Tilden Hunt Date -- December 15, 2015
We hunted the Diamond Jay Ranch in Tilden, Texas for Javelina. My good friend, Greg Johnston, helped us track and pattern these animals.
We took one with a Mathews Monster Chill Bow. Fred Kirby got it all on HD footage for a TV show to air in 2016. It was awesome!
Hunter’s Notes:
In Texas, javelina are classified as a game animal and may be legally harvested with a hunting license during hunting season, in counties that have a season. Javelinas are herbivores (plant eaters) and frugivores (fruit eaters). They eat a wide variety of fruits, tubers, rhizomes, bulbs, acorns, grass, green shoots of annuals, mesquite beans and stems of prickly pears. Succulent prickly pear pads are an excellent water source for them.
Javelina have long held a reputation for ferocity. They have poor eyesight and will often remain around humans longer than other wildlife when startled. When cornered, they can defend themselves very effectively with sharp canine teeth or "tusks."
Many dogs have been crippled or killed when trying to attack javelina. Yet, aggressive encounters with humans are very, very rare. As any wild animal, they can be very dangerous when the animals are provoked or hunted. They can defend themselves, so respect them in the wild. Treat them as dangerous as a rattlesnake.
Thanks for your time, and I’ll see you in the Wide Open Outdoors!! -- Dave
Fishing Date: August 2015
The weather was hot, and so was the fishing in Central Florida with Captain Steve Boyd of Florida Bass Adventures.
Central Florida, specifically Lake Toho in Kissimmee, Florida, is known for big fish. In fact, it's known across the United States as one of the best areas to catch some serious largemouth bass.
The camera crew set their sights on spending some time on the water with Captain Steve Boyd – turned out to be an amazing fishing trip! We got some really solid bass.
Lake Toho is a fairly shallow lake, with a depth of about fourteen feet – lots of structure and lots of big fish to target. Steve knew the water like the back of his hand. He would work one area and then migrate with the trolling motor.
Central Florida is known for rain showers almost every day in the summertime. The main reason is because weather patterns that form over the Gulf of Mexico heading west over the state of Florida converge with weather patterns that are forming over the Atlantic Ocean, heading east over the state of Florida. We got some dark skies every day we fished, but we were able to navigate Steve's bass boat to basically stay clear of the showers. The fishing was rock solid.
We enjoyed the beautiful countryside of Central Florida, and we were made aware that the band NSYNC and quite a few others had started in Orlando, Florida. Orlando is also known for Disney World, Nickelodeon and quite a few different film studios. Seems like everywhere we go we find out some interesting history and meet some great people. This was no exception; Central Florida was awesome.
We got the opportunity to head to Gatorland and tour the facility. We shot some amazing video of some albino alligators, including a monster 14-footer named Charlie. We ran across some friendly 12 foot snakes as well. I even had a chance to hold a 4-foot alligator, but it's a good thing they taped his mouth shut! These little gators could take a finger or a hand off in just a few seconds. They may be small but you've got to respect them.
It was a great trip to Central Florida, and I had my good friends Tim Teal and Matt Gillett help me document the trip in high-definition video. Tim even flew his new drone and videoed from high in the sky. Too cool. The TV show will air in our 2016 season.
Contact Captain Steve Boyd at (352) 603-5467 and he can put you on some big large-mouth bass, too. Southwest Airlines round-trip flight was $388. Talk about an affordable getaway! Just get out there.
I'll see you in a Wide Open Outdoor Adventure. -- Dave
Well, dove season is over in South Texas, until the extended season in December. It was a tough season this year in 2015. You can read up on our first hunt here: Dove Hunt #1
We set our sights on another hunt on September 26, 2015 -- this time, I met up with Shane Hutson and his two dogs, Bullet and Jack. We had my good friend Fred Kirby on camera, and we were set out to make the TV show.
Well, as luck would have it – – again, not many birds, and we really had a difficult time patterning the flight of these animals. We'd find them coming over the tree lines, and we would move toward the tree line, only to then look back and see that they were now flying over the open field in the trees that we were hunkering down under. Well, maybe the berm, the man-made hump between these two tanks would be the ticket. We set up there -- only to see them now flying over the tree line that we had just left.
In any case, we got some awesome action footage of Bullet and Jack fetching birds out of these tanks.
The ticket came when we hunted near Crystal City with my good friend Richard Bacon. The birds were not in big numbers, but they came over more consistently than in any of our other hunts. We stayed at it and had a lot of fun making the 2015 Dove Hunting TV episode! Watch for it soon on your local TV network. We're making shows now for the 2016 season.
Knowledge is power in the Wide Open Outdoors. – – Dave
Hunt Date -- September 7, 2015
Well here we are again! Another opportunity to go hunt white-winged dove in South Texas. It's a tradition of mine over the years – I look forward to this window of time where you can get out and hunt with some friends and not spend the whole day doing it.
Typically, we head south about 1 o'clock or in some cases we go toward Hondo, but this time we went toward the Pleasanton - Jourdanton area to see if we could get our limit of white-winged doves. Our strategy is to begin or hunt at about 3:30 in the afternoon and hunt ‘til dark. Texas Parks and Wildlife enables us to keep 15 white-winged doves, and that was our intention on this hunt. We loaded up the truck, loaded up the guns, made sure we had our ammo --- and we headed south.
Tip of the day #1
One thing people sometimes don't think about is buying high quality ammunition. Why would that be important? Well, generally the better the quality of the ammunition, the more fire-power you have. Don't let your ammunition be your weakest link. Reach out there and touch them. You’ll have the ability to make much longer shots.
Tip of the day #2
Another thing people most generally don't know is the Asian Ringneck Dove, which are a little larger than white-wings, do not count as one of your 15 for your bag limit – – therefore, those are bonus birds. My hunting buddies said that we've seen a steady increase in the number of these birds being harvested in 2015.
Tip of the day #3
One critical piece of hunting equipment when you're hunting dove is a small lightweight foldable chair. It can enable you to comfortably position yourself out of sight of the birds and enable you to relocate very quickly.
As you can see some of the guys we hunted with just parked their trucks right against the tree line.
We took it to the next level – – we cleared brush, and we parked our new GMC TV truck when we got up in the brush – – stealth is key.
Fred and Doc were prepared to shoot some birds with me today. We knew we were in dove season because it was hot -- Texas heat, that is -- but we were hoping to see big numbers of birds flying over.
This hunt turned out to be a bit disappointing; we didn't have volume of birds but we had small groups and solos. The season's not over yet. Check back for hunt #2! – – Dave
