2025 quail

[Couesnut]

Any reports yet ??  Pretty wet

[NOTAGS]

I got into birds Saturday... couldnt hit squat.  Numbers were good  where they were last year.  The cool morning was a nice change for opening weekend.

[oz31p]

I hit a few new areas to keep my new dog away from cholla but hit a few coveys and got a few birds 

[The Guy]

i went out Friday, took the day off. in the morning they were not chatty at all and they were busting out way before i could even get close enough to shoot, i took a few shots but nothing. last year i had to pretty much step on them in the morning to even bust them out. saw 3 other hunters on the roads that didn't have luck either. hiked about 6.5 miles trying to find them, saw about 5 coveys but they were to far to shoot and once i moved in they busted out. may go out this weekend or next again. good luck to everyone. thinking of trying some new spots see how it goes.

[Apache7mm]

San Carlos had some okay numbers on the surveys but definitely leaning towards the lower end. Also noticed the same as mentioned above, birds that haven't been pressured flushing before you got anywhere near them. Have yet to go out myself but already looks to be a tough year.

 

DAN

[The Guy]

42 minutes ago, Apache7mm said:

San Carlos had some okay numbers on the surveys but definitely leaning towards the lower end. Also noticed the same as mentioned above, birds that haven't been pressured flushing before you got anywhere near them. Have yet to go out myself but already looks to be a tough year.

 

DAN

yeah you said it right, you would have thought it was two weeks after opening day the way they would bust out like they had got shot at already. started at 6:30am and by 10am hiking i got the email from game and fish and read it out there on a break , basically saying its not good for quail right now because of the lack of rain . 😩 i will come back if i go out again and give a update. 

[wildwoody]

Game and fish says bad year.

[jdown]

I hope people give them a break. Shoot a few, leave many.  Those evening hunters shooting young birds off their roost is bad for business. 

I saw that note from G&F, why would they not lower the limit?  Their message is - Bad year, don't shoot them all, but we aren't going to lower the limit - confuses me. 

[The Guy]

12 minutes ago, jdown said:

I hope people give them a break. Shoot a few, leave many.  Those evening hunters shooting young birds off their roost is bad for business. 

I saw that note from G&F, why would they not lower the limit?  Their message is - Bad year, don't shoot them all, but we aren't going to lower the limit - confuses me. 

yeah G&F had some public meetings in regards to lowering the limits but they did not. which i do not understand we do not want to wipe them out. 

[Coues247]

47 minutes ago, jdown said:

I hope people give them a break. Shoot a few, leave many.  Those evening hunters shooting young birds off their roost is bad for business. 

I saw that note from G&F, why would they not lower the limit?  Their message is - Bad year, don't shoot them all, but we aren't going to lower the limit - confuses me. 

I listened to their commission meeting where their biologists made a suggestion to lower the limits and shorten the seasons and only two commissioners voted for it. The main reason one commissioner gave was that it would be too hard to let everyone know the regs changed and people booked guided hunts and it would mess them up. One of the commissioners that voted for the change was pretty upset and told the others they were being irresponsible when the biologists were telling them they needed to change something or there was a chance some areas would lose all of their quail. The one that refused to budge and was insistent on the whole guide thing was Goughnour. He must own a quail guiding outfit or something the way he refused to even consider it. Funny thing was this was after some meeting in May where they asked their biologists to provide more accurate data on bird numbers and then to bring it to them if they thought the quail were in danger and so the biologists did a bunch of extra work and brought them the numbers and half of the commission told them they didn't like their data and numbers so they weren't going to consider it lol

[jdown]

4 minutes ago, Coues247 said:

I listened to their commission meeting where their biologists made a suggestion to lower the limits and shorten the seasons and only two commissioners voted for it. The main reason one commissioner gave was that it would be too hard to let everyone know the regs changed and people booked guided hunts and it would mess them up. One of the commissioners that voted for the change was pretty upset and told the others they were being irresponsible when the biologists were telling them they needed to change something or there was a chance some areas would lose all of their quail. The one that refused to budge and was insistent on the whole guide thing was Goughnour. He must own a quail guiding outfit or something the way he refused to even consider it. Funny thing was this was after some meeting in May where they asked their biologists to provide more accurate data on bird numbers and then to bring it to them if they thought the quail were in danger and so the biologists did a bunch of extra work and brought them the numbers and half of the commission told them they didn't like their data and numbers so they weren't going to consider it lol

Thanks for sharing! Insane. I have heard from a few of the biologists over the years say they don't listen to them anyway.