Lake Amistad 21-22

[Pedernal]

I know in the past most of the sheep would move on to private land (San Pedro flats area) after the start of season… late December to early January they would be back with most ewes having kids…. That’s when I had success…

I haven’t hunted them in 5 plus years due to the extremely over crowded area 5 situation back then… again, this was 5 years back… it’s been a dry season so they should be moving a lot as browse will be hard to come by….

[justletmein]

Gotta get creative sometimes.

[RiverRat00]

Gotta get creative sometimes.

Nice, thats a big doe

[justletmein]

Nice, thats a big doe

She's got some age on her for sure. We'll see what the TPW peeps say tomorrow when we take her in for CWD testing.

[RiverRat00]

She's got some age on her for sure. We'll see what the TPW peeps say tomorrow when we take her in for CWD testing.

What is the process fkr CWD testing? Do you have to take the head or what part of deer do they test?

And is it required to test all animals harvested in Amistad NRA?

[justletmein]

What is the process fkr CWD testing? Do you have to take the head or what part of deer do they test?

And is it required to test all animals harvested in Amistad NRA?

Yes every deer (not exotics) in the county I believe but could be just a certain zone I've never had reason to clarify, they have to be checked in at this station here too. They check, park ranger came to our camp and checked my hunting license and saw the deer log on the back and called it in to the CWD station to verify they'd all been checked in. Last year a game warden told me they wrote 5 tickets to people out of town after the fact when they had their deer processed. You can bring them the head if you quarter your deer, they want ideally two vertebrae attached still to get a good sample. Leave the rest of the carcass at the kill site, they don't want it transported anywhere.

[donpablo]

I talked to a ranger today and asked him about the sheep. He said he's heard the rumors but said it's absolutely a lie, said they may have netted some but it's nothing like what people are saying. He says he sees them down by the water at night in area 5 and there's plenty. He said people are spreading rumors trying to keep people from coming to hunt them. He also said there's a mountain lion working the area and they found a kill site in 5 and lots of tracks around there up to 277N campgrounds. Pretty cool!

I understand what the ranger’s saying but I have to question his honesty. Unless he just doesn’t know. Is he new? Maybe he’s just repeating what he’s been told. If you’ve been out here in the last few years, you know you couldn’t walk over 2 hills without bumping sheep. Now they’re nearly impossible to find. Also when they move onto private, they’re plainly visible. I’m not trying to discourage anyone but there’s a huge difference in the amount of sheep you’ll see now. I wish I were lying. This would’ve been a better trip.

[justletmein]

He's not new he was leading me to believe he's kind of in charge of the hunting operations. Dude was seriously thorough with all the checks, even called in my harvest log from the license to the CWD station. But he was also talking about hunting permits being down 50% and proposing to allow crossbows next year and seemed big kn promoting the hunting program so he absolutely could have been downplaying things. There was a few ticks on the BS meter while we were talking nothing big but enough to where I mentioned it to my buddy after he left.

On a side note, missed a real nice buck last night, shot low at 38 yards. I have a double vision from eye damage in my right eye and think I used the wrong part of the slash I see from the pin.

[plurvapor]

Is it worth going late season sheep hunting at the end of January in area 5. Wanted to see if anyone was out there and how it was before i drive from San Antonio.

[Pedernal]

Is it worth going late season sheep hunting at the end of January in area 5. Wanted to see if anyone was out there and how it was before i drive from San Antonio.

Planning on going for a hike/fishing walk in the area tomorrow. I will let you know what I see.

[plurvapor]

Planning on going for a hike/fishing walk in the area tomorrow. I will let you know what I see.

That’d be great lmk!

[Pedernal]

Good luck sir, were planning on going down for the late exotic season, post what you find on area 5

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Is it worth going late season sheep hunting at the end of January in area 5. Wanted to see if anyone was out there and how it was before i drive from San Antonio.

So today I walked out area 5. Here is what I found:

There are some sheep, but no where near what it used to be.

I went in at the north entrance of area 5. I walked out some areas that I used to hunt close to the highway and didn’t find any sheep. I didn’t even find the trails to have any sheep sign. I than dropped into the the big draw/flat which basically parts the area into two half’s when the lake is full. Again no sheep and very little to no sign.

I walked out the draw following it to the water on north border of the hunt area. I than followed the water line basically all the way around to the houses. As I was getting close to the area 5 boundary I spotted two rams and shortly there after two others came out of a draw and joined them. One looked like a full curl ram while the other three were younger/smaller rams. These guys were all right at the boundary.

One draw over into private there were apparently 15 sheep including a full curl ram. Both groups were moving away from area 5. I don’t believe either group saw or heard me but I could be wrong. I didn’t see any vehicles when I arrived so I don’t think the sheep got pushed obey hunters. At least not today.

Here are my observations; keep in mind I haven’t hunted the sheep for 4 years: the numbers are lower than I have ever seen since 2008/2009 when I started hunting. It’s been terribly dry and the vegetation is sparse at best. There isn’t much for them to browse on or hunters to hide behind. When I finally found trails with sheep sign it’s obvious their numbers are extremely reduced as compared to the past.

[huntozarks]

So today I walked out area 5. Here is what I found:



There are some sheep, but no where near what it used to be.



I went in at the north entrance of area 5. I walked out some areas that I used to hunt close to the highway and didn’t find any sheep. I didn’t even find the trails to have any sheep sign. I than dropped into the the big draw/flat which basically parts the area into two half’s when the lake is full. Again no sheep and very little to no sign.



I walked out the draw following it to the water on north border of the hunt area. I than followed the water line basically all the way around to the houses. As I was getting close to the area 5 boundary I spotted two rams and shortly there after two others came out of a draw and joined them. One looked like a full curl ram while the other three were younger/smaller rams. These guys were all right at the boundary.



One draw over into private there were apparently 15 sheep including a full curl ram. Both groups were moving away from area 5. I don’t believe either group saw or heard me but I could be wrong. I didn’t see any vehicles when I arrived so I don’t think the sheep got pushed obey hunters. At least not today.



Here are my observations; keep in mind I haven’t hunted the sheep for 4 years: the numbers are lower than I have ever seen since 2008/2009 when I started hunting. It’s been terribly dry and the vegetation is sparse at best. There isn’t much for them to browse on or hunters to hide behind. When I finally found trails with sheep sign it’s obvious their numbers are extremely reduced as compared to the past.

Thanks for the info, must be some truth to them having netted some, last year when I was there I counted 140+ sheep on one of the hills on private, sounds like it will be more challenging than it was then

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[RifleBowPistol]

Thanks for the info, must be some truth to them having netted some, last year when I was there I counted 140+ sheep on one of the hills on private, sounds like it will be more challenging than it was then

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They don't have to net them for the numbers on the public land to be very low or zero. The rams come and go as they choose, and have as long as they have been out there. What I saw years ago, was that early in the season, there would be a lot more rams in hunt area number 5. As hunters chased them more and more, they would eventually find ways out of hunt area number 5 and move out onto private land. Late deer season, you typically won't find any or very few in hunt area number 5.

They will eventually come back, once left alone for a long enough time period, or they get chased too often on private land.

[huntozarks]

Yeah, I agree I was there in January the last 2 years in a row and killed a good ram each year, ironically both on Jan 8th, I found that some sheep would cross onto the public after dark and then come back across to the private as soon as the sun came up, I'm guessing because of better food being on the public, they could free range after dark when there were no hunters around, I killed both my rams doing that, I'm just hoping that when I go this year I'm not too late and that pressure hasn't got them staying on the private

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