Learning To Leave Well Enough Alone
Staff Photo By Steve Knight
OPENING DAY: Sticking with tradition, dove season will open Sept. 1 in the North and Central zones, and Sept. 20 in the South. However, TPWD is looking at a move for next year.
As a public service, I am here to save the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department a year of work and dove hunters money.
How? It's simple.
Leave the dove seasons alone.
Leave the dove seasons alone.
TPWD did the right thing this year and left the season the way it has been and the way it works. Now because of a quirk in the calendar, one that comes along once in a blue moon, hunters are a little worked up and the department has slipped into panic mode.
Although it took almost until opening day to make a decision, the department backed away from a South Texas proposal that would have removed a week of dove season that fell concurrently with the opening week of deer season and placed it at the end of January. That's when the fields are empty and the birds are as unpredictable as rain in July.
In the process the department got an earful from hunters. It turns out that many are upset about this year's Monday opening in the North and Central zones and a Saturday opener in the South.
Now that part isn't TPWD's fault. The department actually has to set its season dates and bag limit within a framework provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based on something called the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. As part of that agreement with Canada and Mexico, dove season cannot open in the North and Central zones before Sept. 1 and in the South Zone before Sept. 20.
Steve Knight
Traditionally, dove season in the North and Central zones opens Sept. 1, no matter what day of the week. In the South Zone, it has been the first Friday after Sept. 20, unless the 20th was a Saturday and it opened then.
During the recently completed public comment period, there was a big push for the season to open on a Friday, and for a 60-day season with a 15-bird bag limit in the South Zone.
"A recurrent theme was the concern that increased consumer costs, particularly transportation costs related to energy prices, make anything less than a three-day opening weekend economically unjustifiable," said Mike Berger, the department's lame duck Wildlife Division leader, in announcing this year's season. "Similarly, proponents of the 60-day/15-bird configuration stated that economic considerations would cause them to curtail the times they could go hunting, leading them to prefer a higher daily bag limit. In the past, hunters and others have expressed an aversion to delaying the opening day until the first full weekend, preferring the earliest possible opener."
The shorter season, higher bag limit makes sense, but more on that in a minute. Because what is more important is the call for a three-day opener, and here is where I am going to save you money.
The possession limit for dove is a two-day bag limit, which in the Central and South zones is 24 birds. So pray tell, what good is a three-day weekend opener and why is the department even considering it? Could this be a form of entrapment since everyone knows a hunter with three days to hunt is going to hunt three days (and some may double up on Saturday if they think they can get away with it)? OK, it's a joke.
As for the 60-day season with a 15-bird bag limit, instead of the current 70 and 12, it is brilliant. Put a pencil to it. With two weekends of hunting (the statewide average) a hunter could bag 60 birds. It would take an extra day, actually an extra trip because of the two-day possession limit, to equal that with a 12-bird bag. That would save the hunter both time, gasoline and a night's lodging.
If the TPWD does anything in the coming year, it needs to revert to the Central and South zones to 15 birds.
As for the longer vs. shorter season, that could take of itself. Eastern states have just received permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have a 70-day season and a 15-bird bag limit. If that were to come to Texas it should make those who want to go out on a cold winter's day and watch the birds disappear at the first shot, very happy.
I have to admit I am prejudice when it comes to the Sept. 1 opener. Since I have been going on that day since before I was even old enough to shoot a gun, it is one of the few days I can remember. I like the tradition. It is one of the few remaining in Texas hunting.
I have trouble believing the majority of hunters can't get a day or two off in the middle of the week. American workers have more time off now than they ever have. Surely they can use a day or two for dove hunting.
While outfitters shouldn't be the guidepost for setting regulations, ask any that have been around a while if they have had trouble booking opening day hunts on a holiday Monday with high gas and ammunition prices. Most are completely booked and for some reasons the calls came earlier than usual.
There is one other thing. I don't want to hear even a mention of half-day hunting.
2008-09 Dove Seasons
North Zone: Sept. 1-Oct. 30. 15 doves per day, no more than two white-tipped doves
North Zone: Sept. 1-Oct. 30. 15 doves per day, no more than two white-tipped doves
Central Zone: Sept. 1-Oct. 30; Dec. 26-Jan. 4. 12 doves per day, no more than two white-tipped
South Zone: Sept. 20-Nov. 9; Dec. 26-Jan. 13. 12 birds per day, no more than two white-tipped
Special Whitewing Area: Sept. 6-7, 13-14. 12 birds per day, no more than 4 mourning doves and 2 white-tipped
Note: Statewide possession limit is twice the daily bag limit.
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