Pig Hunting on Putah Creek

Otter · Senior Member

Pig Hunting on Putah Creek

AfricanAngler · Senior Member

When it comes to those kinds of pigs the truth of the matter is you do not really want a "pig" confuse

A young pig, preferably around 120-150 lbs......mmm..mmm good!!! (Smaller is good too but by the time you have field dressed the pig etc. etc. you don't get as full a freezer as you would like!!)

hobbs · Senior Member

Huh, I didnt know there were pigs over there. I guess that explains the vehicles Ive seen across from A1 on a couple occasions. Good point Alastair, "wild" pigs can be really good eating if you get a smaller one during the right time of the year. I put wild in quotes because most of them are feral and they are of course an introduced species. They sure are taking over in a lot of areas and unfortunately causing all sorts of problems from soil disturbance to disrupting the natural predator/prey balance. I say get rid of all of them but thats just my opinion I suppose.

Robert

AfricanAngler · Senior Member

hobbs wrote:

I say get rid of all of them but thats just my opinion I suppose

From what I understand that is pretty much DFG's stand on them too!!! Also there are very few true European wild boar left, but the the ferral wild hogs are better eating anyway!!

shon42073 · Senior Member

What were they shooting them with ? I doubt high powered rifle would be used in that area.

Otter · Senior Member

Audubon rules. You could only use a handmade bow and arrow. No compound bows. And a knife for safety... They didn't want anyone scaring the birds.

Just kidding. There is legal hunting around the bridge and the campground has a shooting range, so I am sure there were no restrictions on legal hunting rifles. Wild Pigs are very dangerous and tough to kill...

lightfoot · Senior Member

Steep steep steep with lots of bursh that seems to look way too much like poison oak. There is not much property up there to legally hunt on and access aside from the Winter and low flows requires a raft to access. The Audobon section is normally a no no for hunting of any type.

I've been hunting that area off and on for about 30 years. A few pigs n other critters but far and few between. During deer season there is a lot of traffic coming over from the top of the ridge and other access points. There really isn't that much room to hunt and more than one or two people up there at a time are going to get in each others way and screw things up. I've avoided it for deer simply because of that and a few other reasons.

At this point I would pass on a 200 lb pig. Stink up the entire house while cooking it then find out you don't want to eat it. My last one was around 150 lbs on the hoof and I still had to toss it. Now if I could just run across a little 30-50 pounder I'd be happy.

SK60 · Senior Member

These are depredation hunts overseen by DFG. The hunts are occurring on Bobcat Ranch, owned by the Audubon Society. They have a tremendous problem with environmental damage caused by the pigs. The first hunts were bow hunts; the more recent ones are rifle hunts for young hunters. They are using high-powered rifles.

Mature male pigs produce a sex hormone that causes a condition of the flesh called "boar taint", making them taste pretty awful. That's why your domestic male pigs destined for your dinner table are castrated at an early age.

In general, no hunting is allowed on the Audubon property, or on the ranches surrounding it. Too many cattle around.

-- Edited by SK60 on Saturday 1st of January 2011 12:13:15 PM

AfricanAngler · Senior Member

AfricanAngler wrote:

When it comes to those kinds of pigs the truth of the matter is you do not really want a "pig" A young pig, preferably around 120-150 lbs......mmm..mmm good!!! (Smaller is good too but by the time you have field dressed the pig etc. etc. you don't get as full a freezer as you would like!!)

Yes I forgot to mention a sow is the way to go too.

bono · Master Fly Fishing Guide

Myself and my son have harvested 5 or 6 pigs over the last handfull of years and honestly for us all of the pigs we killed (and ate) were fantastic . most were in the 150 to 200 lb range but my wall hanger (literally) was a big 375 lb boar and yes it was not good eating I pretty much made sausage mixed with pork fat and highly seasoned out of the entire thing. I also had ham made as well but even that salty smoked meat was still really gamey. I eat alot of wild game,probably 75 % of the meat my family eats is elk deer pig turkey and of course putah creek rainbow trout (just kidding)!! I have found that proper care of the harvested animal from field to dinner plate is essential, like cooling the carcass ASAP, keeping it clean, removing the fat and bone, aging the meat properly (not turkey of course) thawing the meat slowly on a cookie cooling rack to let it bleed out thus removing some of the gameyness and lastly cooking it properly.Alot of cuts need to be slow cooked in a dutch oven or crock pot. Just last week I have made swiss steak, elk chili, elk marsala, turkey parmesian and an asian influenced version of thai elk . All of these dishes were fantastic and on new years eve our guests had no clue that they were eating wild game.