Do you know of any good spots, for hog on public land?

Smallfry, I have check this very thing out. regretably, there is little public accesable land to hunt hogs on. Hunter Ligget Army Reserve is one I believe. They only allow hunting on certain days. And there aren't many pigs there.

Most of the terrain, and subsequent feed is located in lower more populated land (read Private land)

As I have ran accross this subject on this board, that the land owners whine about the damage the pigs do but when ask about hunting them they want money per pig! Then maybe some stupid hunters have caused MORE damage than the pigs, ruining it for consiencious hunters.

Most of the public hog hunting is on land administered by the BLM. If you are really interested, I can give you the area office addresses that can tell you where free hunting is allowed. However, be warned! Those who envision California, based on tourist posters, as a land of sandy beaches, gentling rolling vineyards, flat suburbs, etc. have absolutely no clue as to how fiercely rugged such country is. Hogs don't like high altitude and California's foothills are steep, canyon-cut, and covered by some of the planet's nastiest scrub growth. Also, there isn't a whole lot of hawg feed there so the numbers are smaller than on agricultural property. When hunting piggies in California, don't think the Great American West. Think more Italy or Southern France where all the land is owned and all the hunting is for fee. Native wildlife you can hunt in National Forest, but not the pig.

When I was stationed out there, I hunted pigs by Indian Head Reservior and on Cache Creek wildlife area. Both these areas are north of Napa off HWY 20.

These are public property and had fair numbers of pigs back then. Remember this was about 8 years ago, so things may have changed. The hunting wasn't easy, but the game was there.

I took a couple pretty good blacktail bucks as well as pigs off Cache Creek. You needed to get quite aways back into the country to do any good. The pigs tended to be down by the creek right at sunrise and headed to the thick brush as soon as it got light. This is pretty rough country. Had lots of quail and turkeys too.

As for Indian Head Reservoir, there are some meadows up above it. Don't remember what they are called, but there are signs leading to a spring. The pigs hit the meadows at sunrise and sunset and faded back into the brush during the heat of the day. The brush was really thick back then and I don't believe it would be any more open now. I took some deer here as well. There are quite a few rattlesnakes around here, so if you are wading through the brush, some precautions would be in order.

The best pig hunting I found in Northern Ca was actually at the vinyards in Napa. The pigs tend to tear things up pretty bad, especially when the vines are young. A buddy of mine lived in Napa and had some contacts. You may be able to call some vinyards and talk to the head of landscaping and get permission to hunt pigs. One word to the wise though, there isn't enough money in circulation to get permission to hunt deer on the vinyards, which is a shame because they all have trophy blacktails running around them.

Hope this helps.

Mac

For the above stated reasons I always hunt out of state. It really is a shame that I have to board a plane every time I want to kill hogs.

One place that is overlooked by most of California is the Carrizo Plains area in western Kern and eastern San Luis Obispo counties. Take Highway 166 west through Maricopa. Just past Maricopa take the turnoff for Soda Lake (still heading west) and the Carrizo Plains area is 10-20 miles down the road. There is a state park there that allows camping and BLM land for hunting. Pigs are few and far between but can be found near water.

[ 11-16-2003, 04:31: Message edited by: Fjold ]