JULIAN – For the first time in the history of San Diego hunting, deer season crossed paths with turkey season yesterday, and as expected, there were stories to be told.
Game wardens were busy, and on one stretch of rural road near Julian, two Department of Fish and Game wardens worked cases that involved turkey and deer, stopping all of the hunters involved in a line of vehicles along the side of the road.
In one corner, a group of turkey hunters waited for wardens to finish up a deer case in which the deer hunter had not filled out his D-16 tag properly. Hunters are required to completely fill out their tag after shooting a deer and attach the tag to an antler (for bucks) or leg (for does).
Meanwhile, the turkey hunters had a Forest Service map and hoped to prove to the game wardens that one of them shot a turkey on nearby public land, but somehow, the tom turkey ended up stone dead on private property just off the road.
Good luck with all that.
Based on field interviews, turkey hunting was slow.
Rick Paulson and his nephew, Chris, 17, both of Ramona, heard a gobble, somewhat rare in the fall. But other than a little bit of turkey scat and a few tracks, they saw very little sign of turkeys. They hunted in the Julian area on public land after starting the day in Pine Valley.
“We ran into a lot of deer hunters out there,” Rick Paulson said. “I think the turkeys are extra skittish because of all the deer hunters. We'll be back, though. They can't hide forever.”
Brothers Eric and Jonathan McCully hunted deer with Lyle Harrick in the Julian area. They didn't have any luck, but as they were talking to an outdoors writer, a man drove by with a San Diego County deer hunter's dream buck stuffed in the bed of his pickup.
Joe Teschendorf of La Mesa was the lucky hunter who shot the massive animal, a high-antlered, wide, 3x3 that had long eyeguards. It was Teschendorf's first buck ever, and it's safe to say he may never shoot one in this county equal to or better than that one.
“I saw it in low brush, and it made the mistake of moving just a bit as I walked by,” Teschendorf said. “I was about 100 yards away.”
Teschendorf used a vintage World War II Enfield .303 rifle with a scope. He was at least 2½ miles from his vehicle when he shot the big buck, estimated to be 135 pounds, field-dressed. He managed to drag it nearly a mile before deer hunters Rick Tierney of Carlsbad and Luke Vangelder of Escondido happened by on their way out from hunting. They helped Teschendorf lug the buck to the road.
“I'm going to treat them to a hunt at Wister, the Duck Zoo,” Teschendorf joked.
Thus was Super Saturday for Sportsmen and Sportswomen in Southern California, a day when a list of game and animals too long to mention was fair game for hunters.
In Imperial Valley, the second part of the state's split dove season opened a half-hour before sunrise, and the pheasant season blasted off at 8 a.m.
Lt. game warden Joe Brana said doves were scattered throughout the valley, with some concentrated in areas worth hunting.
Leon Lesicka of Desert Wildlife Unlimited released 1,000 pheasants in the DWU and Department of Fish and Game Upland Game Bird Heritage Fields. Lesicka said more pheasants were let go this year than in any previous year, with some fields, between Calipatria and Niland, getting 25 to 50 birds.
On the fishing front, Garrett Bailey, 12, of Poway took the early lead in the Dixon Lake Trout Derby yesterday morning by fooling a 6.46-pound rainbow trout with a chunk of white Power Bait. But it was very early in the four-day derby that ends Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Dixon Lake ranger Jim Dayberry said more than 350 anglers showed up for the start of trout season, and all 50 of the lake's boat rentals were gone by early morning. The lake received 4,500 pounds of rainbow trout from the Chalk Mound Trout Ranch in western Nebraska, and Dayberry said many are in the 4-to 12-pound range.
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
