August begins preseason for Texas hunters, fishermen

Published 12:48 am Friday, August 3, 2018

Have you looked at the calendar this week? OK, your phone or tablet or wherever people find out what day it is?

If you have, you noticed it is that time of year to start pulling the fall camo fashions out of the closet. Forget the oppressive heat, Aug. 1 is the official start of the fall hunting season’s training camp. That time of year to find out if last year’s clothes still fit, or if you need more shotgun shells or maybe a new deer stand. When was the last time you bought a new pair of hunting boots?

Like with football and baseball, some may question the length of preseason preparation. The answer is a simple “yes” — it is necessary because license sales for both hunting and fishing begin Aug. 15, dove season opens Sept. 1, teal and early goose hunting is Sept. 15-30 and then the archery deer season and some Managed Lands Deer permit hunting starts Sept. 29.

And those are just the appetizers. Quail season and the High Plains Mallard Management Unit duck season kick off Oct. 27, the statewide regular deer season and South Zone duck season begin Nov. 3 followed by the North Zone duck season Nov. 10. But wait, there is still more if you hunt squirrels, pheasants, alligators, sandhill cranes or mule deer.

Even if in reality most hunters start preparing for the next year the day after their last hunt, there is still a lot to do in the coming weeks.

This season begins with the arrival of catalogs that have been coming once or twice a week for a few weeks. Even the oldest hunter gets like a kid around Christmas wanting this and that, but as the weeks go by, you whittle the list down to what you really need (or think you cannot live without). In my case, it is a pop-up blind and the question is whether to go with an affordable $150 model or the latest, greatest $500 one.

That is just the start. There are new rifles that need to be sighted in before opening day. New shotguns also need a good shakedown. Older ones need to be cleaned and maybe repaired, and finding a good gun shop can be as hard as finding a reliable taxidermist. That can making waiting lists long the closer it gets to opening day.

The same is true for archery equipment, and waiting until the last minute to get a bow restrung, repaired or tuned can put you on the sidelines opening morning.

Even though prices for good outdoor gear has been moving up, hunting and fishing licenses remain the same as they have been since 2010. And while some still complain about the price, I think it is a steal. At a max of $68 for a Super Combo, not counting federal waterfowl stamp, a person can hunt and fish year-round. The money is divided among wildlife and fisheries biologists for programs like surveys and hatcheries, as well as law enforcement funding.

Other than the need for a new license, August is not as important to fishermen except they know fall fishing patterns are not that far away.

Even those who do not hunt or fish should be thankful because hunters and fishermen are paying the bulk of the bills for conservation in the state. The amount of money spent by hunters and fishermen gives wildlife and fisheries an economic value, and for that reason in the case of wildlife landowners put an importance on preserving wildlife habitat and lake authorities see the importance of creating fisheries habitat.

According to a federal study in 2011, hunters spent $1.8 billion on hunting in Texas only. The state’s fishermen spend $1.5 billion to fish state fresh and salt water.

Fishing license sales have been on the upswing in recent years, going from 1.3 million in 2015 to 1.5 million last year. During the same time, combination and other special licenses have climbed from 701,000 to 747,000.

In comparison, there has been a downturn in hunting licenses from 549,000 to 531,000. That includes a drop in youth hunting licenses that peaked at 152,000 in 2014, but dipped to 136,000 in 2017.