HATCHING A GOOD HUNT DOVE SHOULD BE PLENTIFUL FOR WEDNESDAY'S SEASON OPENER.

Byline: Jim Niemiec Special to the Daily News

LAKEVIEW - Dove are widely scattered in all areas of Southern California after a damp spring that produced a good local hatch of mourning dove.

The numbers will be increased by new flocks moving into Southland shooting areas between Bakersfield and the Imperial Valley. Monsoon rain and wind hammered parts of Southern California, scattering lots of flocks of mourning dove and sending whitewing dove by the thousands to warmer weather conditions below the Mexican border.

Fair gunning on opening is expected for scatter gunners setting up near watering holes, around fallow cropland and under established flyways. The midweek opener, on Wednesday, should find thousands of hunters heading to fields in hopes of bagging a limit of mourning dove.

Strong thundershowers would dampen hunting prospects for the high desert regions and along the Colorado River, where both sides of this popular dove-hunting area traditionally produce mixed limits of mourning and whitewing dove.

The San Jacinto Wildlife Area offers unattached hunters a good close-by, no-fee public shooting spot just miles northeast of Lakeview. The huge refuge will have little hunting pressure but can often produce some pretty good gunning for passing dove and birds looking for a small watering spot.

Wildlife manager Tom Paulek expects it to be an average opening, producing limits of mourning dove for those who set up under an established flyway, with perhaps the average bag taken on opening morning being five to six birds.

``We were seeing good numbers of dove on the refuge right up until last week,'' Paulek said. ``Even though there's a lot of birds, they seem to have spread out over the valley and the bigger flocks have broken up a little as new feeding areas have matured and some the local farmers have started harvesting their seasonal crops. The storm missed the refuge and I would expect to see a lot of hunters go home with birds.''

Paulek said most of the best gunning on the San Jacinto refuge will come along Davis Road, located off the Ramona Expressway about a 20-minute drive from Perris.

``Hunters might want to set up along the river canal where birds will be coming into water early in the morning, especially if it is a hot day,'' he said. ``There are standing water run-off channels and the sandy arroyo has a few live springs. Birds have traditionally used this flyway through the first half of the dove season and this little habitat area traditionally offers up some pretty good opening day shooting.''

There is no cost to hunt at San Jacinto but all hunters have to check in at the permit booth located across the road from refuge headquarters on Davis Road, where they can also get an upland game bird map that will pinpoint some of the better shooting sites on the large wildlife refuge. Hunting pressure on this refuge is traditionally light with normally fewer than 100 shooters showing up for a midweek opener.

The California and Arizona sides of the Colorado River region were hit pretty hard by the monsoon weather pattern that hit last week and sent a lot of whitewing dove heading south. Fallow crops and melon fields around Niland are loaded with dove and quick limits should be the reward for those hunters who arrive early and do a little scouting of established flyway, waterholes and roosting groves.

Wister Wildlife Refuge will be open to dove hunting for the general public and there will be no permit fee for those hunting on Wister or Finney-Ramer units, located about a 45-minute drive down Highway 111 from the DFG check-in station on Davis Road.

``It's looking like it will be hot gunning all over Wister and this season there will be no closed areas,'' said Adolfo Hernandez, habitat supervisor for the refuge.

Hernandez said dove will be coming into safflower and milo fields that were planted earlier this summer and all these farmed fields make excellent food plots for holding dove on the refuge.

``I am seeing more whitewing on the refuge this year than in the past 10 years and with the lack of heavy thunderstorm activity in our area before opening day, hunters should be able get shots off at plenty of these bigger dove,'' Hernandez said.

Hernandez believes that Finney-Ramer could give up the best shooting in the Imperial Valley on opening day and could provide good gunning through the first half of the dove season.

There is a self check-in station and it will be watched closely for over-limits, especially whitewings, by DFG wardens on opening day.

Moving off to the east, good shooting is expected again this year from Blythe to the Mexican border. The reservations will be good, based on field reports. Those hunting on the Arizona side of the Colorado River around Martinez should enjoy pretty fair hunting and come out of the field with mixed-bag limits of whitewing and mourning dove. Hunting on the California side of the river will not be as good.

Dove hunters heading between Wrightwood and Barstow and as far north as the Owens Valley should be able to tap the area for a few limits on opening day. The desert regions were holding lots of mourning dove because excellent breeding conditions produced a bumper crop of birds this spring but the rain and wind really moved the birds around.

Desert regions that are open to public hunting had enough rain this year to produce a lot of native seed crops, and dove are taking advantage.

Dove hunting should be fair at best in the Owens River Valley between Lone Pine and Bishop. Too much water, good breeding conditions and plenty of food should combine to put birds in the sky on opening morning.

The foothills and flatlands coming off the western slopes of the High Sierras below Lake Isabella and toward Fresno have always been good areas to hunt dove for at least the first few days of the early season. There is plenty of unposted hunting property east of Highway 99 and even if a large farming operation is posted most ranch owners will allow dove hunters to come on their land for a morning shoot as long they close all gates and get permission from management.

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Photo:

(color) Hannes Schachtner of Glendale holds a limit of mourning dove shot while gunning over a fallow wheat field. Limits should be the reward for dove hunters heading out on opening morning at most Southland shooting spots.

Jim Niemiec/Special to the Daily News