Best and Worst Public Land/Draw Hunts for Texas-Opinions Wanted

[30-30]

Here are the WMAs I have hunted in descending order; starting with my favorites.

Richland Creek:
I was drawn for several antlerless-only youth hunts years ago, and killed does each hunt. Always saw plenty of deer and some dandy bucks.

Big Lake Bottom:
Only hunted once (archery opener this year) and saw plenty of deer and hogs. Shot a hog but lost it in the ragweed. Cool place with beautiful woods. Biologist is a good guy.

Old Sabine Bottom:
Low on most folks’ list, but I’ve seen deer each hunt. Just haven’t connected. Big woods that I have enjoyed hunting, and the staff are great.

Possum Kingdom State Park:
My first deer hunt back in 2003. Deer were everywhere, and even came into the campsites at night looking for food. Hunt was by assigned blind, which the staff had baited several days prior. Killed my first deer.

Gus Engeling:
I’m one of the few I know who hasn’t seen a deer on this place. Hunted it twice. Your mileage may vary. I know some big ones are killed here each year.

White Oak Creek:
Huge place with lots of poachers and smart deer. Hunted it once. Saw more hunters than deer... in my assigned compartment....

[tdwinklr]

You can go online and look at the harvest numbers for each draw hunt going back several years. It’s easy to see which hunts produce. Not like it’s a big secret.

true. Sometimes the hunts are affected by weather, past flooding or just difficult terrain.
I've used this data before in selecting hunts and there are several that are consistently bad, and like you say, they are pretty obvious.

[FF316]

Pat Mayse Wma this past year for gun deer was not that great. Our group did see deer but nothing to write home about. The biologist stated that the success rate has been close to 17% the last couple of years. He mentioned the bow hunters have some success but not any trophies that he has seen. He also mentioned that the area floods often when it rains so that makes it tough. Lets just say i wont put in for Pat Mayse Wma any longer.
I have hunted the Chap for Javi and was successful, lots of deer seen on the Chap draw.

[BackwoodzHank]

I have only drawn three, The Hag, Aransas NWR and Laguna Atascosa NWR. Hagerman was definitely the best with more like minded hunters and a very hunter friendly support staff. Saw 14 or 15 deer but couldn't make it happen.
Atascosa had more of the typical public land hunters (type that like to set up 30 yards from you after you waved them off and "still hunters") but I encountered a very hunter friendly support staff although I heard it was worse in years past. Was in the last archery segment this year and only had one bull come in and no deer.
Aransas was a super tough hunt, last year everything was flooded, tons of mosquitos and cottonmouths. It was a tough mental hunt, i might put in for it again, but not next year! I liked the online orientation but you could tell that a lot of the staff (not including the GW) did not want you there. Had one buck come in and took him home.

[Grizz83]

Aransas WR is the only one I've been to that I'll never go back. Yall can have them skeeters.

[bullets13]

I’ve hunted Fairfield SP twice on antlerless/spike/pig hunts. The first time was five or six years ago and had a great hunt. Killed a doe, and chose not not to kill another and a spike because I really only needed the meat from one deer. My dad also had a shot at a doe. The second time was two years ago, and the place was covered up in pigs. One guy in my group shot one. Our area had apparently been shot out the week before at the youth hunt, with 4 animals being killed out of my blind. Needless to say I saw nothing, and our group saw no deer. I think two does were killed that weekend. The staff there is good.

Hunted balcones a few years ago and it was bad. Balcones is a weird place because they have dozens of different properties spread out over a large area. The hunt we were on you could kill a buck after your killed a doe or a pig. On our property there were four of us over a couple of hundred acres, and in 3 days we saw two does several hundred yards away and one nice buck total as a group. So that might have just been us being unlucky getting a crappy compartment.

We were lucky enough to draw a trophy gun hunt on the chap 4 years ago, and it was by far the best hunt we’ve been on. I killed a nice 130 inch 10 the first evening, and saw several more shooters throughout the hunt, including a 150-class ten that I watched for 30 minutes because I’d already used my tag. I had a little buyers remorse, but my buck was nearly 19 inches wide, just kinda short horned. My dad killed a cool narrow 9, and another guy in our group missed a giant buck. There were deer and javelinas everywhere, and everytime you came in another nice buck or two was being scored. The staff was very nice as well.

[Greenheadless]

I have hunted:

Matagorda Island
Mad Island
Peach Point
Lake Mineral Wells (twice)
Big Bend Ranch (twice)
James Daughtery (4-5 times)
Choke Canyon North Shore
Stephen F Austin
Rest a de la Palma


By far the best was Big Bend Ranch. I hunted there the first time the 1st or 2nd year they opened. Killed a 170” mulie and saw loads young bucks. Another guy killed one in the 220-230” class. Second time was for a javi hunt (there is a story behind that) and we went looking for Auodad, only to be told that they had run a helicopter the few weeks before we got there and shot over 400 of them. I hear it is not as good as it was when they first started the units. Still a really cool place to be.

Worst was Resaca de la Palma on a hog hunt. Lots of “locals” were accepted as standby. Low and behold, they were all assigned the best spots where all the animals were seen. The draw hunters never saw an animal. Maybe a coincidence, but it sure didn’t seem that was as chummy as the organizers and the “locals” were.

Noticeable mention was Choke Canyon North Shore. After 2 of us hunted for 3 days and not seeing an animal, the biologist told us that the neighbor to the north would throw 1,000’s of pounds of feed right before the draw hunts to lure as much as they could off the WMA.

I used to draw pretty regular before the new system. I have yet to draw since then.

[RShockley]

All the mule deer and pronghorn hunts are awful. No need for anyone to put in for them. 😃

[jronning77]

Port Aransas by far the worse I've been to. Went last year half the place had 12" -20" of water on at least 75% it seemed like. I had the last rifle hunt and the only high spots looked heavily used by hunters.


East Texas
Angelina, Sabine, and Davey Crockett all seem to hold good populations of deer. Scouting is key.

Laguna Atascosa
Beautiful in its own rugged hard to hunt way.
Seen lots of deer and wildlife. Nilgai with Archery equipment is an impressive accomplishment there, they are there they seem super skiddish and don't hesitate to run in my experience.



Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

[Greenheadless]

Port Aransas by far the worse I've been to. Went last year half the place had 12" -20" of water on at least 75% it seemed like. I had the last rifle hunt and the only high spots looked heavily used by hunters.

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

Di you hunt the Sharky’s parking lot or the park over by the ferry?

[bossbowman]

I have hunted:

Matagorda Island
Mad Island
Peach Point
Lake Mineral Wells (twice)
Big Bend Ranch (twice)
James Daughtery (4-5 times)
Choke Canyon North Shore
Stephen F Austin
Rest a de la Palma


By far the best was Big Bend Ranch. I hunted there the first time the 1st or 2nd year they opened. Killed a 170” mulie and saw loads young bucks. Another guy killed one in the 220-230” class. Second time was for a javi hunt (there is a story behind that) and we went looking for Auodad, only to be told that they had run a helicopter the few weeks before we got there and shot over 400 of them. I hear it is not as good as it was when they first started the units. Still a really cool place to be.

Worst was Resaca de la Palma on a hog hunt. Lots of “locals” were accepted as standby. Low and behold, they were all assigned the best spots where all the animals were seen. The draw hunters never saw an animal. Maybe a coincidence, but it sure didn’t seem that was as chummy as the organizers and the “locals” were.

Noticeable mention was Choke Canyon North Shore. After 2 of us hunted for 3 days and not seeing an animal, the biologist told us that the neighbor to the north would throw 1,000’s of pounds of feed right before the draw hunts to lure as much as they could off the WMA.

I used to draw pretty regular before the new system. I have yet to draw since then.

Imagine that, same thing at Richland Creek, there was an old local that got drawn standby every... d@mn... year Not sure if he is still around or not.

[bossbowman]

I’ve hunted Fairfield SP twice on antlerless/spike/pig hunts. The first time was five or six years ago and had a great hunt. Killed a doe, and chose not not to kill another and a spike because I really only needed the meat from one deer. My dad also had a shot at a doe. The second time was two years ago, and the place was covered up in pigs. One guy in my group shot one. Our area had apparently been shot out the week before at the youth hunt, with 4 animals being killed out of my blind. Needless to say I saw nothing, and our group saw no deer. I think two does were killed that weekend. The staff there is good.

Hunted balcones a few years ago and it was bad. Balcones is a weird place because they have dozens of different properties spread out over a large area. The hunt we were on you could kill a buck after your killed a doe or a pig. On our property there were four of us over a couple of hundred acres, and in 3 days we saw two does several hundred yards away and one nice buck total as a group. So that might have just been us being unlucky getting a crappy compartment.

We were lucky enough to draw a trophy gun hunt on the chap 4 years ago, and it was by far the best hunt we’ve been on. I killed a nice 130 inch 10 the first evening, and saw several more shooters throughout the hunt, including a 150-class ten that I watched for 30 minutes because I’d already used my tag. I had a little buyers remorse, but my buck was nearly 19 inches wide, just kinda short horned. My dad killed a cool narrow 9, and another guy in our group missed a giant buck. There were deer and javelinas everywhere, and everytime you came in another nice buck or two was being scored. The staff was very nice as well.

I was on that Fairfield youth hunt 2 years ago, trust me the kids didn't ruin your hunt, the deer density is not what it used to be there and the hogs have gone insane, they need to bring in the helicopters like they did at hagerman.

[grizzman]

I can't say that I have ever been on a bad draw hunt. I've been drawn a lot of times over the last fifteen years and I think my favorite place is South Llano.

I hope Powderhorn in January is a even better hunt.

[grizzman]

I was on that Fairfield youth hunt 2 years ago, trust me the kids didn't ruin your hunt, the deer density is not what it used to be there and the hogs have gone insane, they need to bring in the helicopters like they did at hagerman.

My son did the youth hunt in 2014. We saw one deer on the last morning. That was his first deer.

[EastTexHunter8]

Thank you everyone for all the amazing information on drawn hunts. Going on my first one at Lake Somerville sp this year. This is definitely a reason to pony up and get my APH every year.