Has anyone been to the James Daughtrey WMA in the last couple of years? I will be taking my daughter on a youth hog hunt at the Daughtery. Which compartments have the most hogs? Compartments 9 or 10 off Hwy 99? Or compartments 1 - 6 near the headquarters? This is a March 2nd - 3rd hunt.

I do walk-in dove/quail/rabbit hunts in compartments 14 & 15 off of Hwy 72. I've seen deer, javelinas and hogs in there often. The terrain is mostly flat and covered with brush, but interspersed with roads and clearings.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully, these compartments will be open for this hunt.

Was there the 5-7th this month, Both myself and my hunting partner tagged out. 5,6,9,10 are all good units. Lots of deer.

Thanks for the info McCoy. Which unit did you hunt and were the roads drivable and senderos mowed?

I was there a month ago. I was in unit 6. Saw Javelina but no hogs.

Thanks TurkeyWhisperer. Hopefully, the area will be dry and the hogs will be out to get corn.

5, Most of the units have oilfield access roads. You might have to walk a few hundred yards. But it was quite a good experience, I was fully expecting to have too hoof it everywhere. To my pleasant surprise, it was almost like having your own deer lease. They let you come and go as you please, as long as you check in and out. Outside of that, you're free to roam around as long as you stay inside your compartment assigned. Hand corning is a MUST! They won't stop in the sendero's unless you give them a reason to. We did shoot a few hogs as well on the 3rd day.

I was in compartment 5 two years ago on the javi hunt. Tons of deer and turkeys in that unit. I corned the cuts and shot a large boar and a javi on the second morning.

Thanks for the info BCJ. Looks like there will be some hogs to shoot on this hunt!

I got drawn for this hunt first week of February. It’s a 5hr drive from Dallas. Has anyone had success with hog and where do you stay? Invite says no camping allowed

Just came back from the either sex deer hunt this past week, which was really a two-buck, one 14in or wider, and another 7 points or less and 12in or wider, or spike. So basically a “trophy and a management” we were told. No does. Hunt ran from 1/9-1/12, however my buddy and I had to cut it short and returned on Thu 1/11.
There were 10 permits for JDwma, and we had the orientation together with the group hunting the Choke Canyon north shore hunt, not sure how many were in the north shore hunt.
From our group, there had only been 2 deer harvested when we left, a 10 point in compartment 4, nice but not very wide, and one I shot in compartment 5, a young 6 point with 4 points on one side and 2 on the other.
Overall, not much deer around, although I did see a herd of 15-20 javis, a pack of 4-5 coyotes which I managed to get one, lots of turkeys, a bobcat, a few does, and a single hog. Temperature was in the 40’s early morning to mid 70’s in afternoon, that must have played a role, plus it was very dry, no water in the creek/arm that limits the top of the compartment, not sure about the bottom by the boat ramp, although you can’t access that area from the compartment.
I was surprised by the lack of deer and hogs spotted or reported, as all the research we had done showed there is excellent deer in the area; there are 2 nice blinds with office chairs, one nice-ish with a mesh floor, and a small box ground blind.
I’ll try to post some pictures with the location of the blinds on compartment #5 soon.

Are the blinds 4'x4' or 5'x5'? Could you get three people into one of these blinds? Are the senderos mowed where you can see down a far way?

They do have a primitive camp ground for tents or a small trailer. They have a port-a-potty on site. The Calliham unit on Choke Canyon has screen shelters as well as tent sites (its about a 30 minute drive from the Daughtrey.) The town of Three Rivers has hotels but its about 45 minutes away.

The blinds in compartment #5 are 4x5, two are excellent, windows, carpeted and there are 2 office chairs that look like new, adjustable height so that’s nice. One is also 4x5 but has no windows and has a mesh floor, not a problem in summer but cold in winter. The othe smalish one is a box on the ground with 3 walls only, a little chair, but you can’t stand in it but have to crouch to get in/out. I guess a 3x3.
The senderos were mowed, and that is how I shot the deer, I was on a crossroad sitting on little chair I brought with me, next to a bush. We stayed at Three Rivers because I was expecting to be very cold and made the reservation way in advanced. The drive is about 45 mins to the headquarters; the Callihan unit does not save you that much time, but helps; the primitive area by the headquarters is not bad, except no showers but you could go to Callihan.

Ok, here are some pics of the trip:

This is the only deer that visited me on the blind.


A pack of 5 coyotes showed up, one of them stayed with me:


About 40 turkeys greeted me one morning; these ones walked about 15 feet behind me to check me out:


Compartment #5
Yellow is the general compartment.
Blue is completely dry, no water.
Red, I did not explore but seems like it should be holding good deer since the oil/gas operations do not go that far.
Green is where we saw the most deer.


My little freezer stock:


Compartment layout:


A little group of javelinas, there were about 15-20 at some point, cleaning up my corn:


Let me know if you have other questions, unfortunately I just saw 1 single hog, so did my buddy, however we did not go into the creeeks.

Thanks for the pics 12shotgun! We have the second pick on the youth hog hunt in early March. If I get the chance to pick hunt area #5, I will definitely hunt the "nice" blinds for hogs. It looks like the turkeys and javelinas are very plentiful and probably eat all the corn that you put out! Did you hunt blind #1 on the south side of your compartment? Maybe the creeks would have more hogs?

No problem, my buddy hunted blind 1 and saw only one hog, no other animals except “something” which he couldn’t identify because Wednesday morning was super foggy, and there was plenty corn left on the ground overnight, so definitely not much activity there. But, this is January so March may be a whole other deal, other posts I read about this unit spoke highly of compartment #5, specially deer and hogs, it was probably just not the right conditions. As for the creeks on the bottom of the compartment, where the boat ramp is located, I think you cannot access the water from there, you’d probably have to go to area in red, but the drivable roads don’t go there as far as I could tell.

Just finished the Jan. 2-5th archery deer hunt in CC North Shore. Saw lots of animals but really hampered by the 18-22 degree temp. Had no desire to shoot a doe or management buck so I passed on them every day, mostly 20-25 yards. Saw three legitimate shooters in the 4 days, but never got closer than 70 yards. Too far for archery shot.

Only saw one big black hog, and that was in the afternoon when it had warmed up. I was in compartment #1 and the guy in compartment #2 heard them tearing it up in thebottoms every day. The creek bottom where I set my pop up in literally had an acre of ground torn up by pigs. The pond banks looked like a super-highwy. Saw lots of deer and turkeys driving around the roads at the WMA, we had the orientation in the outside area where they do weighing/check in. There were people who camped in the primitive are and there was a porta potty set up

I stayed in Three Rivers because its only 5 miles from the dam and hunt area, you can check in and out by phone, only have to go back to the WMA if checking an animal. Not much in the Tilden area, but food is good at Max's and you can buy corn and Golden deer Nuggets at Joe's Market. The truck stop has good fast food and Subway.

Dang! Would’ve love to see any of those animals... not envying the cold though!
I would do this hunt again in a heartbeat.