mattys281 Report post Posted April 25, 2007 Spent last week in Ca hanging out with my older brother. We made an attempt at a public land wild hog hunt, but it mostly turned into a road/backpacking trip. The areas I'd found good feedback on turned out to be so thick that even if you did glass something up it'd be impossible to stalk within bow range. We got some good pictures while driving & hiking though, so figured I'd share. These are some shots from the trail leading into the Ventana Wilderness area. The coastal mountains are beautiful & good glassing country for blacktails, but once you drop over the ridgeline it gets real thick real fast. My brother having a breather. This is my ugly mug. Here's my first herd of blacktails. I'll be heading back this summer w/ an archery tag in my pocket to try my luck before elk season starts over here. These are elephant seals that were along the pacific coast highway. They seemed pretty curious & a couple swam right up to us. [attachment=3160:seal5.jpg Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Huntn coues Report post Posted April 25, 2007 Thanks for sharing those pics with us. Pretty cool stuff... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azhuntnut Report post Posted April 25, 2007 One of these days I am going to get over there and try to find me some pigs. I am surprised that the game and fish didn't give you some good areas to hunt. I know they want to get rid of them. David Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BigMoqui Report post Posted April 25, 2007 What city/town is that wilderness area close to? My bro. lives in Chico and there are hogs to come by on the west slope of the sierras, but same thing, brush is to thick for glassing in most areas. Those blacktails are pretty cool little deer. When I was there in Feb I saw 30+ in one canyon in one evening of driving. My nephew (7) said he'd never seen A deer so I took him on an impromtu drive into the deer woods, and he loved it. He didn't want to go home so we spent several hours after dusk driving the dirt roads near Butte and Paradise. Mom was pi$$ed but it was worth it to see the kids face every time he would spot one of those little buggers. I agree with AZHN, if cali. wants to get rid of thier feral hog pop. why wouldn't they give information out on hot spots? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mattys281 Report post Posted April 25, 2007 I spent a lot of time talking to people on the phone before heading over there & it was always the same story. They say there very difficult to find on public land, especially now due to the drought for the last few years. The piggies are all holed up on the private ranches where there's reliable water and plenty of easy food. As for public land, I was told that the Laguna mountain area between King City & Coalinga is decent, but as I said, it was so thick that spotting & stalking within bow range would be difficult to say the least. There's lots of open land around there & a large reservoir, but it's all privately owned. The only public land in that area is a small patch of BLM land that is really overgrown. We did find some pig sign in there where they'd been rooting, but since it's in Ca I obviously didn't get to scout for any stand locations prior to going. A rifle hunter may do alright in there as long as you've got a partner to play spotter & help you find the pig after it's hit. In the Ventana Wilderness, there is actually a road called Coast Ridge Road that goes right into the wilderness probably 15 miles or so to some private homes. This road is gated, however, & only accessible to the people who live there or the people they give the combination to the locks to. After a five hour hike in which included 5 miles and an elevation gain of over 2500 ft. during the first 3, we were on that road & ran into a couple of the "locals". They told us there were pigs in there, but they hadn't seen any in 3-4 months. We also spoke to a Forest Service ranger who turned us onto a tank where he had seen some, but the tank was literally right on the road & had no cover for a blind near it. Actually, the road dead-ended there and it was in the middle of a big cultisac/parking lot for a hiking trailhead. The nearest cover was 45 yards away, which would've worked except that it put you shooting directly across the road. A big no-no in Az. & I'm sure that's the case in CA too. I've heard from some backpackers that there's a lot of sign around the south fork of the Big Sur river in the wilderness, but we didn't get that far in. It'd be about a 10 mile hike from the parking spot on hwy 1. I'm planning on going back, though, next month for a 4 day weekend & will try to get down to the rive & check that out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mattys281 Report post Posted April 25, 2007 What city/town is that wilderness area close to? My bro. lives in Chico and there are hogs to come by on the west slope of the sierras, but same thing, brush is to thick for glassing in most areas. Those blacktails are pretty cool little deer. When I was there in Feb I saw 30+ in one canyon in one evening of driving. My nephew (7) said he'd never seen A deer so I took him on an impromtu drive into the deer woods, and he loved it. He didn't want to go home so we spent several hours after dusk driving the dirt roads near Butte and Paradise. Mom was pi$$ed but it was worth it to see the kids face every time he would spot one of those little buggers. The Ventana is south of Monterey. It's pretty big, around 260,000 acres, so you really can't miss it. If you drive south from Monterey on the Pacific Coast hwy it's right outside your driverside window. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DesertBull Report post Posted April 25, 2007 You can get on a ranch pretty reasonable. $400-600 with high success rates. Meat is great and the hunt is fun. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZP&Y Report post Posted April 26, 2007 Matt, Real nice pics...I was wondering how you did over there... Regardless, still some nice country and your brother still has to get one under his belt! Give me a shout if you want to fling some arrows------------> Here are some sitkas from Kodiak,AK this winter... AzP&Y Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
