Texas Hunting Leases

You know when it is getting close.  There just seems to be both subliminal and overt markers that tell a hunter’s inner clock to start thinking about it.  Dove Season.  In Texas it is the annual kick-off of all good things to come in the outdoors each Fall.  It is first before horns and most wings can be harvested and is an annual pilgrimage for many Texans each year.  The obvious signs that the season is near include walking through your local sporting good store and seeing camo buckets, dove loads and light-weight camouflage clothing.  Or, noticing a few more 20 gauges, and shooters, around the gun range working a clays course.  Subliminally, the heat of August makes one look forward to the cool of Fall.  And the hunter finds him or herself pulling out camouflage apparel from the back of the closet to take stock in one’s needs before the first cold front arrive.

For 2010, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has released their dates for this year’s wing-shooting primer.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service SRC (Service Regulation Committee) has approved the 2010-2011 Texas dove season, including a 70-day season and 15-bird daily bag statewide.  Texas dove season in the North and Central Dove Zones will run from Wednesday, Sept. 1 through Sunday, Oct. 24 and reopen Saturday, Dec. 25 through Sunday, Jan. 9, with a 15-bird daily bag and not more than two white-tipped doves.  The South Zone dove season will run Friday, Sept. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 31, reopening Saturday, Dec. 25 through Tuesday, Jan. 18 with a 15-bird daily bag and not more than two white-tipped doves.  Possession limit is twice the daily bag limit.

The Special  White-winged Dove Area will open to white-winged dove afternoon-only (noon to sunset) hunting the first two full weekends in September running from Sept. 4-5 and 11-12 and reopen when the regular South Zone season begins on Friday, Sept. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 31 and again from Saturday, Dec. 25 through Friday, Jan. 14. The Special White-winged Dove Area season takes four of the allowable 70 days, so when the regular season opens, this area must close four days earlier than the rest of the South Zone. During the early two weekends, the daily bag limit is 15 birds, to include not more than four mourning doves and 2 white-tipped doves. Once the general season opens, the aggregate bag limit will be 15.

Because Dove season begins essentially in hottest time of the year and is the first hunting season to partake in, special preparations should be taken before packing up and heading out. Among the obvious at this time of year is getting an early start on your hunting license.  Knowing your hunting zones and regulations is also a must. For the heat, make sure that you are prepared to keep cool and hydrated.  And finally, make sure you have done your homework on your Dove Species and hunting lease or outfitter.

2010 Texas Dove Hunting Leases

Dove hunting opportunities are abundant throughout Texas.  Private land leases and public hunting are readily available.  Texas Parks and Wildlife offers approximately 140 locations to hunt dove to hunters who purchase an Annual Public Hunting Permit.  Doing some homework by calling around and getting prices, types of hunting terrain and amenities is a good idea.  With this season’s bag limits up to 15 birds this year, you can certainly get a full day’s shooting.  Finally, after a great hunt, enjoy your dove with a good beverage and a few of your favorite fixins’. The little bird is a favorite on the grill, the frying pan and even in the casserole dish. Good Hunting!

Weekly migratory bird hunting reports are posted from early September through early February.

High Plains Mallard Management Unit: Goose hunters enjoyed better decoying action near Dumas, Spearman and Amarillo with the snow and colder conditions. Larger Canada geese are showing with frozen ponds in the northern states. Snow geese have been tough to fool over decoys without weather. Specklebellies and Canadas continue to work in Knox and Haskell counties. Duck numbers continue to build in the Panhandle, with more mallards showing on playas. Most hunters have had to break ice to find open water in shallow ponds. Prospects are good.

North Zone Duck: Duck hunters have taken good numbers of mallards in sloughs, creeks and river bottoms. Colder weather and frozen waterways to the north have encouraged more mallards to cross the state line. Canvasbacks and other divers have been steady on Lake O’Pines, Toledo Bend and Lake Fork. Backwaters around Toledo Bend has produced good mallard shoots as well. Gadwalls and wigeons have been taken in shallow coves of lakes and reservoirs. Wood ducks have been steady at first light in the timber. Hunting remained steady around the zone boundaries of IH-10. Freshwater impoundments have held pintails, wigeons, shovelers and green-winged teal. Prospects are good.

South Zone Duck: The coast continues to produce steady duck shoots on the prairies, marshes and bays. Gadwalls, wigeons, shovelers and pintails have been steady near Eagle Lake, Garwood and Wharton. Absent has been the large concentrations of green-winged teal that many hunters count on to fill limits. Bay hunters enjoyed limits to half-limits near Port O’Connor and Rockport. Redheads, bluebills, gadwalls and wigeons have made up the bay bags. Hunters in Trinity Bay have enjoyed half-limits of gadwalls and bluebills on the north shoreline. Marsh hunters near High Island and Sabine Pass have seen slow hunting. Snow goose hunting has been difficult, even with weather conducive to goose hunting. A small juvenile population of snows has been the culprit for slow decoying action. Specklebellies have shied from calling. Sandhill crane numbers are steady, but few hunters have set up decoy spreads. Most cranes have been harvested by goose hunters in white spreads. Prospects are good.

“That’s not good”, I thought to myself as the young female pointer ran after a herd of javelina into the South Texas brush.   We had just got out of the jeep to start working our way into an opening that looked promising for quail.  My original plan was to work one of the three German Shorthaired pointers we had one at a time.   This would allow me to use the single electronic collar that we had to keep the dog in close and to mind me when we got into the birds.  But, the first dog was sharing a larger crate on the jeep with another and while we were letting one out, the second managed to lunge forward and make its way out front.  Oh well, two is better than one, right?  Wrong! 

It was a few seconds after the ensuing chase that I heard the quick growl and bark of a dog fighting followed by a piercing and painful yelp.  I had ran about five yards towards the sounds when the young bitch came running towards me on three legs.  Her right hind leg being held gingerly in the air by her side.  For only three legs she was making full strides with a look of pain and fear right for me.  “Here Zoe, here” I called.  Now she had no problem listening to me unlike before when she bolted after the herd of collared peccary.   Zoe ran behind me, laid down on left her side and looked behind my leg to make sure the sharp-tusked monsters were not giving chase.  I pet her and examined her hind quarter where I quickly noticed two trails of blood oozing from her skin.  With some bottled water, we washed her leg off and thankfully saw that the javelina only got one bite on her.  She was lucky, just two good puncture wounds and no visible sign of tearing or muscle damage.  Well, that ought to cover javelina chasing.  I wondered if they offered that along with the desnaking clinics around the area.

Javelina normally avoid conflict when stumbled upon.  Especially with man.  But, they are notoriously just ticked off at dogs.  It probably stems from the fact that coyotes are a natural predator of their young and, like all animals, they do not take kindly to things wanting to hurt their offspring.  They are also very well adapted to protecting themselves while in numbers.  If something attacks one of them, the others will come in from behind and counter-attack.  It is an effective defense mechanism that many animals use.  Just ask Zoe!

About an hour later, we had ole Zoe at the vet for a look over.  We had cleaned her wounds as best we could but thought that a little TLC from the doc was in order.  The doctor agreed that she was a lucky girl and she got out of the examination room with a shot of antibiotics and some peroxide on her rump.  But, for safety sake, the rest of her day was spent in the kennel to think about her misconduct and convalesce in the South Texas sun.  That afternoon, when we returned from the field, Zoe was standing up on her hind legs, front paws on the chain-link fence, barking for her turn.  “Not this trip”, I told her.  “You’re still in time-out”.  But, I gave her a little pat to let her know that she would be alright.