Thursday, August 9, 2001

It’s time to get your licenses up to date

Hunting/fishing fees Super combo with annual public hunting permit - $89 Super combo - $49 Combo - $32 Hunting license - $19 State waterfowl stamp - $7 Federal Waterfowl stamp - $15 White-winged stamp - $7 Turkey stamp - $5 Archery stamp -$7 Muzzleloader stamp - $10 Bonus whitetail tag - $10 Fishing licenses - $19 Saltwater stamp - $10 Senior Fishing - $6 Senior Hunting - $6 Senior Combo - $10 Senior Super Combo - $25

Your hunting and fishing licenses expire Aug. 31.
   New ones go on sale Wednesday.
   Texas Parks and Wildlife along with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation is offering extra incentive this year to get your license early. Purchase it before Aug. 25 and you're automatically entered into a drawing for a list of prizes, to include a Browning shotgun, a Browning .22-caliber rifle, a Castaway rod and Shimano Curado reel. A complete list of rules is available at www.tpwd.state.tx.us.
   Why wait?
   Licenses and stamps are available at Academy, Roy's Bait & Tackle Outfitters, Wal-Mart, Oshman's or the TPW offices, 5541 Bear Ln. Call them at 289-5566.
   They also can be purchased at participating convenience stores, such as Circle K, Diamond Shamrock and Maverick Market.
   While you're preparing for the upcoming hunting season, you should remind young hunters between the ages of 17 and 30 that they must pass a hunter safety course before taking to the field. If you were born after Sept. 1, 1971 this course is mandatory.
   The 10-hour, two-day course is offered at the Corpus Christi Pistol and Rifle Club, The Sharpshooter and the U.S. Army Reserve Training Center. Carroll High School agricultural students can take the course on campus.

Seasons/bag limits North Zone - Sept. 1-Oct. 30; daily bag limit, 15 doves. Central Zone - Sept. 1-Oct. 28 and Dec. 26-Jan. 6; daily bag limit, 12 doves. South Zone - Sept. 21-Nov. 4 and Dec. 22-Jan. 12; daily bag limit, 12 doves. Special White-winged Dove Zone (along lower Rio Grande Valley) - Sept. 1-2 and 8-9; daily bag limit, 10 doves to include no more than five mourning doves and two white-tipped doves. Statewide September teal-only season is Sept. 15-30, with a daily bag limit of four teal. Anyone interested in becoming a hunter safety instructor should contact TPW at 289-5566.

   For times and dates or to register for a course, call TPW or contact area safe hunter instructor chief Gilbert Graves at 853-8644.
   Part of the course requirement can be fulfilled through home study or over the Internet. These courses also require a four-hour session with an instructor. For information on this option, call the TPW or visit www.tpwd.state.tx.us.
   You also might want to review game laws in the TPW Outdoor Annual, available where licenses are sold. Game wardens rarely accept ignorance as an excuse.
   I'm betting that a record number of tickets will be issued this season for violations to the new rules on dove bag limits. The daily bag limit on doves is 12 for the Central and South zones this season.
   Causing some confusion, the bag limit remains at 15 for the North Zone, breaking a longtime tradition of uniform statewide bag limits.
   Like it or not, the state chose the 12-bird/70-day season for the South and Central zones over the 15-bird/60-day option offered by the feds. The decision was based on public input, according to TPW officials.
   Besides, on average, wingshooters don't bag even half their daily quota. As usual, many truthful hunters with light bags won't be blaming a lack of early season birds, come September.
   The outlook for whitewings in the Rio Grande Valley is good. Actually, one TPW official used the word "gangbusters" to describe the statewide proliferation of the larger, white-shouldered birds.
   Even with an 11 percent drop in the breeding population in the southern half of Texas - from 507,000 birds to 452,000 - most hunters should see plenty of whitewings this season. That's because an unusually good, long and late nesting period is expected to offset the modest decline.
   Generally, the fall population of doves is at least double that of breeding stock counted in May.
   Statewide, the white-winged dove population has added about 700,000 new breeders since last year. Most of these birds are concentrated near urban areas. Biologists estimate that the Texas white-winged population stands at about 3.1 million.
   For an economical crack at these gray/brown bullets, either variety, buy a $40 annual public hunting permit. Ten public hunting spots, mostly in Cameron and Hidalgo counties, are open during the special white-winged season. Dozens of other public hunting fields are scattered throughout South and Central Texas. Some of the best ones are within an hour's drive of Corpus Christi.
   Purchase a permit early enough and get your public hunting lands map in time for the season opener.
   As for mourning doves, the numbers are equally encouraging. But as with both species, populations vary widely from region to region, depending on rainfall, which also affects both predation and the availability of food. When scouting a dove patch, look for a water source, sunflowers, croton or some type of domestic food source before leasing from an outfitter.
   Perhaps making this wingshooting season more interesting, a new dove species entered the state a few years ago. It's called a Eurasian collared dove and it's fair game.
   Considered a pest in Florida, this exotic Asian native arrived in Texas in 1997. It's now distributed statewide and seen frequently around the Calallen area.
   This dove has the markings of the largely domestic ringed neck turtledove, but is larger than a white-winged dove.
   Because the Eurasian collared dove is an exotic species, there is no bag limit and no closed season on them. Shoot what you can eat.
   But be careful not to shoot the smaller, low-flying Inca dove or common ground dove.
  
  

Talk about fishing in the Coastal Bend