East Texas hunters report mixed results as season progresses
By MATT WILLIAMS
Outdoors Writer
Sunday, December 09, 2007
It has been a topsy-turvy deer season in eastern Texas thus far. Cold and raining one day, hot and muggy the next. The season has been a total bust for some. Unforgettable for others.
Larry Renfrow of Jewett will likely remember the 2007-08 season as one of the best ever. Renfrow, 61, killed a personal best whitetail on Nov. 10 that currently ranks as the top scoring buck reported to the Texas Big Game Awards Program for Region 5.
 Larry Renfrow owns the top spot for Region 5 non-typicals with a Madison County 13-pointer that gross scores 171 1/8.  Eleven-year old Matt Smithhart of Lufkin bagged this impressive 12-pointer in San Saba County.  A low-fence lease in Robertson County produced this tall-tined 13-pointer for Charlie Hoelscher of Houston. |
The gross score on the 13-point non-typical rack is 171 1/8. It carried a pair of drop tines, more than 30 inches of mass and nearly 21 inches of non-typical growth, according to TBGA scorer Billy Lambert of Wellborn.
Renfrow said he shot the deer while manning a stand on his 1,500-acre lease in Madison County. He said the buck stepped into a right-of-way at about 9 a.m. The buck was on the heels of doe.
"Most of the deer had already come in, fed and left, but I decided to stay and wait it out." Renfrow said. "I usually stay in the stand until pretty late in the morning. I'm glad I did."
Lambert scored another outstanding buck earlier this year for Charlie Hoelscher of Houston. Hoelscher's buck was killed on opening weekend behind low fence in Robertson County.
Hoelscher's 13-pointer has outstanding tine length, including G2s and G3s longer than 10 inches. Lambert said the rack gross scores 165 B&C.
Eleven-year old Matt Smithhart of Lufkin ventured outside of East Texas to hunt for his big buck. He found it in San Saba in the central part of the state.
Smithhart's buck, a 12 pointer with a 12-inch inside spread, was aged at 7 1/2-years old. It gross scores 149 5/8, 1481/2 net, according to TBGA scorer Ben Bartlett of Lufkin.
Hoernke races his way to Baja dream
There is another side to Texas bass pro Sean Hoernke of Magnolia that some anglers may not be aware of. He is a big fan of off-road motorcycle racing. Always has been.
"It's in my blood," Hoernke said. "My dad raced motocross when I was a kid and so did I."
Hoenke, 31, took advantage of an idle fishing schedule prior to Thanksgiving to accomplish a life-long dream linked to his past. He raced in the 40th Anniversary Baja 1000, a grueling marathon that began in Ensenada, Mexico on Nov. 13 and ended on the southern tip of the Baja peninsula in Cabo San Lucas, more than a day later.
"Racing the Baja 1000 has been around our family since I was eight years old," Hoernke said in his recap of the race. "My father raced the Baja multiple times in the 1980s and 1990s, so it was only natural that it was in my blood also. Last year when I read that this year's race was going to be the second longest race in the history of the event, I had to do it."
Hoernke competed in the 1,296-mile race with four teammates. They made the run in 33 hours, 57 minutes and 39 seconds, finishing 6th the over 250cc Sportsman's class.
TPW Commission names new chief
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission recently announced that Carter Smith will assume reins of the state agency's executive director post in late January. Smith will replace Bob Cook, who announced his retirement in August. Smith's starting salary will be $130,000 annually.
A seventh generation Texas landowner from Central Texas, Smith, 39, began his career in 1992 as a management intern with TPWD. He then worked as state director of the Katy Prairie Conservancy and eventually became state director of The Nature Conservancy of Texas, a position he has held since 2004.
