I am not having much luck finding a day lease for doves close to Houston. I have posted to this forum and others in an attempt to find a place to take my boys dove hunting this year. It will be their first hunting trip and I want it to be kinda relaxed.

I was wondering if anyone has ever hunted Texas Parks and Wildlife special dove and small game walk in properties. There are actually a few farely close to me and I was thinking about trying them out this year.

Would this be worth our while to try out?

Hunting public dove one season, it sucked, will never do that again. I scouted all the feilds aound the DFW area, burned a ton a fuel scouting, found some fields holding a lot of dove, we got there early morning open day only to find a zoo, never seen that many people that early in the morning in my life, it was like a rock concert. And all the dove got shoot out in one day, the next day there were very few dove, and after that it was like hunting on Mars.

Look for a private day lease, look in the paper, there should be plenty, especially as we get closer to Sept 1.

Those public dove leases typically suck. My buddy did pretty good on a wma around here where we go to hunt ducks. I would recommend scouting wmas and corps land that allow dove hunting and find a quiet little spot to shoot doves on, not one of the war zones Guy mentioned, or get a day lease.

Proximo,

Did you buy the Annual Public Hunting Permit? If you look in the book that they send out, there are lots of public spots to go.

I didnt buy the permit this year, but I have in the past for duck hunting. I will be buying it this year for an occasional dove hunt and duck hunting on lake conroe.

I'm not pushing the sale of the APH, but not all tracts are the same and there are quite a few of them that are outstanding dove hunting areas. Opening day for ANY season is going to be crowded and with the price of the permit $48, what do you expect...it's no different than going duck hunting or deer hunting to get the very best spot available and it may mean going a couple hours early to get a good location before the masses arrive. Opening day of dove season starts that years hunting season off and there are more hunters in the field on Sept. 1st than any other day during the year!

Proximo - if you want to know some of the better locations, send me a PM.

Many of the smaller towns have lease informationon their Chamber of Commerce web site.

P

I hunted one public spot three years ago and one last year. Both hunts sucked. Dove are just the warm up for me so by mid sept when teal are in season I forget about dove. In October I'm mostly just racking up kitchen passes to be used all duck season. I'm not too mad at doves but if I were and I wanted good hunts I'd spend a little cash to get access to a private day lease...like Guy was saying.

I guess I'm lucky to know a few people with land where I can dove hunt...otherwise I'd probably pay a fee.

You have to remember, the Public Hunting Program offers both private lands & lands within other agencies for a small price where most hunters do not have the money for guides, leases and also travel/lodging, etc.

Sure, those spots will be crowded on opening weekends and the first few days and it is the landowners who have offered they land to the public in order to find an opportunity to hunt a variety of species, mostly small game.

Just going by what I've seen. The permit is good for duck hunting but as of yet I havent found a dove hunt worth going to. With my situation (friends with land) I'm not going to drive more than an hour to go dove hunting unless it was something set up by friends and then it becomes more about hanging out than hunting. Kind of like the THF hunts.

From what I've seen...and I can be off base here but doves spots do and will get hunted out. So it seems unlike duck hunting when you can wait a week for the next front to bring in more birds so once the doves have been hunted hard at one spot you will never see the numbers like you had opening weekend.

Somebody tell me if I'm wrong with this...based on my past dove hunting this is what I've seen. But I'm no dove pattern expert.

You are pretty spot on. Most of the feed in those fields is gone pretty quick. Some public lands are plowed under before the season begins so the birds using the field have no reason to be there at that point. People here have reported this on the Denton area fields. My old deer lease the rancher would plow it in August. You would have several hundred birds using it but after a couple days, feed is gone and you'll never see any another dove.

Sure it is economical but it is not productive unless you find those secret spots and they are normally not in the ag fields. I believe SJ here finds them but they are in out of the way spots usually finding a flyway or roost, not in a field.

Where I dove hunt we are the watering hole between the roost and the food. So, we pretty much get them coming and going.

Guys I really appreciate the info and comments. I am not opposed to spending a little money on a hunt, but I just do not want to drive too far. I know that there are huntable numbers of dove around Tomball. I have hunted close to Houston in the past and had succes, however I do not have those contacts anymore. I guess I will just wait till it gets a little closer to the season and book a day hunt. Maybe the best thing to do with the hunting permit thing is to wait till later in the season and use it for duck hunting.

Thanks again and if anyone hear's of a day lease close me, I would greatly appreciate a pm.

I live very near a WMA and have never dove hunted it. I'll give it a whirl this year. I don't see a lot of traffic around here for dove. If you read the WMA hunting info it says something to the effect that all game except feral hogs must be hunted with non toxic shot. I assume that will mean dove will have to be hunted with steel???? I live in a neighborhood that is over run with them though. If my neighbors didn't get miffed at me for doing it, I think I could limit out sitting on my front porch.

I hunted the Denton area public areas for 2 years. I never hunt opening weekend, something is always comming up.

The 4 places I went to had no birds, I MEAN NO BIRDS:(

If I do my scouting and pay attention to notes I have taken of locations in the past I do fair to excellent with public dove. With scouting, driving a little farther, hunting types of hunting property and/or places on hunting areas others seem to overlook I would give it an average of a half limit for a morning or evening hunt for me. I hunted a WMA last year on the first Saturday of season for an evening hunt and I was the only hunter there and either killed a limit or very close to it in a short time. But when you weigh the hours of scouting, miles of driving, and time spent, to make hunting that way successful, one is much better off with a day or season dove lease. You will save time and it will be cheaper in the long run with a lease. To just stumble blind onto a great public dove area that has birds yet few hunters, is just pure luck.