Dove season just on the horizon
The 2010-11 dove season is still two weeks away, but pregame hype and chatter is in the air. Whether you are a dove hunter, outfitter or a business owner, there is plenty to get excited about as the Sept. 1 opener draws near. In Texas, that always seems to be the case.
Dove hunting is big business in Texas. Each year roughly 350,000 dove hunters flock to grain fields, croton patches and water holes around the state. Together they shoot about 6 million birds, which equal about 30 percent of the doves killed nationwide during a normal dove season.
That may sound like lot, but it is not. Texas has an estimated breeding population of about 20-25 million doves, and millions of migrants pass through the state during their annual migratory treks to Mexico and Central America.
According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surveys, Bexar County around San Antonio is the state's top county for overall harvest. Bexar County hunters shoot about 300,000 doves each year, including mourning doves and whitewings.
Coleman County is a leader in mourning dove harvest with more than 100,000 birds taken in most years. Other top ranked counties for dove include Tom Green, Uvalde, Taylor, Frio, Medina, Atascosa, Hidalgo, Collin and Duval.
East Texas counties are noticeably absent from the list. That's because much of the landscape east of I-45 is used for timber production and other agricultural practices not conducive to attracting large numbers of doves. As a rule, the best dove hunting usually occurs in areas of the state that produce row crops such as milo, corn, soybean, browntop millet, etc.
All the dove hunting activity in Texas leads to a big boom in hunter spending that generates around $316 million for local economies, more than 3,000 jobs in the private sector and about $21 million in sales tax receipts. Among other things, dove hunters spend money on gasoline, clothing, food, auto parts, hotels, leases, day fees, shotshells and shotguns.
While most dove hunters are game for hunting throughout the season, the interest always peaks as August fades to September, giving way to a season opener Texas hunters can't wait for.
Step outside and cup an ear on the morning or afternoon of Sept. 1 and you will likely hear the resonant booms of shotguns as wingshooters sling lead at a popular game bird that represents one of best deals going in terms of high quality, low cost hunting available to Texas sportsmen.
Without question, Texas dove hunting is among the best in the nation, and you don't have to go into hock to play the game. The are plenty of outfitters in good dove country who offer day hunt packages at prices that are pretty affordable. As a rule, you can expect to pay around $75-$125 per gun for access to a spot on a good dove field.
Put three or four buddies in the same pick-up to split the cost of fuel along with a $70 hotel room and there is no reason why a weekend dove hunt should cost more than $300, excluding the cost a hunting license, shotshells, food and beer.
Some outfits provide package deals at higher rates. Amenities may include guides, dogs, ground transportation, food and lodging.
The best outfitters will do plenty of preseason scouting and have a good idea of which fields are holding birds, when the birds are utilizing them and which are the most consistently active flight paths. Of course, these factors can change almost daily once the shooting starts or the first cool fronts passes through.
If you don't already know of a good outfitter, county chamber of commerce offices, local feed stores or sporting goods outlets are great sources of information for tracking one down. The Internet also is loaded with day hunt advertisements, or you can check the classifieds section in large metropolitan newspapers or regional magazine publications.
As a rule, the dove hunting buzz is always the most pronounced during the first couple of weeks of the season, especially on the weekends. It would be wise to act quickly if you intend to book a trip around the season opener. Outfitters and hotels in small town hotspots such as Coleman, Sweetwater, Uvalde and Hondo book up pretty quickly, if they are not already.
If you don't like crowds, you might consider booking a hunt later in the season after the newness of the season wears off. Often the shooting will be much better later in the year, mainly because the birds are less pressured and late season migrants will have arrived. Plus, the cooler weather is much more pleasant to hunt in.
That's the beauty of living in a state with the most abundant dove population and most flexible hunting framework in the nation. Texas dove seasons are long, and the bag limits are fairly liberal.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department recently released the dates and bag limits for the upcoming dove season in the North, Central and South Zones. The framework mirrors the package handed down last year.
Season dates will run concurrent in the North and Central zones beginning Sept. 1 through Oct. 24 and reopening Dec. 25 through Jan. 18. The daily bag limit is 15 birds daily, not to include more than two white-tipped doves.
In the South Zone, the season will run Sept. 17 through Oct. 31, reopening on Dec. 25 through Jan. 18 with a 15-bird daily bag limit and not more than two white tips.
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 will reopen when the regular South Zone season begins on Sept. 17 through Oct. 31 as well as from Dec. 25 through Jan. 14.
According to TPWD reports, 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.
Matt Williams' e-mail address is mattwilliams@netdot.com.
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