Solo Dave: Quail Hunting "Mano-a-Mano"

Quail Hunting - Season Wrap-Up

Quail hunting in South Texas this season was outstanding! We had perfect conditions. It all evolved around rain. Rain over the last year and a half provided some nice, dense cover or overgrowth for these small birds that live basically on the ground to find shelter from predators. 


That rain also provided a large population of insects which are predominately what quail eat. Rain triggered it all. South Texas was dry for several years until the last year and a half; we have been blessed with more rain than we've seen in a long time. Everything was green all through the winter last year. It was odd during deer season to sit in a deer blind or stalk through the woods and feel like it was a spring day. Everything was green. The Mesquite leaves were still on the trees even with a temperature of 37° at the end of January. Quail season was on fire in 2016.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

NEW SEASON, NEW ADVENTURES!

We’re excited to announce that our 6th television season of Wide Open Outdoor Adventures will begin airing on March 5, 2016! Mark your calendars and set your DVR because we’re bringing you more action and adventure on not one, but TWO networks this year! 


We’re proud to return to Fox Sports Southwest, which aired our very first season in 2007. With 10 MILLION subscribers, we’ll be able to reach friends in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston and more! 

We’ll also return to The CW 35 San Antonio for all you local fans. We’re excited to revisit our friends at both networks to enable The CW 35 local broadcast viewers and FSSW subscribers to access our many adventures!

Our shows will air for 26 consecutive weeks, bright and early on Weekend Mornings at the following times:

Sundays 5:00am-5:30am CST on Fox Sports Southwest

Saturdays 6:30am-7:00am CST on The CW 35 San Antonio

We’re finalizing our episodes and wrapping up segments to complete the season now. We have quail and duck hunts, fishing in Corpus Christi, javelina and deer hunting, a trip to Orlando for some Florida bass, and much more in store for you this season!

You can find our Early Morning Outdoor Segment on these channels:

Fox Sports Southwest
Dish Network – Channel 416
Direct TV – Channel 676
Time Warner Cable – Channel 318
ATT U-Verse – Channel 753

The CW 35
Dish Network – Channel 035
Direct TV – Channel 035
Time Warner Cable – Channel 007
ATT U-Verse – Channel 035

You can also watch previous Seasons 1-5 of Wide Open Outdoor Adventures online at WideOpenSportsman.com!

Many thanks to our new and returning sponsors this season! 

Eagle Ford Advisors Group, LLC – South Texas Wealth Management Group 

Doc’s Seafood and Steaks – Corpus Christi, TX

Double Nickle Taxidermy – New Braunfels, TX

Diamond J Ranch – Tilden, TX

MassMutual South Texas – Financial Services

Mathews Competition Bows 

Captain Doug Stanford of Pirates of the Bay Fishing Charters

The Teal Ranch – Tilden, TX

Fred at The Bow Shop – San Antonio, TX

Sandy Oaks Ranch – Devine, TX

Elyon Media Group LLC – San Antonio, TX

Live Target Lures

Hook Spit Rods

We’ll see you in the Wide Open Outdoors!

Duck Hunting in Seadrift

Report Date: January 4, 2016

Duck hunting in South Texas is on fire! The Wide Open Outdoor Adventures crew loaded up and headed to Seadrift, the cozy little town near Rockport, Texas. 

We had light drizzle, cold weather – – just what the ducks like. The only challenge is that it's hard to film with high-definition TV video cameras in the rain. My new camera-man Fred Kirby and I know that very well. It seems like in every hunt we've done over the last four months, we've had to deal with "Mother Nature." That's part of the challenge of making outdoor programming -- we have to have high definition electronics in salt water and in freshwater environments. We got it done though! 

The ducks were flying over in big numbers, and almost all were redheads. It was awesome. Shane Horton and his dogs, Bullet and Jack, were on fire. 

The airboats were revved up, and we had a camera airboat provided by Greg Johnston of Tilden to help us fly the drone and get the aerial photographs and video. It doesn't get hotter than the smokin' gun blazing action on this future episode of Wide Open Outdoor Adventures.

If you want some help shooting birds with a shotgun, contact my friend Foard Houston of Sandy Oaks Ranch at 210-394-4857. He can help you with the basics and also move you to the advanced level. Knowledge is power in the Wide Open Outdoors! -- Dave

***Special note***

We're identifying our television networks now for the 2016 season. We're looking hard at Fox Sports Southwest and the CW 35 Networks. This will be one of the best TV seasons ever. We already have 9 shows created, more are being made every week. We got a deer hunt scheduled again for McMullen county with the bow in the next few days. Buckle your seatbelt because the 2016 season will be hot and heavy! I'll see you on TV soon!

Rattling in Whitetail Deer

Hunt Date: December 20, 2015 - Sandy Oaks Ranch (Devine, Texas)

Whitetail hunting in South Texas doesn't get much better than this...

I met up with my good friend Foard Houston at the Sandy Oaks Ranch in Divine, Texas. The plan was to rattle in some big bucks. 

When I got there, the Mercury was 32°, and we started out on our morning hunt. It turned out to be a beautiful crisp morning with blue skies and some scattered clouds. 

The first location didn't disappoint us – three bucks came running in aggressively. We were looking for a good deer to shoot with the Mathews Monster Chill blacked-out compound bow.

I had Fred Kirby, my main camera-man, on deck. We moved from one location to the next riding in a quiet electric four-wheeler. We were selective in what we wanted to shoot; Foard had some really nice deer on the range. We’d drive to an area, tuck the four-wheeler into the brush and get out on foot to move through the ranch and find a place to set up and hunt. We quietly settled in. I set up on a small chair, and Foard would get right behind me with the big rattling horns. Fred would set up somewhere in the vicinity so he could capture on HD-video everything that came out in front of us.

It did come together – – we made an awesome TV show! Foard rattled in an awesome whitetail buck, and the Matthews bow didn't disappoint.

We harvested an awesome white tail on the Sandy Oaks Ranch. Foard doesn't offer Whitetail Hunts on the ranch; he only offers that to friends and family - what he does offer however is totally amazing! He's an expert with a shotgun and earlier in the year we made an awesome quail hunt with Pointer Dogs and a Flushing dog. 

Contact Foard & Debbie Houston at 210-394-4857 if you want to improve your abilities with a shotgun…







And if you haven't been on a quail hunt you got to check it out!

This time of year, whitetail deer are in the rut. They'll come in aggressively to the horns, and they were awesome on this trip – thanks to Foard for an awesome hunt!

I’d like to also put in a special thanks to Fred at The Bow Shop in San Antonio, Texas -- 210-342-4269 -- for helping me “Fine-Tune” this awesome Mathews bow to make this hunt come together. 

Just get out there! -- Dave