2024 Hunting Trips Reports
By
12/21/24 Guided Inland Duck Hunt
Five hunters had a great time with Texas Triple Threat Outfitters at a pond near Comanche. They bagged 25 ducks, including wigeons, gadwalls, green-wing teal, blue-wing teal, lesser scaups (bluebills), spoonbills, and merganser. They hunted from 7:00 – 9:30 AM. Once it was called and everyone had unloaded, two spoonbills came and landed on the pond. Two hunters were quick to reload and crippled one duck that fell behind the trees. The guide’s dog later found the duck. The ducks were an easy split between the hunters. The guide also used his dog to bring decoys back after the hunt was over. The guides were professional – they called ducks and called the shots well.
The Best Western in Comanche is a nice clean hotel that hosted many hunters over the weekend judging by the number of people in camo at 5:00 AM in the lobby and dirty trucks in the parking lot. The hotel gave the group a late checkout at noon so they were able to get a shower and change clothes before heading back home. It was definitely worth the money they paid. Brian Suter and Chrispy Harden enjoyed carpooling with Burl Fulenwider and reported that his deer jerky was fantastic!
12/14/24 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Nine hunters had a good time at the Guadalupe Delta WMA near Tivoli, bagging 24 ducks, including green wing teal, blue wing teal, scaup, and shovelers. They saw hundreds of ducks but only the shovelers were interested in their decoys, probably due to the lack of wind. It was overcast and warm (for duck hunting) and the mosquitos were thick!
12/8/24 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Five participants (four hunters) had their best hunt to date on Lake Limestone. Clayton Carrier killed a hen canvasback. They also shot at a duck that came towards the decoys, but flared, probably because the decoys looked like statues due to no wind at the time. Another duck came towards the decoys, but Randy Rowley thought that it would circle, so he told the group to wait to shoot. Unfortunately, it didn’t circle. They saw around several flocks, pairs and singles 200 – 300 yards away. It was an overcast day with drizzle. They heard very little shooting. Craig Vinson didn’t hunt, as he was working remotely.
11/23/24 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Five participants (four hunters) mostly enjoyed the scenery on Lake Limestone. They saw around five flocks of ducks 200 – 300 yards away. It was a blue bird day with no wind. They heard very little shooting. Craig Vinson didn’t hunt, as he was working remotely. They canceled the 11/24/24 hunt, as the prospects of having a repeat of 11/23/24 were high.
11/9/24 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Five participants (four hunters) mostly enjoyed the scenery on Lake Limestone. They had four teal come to the left side of the decoy spread. Randy Rowley misidentified them as dove (as they were very small) and didn’t realize his mistake until they were across the middle of the spread. Clayton Carrier and Ryan Rowley got off shots. An hour later a flock of ducks was traveling right to left around 200 yards away. Randy and Burl Fulenwider called them and their calling made them fly high over the spread. Randy took a couple of shots. Craig Vinson didn’t hunt, as he was working remotely. They canceled the 11/10/24 hunt, as the prospects of having a repeat of 11/9/24 were high.
9/14/24 Self-guided Teal Hunt
Five participants (four hunters) mostly enjoyed the scenery on Lake Limestone. They had around seven ducks fly over their spread. Clayton Carrier killed a drake. They saw a flock of teal (probably), but they were over 200 yards away. They also saw a few other ducks in the distance, but they looked like big ducks. They canceled the 9/15/24 hunt, as the prospects of having a repeat of 9/14/24 were high. Craig Vinson didn’t hunt, as they can only hunt four hunters in their blind spot and he planned to hunt on Sunday.
9/13/24 – 9/14/24 Semi-guided Dove Hunts
Five hunters had a great time on the 9/13/24 hunt with Texas Triple Threat Outfitters near Brownwood. There was non-stop action as the mourning dove wanted to feed in the sunflower fields they were hunting in. Several limits were taken in short order.
On 9/14/24 three hunters had a great time hunting a different field that had cut sunflowers. There were many doves and pigeons. Many limits were taken.
9/1/24 – 9/2/24 Semi-guided Dove Hunts
The season started out lackluster on opening day for fourteen participants (twelve hunters) at the Carroll Ranch near Holland. During the morning hunt, Dusty Hunt led the way with 10. Ryan Rowley and Mike Walsh got nine each. Burl Fulenwider, Russ Gibbs, and Randy Rowley got seven each. Hunter Rowley got four. Seven hunters returned for the evening hunt. Ryan and Mike got six, completing their limits. Randy got six and ended the day with 13. Hunter got one and ended the day with five – four more than his previous best! Most of the hunters who hunted the field on the hill didn’t do as well. Trip, Ryan’s dog, made five water retrieves during the two hunts (impressive for a Brittany)! It was a beautiful day and not scorching hot.
The hunts on 9/2/24 were very slow, compared to 9/1/24, for twelve hunters. It appeared that FCS hunters killed or scared away most of the local birds on 9/1/24. Seven hunters hunted during the morning hunt – Don Hebert got one. Seven hunters hunted during the evening hunt. Adam and Dennis Koch got five between them in the field next to the small tank. Jeff Morris got two and Burl Fulenwider and Randy Rowley got one each at the main tank. It was very cloudy during the evening hunt, which kept the temperature down.
8/30/24 Duck Blind Spot Drawing and Self-guided Duck Scouting Trip
Seven hunters attended the Brazos River Authority duck spot drawing at their headquarters on Lake Limestone. Clayton Carrier was drawn, which means that the entire group has a spot (although we can only hunt four at a time). After the drawing four of the group went and found the spot that they selected (and will hunt throughout the season).
8/10/24 Self-guided Duck Spots Scouting Trip
Four hunters enjoyed scouting Lake Limestone. They weren’t looking for ducks, as it’s too early to see any, and instead were looking at potential duck hunting spots. The Brazos River Authority (who administers Lake Limestone) has 28 blind locations that they have drawings for at the end of each August – the hunters looked at as many as they could safely, but didn’t look at several as they kept hitting stumps on the way to look at them.
Randy Rowley noted that it is the stumpiest lake he’s been on – they probably hit 40 of them. The hunters agreed that spots 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 22, 23, 24, and 25 are huntable, but the rest would take over an hour to get to because Randy would have to go at no wake speed due to the stumps. There are five spots that are very promising and five spots that could be, but they’d be facing the sun.
Most of the spots, if they guessed their locations correctly, had a lot of cover that they could snuggle behind, so a blind really isn’t necessary. However, if the water goes down a foot or two, they might need Randy’s net/T-posts blind or to build one.
5/16/24 – 5/19/24 Guided Prairie Dog Shoot (Report by Bob Steckler)
Three hunters participated in the Guided Prairie Dog Shoot, shooting on 5/17-18/24, outside of Dalhart.
Jonathan Freeman from North America Hunt, LLC was our guide and I highly recommend him. The cost was $300 per man, plus we each gave him a tip of $100, which was well earned.
The weather was perfect, and the shooting was incredible. Over 1,500 rounds were shot from ranges of 100 yards to over 700 yards. Hundreds of hits were made.
Rifle calibers used were .17 HMR, .204 Ruger, .223, and 22/250. The .17 HMR was effective out to distances of up to 200 yards. The other calibers did their work beyond that. In some cases, well beyond that.
The terrain was wide open, flat dirt with patches of scrub. You could see your shots hit in the dirt and then make adjustments, hopefully before the dog moved. We used binoculars to spot them (spotting scopes were not needed) and then put the crosshairs on them.
The guide did a great job of spotting targets for us and calling shots. We never had a period of more than a couple of minutes where one of us wasn’t shooting and in most cases, all three of us had multiple targets to engage.
We would set up our first shooting location when we arrived, shoot for several hours then move 300 yards and start again with a whole new set of targets.
It was an incredible two days of shooting from 8:30-4:00 each day. Then back to the motel to shower and dinner. We had lunches and snacks in the field, if we wanted to give your eyes and trigger finger a break.
Dalhart is about an 8 hour drive, so it required a travel day to get there and one to get home, but it went fast.
It was a great trip!
3/3/24 Guided Upland Bird Hunt
Six hunters had a great time with Schumann Brothers Outdoors at the old Dismukes/Bieberstein Ranch near Dime Box. The total bag was 61 birds (an average of ten birds/hunter). Burl Fulenwider’s group bagged 21/24 quail and six/six chukars and Randy Rowley’s group bagged 21/24 quail and five/six chukars (the dogs never found the sixth one). After lunch, the combined groups bagged seven/nine pheasants and one quail that the dogs missed on the morning hunt.
The dogs that Randy’s group hunted behind snatched at least three low-flying quail out of the air. Both groups saw hogs and Randy’s group saw deer. Dusty Hunt and Ryan Rowley brought their dogs (Bleu and Trip, respectively) and they did great!
1/27/24 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Four FCS members mostly enjoyed the sunrise and scenery on Lake Granger, in the Willis Creek Wildlife Management Area. They saw about 40 ducks, but only one came into range (probably a coot). The guys on the bow side of the boat shot at it, but didn’t bag it. The ducks appeared to be avoiding the decoys. They heard a lot of shooting, but it was probably hunters skybusting at high-flying ducks. Although they met a hunter at the boat ramp who claimed to have killed a wood duck and some other ducks up the San Gabriel River.
1/18/24 – 1/21/24 Self-guided/chartered Coastal Blast and Cast (Duck Hunt and Bay Fishing Trip)
Seven FCS members and one youth (eight total attendees) participated in our annual Blast and Cast at Port O’Connor. The weather was cool to cold with winds breezy to strong.
Because of the weather conditions, only a minimal amount of effort was expended on fishing. Best success was for Jim McGee with four undersized redfish caught on VuDu shrimp fishing in a creek. He also had a couple fish break off. The only other fish caught were stingrays by Randy Rowley (two) and Roy Zengerle (one). Captain Marty reported that fishing had been tough for several days.
There appeared to be more ducks in the POC area than there has been in a number of years. Duck hunting was much better if you were in the right place at the right time. Three of our hunters hunted from an unoccupied blind on Friday afternoon. They harvested seven ducks (six redheads (three limits) and a scaup). On Saturday afternoon three of our hunters hunted in the marsh, as the blind that our Friday afternoon hunters hunted from was already taken by a group of rowdy hunters. No shots were fired and not nearly as many ducks were seen as our sportsmen saw on Thursday and Friday afternoons.
In addition to hunting and fishing, three was good fellowship and food, eating at the local establishments of La Terraza, Bubba’s, The Shack, Josie’s, Sharkey’s, and Mama’s Kitchen.
Thanks to Wayne Weilnau for hosting and to Wayne and Randy for providing their boats.
1/20/24 Self-guided Inland Duck Hunt
Three hunters met at the Guadalupe Delta Wildlife Management Area near Seadrift. Access to their spot on a around 20-acre pond was challenging but worth the effort as they harvested 17 ducks (almost a three-man limit), including six green wing teal, four gadwalls, three pintails, two blue wing teal, a wigeon, and a spoonbill. They saw hundreds of ducks.
1/19/24 Guided Coastal Duck Hunt
Three hunters hunted with Edward Mahan near Bayside. Three gadwalls were bagged. The conditions looked good but the birds were not flying (perhaps it was too windy). Very few shots from other hunters were heard.