Month: July 2016

Sleepy Creek Ranch SHARE Hunt

 

Sleepy Creek Ranch Deer & Pig SHARE Hunt

Recently I put in for a SHARE hunt drawing through the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website (online licensing). “The SHARE Program is designed to improve public access to private or landlocked public land. Participating landowners will be compensated with monetary payment and liability protection for providing access to or through their land for recreational use and enjoyment of wildlife. SHARE is funded with SHARE Access Permit Application fees.” More info at: www.wildlife.ca.gov/hunting/share.

I have to say, my experience up to this point has been extremely pleasant. I was notified via e mail by CDFW that I had been drawn for the hunt. I was sent all the pertinent information needed for the hunt, all of my questions were answered promptly and politely by the CDFW staff Victoria Barr and Mitch Soto.

The Sleepy Creek Ranch is located in the West Cuyama Valley, Santa Barbara County, CA. The homestead was originally built in 1985, but now serves as a bed and breakfast or vacation rental for recreational users and the occasional lucky SHARE Hunt Program participant. The B&B known as “The Little Red House” is a modern B&B with a choice of three guest rooms. The ranch is described on their website as a 700-acre ranch that “offers miles of trails through oak savannahs, riparian habitat, juniper-sage woodlands and chaparral. It’s a hidden gem for springtime wildflowers, a busy flyway for migratory birds, as well as a resident population of wild turkey and occasional California Condor visits.” I encourage anyone reading this to visit their website: www.sleepycreekranch.com. I haven’t been to the ranch yet, but my conversations with the host Bonnie Goller have left me excited about this trip. She was very polite, informative, and accommodating on the phone.

This will be an exciting trip. On my other posts about planning your Deer hunt, you, the hunter, are making all the decisions on where and how you will hunt. Here We will need to be respectful of any rules or requests by the landowner which may or may not impact our hunting strategy. Since we cannot go ahead of time to scout the area in person our scouting will have to be done all online. Below is the topo map that was sent by CDFW. It gives a general terrain description and property boundaries. What’s important to note from this map is the elevation. We’ll be hunting around 2200’. There are no weather stations nearby, so I will be using the weather from Bakersfield and subtract 3.5 degrees for every 1,000 ft. of elevation to get an approximate weather forecast for the ranch. As it stands right now this will be a typical HOT California archery hunt in the 90-100 degree range.

sleepytopo

Other resources I’m using for this hunt are Google Earth, OnX Hunt app, and any open source information I can find online. So far, there is very little information about hunting this property. Google Earth and the OnX Hunt app will show similar information, but the On X Hunt app will use your phone’s GPS capability to tell you where you are and show you the property lines. This is extremely important when you’re hunting someone else’s property. Your phone does not have to have cell service for the OnX Hunt app to work. The cost is $35.00 a year for premium map layers and well worth the investment in my opinion.

The third source of information for the hunt was from Bonnie when I called to reserve a room for my Wife and I. She provided some invaluable information about where she sees game on the property and what other hunters have seen. According to Bonnie there’s at least one big Pig on the property, she has seen a couple spike Bucks, a couple other smaller Bucks, and there are also a couple Bears that frequent the property. Unfortunately for me it will not be Bear season during our hunt. Bonnie, being the great host that she is, said she would start keeping notes on where and when she sees game on the property and leave the notes for when we arrive (Bonnie will be out of town during our hunt).

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Planning Your Deer Hunt Part 3.

Sorry I’ve been away for so long. Real life keeps me extremely busy, but hopefully from here on out I will be able to get on fairly regularly to post about upcoming hunting and fishing trips!

D-3, Bucks Lake, time to get some boots on the ground and see the area. Scouting. I took my daughter up to the lake for a little fishing and a closer look. The lake and surrounding area was nice. The terrain was really steep and rugged though. Access to any areas that weren’t private seemed to be limited. The lake reminded me of a smaller Lake Tahoe. The lake itself has a road going around it which is lined with what appeared to be vacation rentals. It looked like it might be a good place to make a base camp out of one of the cabin rentals, then travel somewhere nearby to hunt. The lake itself and the immediate area didn’t seem conducive to hunting.

That’s part of scouting though. That’s why we scout. Do your internet scouting first, then get some boots on the ground to have a look. For me, the terrain wasn’t what I was looking for, there were too many people, too much paved road for what I want to hunt. I have some other hunting opportunities coming up, so I think I will pass on D-3 this year. Stay tuned.