Texas Cormorant Season?

Sounds like Texas may be considering it.

"states considering management measures, such as Texas and Oregon, have contacted South Carolina DNR officials for details surrounding their recent—and for hunters, very successful—season

http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/south-carolinas-first-cormorant-hunt-brings-11000-birds/

Oh my could I have some fun!

Pond by my mom's house, took me for ever to figure out why a lot the bass we caught had holes in the back of their tail. They chase them underwater and hook them with their fish hook bills..



Nasty arse birds, they look like aliens. What do you do with them when you shoot them? You can't just leave them in the lakes dead, that would be more nasty.

Would be nice to shoot a few of those ugly birds.

Good! I'm tired of those arrogant bastads flyin' right by the spread like they own the place.

Im in the blind. Let me know when they approve it.

On private waters you can get a permit to shoot them

I have a permit for the ranch and designate each hunter as my agent. Paperwork involved but we eliminate many of them. They are destroying my bass fishery.

Water turkey season!...no limit and no closed season as far as I'm concerned!

This!

You had better have a VG relationship with your GW if you don't have a permit.

Yep, been that way for several years. The first SC public hunt was done much the same way. It was still by Depredation Order and for a specific body of water. Hunters had to attend a training session and sign a volunteer forum to become an agent of the SC Department of Natural Resources to be able to participate. Like a permit for private water here, the birds had to be recorded and disposed of. You can't even legally mount one. IMHO, the best approach to get a pubic permit season here would be to get the Texas Bass Fishing Lobby on board to put pressure on TPWD. Then we might just have a chance for a future season on some of the larger public lakes.

Kill them all.

yep

Water turkey tags...

Hopefully they'd let us shoot em with lead... Or a center fire rifle, or small explosives.

watch we will start killing them off and end up they have been keeping a bloodthirsty water monster at bay by eating their babys the whole time...

that sounds like a great theme to a B movie.


we can get a bunch of washed up actors to star in it

Clint eastwood would be my first pick of the litter.... with that horrible show he put out not to long ago it couldn't go anywere but up... what was that show called... It was the one were he was an old man living in the Ghetto and had war flashbacks... the acting was worse than any b movie i ever seen... and every one claimed to like it because it was clint eastwood... no it sucked

New i had a picture of a big one that got killed... very possible it was a bald eagle also but more likely water turkey

It would be better if you could 5 bucks for their feet like Louisiana rats

This has been more political than approving the keystone pipeline project for heavens sake

We need al gore on board

And palin

That could be a fun season. Hate them birds.

Oh what the heck, throw putin in there as well

I reckon we give him some Tito's vodka and free duck hunt with Elder and we can get shed of him....

And couple of twin peaks

If it aint good table fare , We aint shootin it !

I'd like to kill every one I can get lead in and throw them back for the turtles. My old neighbor on lake Palestine was 87 years old and shot them off his porch every day they came through and roosted in Ledbetter creek with a 22.He kept a tally and In 2006 killed 987. I'd hate to think of all the crappie that have been lost since he died. Everyone looked the other way when that rifle went off.

They can't taste any worse than a ringer, you guys just don't know how to cook.

Don't be so boring Dan. You need to try new things and expand your horizons.

Not enough turtles to eat all the water turkeys...

You would if you knew how many fish they eat

Especially when they are your fish in your own private pond or reservoir. I got my permit this year and shot the sh*t out of them. After hammering them the first 3 weeks of duck season they all pretty much disappeared. After hunting season ended they started concentrating more in our reservoir but I guess they migrated back north because I only see a couple now when I am down there. That or they already ate all of the 10,000 bluegill and 2,000 crappie we stocked in there

your fine.

they eat a lot but not that much. just stay on top of them

They eat a lot. I've seen them dive in and bring up crappie that they couldn't carry or swallow and leave the flopping on the surface with their air bladders extended. I say kill them all.

In fact now would be a great time to lay waste to them before they destroy another age class of fish in a fishery.

I won't go out of my way to hunt them but it would be great if they opened up a season on them. Control them and help with fishing populations which are probably pretty stressed now anyway with the drought we have been having the last few years.

Most of the time they fly to high anyway. U gotta be right on their roostflyway

You hunt ponds most of the time, don't ya? If you hunt big water you'd get plenty of shots at 'em.

Bigwater as well u have to be right under their flyway when they come and go in their stupid V shape formation pretending they are geese.

I'm with you on that

Death to the water turkey!

Meh, I hunt big water a lot and have a single or two fly right over more times than I don't...

The best is when you shoot into a big group of them and every single bird flops and dives towards the water and you think you at least killed a couple and then they all fly away unscathed. They are pretty shifty

True that, but the beaver aint going out of bed unless he can at least shoot 50 of them boogerpickers!!!

Nuthin' wrong with that! I'm lookin' at it more from a bonus bird perspective while duck huntin'... and good riddance.

Bird Island on Lake Charlotte… That place is loaded with em. Maybe GHG will come out with a Pro Grade Commorant decoy soon!

Depending on how big the lake is you may need to invite them back in two years for some serious thinning of your fish population.

240 acres.

Lake namer...

Too small

http://www.knutsondecoys.com/decoy_cormormant.html

Might work as duck confidence coy

Especially if you put one on your yak with it's wings out like you see them drying out on logs/stumps all the time.

Hmmm, if only somebody had thought of that...

Now offering guided water turkey hunts...reserve your spot now!

I can see it on craigslist now...

Plus, I can't wait to see the look on the taxidermists face when someone brings one in.

They smell like rotten minnows

Taxidermist will charge you a stinkfee

I doubt a taxidermist would take one. From the south carolina FAQ.

6. Can I mount a bird?

No, as written in the authorizing depredation permit, birds must be disposed of in an approved manner. This is limited to the following:

Donation to a museum or education institution,
Burying of the birds, or
Burning of the birds.


I would think they are no better or worse than Mergansers. The mergansers I shot this year did not stink, but Dash was sure freaked out when live shad started falling out of one during the retrieve.

I would donate every one to the museum for sure

anyone else notice that eating them was not an "approved manner" by the state of SC?

Cormorant mojo spin'n, benelli spit'n, grebes grebe'n

Can't feed to the yotes? Who in the heck is going to bury or burn them.. I would never shoot one of those nasty birds, but I hope everyone else will..

Little off topic...I was looking at the link that Sniper John posted. What the hell is a dead duck decoy for?
http://www.knutsondecoys.com/closeouts_flambeau.html

I cremate all mine.

http://www.knutsondecoys.com/decoy_smshorebird.html

Only $2.99 a piece. I'm thinking about setting a mega snipe spread for this next season

Did I mention, kill them all?

I bet it takes more than 2 3/4 #4 to bring them down...

Common Bev, you know they trick you some of the time.

Thats awesome!

So beav kills pigeons, John kills snipe.... And we are all waiting to kill cormorants

Not pigeons, Thunder Chickens! but other than that, YUP!

Im waitin on cormorants too

Ever hear of "splat fishing" for catfish. I have been fortunate to do it a couple of times. Find a cormorant roost on a lake. Ideally sneak into the area only with trolling motor. Take a medium duty spinning reel combo spooled with braid. Use like a number 4 or 2 treble hook, about the size you would find on a bass bait. Don't use any weight.

Attach a whole piece of bacon or two on the hook. Cast it under the trees where the cormorants have been roosting so it hits the water with a splat and hang on. Reel it in after it sinks some. Move to the next tree after about three casts if no luck. If cats are there they hammer it. The bacon will lengthen and get sort of sloppy, even making a better splat sound.

I went catfishin' last night with a buddy and was telling him about it.

I've never done it, but 4-5 years ago I was pulling the boat out after a hunt when a couple ol' guys came in right behind me. They had 2 coolers loaded with blues and told me that is what they were doing. I wanna try that sometime...

Aren't we prohibited from taking cormorants with lead shot, even with a permit because they are migratory birds?

Migratory bird isn't what matters, sandhills and dove are migratory, and you can use lead for them. The restriction has to do with waterfowl, and I don't know if they would count cormorants as waterfowl or not.

Good point... I know they are biologically speaking, but who knows what the feds think?

Fingers got ahead of what I was thinking.

Migratory waterfowl was what I had in mind. That would put it under the feds? Maybe I am over thinking this.

Correct, they are already federally managed.

If you get a cormorant permit now, here in TX you have to use non toxic shot

If shooting Crows under a depredation permit the Feds require non toxic shot now too.

Looks like I need to go to Academy for some shells.

You do not need a state or federal depredation permit in texas to hunt crows or pigeons and lead is perfectly legal.

First time I ever saw one was on Lake Fairfield back in the 70s.
Many's a time since then I wished the State would open season on those fish eating worthless bone bags.

Cross your fingers.

Now, if we can get 'em going on Grackles....

Huh? Grackles are already open to do whatever you want to. From the tpwd site "may be controlled without a federal or state depredation permit when found committing or about to commit depredations on ornamental or shade trees, agricultural crops, livestock, or wildlife, or when concentrated in numbers and in a manner that constitutes a health hazard or other nuisance."

Yep. And lead good too.
Try grackles with nr 9 lead and 12 gauge plug off.
Raining birds

All just trivia really that does not matter, but Yes and no. There was talk of doing away with the "permit" because no one has asked for one for years and it is covered under the depredation order. http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/50/21.43 The non toxic shot requirement under the depredation order is a fairly recent change. The Feds require non tox it if under depredation order, but If the state has a crow season, then lead is allowed, but only during season. Crow hunting in Texas is one of those things much like migratory game possession limits. Federal law includes birds in your home freezer in your possession limit. Texas game wardens do not enforce it that way. Then crows. If you write the US fish and wildlife to ask about recorded calls and decoys for crow hunting, the feds will tell you it is not legal as your are attracting the crows and thus not killing them due to depredation. Texas game wardens again do not enforce it under the Federal interpretation. So in that same way Texas has not enforced the federal requirement of non toxic shot for Crows, Texas State law does not require it, nor has the commission added the federal requirement to TPWD code. http://law.onecle.com/texas/parks/64.002.00.html
At least not yet. Last year I noticed Oklahoma is following the new Federal non toxic shot rule and has changed it in their regulations.

CROW
.......
Depredation Order
Federally-approved nontoxic shot must be used when taking crows under depredation order. Federal law provides for a depredation order for crows when committing or about to commit depredations or when concentrated in such numbers and manner as to constitute a health hazard or other nuisance. For a complete copy of the Depredation Order, see 50 CFR, Part 21.43.

Thank you sniper

yes- non toxic only- applied for permit last week!!

Excellent information.
I am in your debt.
Another good reason to love THF.

Send them to SC where they had the season............