Hunters have their choice of wild turkeys or pheasants starting on Saturday as both seasons open. The outlook is excellent for wild turkeys and only fair to poor for pheasants.
Whereas pheasants are not common to Lake County, it”s just the opposite for wild turkeys. The turkey population has literally exploded in the county and the big birds can be seen throughout the county, including within the city limits of Lakeport and Clearlake. Just take a drive on any country road in the county and you”re likely to see wild turkeys. In fact, many of the local residents consider them to be pests.
Dedicated turkey hunters should have little trouble bagging a bird for the Thanksgiving Day table. The season opens Saturday and runs through Nov. 25. Hunters are allowed to take only one turkey of either sex for the entire season. The shooting hours for the fall wild turkey season are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset.
It was rare to find wild turkeys on public land only a few years ago, but that has all changed. Wild turkeys now populate the Mendocino National Forest. The Cache Creek Wildlife Area also has a large population of wild turkeys. The Payne Ranch, which borders the Cache Creek Wildlife Area, is owned by the Bureau of Land Management and has a large population of wild turkeys.
Whereas spring turkey hunting is the fastest growing hunting sport in the state, few hunters in California embrace fall hunting. Part of the reason could be that hunters are concentrating more on the duck and pheasant seasons.
While hunting wild turkeys in the fall isn”t as exciting as the spring season, when a thundering gobble raises the hair on the back of your neck, it is often more challenging. During the fall, turkeys don”t respond to a call the same as they do in the spring. Rarely will you hear a gobble, and even if you do, the tom normally has little interest in you. Most of the birds taken during the fall season are either young jakes or hens. The adult gobblers tend to stay in small isolated flocks and are extremely shy. The hens and jakes weigh about 10 pounds.
Most of the successful fall turkey hunters either sneak up on the bird or flush the flock and then try calling in the scattered singles.
The Sacramento Valley was literally awash with pheasants at one time, but no more. The pheasant population has been steadily shrinking for several years, the reason being the so-called “clean farming methods” now used throughout much of the valley. Whereas farmers would leave a swath of grain or rice for the birds in the past, now they harvest every stalk. The result is that pheasants have little cover or food. With the exception of the refuges there are few areas left in the valley that hold truly wild birds. Most of the private hunting areas are supplemented with pen-raised birds.
The best areas to hunt for the unattached hunter are the refuges. All the refuges are open for pheasant hunting on the regular waterfowl shoot days. which are Wednesdays, Sat-urdays and Sundays. In addition, the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area, located near Gridley, is open for pheasant hunting every day for the first nine days of the season. More than 1,000 pheasants were taken off Gray Lodge on the opening weekend a year ago. The cost to hunt on the refuges is $15.75 per day. Lake County has a very limited population of pheasants and most of them are in areas where you can”t hunt. About the only pheasant hunting is the county is the annual Junior Pheasant Hunt on Nov. 17 at Highland Springs just south of Lakeport, where junior hunters under the age of 16 hunt planted birds.
The daily limit is two male pheasants for the first two days of the season. After that the daily limit is extended to three male pheasants for the remainder of the season. The shooting hours are 8 a.m. until sunset. The season runs through Dec. 23.
Quagga mussel seminar
The Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee is sponsoring a quagga mussel seminar Thursday evening at the Lake County Supervisors” Chambers at the courthouse in Lakeport. The seminar starts at 7 p.m. and is open to the public. The purpose of the seminar is to educate the public about the importance of keeping quagga and zebra mussels out of Clear Lake. Speakers include county officials as well as representatives of the Department of Fish and Game, state health department and other experts. The seminar is free and open to the public.
