Lake Berryessa will be the site of a trout fishing derby on Saturday, Nov. 8.

The derby is open to anglers of all ages.

The event essentially consists of two different contests — one for kids under 16 years of age and another for adults. In the 16-and-under contest, the entrants register free of charge and can win prizes (donated by Spanish Flat Country Store) for the first-, second-, and third-place trout.

For all other anglers there is a $5 entry fee, and the winner takes home a cash prize consisting of all entry fees collected.

All fish must have been legally caught out of Lake Berryessa on the day of the event. Trout are the only fish eligible for the contest. The final weigh-in will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Fish will be judged based on weight.

Anglers can register in advance at the Spanish Flat Country Store at 4318 Berryessa Knoxville Road. For more information, call Marcia Ritz at the store at 966-1600, or CeCe Short at 259-5262.

Duck opener results

Despite the beautiful weather conditions, some Northern California duck hunters were able to find reasonable shooting on public refuges for last weekend’s opener.

Beneath a clear sunrise and hardly a breath of wind, hunters on the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge averaged 3.2 birds per hunter last Saturday.

The most popular ducks in their bags were the shoveler and the green-wing teal. On Sunday the success rate dropped significantly to an average of only 1.7 per hunter, although on this day the pintail was the most commonly taken duck.

The story was similar at other Sacramento Valley refuges, with hunters averaging three to four ducks each on Saturday and around two ducks on Sunday.

Overall, the numbers were comparable to, or even a little better than, opening weekend in 2007.

At Gray Lodge Wildlife Area, however, the average take was much lower.

Hunters bagged an average of just over two ducks each on Saturday, and less than one apiece on Sunday. The majority of these birds were teal and gadwall, with a few mallards mixed in.

It’s interesting to note that, although there were more ducks overall in 2008 than in 2007, the percentage that were mallards was much lower than last year. Almost every refuge reported the mallard as the most common species taken on opening weekend in 2007, but this year the greenhead was much harder to find.

These numbers support this year’s nesting counts announced for the Sacramento Valley, which reported a notable decline in local mallard breeding. But it’s good to know that we still have decent populations of locally breeding ducks of a variety of species.

Game Warden Academy accepting applications

The deadline to apply for the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Game Warden Academy at Butte College near Chico is Nov. 7.

Applicants will be considered for the proposed January 2010 academy.

“Game wardens ensure the future of wildlife resources for the people of California through responsible enforcement of laws, regulations and rules,” says Lt. John Lawson, DFG academy coordinator. “They ensure public safety, keep the homeland secure, respond during natural disasters, investigate illegal commercialization of wildlife, protect the state from pollution and enforce habitat protection laws.”

A typical day for a California game warden is as diverse as the state’s fish and wildlife. Wardens have the opportunity to patrol ocean, desert, mountain and valley environments, as well as California’s urban areas and frequently work independently conducting full scale investigations.

Wardens employ everything from ATVs to jetskis to snowmobiles while on patrol, and spend much of their day making contact with Californians in the great outdoors. DFG has a dive team and recently added a K-9 patrol as well.

Environmental crimes and pollution incidents also fall under game warden duties.

Annually, wardens make contact with more than 295,000 people and issue more than 15,000 citations.

Successful academy applicants will enter a 30-week program, followed by three one-month training assignments where they will work with a seasoned field training officer.

DFG’s Butte College academy is Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certified. This new partnership ensures that cadets are provided with DFG-specific peace officer training. Butte College has a 39-year history of police recruit training and has trained more than 5,000 students through its law enforcement academy.

The 928-acre campus, the largest in California, includes a wildlife refuge.

In California, with 159,000 square miles of area that offers habitat and wildlife diversity unequaled by any other state, the average warden has a patrol district of more than 600 square miles. The state has more than 1,100 miles of coastline, 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, 4,800 lakes and reservoirs, three desert habitat areas and scores of high mountain peaks.

More information and applications are available at www.dfg.ca.gov/enforcement. Applications must be postmarked by Nov. 7.

To see more about what game wardens do, please visit www.dfg.ca.gov/enforcement/career to view DFG’s new video.