Some of you might have seen this, but for those that don't get around...
My buddy drew the #4 ressie for the 10th at Kern so we decided to make the voyage up into the SJV. We left SD at about 7:45PM and made it into the check station sometime around 1230AM after stopping for some grub. Having never hunted Kern before, we decided that it would be better to show up early, even though we had ressies, just in case something happened. So, we slept, or tried to sleep, in the truck but I think I only managed about an hour of sleep--not because I was excited, but because I was cramped as f*ck!!! It reminded me of SERE school, haha.
They call for ressies there 2.5 hours prior to legal shooting time, not a fixed time like SJ or Wister; so, be sure to check the times if you're headed up there.
Right now, due to drought / lack of water, there are only 3 non-handicapped blinds available for ressie holders. As of the 10th they were blinds 10, 11, and 14. We were #4, and 14 was available, but Bob recommended free roam, which we were pretty much wanting to do anyways. Blind 14 is pretty small for 2 people (why the hell would they build small blinds???) and Bob gave us some other reasons which I've forgotten that made us go free roam. I think it was something about you might want a dog if you're hunting 14 due to some thick brush. Pretty easy choice to free roam. We completed all our paperwork and headed out in the dark to set up.
Oh yeah, you're probably wondering about the "A Walk in the Clouds" bit. No we weren't watching a sh*tty K. Reeves movie that you took your HS sweetheart to and then proceeded to make multiple attempts at heavy petting and no we were smoking dope. I've got two words: TULE FOG. That stuff is legit. I mean, I'm a pilot and fly in clouds all the time, but Tule Fog is some second level sh*t. Once we dropped down into the valley it was like wall of fog...
We found our way to the parking lot, slogged out, and were set up about an hour before shoot time. Even with our area clearly occupied (I mean how do you miss two guys' headlamps) we still had to deal with the normal jackassery that is commonly found on refuges to include: 1) a group of 2 guys setting up 30 yds to our left (for safety sake I felt compelled to walk over and have a chat before they got fully set up...they were gracious and moved to 60yds
and 2) a dude kayaking around 15 mins before shooting light, comes straight up to us with his dog slogging and shaking off on us everywhere and asks, "ya'll hunting here?" I thought about saying, "Nope...just bird watching." I decided not to be a smart ass. He then proceeded to kayak through our spread, dragging dekes on his kayak...FML.
Shooting light came and went and nobody was shooting much, which wasn't surprising due to the low ceilings / lack of visibility. At around 7, the fog lightened up a bit and birds started flying some and we were able to scratch out about 10 birds between us composed of Spoondogs and GWT by about 10:30. The birds were very decoy shy and only the Spoonies wanted to decoy (what's new?). We originally went in to the hunt wanting to be selective on big ducks only, but they didn't ever show up so we crushed some Spoonies and GWT.
Overall, we had fun. It was somewhere new and we didn't get skunked. I was expecting a lot more big ducks, but whatever...I'll shoot and eat almost anything.
If I was local to Kern (like we are "local" to Wister and SJ in SoCal) I'd probably try to hunt the free roam areas with frequency. But, unless you've got a ressie, that's a long way to go to take a chance.
The drive home sucked...
Sorry for the long post. Here's some pics of my take:
And of course I had to get some blood on the A-5!!!
My buddy drew the #4 ressie for the 10th at Kern so we decided to make the voyage up into the SJV. We left SD at about 7:45PM and made it into the check station sometime around 1230AM after stopping for some grub. Having never hunted Kern before, we decided that it would be better to show up early, even though we had ressies, just in case something happened. So, we slept, or tried to sleep, in the truck but I think I only managed about an hour of sleep--not because I was excited, but because I was cramped as f*ck!!! It reminded me of SERE school, haha.
They call for ressies there 2.5 hours prior to legal shooting time, not a fixed time like SJ or Wister; so, be sure to check the times if you're headed up there.
Right now, due to drought / lack of water, there are only 3 non-handicapped blinds available for ressie holders. As of the 10th they were blinds 10, 11, and 14. We were #4, and 14 was available, but Bob recommended free roam, which we were pretty much wanting to do anyways. Blind 14 is pretty small for 2 people (why the hell would they build small blinds???) and Bob gave us some other reasons which I've forgotten that made us go free roam. I think it was something about you might want a dog if you're hunting 14 due to some thick brush. Pretty easy choice to free roam. We completed all our paperwork and headed out in the dark to set up.
Oh yeah, you're probably wondering about the "A Walk in the Clouds" bit. No we weren't watching a sh*tty K. Reeves movie that you took your HS sweetheart to and then proceeded to make multiple attempts at heavy petting and no we were smoking dope. I've got two words: TULE FOG. That stuff is legit. I mean, I'm a pilot and fly in clouds all the time, but Tule Fog is some second level sh*t. Once we dropped down into the valley it was like wall of fog...
We found our way to the parking lot, slogged out, and were set up about an hour before shoot time. Even with our area clearly occupied (I mean how do you miss two guys' headlamps) we still had to deal with the normal jackassery that is commonly found on refuges to include: 1) a group of 2 guys setting up 30 yds to our left (for safety sake I felt compelled to walk over and have a chat before they got fully set up...they were gracious and moved to 60yds
and 2) a dude kayaking around 15 mins before shooting light, comes straight up to us with his dog slogging and shaking off on us everywhere and asks, "ya'll hunting here?" I thought about saying, "Nope...just bird watching." I decided not to be a smart ass. He then proceeded to kayak through our spread, dragging dekes on his kayak...FML.Shooting light came and went and nobody was shooting much, which wasn't surprising due to the low ceilings / lack of visibility. At around 7, the fog lightened up a bit and birds started flying some and we were able to scratch out about 10 birds between us composed of Spoondogs and GWT by about 10:30. The birds were very decoy shy and only the Spoonies wanted to decoy (what's new?). We originally went in to the hunt wanting to be selective on big ducks only, but they didn't ever show up so we crushed some Spoonies and GWT.
Overall, we had fun. It was somewhere new and we didn't get skunked. I was expecting a lot more big ducks, but whatever...I'll shoot and eat almost anything.
If I was local to Kern (like we are "local" to Wister and SJ in SoCal) I'd probably try to hunt the free roam areas with frequency. But, unless you've got a ressie, that's a long way to go to take a chance.
The drive home sucked...
Sorry for the long post. Here's some pics of my take:
And of course I had to get some blood on the A-5!!!
