Has anyone hunted the public areas around Lake Amistad? Any info advice etc. etc.. I know about the hunting permit and such stuff... Just don;t know the quality of hunting..
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No feeding = very difficult hunting. -
Very very very tough.
Spot and stalk doesn't work trust me. Your best bet is to find a draw or heavy trail and sit and wait all day. If you have more then 1 person you can do a "deer drive" and have one person try and push deer towards the hunter. Area 2 was by far the best deer population from when I was thereComment
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These days, it seems like every member of this board has hunted lake Amistad!
Pre-internet, Amistad was one of the best kept secrets in TX public land bowhunting. You could go out there for days and rarely ever see another bowhunter. It was nothing for my brother and me to see 50+ deer in a single day when we would glass from the ridgetops.
Nowdays, it's nothing for us to see 20+ bowhunters a day. And all the "secrets" to hunting the area - particularly the exotics - have been out for a while now. Go to unit 5, walk to the back, blah, blah, blah.
Amistad is a great example of how the "information superhighway" has run flat over what used to be a **** good place to bowhunt.
If you go, I wish you luck. I've shot one deer out there in the past 5 seasons and one mouflon sheep. I have a frined who's shot a deer and 3 sheep in the past 3 seasons. It can be done, but you're going to have to work your butt off and put up with a lot of other hunters.
JohnComment
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i have hunted amistad on and off starting in 1986 limbwalker knows of what he speaks, in spadesOriginally posted by Limbwalker View Post
my best advice, don't cull.
my best buck 1998Attached FilesComment
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I've hunted it off and on for about 6 years.....We try and go every year and it looks like we will be headed back this year. I've hunted all the areas and i think your best bet is to setup in a draw and just wait. with other people moving around in the area it will push deer around. also have mouflon in some of the areas along with audad... here is the mouflon i shot 2 years ago
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Hogdaddy, nice buck.
Back years ago, it was a great place to bowhunt whitetails. Seems anymore that it's just a novel place to go chase sheep around and hope you see the occasional whitetail.
The game has totally changed.
Enough so that I didn't even bother to make the 5-hour drive out there last year, and it used to be a hunt I looked forward to all year long.
Bright side is that my son actually enjoyed chasing the mouflon sheep with his bow, so it was the one hunt he would go on with me. We may go back this year on his break from college. He gets bored with hunting whitetails "back East" from trees.
I love the scenery out there, and the smell of the creosote bush can't be beat. But as Del Rio grows up around the hunt area and more and more bowhunters learn about the place, the quality of the hunt has really diminshed for me.
That's the tough part of hunting any public land for so many years. They seldom ever get better. Usually only get worse as time goes on.
Except for a few areas that I keep to myself
Just about every public hunting area has declined in quality in the past 20-25 years.
It's a double edged sword. I love the fact that more folks are bowhunting - don't get me wrong - but it does mean more crowded bowhunting areas. And by definition, bowhuting isn't something you can do well in a crowd.
JohnComment
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Guess I'll add that I wouldn't mind seeing Amistad going to a draw. I hate to say that, but at least if I got drawn, I'd know I could plan on a quality hunt, and if I didn't get drawn, I wouldn't waste my time.
JohnComment
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It used to be awesome...now you got a bunch of novice hunters chasing animals out there hoping to maybe get a shot at one. This has ruined many a hunt for people actually hunting.
Yes, thats where my user name comes from
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so who remembers when....
miguel was the ranger in the field
dennis got his pretty little sidekick (karen wasn't it?)
area 3 was called 1A
the permit box
on thanksgiving weekend there would be four trucks at the upper #1 parking lot
governers landing was free and had dirt roads.
oldtimers feel free to add to the listComment
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Just stay away from Area 5 and you should be fine lol..
Last year I went for a week in December. At Area 5 I ran into 11 hunters within about half an hours time. I quickly decided to gtfo of there. The rest of the 7-8 days I was there I ran into 1 hunter total. I can live with that. Had an incredible time. Going back this year.Comment
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Yea, you're probably right. Area 5 has become a "target rich environment" for guys just looking to stick something at 80 yards with their new Z7 or whatever...
I'd avoid it like the plauge on the weekends until at least January.
I've spent quite a bit of time in Area 2, and if you're willing to hike all the way to the back (not a short hike at all) it can still feel like a fairly remote hunt.
The scenery is pretty awesome really, especially if you get back on a remote cove of the lake and the weather is nice.
Just wish we could thin out the Cabrito a little bit. Sucks that the "domestic" goats aren't fair game on the area. They should be. They are exotic animals damaging native habitat. I don't care where they came from...
JohnComment
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Originally posted by Limbwalker View Post
You aint' kiddin!
I know some have taken it into their own hands.
Honestly, I thought it was a mouflon.
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Ha, ha. Yea, I know someone like that too. I have no idea why the NPS would allow the hunting of one exotic, but not another. Time to tell the neighbors to get their d@*! livestock off the public's land! If nothing else, it's hurting the whitetails.Comment
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