Steve Knight

COLEMAN - At the end of a long predawn drive from Brownwood to Coleman came a short run up a dirt road and then a walk down the fence row through a 200-acre sunflower field.

A crowd of about 60 took positions around the perimeter of the field, and still there didn't seem like enough hunters.

Perched at the eastern edge of the field, it didn't take long to see why Coleman County outfitter Dusty Greaves called it one of the best fields around.

Watching the field the morning before, scouts said they saw 300 fly in to the field with 15 minutes. In some cases they came in flocks of 30 birds at a time. It didn't seem an exaggeration.

It was still dark when the first of the doves started filtering in to feed on the seed left after mowing strips through the sunflowers. Arriving that early they were assuredly mourning doves. Whitewings don't wake up that early.

Besides, even though the field was located just a couple of miles from the Coleman city limits this field has been segregated. Greaves said the whitewings seemed to be feeding in a field slotted somewhere between this one and town.

The bulk of the early birds flew in from northwest corner, and as the 6:43 legal shooting time approached, flock numbers just got bigger and bigger. The shooting began in that corner, then slowly filtered south.

By 7:30 some of the hunters had their limits. By 8:45, despite plenty of birds still in the air, the action slowed because there just weren't enough hunters to keep the field stirred up.

Monday's opener in both the North and Central zones were a far-sight better than what hunters in the upper two-thirds of the state experienced last year. There were spots that were exceptional and others just good, but overall first-day hunters had good shoots.

"I thought the whitewing hunts were down from last year, but I thought the mourning doves were up considerably from last year. I would call the mourning dove hunts, on a scale of one to 10, a six or a seven -- a little above average. I think for an opening it was not your typical bang up mourning dove hunt," said Greaves.

Greaves said he doesn't think whitewing numbers are down in the Coleman area, but rather they have just moved in to different fields to feed than they had been using. Some of has to do with crop harvests and field preparation.

The outfitter said that the situation changed by Tuesday when some of the birds disappeared.

"I am not sure if that cold front that came through here had something to do with it. I talked with another outfitter and he said the bulk of his birds were gone on Wednesday in front of the front. I thought I had some birds leave me on a field in Santa Ana. To blame it on a cold front this early is hard, but I don't know what else it would be," Greaves said.

Brownwood outfitter David Davis was a little more bullish on the opener, calling it a seven or maybe an eight, but he was concerned about it the week before. Heavy rains pushed through the Brownwood and Coleman area before the season opened, causing birds to scatter from the fields they had been using.

By opening day, however, many of the fields had regrouped and offered good shoots.

While hunters in the center of the state were having good hunts, those in the North Zone were having excellent hunts.

"Opening day was probably among the top five opening days I have had since I have been in business as far as numbers of birds," said Roy Wilson of Texas Best Outfitters. Wilson runs hunts on fields in the Haskell County area.

"We had more whitewings than ever. Probably 60 percent of the birds my hunters killed were whitewings. Out of 25 hunter in one field near Rule about half limited on whitewings and the others had whitewings in their bag," he said.

Beyond that he said, "Out of the four groups I had out, anyone that could shoot limited out by 8."

Like Greaves, Wilson also saw an exodus of whitewings in front of last week's cooler weather.

"We are a little concerned about our fields. I hope we have some birds coming in behind this. That is what normally happens, but this is two weeks early. If birds come in behind this, it could turn around. The third day after a front is usually when we have new birds come in," said Wilson.

The season in the North Zone remains open until Oct. 30. The daily bag limit is 15.

The Central Zone season will also be open until Oct. 30, and then again Dec. 26-Jan. 4. The daily bag limit is 12.

The South Zone opens Sept. 20-Nov. 9 and again Dec. 26-Jan. 13. The limit there is also 12 birds per day.

THE RIGHT SPOT: A sunflower field in Central Texas is an ideal spot for dove hunting. The farther north the better the hunts for opening day in Texas.
(Staff Photo By Steve Knight)