Amistad first timer

[babybob2k]

Hi ya'll. Long time lurker, but never signed up and posted till now.

Well, it looks like I may actually get a couple days off approved, and I'm wanting to head down there for a few days in early January. This is the first time I will have ever been to the lake. I saw and read a couple other posts on Amistad, but didn't give me the info I'm looking for and decided to start a new topic rather than highjack or necro the others.

Anyway, hopefully someone can answer some general questions for me. If it helps, me and a buddy are hoping to stalk javalina, and that would be the main reason for the trip. Any other species would be a "target of oppertunity". That's the idea, at least. We'll be taking pop-ups in case that's not in the cards.

How do people usualy hunt down there? Do they stalk? Ground blind? Stand?

How crowded does it get? I know it's a big place, but are we going to be tripping over other hunters? I know in some other public lands, you have to be in a stand before daylight to avoid screwing up someone elses hunt. With us wanting to stalk (and the fact this is our first time there), we were kind of planning to start around daybreak. How much of a problem will this cause? We don't want to mess up anyone elses hunt.

Are there big terrain / vegetation differences in the hunt areas? Never having been there, and it not being just down the street to scout, I'm stuck with satalite and topo maps. Without giving away more than necessary on a forum, would anyone mind telling me the differences in the hunt areas? (and if this is asking too much, please let me know)

Thanks in advance for your help on this.

[Kdog]

Just in case you have not seen the website yet.

http://www.nps.gov/amis/planyourvisit/hunting.htm

I would think a javalina would be tough to come by at Amistad, but I do see where 2 were taken last year..... I hunted there a few years ago in Area 1 mostly. I used to carry a small chair and try to find a place in the brush to hide and wait for a deer to walk by. I saw a lot of deer, and got busted a whole bunch. I did use a grunt call to bring an 8 pt within 8 yards of me. I never did the spot and stalk thing, but that might work. Area 1 is real open for the most part. I never saw too many ground blinds out there. It is a fun place to hunt.

[justletmein]

I was down there last weekend, quite a few hunters there which was surprising because I figured they would thin out as it got colder. I brought a double bull blind with me, but didn't set it up because it's just so big it seemed intrusive. The deer there are spooky, any little thing and they're on to you but there are deer out there. I've not seen any javelina or javelina signs. If you're stalking through thick stuff watch out for the porcupines, I've almost run them over twice and they seem to have no fear so just stay in one spot with their arse pointed at you. Hit that link posted above for permit details and all that, they're not a part of TPWD Type II so you have to register on site. Hope this helps... EDIT: I see you're in Fort Worth, that's a heck of a long trip. None of the places up that way producing for you or what?

[babybob2k]

Thanks for the info guys. Hopefully this will go good.

The portable chair / ground blind info will help a ton. Better to hunt without the blind first day, and bring it the second if needed, rather than lug one around unused.

I've always wanted to hunt javelina, but never really had a chance. As far as I can tell, this is pretty much the only public oppertunity for them in Texas. If gas stays where it's at, this will turn out to be a fun *affordable* hunt. The drive isn't that bad. My truck can almost autopilot there from me going to Eagle Pass and Uvalde for work. Just never realized there was a hunting oppertunity right down the highway.

I've looked at the website, read the regulations, and have been studying the map as best I can with the help of google and maps.live.com.

Hmmm... now that I think about it, I think we have a couple hunters at one of our facilities down that way that might be a good source of info.