Central Coast hunting

[EvBouret]

I just moved here to San Luis Obispo from Kauai. I've been here for almost a whole school year. I've been hunting once since I've been here, up in Los Padres forest, we drove up a bunch of hills to a radio tower and walked into the bottom of the valleys and hiked around. Found some good tracks, but no hogs or hog sign.

Okay, what I'm wondering about: I've been considering transferring back to University of Hawaii at Manoa on Oahu. Mainly for the warm water, good surf, hunting, fishing and spearfishing. I know how to fish and hunt for most the game species there and both are really good.

I'm kinda of making a pro and cons list. And I'm still unsure about the hunting over here.

First we'll start with question (1).
Where are the hunting units within an hour of san luis obispo.


(2) deer hunting, what is the season, what kind of tags do i need?



(3) hog hunting? " " " "



(4)Small Game (rabbit, squirrel etc...) Where can I hunt small game with a .22, where can I hunt small game with a pellet gun?



(5)Which public areas hold hog populations?




Thanks for any answers I can get.


Evan

 

[bighorn67]

To answer your deer question................You need an A zone(rifle), or Archery Only(statewide archery any zone) tag. There is also the A32 either sex archery tag for southern A zone. I'm not sure if it includes the San Luis area. Public hunting areas would be mostly Los Padres NF with a few BLM spots thrown in. You would be hunting blacktail deer.

Dave

 

[BuckFinder]

Evan, Head on down to Four Seasons outfitters at the end of Higuera street and bring your list of questions. They will also have all regulations and deer applications. The big game booklets came in last week while I was there. Good Luck. Hint, keep looking for sign in the area you were scouting. There are big bucks taken there each year.

 

[Speckmisser]

Hi Ev,

You're in a primo spot for hogs and A-zone blacktail. It's just REALLY hard to get onto hogs on public land. LPNF is huge, though, and there are bound to be honey holes. Once you find them... well, you know the rest.

As a transplant to CA from another area of great, warm water oceans (North Carolina), I can sure feel your pain about wanting to get back to Hawaii. I used to be constantly on the fence about going back to NC, but now that I've spent 8 years in CA, I have learned to love it. The outdoors opportunities here are like nothing I've ever experienced. The politics are a little hard to adjust to, but that's a different topic altogether.

I do still miss the spearfishing and diving, but the hunting here is pretty danged good... and a lot of the griping you'll hear seems to be mainly from folks who just don't realize HOW good it is in CA. (There might be other states that are better for hunting, but they don't have an ocean.)

It'd be a hard choice you're looking at. Personally, I don't know which way I'd go if I were in your shoes.

By the way, Bighorn's info was a little off. The Archery Only (AO) tag is only good in A, B, and D zones. That is MOST Of the state, but the tag is definitely NOT good in the draw units or special hunts. Get a regs book and read up carefully.