Texas coastal duck hunting report

[Mr.Seaguar]

Wow

[Ufatz]

Have hunted and fished just up the coast from Corpus and it is quite an experience, no question about it. Heck, I've seen a flock of 500 mature Redheads swimming around the lagoon in downtown Rockport! And you can wade up to your waist and fish there too!

But it DOES get warm and really humid along the coast so be prepared. No crowds to fight though.

Spent a couple winters right near Rockport.

Have fun down there. And don't EAT too much. Ha Ha!

[fishuhalik]

This was the weekend I've been waiting for since I was old enough to want a boy of my own. I finally got to take my 8 year old son out. Got him a set of waders, a jacket & we were on the way. Packed up the whole family & made a vacation out of the weekend. Figured we'd stay in Corpus Christi, hunt in the am & spend the rest of the day together lounging on the beach.

Left the hotel dark & early at 0300. I was up til about 0130, too excited to sleep. We had a pretty brutal walk out to the blind. 1.3 miles through shin deep water, some really thick chest high grass & some of the stickiest mud you'd ever care to experience, but I wanted him to enjoy it as much as possible so I humped everything. 8 doz weighted keel dekes, a shell bag stuffed with shells, drinks & snacks & my shotgun. Got out to the blind after the first trip by 0500, 2nd trip by 0600. Got the dekes set up & ready to go about 30 mins before LST. I guess the birds were feeling lazy this weekend & didn't start flying til after 0800 boyh days, but boy were we in for it when they did start getting up. I didn't want him swinging the shotgun yet so we let the land before he'd shoot at em. The heavy ol' Beretta was a little too much for him so he had a little trouble holding it steady enough to shoot straight & he wasn't able to hit any. After 6-7 tries his shoulder was a little sore so he handed it to me & said get em dad!! Ended up with these, 3 drakes & 1 hen red, a drake scaup, my first drake spoonie & a young drake pin. Birds were decoying great & he got to see around 1,000 reds dump in.

Second day was a little tougher but he did manage his first birds!!! He was jumping up & down & screaming but I think I was still more excited than him A beautiful drake redhead & a hen that are going on the wall. He missed a few others & I dropped one lone hen that came in as while we were packing up.

All in all I'm calling this weekend a massive success. He never once complained during the walk in & out & said he enjoyed it more than baseball, which is really saying something!! I can't wait til the next chance we get to get out together.

[BoxMN]

That is fantastic! Congrats on having such a great couple days, and good job on creating a new duck hunter

The pics say it all...

[fishersofmen]

Awesome!

[fishuhalik]

And thus ends my first season of duck hunting in Texas and starts my 9 month depression. Today is the last day of the South Zone waterfowl season & I'm posting this from an oilfield pad. Moving here, I was pretty bummed. I knew nothing about how good the hunting was on the Laguna Madre & I figured my waterfowl hunting was gonna be cut down to only hunting NoDak & MN a few times a year until I could afford to get a lease. As you can tell from the season I had, I couldn't have been more wrong & ended up having one of my best seasons in my short 30 year life.

Apparently the good Lord decided to grace me with quite a show of snow geese to close out the season. As we pulled up to this location yesterday, a pad sitting on the edge of a 1 square mile cattle pasture, there were thousands upon thousands of snows, cranes & a few specks & lessers. These were the feeds that were closest to us. Total there were around 10-12 feeds with a total number of 100,000 geese if I had to guess. The biggest feed, about 7-800 yards off the road, probably had 40,000+. There was another one with a few thousand that we had to drive right through. They didn't fly though. They just waddled outta the way & went about their day. Pretty awesome to watch em flying around all day. I coulda shot a few thousand just sitting in the back of the work pickup right on location.

What I found fascinating was that the birds were following the cattle. I'm used to NoDak & SoDak birds that always relate to some type of crop field. I've read that before America was settled, birds would follow herds of bison, eating the grass roots of the grass the bison had chewed down & the seeds & grain outta the manure, which is exactly what they're doing out here. Pretty neat!

Til next season boys. Unless I get out for some early season teal hunting (I doubt it. It's still 95-100 degrees every day during that season) I'll see y'all in late November. If any of you feel like making a trip down here next year, I'd be more than willing to show you any & all of my spots & share all of my somewhat limited knowledge with ya. It's easy hunting, the birds are beautiful & the weather's b.e.a.utiful! God bless & try not to freeze up there

[Mr.Seaguar]

Thank you for sharing this with us, the whole season. Has really made me want to go to Texas over the holidays next year.

[SledNeck]

so do you live there in texas permanently?

[fishuhalik]

It's been my pleasure Mr. Seaguar.

Sure do Sled. I live in Houston (Katy) & work 30 mins south of San Antonio (Jourdanton). Go to work for 2 weeks & stay in the company-provided housing then I get a week off

[SledNeck]

It's been my pleasure Mr. Seaguar.

Sure do Sled. I live in Houston (Katy) & work 30 mins south of San Antonio (Jourdanton). Go to work for 2 weeks & stay in the company-provided housing then I get a week off

How do you like it? I was in Texas for half a year when I was in the military. Not much public land for deer hunting out there from what I gathered.

[fishuhalik]

I love it. Duck hunting & fishing (fresh & salt) is incredible.

That's definitely true. The way I look at it, I can get a lease for $2500+/year + tags to shoot deer the size of a German Shepard, or I can spend $250 on a plane ticket & the price of an out-of-state MN or ND tag. Easy choice if you ask me

[SledNeck]

do you work in the oil fields?

[Mr.Seaguar]

I think I got my family talked into going to Texas next year. I have the same feeling about it that one gets when you have a big fish on light line, oh please oh please oh please

[fishuhalik]

Yes sir. Spent 2 years in Williston working, got tired of the cold after last years abysmal winter & moved down here. Best decision I ever made.

Reel it in Seaguer!! Careful, don't horse it!! Hopefully you can make it down. If you're coming over the holidays & bringing the fam, there's a TON to do, whether you stay in Corpus Christ, Port Aransas or Rockport. Beautiful beaches, wildlife, sightseeing, all kinds of museums, aquariums etc. The areas main income (after oil & gas of course) is tourism