Coleto’s 19th Annual Bowhunt Rapidly Approaching

SEGUIN– Rangers at the Coleto Creek Park and Reservoir are making plans for another successful bowhunting season. The 19th Annual Bowhunt for white-tail deer and feral hogs will take place from October through December. The deadline for submitting entries for this year’s GBRA -Coleto Creek Reservoir Bowhunt is noon on Aug19, 2016.

The bowhunts are restricted to the use of archery equipment. They will be held on 14 consecutive weekends beginning the weekend of Oct. 1- 2, 2016 and ending the weekend of Dec. 30 – Jan. 1, 2017. On the first weekend of archery season, legal hunting is only allowed on Saturday and Sunday.  For the remaining weekends, hunters selected by random drawing will be allowed to pre-scout and begin hunting assigned areas on the Friday of their hunting weekend and continue through Sunday.

“These yearly hunts, which began in 1999, are utilized to help reduce the size of the deer herd that has continued to grow beyond the carrying capacity of the reservoir’s lands, and to reduce the numbers of feral hogs that continue to increase in numbers and damage reservoir property. Each year the drawn hunters see a lot of deer,” said GBRA Reservoir Ranger and Hunt Coordinator, Curtis Seiler.

GBRA utilizes 1,500 acres in the Bow Hunting Program. This acreage is divided into 5 unique hunting compartments, which are managed by GBRA around the reservoir, but are not part of the Coleto Creek Park area.  Hunters will be allowed to harvest two antlerless deer and an unlimited number of feral hogs.  Hunters may apply for the hunts individually or as groups of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 per party.  Each individual or group will be assigned to a specific hunting area based on the size of their group and the order of draw.  The fee to hunt per weekend will be $160/hunter.

To enter the random drawing for the hunts, send a 3.5” X 5.5” postcard that includes a name, address, daytime phone number, email address, and names of those in the hunting party (maximum of ten); and preferred hunt date(s) and hunt compartment (for those who have previously hunted at Coleto). Each hunter may submit a postcard in his/her own name. Mail entry to GBRA-Bowhunt, Coleto Creek Park, P.O. Box 68, Fannin, TX.77960; or drop off your entry at the Coleto Creek Park office at 365 Coleto Park Rd, Victoria, TX.  Each individual is limited to one postcard entry.  No email entries will be accepted. Only those applicants drawn will be notified of the results of the annual draw.  For more information, contact Curtis Seiler, Reservoir Ranger, at the Coleto Creek Office at 361-575-6366, or email to coleto@gbra.org.

Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority’s Coleto Creek Park and Reservoir is located between Victoria and Goliad, Texas off of Highway 59.

The GBRA was established by the Texas Legislature in 1933 as a water conservation and reclamation district. GBRA provides stewardship for the water resources in its 10-county statutory district, which begins near the headwaters of the Guadalupe and Blanco rivers, goes on to San Antonio Bay, and includes Kendall, Comal, Hays, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Gonzales, DeWitt, Victoria, Calhoun, and Refugio counties.