West Texas June 2 through ???

Heading down in two weeks. Any riders are welcome to join. i will be collecting a few things. Let me know if you want to go. Later, Shaun

I"m game only if they have Ringnecks. My stock is running low I could use a few more..
lol

Ron

Lunar phase and opts out

From my reading of the other web site, a lot/few are postponing till Aug and early Sept. Why ? I don't know but the consensus is on no rain and drought of west Texas in which depending on what story you believe, has been going on for years and has not effected in my opinion finding. I have seen the Rio few times on past where you could literately walk across where there were just puddles but this is also due to the flood gates of the upper Rio in New Mexico. The problem is whether waiting for rain and maybe gas prices comedown, there is no proof of either of happening or even worse conditions of both. The NEW MOON actually is coming up this next week and the first quarter the time you are consider of going. So it would be one of the better windows for approximate 3 week period. Leading up to the no moon ( now ) and the week of the no moon ( the last week of this month ) and when sppeavy is planning ( the back side of the no moon ). Also depending where some of you are planning on going, it looks like the eastern part of the Trans-Pecos might be congested ( 277 out of Del Rio, Juno Road, Langtry, Sanderson 90 highway ) compared to south of Alpine ( 118 ), Davis Mountains, 170 to River Road, Black Gap. So it might be advantageous to hunting the west.

Personally, all the folks opting out due to the lack of rain are missing out. Rattlesnakes in the Trans-pecos region are used to being without rain. As oldguy has stated, its been a problem for the past few years, but people still go and still find lots of critters. I due plan to be more to the west of Big Bend, so all those guys hitting 277 and so on can race from cut to cut and maybe get lucky. I dont know why they are all wanting to stay around Del Rio. You have better ods of finding alterna if your more open on areas. Oh well, its not my choice of places to go. I sometimes go there for a night on the way back home. Anyways, these reptiles are so used to not having water, so Im not too worried. River road should be good as well.

Dang you Shaun. LOL !

You and others are making it hard for me of not either wanting to go yet ( I do but with problems ), or making a commitment of when I CAN go ! The eastern region and why : there is no argument of if your target reptile is gray-band, go east. But it is also well known that one has the better chance of being " skunked " of seeing multiple other species and sometimes nothing at all on any given night of the " prime nights " of hunting. Of course THIS could happen out west but in my 50 so trips, never have I been west and not seen a thing. My numbers of any species out west has been as high as 70 per night with average of 20 to 30 per night unless totally rained out.

DETAILS : what are you driving Shaun. Where are you planning on staying. Where are you wanting to focus on hunting. You ARE planning on the permit so how long are you planning on staying knowing that the special permit is good for 5 days/nights, a total of 120 hours from time of date. ( not a meant " loop hole " or even conceived one but legal > you put the time and date of starting at 12 am ( midnight ) of the next day on your permit of activation. The draw back > at midnight of the 5th day going into the 6th day, you become illegal to hunt. Again not proposing ANY illegal activity but, say you are out on River Road at the windmill turn around you are staying at Study Butte/Terlingua or even having to make it back to alpine from that point, your permit expires at midnight, you have a 40/50/ mile trip back to SB or the T town or you have that 120/140 mile trip back to Alpine. You see herps on pavement on your trip back and you have herps already you legally collected in vehicle >>>>>>> what do you do ! LOL ! Catch my drift ?

sppeavy said:

Personally, all the folks opting out due to the lack of rain are missing out. Rattlesnakes in the Trans-pecos region are used to being without rain. As oldguy has stated, its been a problem for the past few years, but people still go and still find lots of critters. I due plan to be more to the west of Big Bend, so all those guys hitting 277 and so on can race from cut to cut and maybe get lucky. I dont know why they are all wanting to stay around Del Rio. You have better ods of finding alterna if your more open on areas. Oh well, its not my choice of places to go. I sometimes go there for a night on the way back home. Anyways, these reptiles are so used to not having water, so Im not too worried. River road should be good as well.

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I am planning on staying around Sanderson. It gives you a good run of east and west possibilities. I drive a Honda right now, and one person is intrested so far, so if you wanted to go, I have AAA, and Ill just rent a bigger car or SUV. I dont want a gas hog. The honda gets around 375 miles to the tank. It runs about 25.00 to fill the tank. On the permits, Thats why I love the 5 day permit. If your not doing so good, you can easily bail to another area or go home. If its going good, and you want to stay, you buy another 5 days. On your expiring while your collecting, it up to you to pay attention to those details, but I would not pass up certain species whether I had a licence or not. I have never had any trouble with the Texas Parks and Wildlife. Most of them have been helpfull, and the Border Patrol is the same way. So, if you permit expires, you better make the choice to stay or go home. For me, if Im finding my target species with no problems, I would want to stay a few more days. I cant afford to miss more than a week of work this time of year, so if we leave Friday the 2nd, and drive all night, we would be there Saturday to take a nap and get to it. I like to get out a few hours before dusk to find some lizards, and cruise right into the night for the snakes. The first couple days, I run on excitment, then Ill calm down a bit. Just let me know if you want to join. The more the better with the gas prices and all. Plus its nice for droping a couple off at a cut and cruising up the road a mile or so and comming back. It makes cut hunting so much faster with more people.

Any of you herp around the El Paso Co? I'm originally from there born and raised and I'll be taking a trip down this Sept and was wondering where would be the best place to go herping?

Thanks,
Louie Chavez

hard to hunt because of traffic

on most roads around there. Now if you went to 1111 and around sierra blanca...truth is that many of us seasoned hunters just don't do much of that area although there is some semi-famous producing areas but not hunted very much. There is also info of past of some semi-scary things that goes on up there in the back-country. It might be rumors or facts. I know that alterna is one very hard snake to find up there. Most other same species as the Bend and east of the bend CAN be found out there but it seems never in the same numbers. Hudspeth county is hunted more but again not as much as other counties east and south east of there.

lcchavez said:

Any of you herp around the El Paso Co? I'm originally from there born and raised and I'll be taking a trip down this Sept and was wondering where would be the best place to go herping?

Thanks,
Louie Chavez

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I had a friend that would every once in a while catch a few hognose snakes. Do you think hunting for them would come up empty?

western hognoses

and sub-species ( mexican down there ) are probably one of the most hardest snakes to find. Even out here in my state they are extremely elusive of finding. I search all post on any web-site of finds of west Texas and even with me doing the hunt thing for over 35 years down there , I can tell you that there is but a handful of observations of hogs at any given time and through the years. In fact the ONLY hog that I ever found was the mexican species and out on gravel road right after a slight rainstorm during the day/morning. Yes, there has been a few found of road cruising at night as the popular method of finding snakes. There seems to be more observations of hogs in places like Terrell and Val Verde counties of the Trans-Pecos and where I found mine.