Public Dove Hunts East of Dallas

Any word on the Annual Hunting Permit dove areas East of Dallas? I noticed there are several near Rockwall and Greenville.

I tried several of them starting about 3 weeks into last season. No luck at all. That said, other people I ran into said that they had quite a bit of luck week 1 and then it dropped off completely. Tate Farm west is really close to me, and I tried it often. Linking the overhead shot from TPWD site. There's a small pond, but what looks like a mowed field was 3ft high or taller grasses. They did mow about a 20ft wide path around the perimeter, but the only doves I saw were either on the fence, or on the powerlines in the adjacent fields. They REALLLY avoided even flying over that field.

I also made a couple of trips to the ones near Royse City. Mostly plowed fields, spotted a few doves on the ground feeding. Again this was several weeks into the season, so I'd guess they were pretty good at the start.

Lesson learned for me was to hunt public areas right at season start.

http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/annual_public_hunting/resources/TateFarmWest_2435.pdf
http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/annual_public_hunting/resources/FarmRoad2755_2316.pdf
http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/annual_public_hunting/resources/NorthRoyseCity_2267.pdf
http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/annual_public_hunting/resources/WestFarmRoad1777_2266.pdf

Ok, so i took a drive. Tate Farm has been mowed and baled, so that's nice. Too bad the roads bordering it are muddy as hell. Saw lots of doves around the Royse City locations.