Pheasant season needs to be the same length in Texas as in Kansas. It's only a 40 minute drive. The birds are the same. That means second weekend of November to the end of January. Not the 4 week season we have now. Make it LONGER.

I happened to catch my state representative the other day with a minute to waste and asked him how to get the season changed. He laughed and told me that a group of farmers from Plainview had recently called to tell him to SHORTEN the pheasant season. Which is the worst thing that could happen. I told him in a few minutes how all of the science proves hunter harvest has no negative impact and could likely be beneficial for pheasant populations.

I gathered from him that they are going to discuss TPWD hunting seasons sometime this Spring in Austin. Whether anything changes or not, who knows. But if you live in one of the 37 counties that has a Texas pheasant season and care at all about pheasants, call or email your State Rep and tell them you want a longer pheasant season. It's good for our towns and for the birds.

I guess those farmers are tired of people shooting their pheasants.

I can see your argument and agree. If the Kansas line is that close and their pheasant numbers are being sustained, then why not?

I have never hunted pheasant and would like to one day so I am just an observer with an uneducated opinion.

I'm in on this thread for the pheasant loving Plainview farmer who is about to come in hot.

i don't think lengthening the season will do much of anything. i don't want to shorten the season either.

The birds just aren't there anymore, and people won't come for a short or a long season until the bird populations rebound.

i would schedule a hunt with a bunch of guys to do a hunt if we had any birds anymore. just not around anymore and yes hunting doesn't impact the population.

Considering pheasants are essentially feral birds I question why TPWD has any jurisdiction at all.

Burdizzo said:

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Considering pheasants are essentially feral birds I question why TPWD has any jurisdiction at all.

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I've often wondered about that myself. Nonnative species. Why don't they treat them like Eurasian dove or axis or aoudad?

You and me both want the pheasants to come back.

My hope is that the announcement of a longer pheasant season will be an opportunity for education as to what does impact pheasant numbers. A longer season will not help. But it might create some dialogue that helps people start to understand what would help. Way too many people still think hunting impacts pheasant numbers.

Too many kids in high school have been told by their (well meaning) Grandad or Uncle or whoever that they cant hunt pheasants anymore. Whenever they get their turn to farm, do you think they will leave any habitat for the birds? Why would they? It costs them money and they don't enjoy it because they never tried it. All the kids know how to hunt anymore is coyotes.

A lot of pheasant hunters are people who grew up in the Panhandle but live downstate somewhere. A season that includes both Thanksgiving and Christmas would lead to more of them actually going hunting. Bottom line is you need MORE pheasant hunters if there's gonna be any increase in pheasants.

TPWD has to try something different. This is not working.

I saw one at my feeder this year in Hemphill Co. I did a double take because I've been hunting there for 5 years and didn't even know there were any!!

Don't think number of hunters has anything to do with it.

Every year i look to do a hunt, and if there are birds i will go. if no birds then i won't go like lately. gonna be a while even if we have wet years as i don't see enough to even breed if conditions were good. i rarely see them anymore.

chocolatelabs said:

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Don't think number of hunters has anything to do with it.

Every year i look to do a hunt, and if there are birds i will go. if no birds then i won't go like lately. gonna be a while even if we have wet years as i don't see enough to even breed if conditions were good. i rarely see them anymore.

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I saw two running in a field when we were headed out to our crane hunt south of Lubbock in January. First ones I've seen around there in a long time.

Your bigger problem has nothing to do with tpwd. It's economics. Cotton vs sorghum. Til sorghum rallied this fall it wasn't competitive at all vs cotton. No sorghum no ideal pheasant habitats. Also with high grain prices currently you are going to lose way more CRP acres too which destroys more habitat.

This year you'll have way more sorghum fields with current pricing so that will help.

It's been 10 years since I've hunted pheasant in the Panhandle but used to go every year before I had kids. Now that my boys are old enough I'd like to start going again and take them.

Typically we found a lot of birds in the corners of all the ag fields where the center-pivot irrigation didn't reach so it wasn't cultivated and left to grow whatever it was that grew there. We typically stayed in Brownfield as one of my dad's former graduate students had a business consulting with the farmers up there.

Do they not allow those corners to grow fairly wild any more?

The seasons are adjusted by the TPWD commission.....which is ultimately a political body. As Doc pointed out, there are bigger issues than what TPWD controls.

No kidding pheasant are non-native, but show me a pheasant state that doesn't view them as a game species.

Doctor51 said:

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Your bigger problem has nothing to do with tpwd. It's economics. Cotton vs sorghum. Til sorghum rallied this fall it wasn't competitive at all vs cotton. No sorghum no ideal pheasant habitats. Also with high grain prices currently you are going to lose way more CRP acres too which destroys more habitat.

This year you'll have way more sorghum fields with current pricing so that will help.

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I agree with you. The bigger problem is economics. Economics is always the biggest problem. There's nothing to do about that. Economically make CRP more attractive? I think that takes too much money. CRP renewals are doing the opposite, the price per acre is going down. That hurts more than grain prices going up.

Cotton certainly doesn't help. The last two years we have had more milo than cotton where I hunt. First year the cotton froze and last year it blew away. What you grow in the majority of one section is not the biggest issue though. It's what you do with the small pieces of that section that are either near breakeven or not profitable for farming. I have killed a bunch of roosters in grass corners around irrigated cotton.


Sorghum is good but it's not the answer. Have you stood in a milo field in June? Where is a hen pheasant going to put her nest? The only thing that matters to pheasant numbers is the hatch. Most of them are dead within 18 months of hatching (even with no hunting). You have to have a big hatch. Milo does not help you until late July? August?

I would love nothing more than for them to throw money at a public access program like WIHA in Kansas that would put more grass habitat back on the map. The problem is that it would have to be at least $10 an acre to get anyone enrolled. I think Kansas pays like $4 an acre. What's important to the 806 never has and never will be important to TPWD. There's not enough people up here and all the decisions are made 500 miles away. Longer season is the only thing they might actually do.

ursusguy said:

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The seasons are adjusted by the TPWD commission.....which is ultimately a political body. As Doc pointed out, there are bigger issues than what TPWD controls.

No kidding pheasant are non-native, but show me a pheasant state that doesn't view them as a game species.

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I understand that point. What I was trying to point out was that, at least in Texas's case, the wild native game belong to the sovereign. Thus the State's jurisdiction over those animals. On the other hand the State pretty much allows open season on feral hogs and feral exotics. I always assumed that was because they are not native.

ursusguy said:

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The seasons are adjusted by the TPWD commission.....which is ultimately a political body. As Doc pointed out, there are bigger issues than what TPWD controls.

No kidding pheasant are non-native, but show me a pheasant state that doesn't view them as a game species.

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There was a state pheasant stocking operation in SE Texas in the 70s. IIRC the story, they got wild pheasants from the California rice country and stocked in SE Tx rice counties. Jefferson, Chambers, Liberty, Even Harris counties had pheasant seasons for years until recently being removed. Like the se Tx quail, they eventually disappeared.

I am familiar with that stocking effort. Long before I was a TPWD biologist, I was an extreme wildlife/hunting nerd. So when I noticed the coastal counties pheasant season, I went digging.