2018 Hunting Trips Reports

12/28/18 – 12/29/18 Self-guided/chartered Blast and Cast (Inland Duck and Dove Hunt and Bass Fishing Trip)

Five hunters mostly enjoyed the scenery of a stock tank (pond) at the Pinoak Ranch near Tehuacana.  Despite it being a ducky day (39 degrees, mostly overcast, and 10 – 13 MPH winds) only a flight of six ducks came by Burl Fulenwider and Raul Pena at legal shooting time.  They did not bag any.  No ducks came within range of Randy Rowley, Chris Rowley, and Chris Campbell.  The hunters saw ducks on only about 20% of the tanks on the way to the ranch, so there were not a lot of ducks in the area.  Burl and Chris Campbell later got a dove each.  No bass were caught.  Thanks to Chris Rowley for making a yummy stew and breakfast.

12/22/18 Guided Inland Duck Hunt

Six hunters had a slow day with Allen Ethridge on a stock tank (pond) near Donie.  The hunters bagged three widgeon, a gadwall, and a green wing teal (five ducks).  Most of the birds came in before sunrise with a good portion of them being before legal shooting time.  What birds did come in landed too far away.  If they had been 20 yards south, they probably would have had quite a few more birds.  After sunrise, they only had a couple groups come by.  In general, they did not even see birds flying in the distance.  On their way out, they went past a 30 acre lake that Allen said should be holding a couple thousand birds, but it had none.  They were probably hurt by the full moon, bluebird sky, and wind from the south.  Since the hunt was not very good, Allen only charged them half price.

12/14/18 – 12/16/18 Self-guided Deer and Hog Hunt

Five participants had a great time on Charles Batts’ ranch near Junction.  Binh Chu killed an eight point, Randy Rowley killed a six point (five on one side and one on the other), and Ryan Rowley killed a doe.  There were also four hogs, ranging from 40 – 60 lbs, in Charles hog trap when we arrived that we sent to hog heaven.  We saw blackbuck antelopes and a fallow deer.  Randy led a devotional called Groaning.  Thanks to Binh for bringing excellent pulled pork sandwiches and to Randy for bringing Randy’s Radioactive Roadkill Chili.

12/6/18 – 12/9/18 Blast and Cast (Self- guided/chartered Coastal Duck Hunt and Bay Fishing Trip)

Four participants had a good time near Port O’Connor.  On Thursday they caught about a dozen speckled trout (two keepers each for Binh Chu and David Raborn) and one under sized redfish.

On Friday Wayne Weilnau lost an over slot red at the jetties.  They ended the day with about 25 trout (two keepers for Wayne and 1 for David) and another under sized red.

On Saturday morning they fished with crab in Mitchell’s Cut, catching only a hardhead catfish.  On Saturday afternoon Binh and David killed seven redheads.  Clayton Carrier and Wayne hunted another spot but only had a single group approach.  They had a flock of about 150 birds land 200 yards in front of them.

No birds came in on Sunday.  Generally, birds numbers were way down from what we experienced on 1/5/18 – 1/7/18.  The final tally was seven redheads bagged and 38 fish caught.

Thanks to Wayne for opening his home for this event.

12/8/18 Guided Inland Duck Hunt

Seven participants had a great time with Rickie Ethridge on a stock tank (pond) near Donie.  Six hunters killed a record 39 ducks (24 green-winged teal, eight widgeon, three mallards, a ring neck., a gadwall, a bufflehead, and a merganser).  The guides accounted for the three extra ducks.  It was a ducky day – 43 degrees, completely overcast with a light mist, and 10 – 20 MPH winds.  We hunted on a long and fairly large tank – about one acre.  It was way out of it’s banks from all of the rain that they’ve gotten.

12/1/18 Guided Inland Duck Hunt

Three participants had a good time with Jack Chamberland of Tenney Creek Outfitters on a stock tank (pond) near McMahan.  The hunters killed eight ducks, including four gadwalls, three widgeons, and one hooded merganser.  Not a lot of birds were flying.  It was probably about 30 minutes after legal before we saw any ducks.  After that, they were intermittent for the next 90 minutes.  The tank was small enough tank that they could shoot wherever the birds were headed.  Two of the ducks were killed by hopping a tank on the way back to their vehicles.

12/1/18 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt

Three participants mostly enjoyed the scenery on Lake Somerville.  One duck flew by early, but it was 80 yards away.  Later they saw a few ducks in the boats only area, but there was no cover anywhere near them to set up by.  They then went to the day hunt area and saw one duck as they came into the cove.  It was in the 60’s and sunny – not good duck hunting weather.

11/17/18 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt

Three participants mostly enjoyed the scenery on Lake Stillhouse Hollow.  The lake remains 12′ above full and we couldn’t find a spot in the Union Grove Wildlife Management Area that was shallow enough to set out decoys, so we had to set them out from the boat in a cove.  This proved to be a problem, as they kept slowly drifting away.  They saw one duck on the way back to the boat ramp.  They heard a few shots, but they were probably shooting at high fliers.  They talked to two groups of hunters at the boat ramp – they said that they saw high flying ducks early on.

11/10/18 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt

Four participants mostly enjoyed the scenery on Lake Granger.  Eighteen rigs were already parked when we arrived at Friendship Park at 4:15 AM and three more showed up after we arrived.  The lake remains 4′ above full.  It took them several minutes to find a spot to hunt in the Sore Finger Wildlife Management Area, as the spots that they found on the 10/27/18 scouting trip were now dry ground.  They had three singles fly overhead and one flock of teal came in from the left, but we didn’t see them until it was too late.  None were interested in our decoys.  The 10 – 15 MPH wind didn’t materialize until we were leaving.  We heard a few shots at first light but they were sporadic and quit for the post part after the sun rose.

10/27/18 Self-guided Duck Scouting Trip

Three participants had a good time on Lake Granger.  They launched at Friendship Park.  It proved to be the only serviceable ramp, as there was too much debris at Willis Creek and Fox.  Taylor looked serviceable, but the park is closed for the fall and winter.  The lake is 8′ above full; therefore, many places that they scouted had 10+ feet of water where decoys would be needed to be put out, including up the San Gabriel River.  They did find a couple spots though in the Sore Finger Wildlife Management Area.  They saw around 15 – 20 flocks of ducks.

9/21/18 – 9/22/18 Dove Retreat (Big Wells)

Nine hunters had a good time on the Sugar Ranch near Big Wells.  The hunt proved to be our best dove hunt of the year.  Flint DeShazo got 13 in the morning and finished up his limit in the afternoon, including three doubles.  Jim McGee also got his limit.  Several Eurasian dove were killed and one white-wing.  The rest were morning dove.  However, the group decided that there were not enough dove at the ranch to warrant a second day of hunting, so we left a day early.  It was one of our toughest camp outs for sleeping with high heat and humidity on Friday night.  The mosquitoes were also merciless and the copious amount of stickers made wearing shorts painful.  Randy Rowley led a devotional called Pressing on Towards the Goal.

9/15/18 Guided Teal Hunt

Three hunters had a great time with Rayce Jenkins on a stock tank (pond) near El Campo.  The three men bagged 16 teal (15 blue wing and one green wing).  Clayton Carrier’s dog, Sally, did most of the work retrieving.  Fortunately the weather cooperated.  They did get rained on and left the blind a little earlier than planned because the radar was showing a big cell coming.

9/2/18 Central Zone Dove Hunt (Hutto)

Sixteen hunters mostly had a disappointing hunt with Elm Creek Hunting near Hutto.  It was hard hunting with wide open plowed corn fields and not much cover.  There was also a lack of birds.  Although Paul Ellis got a limit at a tree line.  We will not have another Club hunt with them.

9/1/18 Central Zone Dove Hunt (Martinez)

Sixteen participants (14 hunters) mostly had a disappointing hunt with Double H Outfitters near Martinez (just north of San Antonio).  Louis Drott and Mike Walsh got limits.  The hunters averaged around six birds.  There were plenty of sunflowers and birds, but they had far too many hunters.  They put about 30 hunters 100 yards from us by a tree line.  Before they got there most of us had a few birds.  After they got there most of us got few shots.  The tree line hunters killed any bird that was headed our way.  I let them know that we would not have another Club hunt with them.

5/18/18 – 5/20/18 Self-guided Hog Hunt

Five participants enjoyed the deer, scenery, rain, and lightning on Charles Batts’ ranch near Junction.  Burl Fulenwider saw a hog that ran by his blind in the darkness (lightning illuminated it).  Daryl Shipper heard a hog.  Burl killed about a 30 lb. raccoon.  We saw axis deer, whitetails, and auodads.  Randy Rowley led a devotional on being On the Rocks.  Thanks to Daryl for leading this event.

5/19/18 – 5/20/18 Semi-guided Hog Hunt

Three participants mostly enjoyed the scenery with Jack Chamberland of Tenney Creek Outfitters near McMahan.  Jose Primera and Ian Daniels had four come in.  One of them had a shot but missed.  Larry Mitchell had some come in but they were too far away.  Thanks to Ian for leading this event.

3/3/18 Guided Upland Bird Hunt

Seven hunters and two spectators (nine total participants) had a great time with Mike Schumann on the old Dismukes/Bieberstein Ranch near Dimebox.  47 of 56 quail, all 14 pheasants, and all 14 chukars (a total of 75 birds – our second best FCS Upland Bird Hunt) were bagged.  It was comfortable day with cloudy skies, mild breezes, and temps in the 60’s & low 70’s.  The morning hunt concentrated on quail and chukar while the afternoon hunt was limited to pheasant.  The participants also enjoyed blasting away at clay targets.

1/27/18 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt

Three hunters had a good time of fellowship on Lake Granger between Sore Finger and Willis Creek Wildlife Management Areas. We saw about ten ducks but only had a shot at four.  Randy Rowley hit one, and it started to go down, but recovered and flew off.  The other six started to come in, but saw that our dekes weren’t moving due to no wind, and flared.  It was extremely foggy and not much was moving.  Later in the morning we had about 100 loons come our way.  We could hear their wings beating the air long before we could see them.

1/19/18 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt

Two hunters had a good time of fellowship on Lake Belton at the back of Owl Creek.  We saw ten ducks but only had a shot at one.  It came in shortly after legal shooting time but was so fast and close that by the time we realized it was a duck it was out of range.  Randy Rowley heard some ducks quacking a couple hundred yards behind us.  He decided to see if he could sneak up on them, but the eight of them flushed when he was 100 yards away.  The Owl Creek Wildlife Management Area featured some of the thickest brush that we’ve ever seen.  Fortunately there were trails of a fashion.   Also, the bottom is very soft.  Randy sunk down to his knees a foot from shore.

1/15/18 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt

Two hunters had a good time of fellowship on Somerville Lake.  We saw five – six flocks, but they were on the other side of the lake.  We also had a small flock of teal zoom by about 150 yards away.  Later, two ducks headed our way but flared about 60 yards out.  We didn’t shoot at them as if we had hit one we wouldn’t have been able to recover it in water that was over our heads.  We hunted near Iron Bridge Park.  The last 50 yards was very tough sledding with many vines with thorns, branches, logs, and trees.  Randy Rowley poked two more holes in his waders.  We also saw several cormorants, including many low flying ones, seagulls, and coots.

1/13/18 Guided Inland Duck Hunt

Four people had a good time of fellowship with Ricky Ethridge on a stock tank (pond) near Marquez.  Three hunters bagged four mallards.  Only two groups came in.  Two other ducks flew by but didn’t come in.  This was our worst harvest with Ricky (the previous worst was 13).  Ricky added a blind to his pond by the levy.  When they started hunting it was 27 degrees.

1/5/18 – 1/7/18 Self-guided/chartered Coastal Blast and Cast (Duck Hunt and Bay Fishing Trip)

Seven hunters/fishermen had a great time at Port O’Connor.  On Friday afternoon, Randy Rowley, Ryan Rowley, Daryl Shipper, and Jim McGee hunted near the old coast guard station.  Birds started to fly shortly after we set up and we had a limit of redheads, plus one ring-neck, by 4:50 PM.  Wayne Weilnau, Michael Armstrong, and Binh Chu didn’t have any luck fishing.  They then set up for ducks about 600 yards west of Randy’s group and bagged three redheads.   On Saturday morning both groups were skunked fishing.  Wayne’s group set up about 300 yards SE of Randy’s group and got their limit of redheads on Saturday afternoon.  Randy’s group set up at the same place and was skunked (most of the ducks that we saw headed over to Wayne’s group).  On Sunday morning we all hunted near where Wayne’s group had hunted the night before and killed four redheads but couldn’t recover one.  The final tally was 21 redheads bagged and no fish caught.  Randy lead a devotional titled Dominance.  Thanks to Wayne for letting us stay at his house and to Wayne and Daryl for letting us use their boats!

1/2/18 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt

Three hunters endured the cold and wet on Lake Stillhouse Hollow Lake.  It was 25° but felt like 14° and everything iced up.  Worst of all the ducks took a holiday (the cold front probably encouraged them to head south).  They only had two come within range and they were behind the hunters, who couldn’t get on them in time.  They saw about 10 ducks.