2020 Hunting Trips Reports
By
12/19/20 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Three participants mostly enjoyed the scenery and rain on Lake Belton in the Owl Creek Wildlife Management Area. They saw three ducks as they were on their way back to the Leona Park ramp.
12/11/20 – 12/13/20 Self-guided/chartered Coastal Blast and Cast (Duck Hunt and Bay Fishing Trip)
Eight participants had a good time at Corpus Christi.
Seven participants hunted together and bagged 27 ducks. They downed five more that fell either in water that was too deep (and they couldn’t find later with one of their bay boats) or they fell in very sticky mud (Jonathan Fleming and Burl Fulenwider sunk down to their knees trying to get to one and couldn’t go further). All but one of the ducks were redheads. The remaining duck was a lesser scaup.
Fishing was largely a bust. Daryl Shipper’s boat caught several undersized trout. Randy Rowley’s boat caught two piggy perches. No live shrimp was available. The group decided to change their planned Sunday morning fishing trip to another duck hunt.
They stayed in a nice Airbnb house. Binh Chu and Zack Tumlinson cooked a steak dinner with green beans, potato salad, Hawaiian rolls, and cornbread on Friday night.
Thanks to Daryl and Randy for bringing their boats and to Binh and Zack for cooking.
11/28/20 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Four participants mostly enjoyed the scenery on Lake Stillhouse Hollow. We saw one flock about 300 yards away. Then after we unloaded our guns two teal flew over our spread. We reloaded and gave it another 15 minutes. After another 15 minutes without ducks, we called it quits and three ducks flew over us as we were picking up the decoys. At the same time, we saw another flock about 150 yards away.
11/26/20 – 11/27/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Ken Miller saw 25 deer at a ranchette near Austin, with a big feeding of seven deer at 12:30 AM, but no hogs.
11/20/20 – 11/21/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Ken Miller saw 15 deer and two coyotes at a ranchette near Austin, but no hogs.
11/14/20 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Four participants enjoyed seeing a lot of ducks on Lake Stillhouse Hollow. Unfortunately, none were interested in their decoys, so their shots were at passing ducks. Randy Rowley bagged a drake canvasback. Randy also combined with Earl Prochnick to down a drake redhead, that fell out of wading range and dove. Don Hebert downed a hen redhead that fell out of wading range and dove. Most shots were close to 50 yards away.
Randy’s boat was well hidden and it was very cloudy, so it is unlikely that they were seen. It is more likely that these ducks had been shot at coming into decoy spreads all the way down from Canada and have become decoy shy.
10/9/20 – 10/10/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Two hunters struck out again at two ranchettes near Austin. Bill Anderson saw two bucks at Randy Rowley’s 30-gallon feeder on his property. Randy heard a hog growl on Eric’s property on the other side of his tank but didn’t see anything.
9/26/20 Self-guided/chartered Blast and Cast (Teal Hunt and Crappie Fishing Trip)
Five hunters were thwarted by thick fog (that wasn’t forecasted) on Lake Granger. We heard about 10 shots. After 1 1/2 hours of not seeing a teal or any other kind of duck in the Willis Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA), we decided to pick up and try the San Gabriel WMA. Over there we saw about 10 – 15 teal in a tight group flying about 200 – 300 yards away at 2:00 from Randy Rowley’s boat.
After more scouting, we went back to the ramp, dropped off the dekes, and grabbed our fishing gear. We tried two crappie spots. The first one was a bust but at the second one Chris Campbell caught three (including a keeper) and Isaac Herbert caught one.
9/26/20 Guided Teal Hunt
Five hunters mostly enjoyed the scenery near El Campo with guides Trace and Brian (part of Rayce Jenkins outfit). One flock and a single came by. No teal were harvested. They got a lot of rain two days before the hunt and the day before the hunt, which probably pushed most of the teal out.
9/18/20 – 9/20/20 Semi-guided Hog Hunt
Six hunters were unsuccessful at Brett Manry’s ranch near Crockett. One team of two saw a pig but it was on the neighbor’s property. The cabin was rustic but nice. We will not return due to a misrepresentation of the number of hogs to expect.
9/19/20 – 9/20/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Two hunters struck out again at two ranchettes near Austin. Larry Mitchell saw a raccoon. Ken Miller saw a crane.
9/12/20 – 9/13/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Three hunters enjoyed a cooler night at a ranchette near Austin. Randy Rowley had two raccoons come to his feeder. They quickly got into a brief fight and ran off. A few minutes later they got into a longer, more serious fight. Ken Miller heard something stomping around in the creek around 3:40 AM. Also, as he was walking back to join Randy he spooked something out of the woods. It was probably a hog, as it didn’t make the typical snort that deer do. Burl Fulenwider didn’t see anything.
9/12/20 Dove Hunt
Five hunters had a frustrating hunt at a ranch near Taylor. The ranch has nine tanks on it but no feed and is a flyover to grain fields. There were a lot of dove flying at 40+ yards high. Two dove were harvested.
9/4/20 – 9/5/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Three hunters enjoyed a cooler night at two ranchettes near Austin. Burl Fulenwider saw two does, two fawns, and a raccoon, by Tim’s house. Larry Mitchell and Randy Rowley heard a raccoon fight, as identified by a YouTube video. It sounded like they were on the opposite side of the creek. Neither of them saw anything.
8/29/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Two hunters enjoyed a cooler evening (instead of the usual sauna at this time of the year) at a ranchette near Austin. They heard something walking in the creek and something kicked a rock but they didn’t see any hogs.
8/21/20 – 8/22/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Two hunters experienced a cooler evening (instead of the usual sauna at this time of the year) at a ranchette near Austin. They had a buck and a doe come into their feeders and a raccoon but didn’t see or hear any hogs.
8/8/20 – 8/9/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Two hunters experienced a cooler evening (instead of the usual sauna at this time of the year) at a ranchette near Austin. They heard deer but didn’t see or hear any hogs.
7/24/20 – 7/25/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Two hunters endured a sauna at a ranchette near Austin. They saw deer but no pigs came out. Burl Fulenwider heard a hog grunt on the other side of the creek but it did not come to the corn.
7/10/20 – 7/11/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Two hunters endured a sauna at a ranchette near Austin. There were four turkeys by the creek feeder when they got here. At least one deer smelled Don Hebert (presumably, as he was at ground level) a few times but we didn’t see him or her – we just heard it snort. Randy Rowley finally got his 30-gallon feeder working. No pigs came out. However, there were 266 pictures on Randy’s game camera by the creek of which at least a third of them were hogs. It’s just a matter of time before we connect.
7/2/20 – 7/3/20 Self-guided Hog Hunt
Two hunters were quite hot and sweaty after hunting hogs at a ranchette near Austin. No hogs were seen. Burl Fulenwider had a deer get within 10 yards of him before she realized that he was there.
The hunters had two things that worked to their disadvantage – there was a full moon, which diffused Randy Rowley’s red lights, and people were already shooting off Independence Day fireworks, which sound like gunshots to animals and tend to make them hunker down. Consequently, Randy and Burl called it quits at 12:15 AM.
2/29/20 Guided Upland Bird (Pheasant, Chukar, and Quail) Hunt
Nine hunters had a great time again with Mike Schumann at the old Dismukes/Bieberstein Ranch near Dime Box. The total bag was 50 birds (28 quail, 15 chukars, and 7 pheasants). Three of the hunters were teenagers who were hunting on the package of the adult who brought them.
2/22/20 Guided Pheasant Shoot and Quail Hunt
1/12/20 Guided Sandhill Crane Hunt
Four participants had a good time at the 1/12/20 Guided Sandhill Crane Hunt with Rayce Jenkins near El Campo. Three cranes were killed, however, the hunters saw dozens of cranes that flew by that would not come down to the decoys. They also saw hundreds of geese in the distance. They hunted behind panel blinds.
1/9/20 – 1/12/20 Self-guided/chartered Blast and Cast (Duck Hunt and Bay Fishing Trip)
Eight participants had a good time at Port O’Connor.
On Thursday, after Jim McGee and Wayne Weilnau arrived they fished a couple of hours and caught about a half dozen undersized speckled trout and redfish, on soft plastics, including Vudu shrimp. Binh Chu and Daryl Shipper arrived later that evening.
On Friday morning Binh, Daryl, Jim, and Wayne caught a couple of speckled trout, a couple of redfish, and three flounder, all undersized, on soft plastics, including Vudu shrimp. Burl Fulenwider, Isaac Lieb, Ted Lieb, and Randy Rowley arrived on Friday afternoon.
Later that afternoon Isaac, Jim, Ted, and Wayne hunted together. They had few shot opportunities, but Jim killed a redhead (duck) drake. Binh, Burl, Daryl, and Randy hunted at the back of a small cove and fared better. Although no ducks wanted to come into their decoy spread, we managed to kill four ducks via pass shooting (shooting them as they flew by). Randy killed a pintail drake and a redhead drake, Burl and Randy teamed up to kill a redhead hen, and Binh and Daryl teamed up to kill a redhead drake.
When Daryl’s group got back to the POC Fishing Center it was pitch black. Daryl tied his boat up to a pier post. As the rest of us exited onto the wooden deck, Randy issued a word of warning, “Everyone be careful – only two men have ever walked on water and none of you are them.” Binh left to go get Daryl’s truck and trailer. When Randy saw Binh driving towards the ramp, he went to untie Daryl’s boat from the pier post and took a step where he thought there was deck – but it was nothing but air (instead of being squared the end of the deck was at a 45-degree angle). Randy quickly discovered that he also couldn’t walk on water and fell completely in over his head.
Fortunately, Randy immediately surfaced, due to his built-in life jacket (his big belly). Daryl offered one of his hands to a very surprised Randy and pulled him over to the dock. Randy then pulled himself along the side of the dock towards the shore until he could feel the bottom under his feet. His right calf cramped up when he tried to swim with his waders on, but his less than 24-hour-old Samsung Galaxy S10+ and both of his car remotes survived their saltwater bath, thanks to spending several hours in a Zip-Lok bag full of rice. The only bad results from his unplanned swim were a very sore calf and knee (that quickly healed) and the inside of his waders were now wet, but he mostly solved that the next morning by putting on more clothes than he usually did.
On Saturday morning Isaac, Jim, Ted, and Wayne fished with cut and artificial bait. Wayne caught a speckled trout on the last cast of the morning. Binh, Burl, Daryl, and Randy killed 12 redheads but only bagged seven. Three fell in water that was too deep for our waders, floated away in the over 20 MPH wind, and we couldn’t find them later from Daryl’s boat. Two others that Randy shot landed in the mangroves behind the blind and we couldn’t find them either. On the way back we were treated to the sight of approximately 500 redheads sitting together in a huge raft in the middle of the bay, bobbing up and down on the white-capped waves.
On Saturday afternoon both groups, minus me, fished with nothing to show for it. Randy stayed back to rest his calf and knee, which were sorer than the day before due to chasing after ducks in the marsh on Saturday morning.
On Sunday morning Binh, Daryl, Jim, and Wayne hunted together. A single redhead hen was killed by three of the hunters, but the meat was mostly destroyed. A wounded redhead drake landed 150 yards out from the blind. Binh chased him for 400+ yards, shooting him multiple times before he expired. Burl, Isaac, Ted, and Randy went on an FCS guided sandhill crane hunt near El Campo (see the above 1/12/20 Guided Sandhill Crane Hunt report).
Thanks to Wayne for opening up his home to the group and to Daryl and Wayne for bringing their boats.
1/4/20 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Four hunters mostly enjoyed the scenery at a stock tank (pond) Southeast of Austin. Only one duck came by after legal shooting time and he wouldn’t come down.
