Statistically, hunting was best at the Sand Prairie Public Hunting Area with an average of 13 doves per hunter over 28 acres of sunflower and wheat fields. Hunters at Marseilles WMA, Green River WMA, Hennepin Canal and Big Bend FWA also bagged more than 10 birds per hunter.

The highest hunter success rate reported on state lands last year was an impressive 14.5 doves per hunter over just 5 acres in Region III's H.B. Woodyard site in central Illinois. The other site in Region III besides Shelbyville and Woodyard with more than 10 doves per hunter was over 70 acres of sunflowers in Moraine View State Recreation Area.

Region III had eight sites open to dove hunting last fall, with a similar plan this year.

Hunters in Region IV around Springfield also had good success in several of the 14 management areas in this region. The most productive site was over 30 acres of sunflowers in the Madigan FWA where 101 hunters averaged a daily bag of 13.2 over the first five days of September 2004. Other areas showing harvest of over 10 doves per hunter in Region IV include Horseshoe Lake, Panther Creek and Sangchris Lake State Park.

Our state's best hunting is in Region V in southern Illinois where the state manages 26 different areas for dove hunting, although the DNR could not provide the statistics to back up this conventional wisdom.

Dove hunting downstate has always been a part of nature's grand scheme where hunters find success in at least five sites with natural cover or residual corn crop in the field. In areas where the DNR has planted food plots, the plantings are more diverse. Besides sunflowers, wheat and year-old cornfields prove to be great attractors for doves and other wildlife.

Because there are so many places to hunt, gunners in Region V only need to sign in and out of the hunting areas and are not subject to daily blind drawings or restriction to specific points in the field.

Specific information on dove hunting at state sites can be found in the DNR's 2005 Hunting Digest or on-line at the DNR's Web site at www.dnr.state.il.us. Follow the links to the areas you are interested in.

Statistics kept by the Corps of Engineers at Carlyle Lake since 2000 show some interesting harvest trends, with fewer hunters dropping more doves in 2004. Last year, 311 hunters killed nearly 2,600 doves at managed sites, far above the 827 birds taken by 352 hunters in 2003. Back in 2000, the state data indicates 464 hunters bagged just 583 doves.

Extensive research has shown that hunters have minimal impact on dove numbers. Weather is the major determinant on dove survival in any given year, with hunting always better in those years when more juvenile birds are part of the migration.

Park ranger Jason Selle said there would be six management areas on federal lands at Carlyle this year, with sunflowers comprising most of the food plots. Hunters at this project can hunt over a matrix of crops that also include corn, wheat, soybeans and milo to attract the birds. For more information on dove hunting at Carlyle, call (618) 594-2484.

Hunters around Rend Lake have federal as well as state hunting options as well. Mike Edwards, wildlife manager at the Corps of Engineers project here, said that planning was under way for fields at press time, but there would be at least one 35-acre sunflower field planted for doves. Hunters here smoked about 800 birds in the initial two days of the 2004 season.

Dove shooting on Rend has non-toxic-only shot rules in place. Other special regulations may apply here and at other sites, some of which -- like hunting at an established blind site -- become more liberal after the first few days of the season. For more information on hunting around Rend Lake, call (618) 724-2493.