Hunting season is just around the corner and many of you will be looking for affordable opportunities around Central Texas. Lake Somerville is well known for it's "boom or bust" duck hunting as the lake fluctuates back and forth from drought and flood. Unlike last fall where there was no lake at all, this duck season is shaping up to be a good one. Lake Somerville and other area lakes have remained near normal level all summer and should provide ample winter feeding grounds for the seasonal visitors.
Hunters getting ready for the season that need a place to hunt will want to learn about the states
Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). The
Public Permit required to hunt the WMAs will cost less then a tank of gas for that old pickup you'll drive to get there. Access to over a million acres all over the state is a very good deal and some of the best bow hunting for deer and pigs can be found just down the road.
On
September 6, 2012 at 6:30pm Lake Somerville State Park ( Nails Creek Unit) will host an informational meeting about hunting the Somerville WMAs on Nails and Yegua creek. Questions about rules, regulations and access points will be answered by the folks running the program.
My two nephews, Austin, Harrison and I hunted the Nails Creek WMA last bow season for the first time in 30 years (for me). I was about my nephews age when I hunted the Nails Creek unit years ago. It first opened as a type II hunting area that became the WMA program. Much has changed over that last quarter century especially the quality of the bucks. The antler size regulation implemented a few years back has really done it's job in allowing more bucks to reach maturity while culling inferior animals.
Even in the midst of the drought we saw many good deer and a couple of really exceptional bucks. I don't know how well the deer herd weathered the drought overall but with the wet spring providing plenty of forage through the summer there should be some very good quality deer roaming the WMA.
Somerville WMA
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