All,
I was up in the Hueco's tonight and ran into some local Lep hunters. They hadn't seen anything and me either. Later in the night I saw them pulled over with a TPWD Game Warden blue lighting them. I spoke with the Lep hunters later and they said that LE didn't have a problem with what they were doing (shining the cuts) but to make sure they were off the highway. They checked their hunting licenses and mentioned that soon snake hunting from the road would be illegal. Apparently, the Lep hunters told them they were looking for centipedes. They asked LE if they would still be able to look for centipedes by shining cuts even with the new law and they said yes. The LE was out of Sierra Blanca. They never pulled me.
So TPWD is already telling their officers about what maybe illegal soon. But we can legally hunt for centipedes all night long! Even if we have snakes in the car because they were field collected earlier. The ONLY way they can ticket you for HB 2414 is if they see you pick up a snake from the road or ROW. They can't ticket you for having snakes in the car or hooks or snake bags. Bring a witness or tape recorder as a precaution, though.
And if you are only invertebrate collecting you don't need to buy a hunting license. I smell lost revenue!
Mike Welker
El Paso, TX
