By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
Moapa Valley sounded like a war zone on the morning of September 1 as the dove hunting season opened.
Dove hunters get up before the crack of dawn to be in position as the sun rises. Many of the local hunters have their sweet spot to find dove. But a real honey hole for the dove to congregate is in the Overton Wildlife Management Area (OWMA) south of Overton. The OWMA has sunflowers, trees, and ponds that entice the dove to spend more time in the area.
The abundance of dove also attracts hunters to gather there. This year the OWMA had 55 hunters participate on opening morning. The hunters can reserve a spot for the first morning or first weekend hunt by mailing in a form, or showing up the morning of and be on standby in case there are any openings.
Many hunters on standby got lucky Monday morning because not all of the mail in spots had been filled.
Tim Woods, the Manager of OWMA, said they were able to accommodate everyone that wanted to hunt that day. Woods figured the harvest averaged 4 dove per hunter, turning out to be an average season.
“Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves,” Woods said. “It was a typically hot day and the hunters started to leave around 10 or 11:00.”
After the first morning and first weekend of the season hunters do not need a reservation to hunt on the OWMA.
This year some changes had been made to the dove season in favor of the hunter. According to Woods they extended the season another month making the total hunting time 2 months long. In addition, the new limit of dove a hunter can shoot has increased from 10 to 15 birds.
“There has been an abundance of dove in other places, not here [in Moapa Valley] but other areas of the U.S.” said Woods.
The Overton Wildlife Management Area is also preparing for the waterfowl season to begin. There have also been a few donations from organizations for the duck blinds. The Nevada Sportsman’s Unlimited donated eight blinds to the Management Area and Wildlife and Habitat Improvement of Nevada (WHIN) has donated materials for the blinds.
