trails. I would not set up on the pond itself because doing so would pressure other wildlife away from the water which they need to survive the hot summers. Instead look for access trails and try to find where you can intercept them on their way to/from the pond.

A lot of the lower lake’s property is private, we still need to make sure this is area is public property. Below is a snip from http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5323336.pdf

It’s hard to tell from the above map. I will have to reference my On X Hunt map which will tell me for sure.

EDIT: I was able to look on my OnX HUNT app and the “pond” is not private property. It’s actually called Grizzly Lake, but from the severe drought we’ve had it appears to be just a pond now. I highly recommend the OnX HUNT app.  Let there be no doubt about where you’re hunting. I will review the app in a separate post. I hope to get a screen shot of the app up at some point, but for now here is a topo map showing the lake in relation to the surrounding private properties.

Stay tuned. Hopefully we can actually get up to the lake soon.

 

 

Limits of Salmon!

the fishing report is really good right now. I can’t wait to get out on the water!

http://norcal.fishreports.com/

 

Planning Your Deer hunt Pt. 1

Hunting is one of the most rewarding things I get to do on a regular basis. When was the last time you saw someone go to the store, buy a steak, and say “man, I worked SO hard to get this!” Said no one ever. If you follow along with this blog you will see that hunting is not a weekend trip where someone walks in the woods and just shoots a deer. Hunting takes months, if not years, of hard work. Finding your prey, learning about them, spending significant resources to pursue them. So follow along and lets work and learn together.

I wanted to touch on some strategies I use when I’m considering a big game hunt. I’m going to assume most of you who are reading this are California natives. I can’t imagine why someone would pay a non-resident fee to hunt in our state, but you never know. Personally if I’m going to pay that kind of money I’m going to Montana or Wyoming, but that’s just me.

It’s early May, 2016, now so you need to make sure you get your applications in by June 2, 2016. If it’s after June and you’re reading this article don’t fret, you can still get plenty of good over the counter tags. For the purposes of this article all references will be from http://www.wildlife.ca.gov.

One of the first places you should look is the harvest reporting statistics from the most recent year. This will give you an idea of where the higher populations of deer are, but you will also need to factor in the availability of public access. We will look at Deer Zone D3-5. The season is from September 24, 2016 – October 30, 2016. This is an area with a high amount of tags issued (33,000), making the reported hunter success seem low (6.5%), but when you look at the total number of deer taken (2,146) it’s one of the highest in the state. You should note that when looking at the table below the column to the right containing the higher numbers are not the actual numbers reported, but estimates of what DFW thinks are real numbers. For instance 2,146 people reported their deer kill, but DFW believes approximately 5,822 deer were killed. That’s a big difference… I don’t know how they get that estimate, but I am curious.

Keep in mind this zone had 33,000 tags issued in 2014. That’s a lot of people who will be in your hunt area. To hunt this zone it will be imperative that you get out and SCOUT. You will have to do it. Period. So our goal here will be to find an area with good public access, yet is remote enough to allow us to get away from other people.

The area we are going to look at is in the D3 portion of the zone, in the Plumas National Forest. It’s an area called Bucks Lake. I like the name.. I have never hunted this area, so this will be a new experience for all of us. You should start your scouting early, we may get up to Bucks Lake and find that it’s incredibly crowded or it has poor access. So, we want to make sure we have enough time to adjust to a new location.

As we continue in this series we will start to do specific research on the Bucks Lake area and then physically go there if our research proves promising.

To be continued…

 

 

You Know Who You Are

California Duck Hunting

New hunters and new residents to California are always curious about how the California refuge system works. California has excellent duck hunting opportunities being centered in the Pacific Flyway and being an agricultural powerhouse, this makes California a Duck hunting heaven.

There’s a couple ways you can get started down the path of a seasoned refuge rat. The three basic ways to hunt a refuge are:

• Reservations
• Lottery system
• Sweat line
• Blind waiting

To get a reservation you will need to go to http://www.wildlife.ca.gov and click on the “Licenses and Permits” link. Once you’ve created an account and signed in, select the purchase licenses button. Under the hunting section there will be options for calendar based drawings. You can choose what refuge and what date you want to apply for. Each date is approximately $1.35 (2015). This can get expensive you are a die hard duck hunter and want the opportunity for a blind or your favorite spot.

For the lottery system you have to physically go down to the refuge the day before your hunt and put your name on a list. You must have your license and Type A wildlife area pass with you! For most places the process is like this: you will be given a number and when they finish the drawings you will see where your number is on the order of entry. For example: in the photo below the person with the number 73 has the 43rd place in line to get on the refuge.

The sweat line is for the person who just shows up on the morning of the hunt trying to get on the refuge. It is literally first come, first serve.

Blind waiting is similar to the sweat line. There is a limited number of blinds on the refuges. Lets say you have a reservation number of 15, but there’s only 10 blinds. By the time you get called to enter the refuge all the blinds are full. You can choose to not enter the refuge (hypothetical situation. if you draw a 15 you better get on that refuge!) and put your name on the blind waiting list. As people leave their blinds mid-day, the blinds are refilled from the blind waiting list.

The overall process looks something like this: The refuges all allow varying amounts of hunters. A certain percentage of hunters will be chosen from the paid reservation system. Say, the first 20. Those first 20 hunters get first choice of blinds and hunting areas. After all the reservations are called they will go down the lottery list. They will go all the way down the list until the refuge is full or people stopped showing up. After the lottery is finished they will start the sweat line.

Pointers:

Opening week is busy! Get a reservation or get on that lottery! After that, it’s really up to you. For October and November, I usually sleep in and show up at the refuge around 9 or 10 and hunt the afternoon. Doing this I will often get a blind. Personally, I like the comfort of a blind. I can sit and relax, drink my coffee, and stay warm! As the season progresses I will move out of the blind and into the free roam areas. Over time the blind cover disappears and the blinds literally turn into a mud island with no cover. Also, consider getting a game cart if you plan on walking deep into the refuge.

Happy hunting! Stay tuned as I will write about the various refuges and wildlife areas in Northern California!

Welcome to the Blog

My wife and I live in Northern California and are avid outdoors enthusiasts. We love hunting, fishing, and just being in the outdoors in general.

The purpose of this blog is to share our knowledge and experience with others. You will be able to follow along with us as we prepare for and execute our adventures.   we will cover all aspects of hunting and fishing (with a particular emphasis on Northern California) with the hope that when you set out on your adventure our blog will be a good reference for you.

As you  can see by the category menu to the left we plan on writing a great deal about Northern California hunting, fishing, guides, and gear.

Enjoy.