HUNTING REPORT

SOUTH CAL HUNTS: Junior hunters brave elements but are rewarded with good duck hunting BY JIM NIEMIEC/WON Staff WriterPublished: Feb 08, 2010

Print This Article Email This Article Digg This Article

SOUTH CAL DUCK HUNTS LAKEVIEW - Mother Nature dumped a whole bunch of rain in the Southland on Saturday, but this didn't keep junior hunters and their adult supervisors out of duck blinds. The rains started before about draw time and continued throughout the day with heavy showers at times and occasional periods of blue sky. Access to some hunting sites was difficult and some areas were closed for the junior hunt, but overall the hunts were a huge success for the kids.     The San Jacinto Wildlife Refuge welcomed 65 young hunters to a soggy morning, but the weather did not keep the kids from having good hunting. The blinds were drawn early and a hot pancake breakfast was served in the warehouse. The kids headed out with rain gear, decoys and an accompanying adult who were allowed to drive to blinds sites. Shooting was good and the young hunters shot a total of 116 ducks for the day, which produced an overall 1.78 per hunter average. The number one duck bagged was the shoveler, followed by the cinnamon teal, gadwall and green-winged teal. There were no geese shot at the refuge for the Saturday hunt. At 10:30 hunters were back at the check station where they were severed hamburgers, hot dogs and brats and all the kids received raffle prizes and donated hunting items. Support from the Bass Pro Shop, Wal-Mart, local hunter volunteers, CWA and the refuge staff made for a very rewarding day of hunting for the young hunters.     Wister also shot well for the 23 junior hunters who showed up for the Sat. shoot. There were a total of 52 ducks and 6 geese killed for a 2.2 per gun average. The number one duck on the game strap was the American wigeon, followed by the pintail and green-winged teal. There was just a light drizzle in Imperial Valley in the morning and then in the afternoon the wind kicked up a little and hunting improved for those still in blinds. No hunters were at the Union Tract on Sat., but some hunting occurred at Hazard. On Sunday there were 19 shooters in blinds, but totals were not available as of press time.     The Kern National Wildlife Refuge hosted a total of 53 junior hunters and they bagged a total of 150 ducks for a very respectable 2.8 per hunter average. The number one duck on the game strap was the cinnamon teal with 35 shot, to go along with 32 shovelers, 25 green-winged teal and 21 gadwall; so it was a good mix of big and small puddle ducks. The best shooting area was in unit 5 which shot for a 4.0 average.     Prado Basin was partially flooded and only a few junior hunters ventured out on Sat. Hunting was slow, but not entirely without success as there were reports of missed shots on decoying mallards and some cinnamon teal shot.     Westmorland gave up some white geese to kids set up under the right flyway, but for most of the Sat. morning the snow and Ross' geese stayed within the non-shooting federal refuge and didn't make many flights over huntable farm land adjacent to the refuge system. THIS YEAR’S YOUTH HUNT WAS especially good this year for 15-year-old Jimmy Reinert.  He is shown here holding a nice limit of ducks he shot at the Ramona Duck Club with his father Jeff & friend Darryl {not pictured}.  Jeff celebrated his birthday in the blind and said he couldn’t have had a better birthday.