Wow, unbelievable is all I can say. A beautiful isolated island seemingly all to ourselves and more pigs than you can imagine. Picture a good central coast ranch times ten, just smaller hogs. To make a long story short, 12 hunters tooks 20 pigs. My partner and I took 5 of those 20. Top hog was about a 140lb boar and it had 2 3/4" tusks and yours truly was lucky enough to take it. Average pig was probably around 90lbs. Weather was beautiful and everything went exactly as planned. The DFG staff on the island was knowledgeable, helpful, very organized and just plain great. Flight over was in a 7 seater Britten Norman Islander. Landing on the unimproved strip was more fun than any roller coaster and worth the trip itself. My new Weatherby 25-06 worked flawlessly. All in all we couldn't have asked for more. Pictures to follow. I'll be out of town again till next week so I'll try to post ASAP. Jesse could you provide me with Jim Matthews email address again. I'd like to drop him a line.
- Thread starter SDHNTR
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Nice job on the hogs. Sound like you guys had a great time. Need to see those pictures!:smiley-thumbs-up:
Sounds like a great time. Good to see some of our pig tag money going to provide these opportunities. You didn't step on any native plants or scare any kit foxes I hope LOL. Hate to see the island hunting programs become a thing of the past. I use to love hunting Catalina and always put off hunting Santa Cruz because it was a little farther and more expensive. I guess you don't know what you got until it's gone. But, I'm sure glad you guys are getting a parting shot at the islands. It'll be a opportunity and memory that will never be availiable again.
Speckmisser
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Dang! Now I'm really jealous!
Sounds like really big fun, SD. Glad you got to make it. I'm keeping the fingers crossed for another round of hunts... but that's probably wishful thinking.
Sounds like really big fun, SD. Glad you got to make it. I'm keeping the fingers crossed for another round of hunts... but that's probably wishful thinking.
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Congrats on all the hogs SD. Little pucker factor on the runway?
Jim can be reached by telephone at 909-887-3444, e-mail at odwriter@aol.com, or the U.S. Mail at Outdoor News Service, P.O. Box 9007, San Bernardino, CA 92427-0007.
Jim can be reached by telephone at 909-887-3444, e-mail at odwriter@aol.com, or the U.S. Mail at Outdoor News Service, P.O. Box 9007, San Bernardino, CA 92427-0007.
Killzone
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Glad you had a sucessfull trip and reaped the benefit of our tax $. Where you restricted to 50 gt. cooler for game? What area did you hunt, guess I'm missinformed that this hunt was archery only? Thanks for the report, many of us wondering just what we missed.
Killzone
Killzone
Con Grats on the hunt SDHNTR
How was the water water situation for drinking.Did you have any problems getting your hog's out.Just
curious I'am an alternate for hunt in April want to prepair in case I get called
Thanks Hoghunter
How was the water water situation for drinking.Did you have any problems getting your hog's out.Just
curious I'am an alternate for hunt in April want to prepair in case I get called
Thanks Hoghunter
metalkingdom
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Sounds like a good time. Congrats on gettin' drawn and congrats for the biggest pig!
They allowed us a 60 qt cooler, which actually was plenty. The pigs are small and there really isnt a whole lot of meat once you get them boned out. They were fairly strict on the 50lb weight limit and some folks had to leave stuff on the mainland. Water situation was OK. They had 5, 5 gal. and 1, 3 gal. water coolers that you could fill up with a hose at the airstrip and take to camp with us. Of course I happened to grab the only cooler that was only 3 gallons. We were OK but we had to ration. It sure would of been nice to have that extra 2 gallons. We would have been able to hunt a lot harder and possibly been more successful. No problems getting the pigs out. Unless you call packing them out on a pack frame a "problem." You could actuall pack them out whole pretty easily. We just gutted them and took the head off, then strapped them to the pack frame. Once we got them back to camp we hung, skinned and quartered them. I now have the pics. I'll get them scanned when I get home.
Yep, the sheep are long gone. They were eradicated a few years back. I doubt they will be as successful with the pigs. I tried and tried last night to figure out how to post the pics. I'm not the best computer guy in the world and the instructions are a bit over my head. I have the pics scanned and saved in a file, now what? Maybe I could email them to someone who is more experienced and he could post them for me. Any takers? I'd appreciate any advice worded in idiot's terms. Thanks.
sdbowyer
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SDHNTR
You can email them to me and I will post them for you on one of my pages if you want.
bus@slickpages.com
You can email them to me and I will post them for you on one of my pages if you want.
bus@slickpages.com
Email them to Jesse: Spectr17@yahoo.com
He'll be able to post them on this thread.
He'll be able to post them on this thread.
SDHNTR,
Great pictures! I am headed out to the island on Monday and was curious about the water situation. Sounds like it is better than I prepared for. Did you filter or purify the water before drinking it? Any other tips (besides the 1 April post) that might make the trip go a little easier?
This is my first pig hunt I suspect I will be spoiled and hooked all at the same time. Thanks to all of you posting on this forum, I am a reasonably prepared rookie.
Cougar
(Yes, I know how lucky I was to be picked. The camera is packed and I will post picts if they are not too embarrassing.....)
Great pictures! I am headed out to the island on Monday and was curious about the water situation. Sounds like it is better than I prepared for. Did you filter or purify the water before drinking it? Any other tips (besides the 1 April post) that might make the trip go a little easier?
This is my first pig hunt I suspect I will be spoiled and hooked all at the same time. Thanks to all of you posting on this forum, I am a reasonably prepared rookie.
Cougar
(Yes, I know how lucky I was to be picked. The camera is packed and I will post picts if they are not too embarrassing.....)
Cougar,
They do have the water situation worked out. We filtered ours just for reassurance but some guys didn't. All the pigs will be somewhere near water. So focus your efforts near the creeks. They will only drink at night but will be on their way back to bed in the morning and on their way to creeks in the evening. Its amazing how high the pigs can be we found several groups on high, seemingly dry and barren slopes. The pigs will have been hunted a bit so you will need to get out of the main valleys and into the connecting finger canyon. Each camp is located in a large valley and you have plenty of room to roam. Walk your behind off. Bring a pack frame to pack the quaters back to camp. There is so much sign all over the island that it is hard to pattern them in only a few days. Find the freshest sign and stay near that area. Glass and glass and glass. We were only on the third trip and we could tell thes pigs had been hunted pretty hard already. You will have a tough time trying to get close by just walking around. Glass the hillsides with high brushy canyons and you should be able to stalk within range. Good luck and have fun!
They do have the water situation worked out. We filtered ours just for reassurance but some guys didn't. All the pigs will be somewhere near water. So focus your efforts near the creeks. They will only drink at night but will be on their way back to bed in the morning and on their way to creeks in the evening. Its amazing how high the pigs can be we found several groups on high, seemingly dry and barren slopes. The pigs will have been hunted a bit so you will need to get out of the main valleys and into the connecting finger canyon. Each camp is located in a large valley and you have plenty of room to roam. Walk your behind off. Bring a pack frame to pack the quaters back to camp. There is so much sign all over the island that it is hard to pattern them in only a few days. Find the freshest sign and stay near that area. Glass and glass and glass. We were only on the third trip and we could tell thes pigs had been hunted pretty hard already. You will have a tough time trying to get close by just walking around. Glass the hillsides with high brushy canyons and you should be able to stalk within range. Good luck and have fun!
