Quail Check Station Tells Story in Tonto Basin

Spencer Porter and his five friends from Heber were all smiles - in the first two days of the season, the group of young men bagged approximately 60 Gambel's quail in the Tonto Basin near Roosevelt Lake. Plenty of others had similar tales. Karl Conner of Mesa discovered that his 11-year-old son, Granger, has a real shooting eye. "He's a natural. I guess I ought to get him into skeet shooting or something," said the proud father while patting his son on the shoulder. At the Arizona Game and Fish Department's quail check station near Punkin Center in the Tonto Basin, the reported quail harvest increased almost eight-fold from 2004 to this year. In 2004, hunters brought in 188 quail to the check station. This year, the number jumped to 1,436. As a comparison, in 2003, hunters checked in 561 birds. Another telling factor is the harvest of juvenile birds. In 2003, there were three juvenile birds harvested for every adult. Last year, that fell to one juvenile harvested per adult, indicating a very poor hatch. This year, the quail hatch was excellent in this area, given that five juvenile birds were taken per adult quail. "The numbers pretty much tell it all," says Mark Zornes, the department's small game biologist. "Last year, hunters averaged 1.1 quail per day. This year in the Tonto Basin, they averaged 6.6 birds on opening weekend. Last year, a great day was harvesting five or six birds. This year, six birds is just the average, with a lot of hunters getting their limit of 15 quail." The other check station was less scientific, but a little more colorful. At the Butcher's Hook Café in Punkin Center, the good quail hunting was the subject of most late-morning breakfast conversations as hungry hunters gobbled up eggs, home fries and side meat. "Hey Fred, how'd you guys do?" "The best since the early 90s. How about you guys?" "About the same. We got our limit in two or three hours." "Oh yeah, where at?" "Everyplace we went!" You could hear chuckling at most of the tables. Tonto Basin Quail Check Station Results 2003 2004 2005 Total Hunter Days 119 169 218 Gambels Quail Harvest 561 188 1,436 Total Adult Harvest 40 47 228 Total Juvenile Harvest 116 45 1,139 Juvenile/Adult 2.9 1.0 5.0 Quail/Day 4.7 1.1 6.6