I was picked for the antlerless / spike hunt Dec. 13 - 15. Has anyone hunted there before? Any information is greatly appreciated.

I hunted it last season. Looks like they bumped up the dates for the anterless hunt and I can see why. They've held the hunt in January for years. Harvest numbers for the anterless hunt have historically been low at Inks and I'm guessing they changed to December to try to increase those numbers.

My hunt was 1/18/22 to 1/20/22. You'd think that because you're in the hill country that you'll be covered up in deer, especially does. That's not really the case. Especially considering that you're hunting over a feeder. I didn't see any does and few if any were seen by other hunters. Maybe one or two were harvested. I did see three bucks, two of which were monster 10s. And I took a pig (only one I saw) the evening of the second day and then drove home, foregoing the third day morning hunt.

The blinds are very nice and the feeders are set up pretty close to the blinds. Mine was 40 yards away. The staff is great and the hunt is run by a park volunteer who is a nice guy. I stayed in a motel in Burnet rather than camping in the park.

Do yourself a favor and eat a burger at Bill's in Burnet. Also, outstanding burgers at Hoover's Vally Cafe, they are excellent.

Let me know if you have any questions.

OK NOW I'm jealous...never gotten picked for this area except one time about 15 years ago when I was sick with the flu and waiting for a hospital room in Sherman. The famous restaurant in Marble Falls lives up to it's reputation IF you can find a parking spot. We've stopped at the Caverns area a couple times when we were looking for a house to buy ummm 6-7 years ago and I always saw hoof prints over there. Good Hunting ,Ron

Where to eat ...or not ....In LLANO do not EAT AT THE HOLIDAY INN...The last time we were there my wife had montezuma's revenge all the way back to Lake Texoma after a big lunch before we hit the Hwy home on a buy a house scouting trip... just sayin! .... and last January when I was headed to South LLano Rvr SP there were no cars in the parking lot at 6ish PM ...um bigtime bad juju for a 80k/100k annually road warrior.
Ron

The hill country really greens up in January and the deer don’t have to move far to get young shoots of grass that are coming up. They also get to where they want almost nothing to do with corn- choosing the green stuff first. That’s a good thing they moved the hunt up into December. There isn’t much to eat then, They’ll be all over your corn .

Hmmm "greens up early after Jan 1st" .... good to know wonder what else could be used as an legal attractant???

Some day I'll get drawn here again and sick with "mononia" or not I'll make that Hunt for sure. Way back when I was drawn the wife said she could hear my lungs rattle from the bottom of the driveway when she got home from work at after 10PM ...she worked at a pet store in Sherman back then.
Ron

I got picked there a few years ago and had a great hunt. The blinds are amazing and I second lunch at Hoover's Valley Cafe.

Here's a link to my hunt recap.

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=798369

Thanks for all the info. Greatly appreciated.

Hunted GDE 4 years ago. I didn’t get anything but others did and some saw multiple deer every hunt. They put on a great hunt. Stay away from “Bird Blind” unless you like watching birds eat the corn when the feeder goes off.

I wouldn't even show up to this hunt if I was you. There are zero exotics and almost 0 deer. If you are lucky then maybe one hunter in the group will get a shot at a doe. I'm sorry but you wasted your points on this hunt

Landdrake, I'm assuming you've hunted Inks Lake?

yes hunted Inks Lake. didn't hunt the longhorn caverns part though since they combined them.

I can't believe the hunting there is that bad. Based on where it is on the map there should be a lot of deer.

as you see a lot of others were successful there. just group that got drawn with me all had a bad hunt. I wouldn't classify a pig as a successful hunt though as I can shoot those in my backyard

I was there about 5 years ago and yes the blinds were exceptional. They had the feeder a little too close at 65 yards. I was on the doe hunt and the first night I plugged my 2 does. I stuck around another night hoping for a pig but after 2 more sits with nothing and the rangers telling me they havent seen any pigs around I took off. The rangers were nice the blinds were nice but the old fart that drove me to my blind was not very pleasant. I still give it a B+ just because the blinds were super nice. On my hunt I think only 1 or 2 other deer were taken from all of the groups.