In early January, eight FCS members arrived at Port O’Connor for a self-guided/chartered blast and cast (duck hunt and bay fishing trip).

On Friday evening, after a guided duck hunt, I went to Wayne Weilnau’s house, picked up my duck decoys and jet sled, and headed to the Guadalupe Delta Wildlife Management Area near Tivoli for a solo hunt the following morning, as no one wanted to join me.  Mine was the 15th truck in line when I arrived. Read More→

In October of 1988, on the way to a men’s retreat, Lee Tunnell invited the men riding with him to go goat hunting.  I asked him to count me in.

Two months later, six men, including two children, Lee, and I went on a Mouflon and Corsican sheep hunt (which is what the goats turned out to be) on the Appletree Ranch.  Lee owned a 40-acre tract, but as a landowner, he and his guests were allowed to hunt the entire 1,200-acre ranch.

I envisioned walking up to a pasture and leisurely eradicating grazing wild sheep like prairie dogs.  What actually happened is a different story. Read More→

In early September, Clayton Carrier, Jeff Morris, and I decided to apply to duck hunt in five TPWD Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) via E-postcards.  In early October we were notified that we’d been selected to hunt the Carl Frentress Unit of the Richland Creek WMA (near Lake Richland Chambers) on 11/22/25 – 11/23/25, with a mandatory orientation on 11/21/25.

On 11/21/25 we checked in at the WMA headquarters.  At 2:30 PM they started calling hunters from their list, based on who arrived first, and asked them to select the unit that they wanted to hunt in.

We’d never been there and only had electronic maps to guide us.  Unfortunately all the units looked the same, but the TPWD employee who checked us in told us that there were no bad spots.  When it was our turn to select, we chose Unit 18. Read More→

There were five bucks and one doe in the area when I arrived at the ground blind that I reserved in Granite Shoals, as part of their deer harvesting program, on a cool morning in late October.  They bolted when I approached the blind, of course.

The program exists to thin the herd in Granite Shoals, which had become a hazard from car-deer collisions and deer eating landowners’ expensive plants, as well as to provide hungry Granite Shoals residents with free meat.

I arrived at the blind and settled in.  The good news is the feeder was just 16.6 yards away.  Also, the blind, a two-man see-through Tidewe, was big.  But the middle shooting window was too high to shoot from while sitting down and using a tripod rest for my Killer Instinct KI350 crossbow, and the left and right shooting windows were designed for vertical bows.

The doe, or a different one, came towards the feeder around 10 minutes after I got situated.  I was just about to line up on her when the feeder went off.  She skedaddled. Read More→

At 7:30 AM on the last Wednesday in October, I arrived at the Granite Shoals Deer Harvesting Program ‘deer shed’ close to Granite Shoals’ City Hall.  The program exists to thin the herd in Granite Shoals, which had become a hazard from car-deer collisions and deer eating landowners’ expensive plants, as well as to provide hungry Granite Shoals residents with free meat.

After I signed in and my broadhead passed inspection, Mark Henshaw, the Wildlife Advisory Committee (WAC) chairman, told me that the stand that I’d reserved was in a small area, and the tripod was in front of a tree, which offered good camo.  He then let me go to my stand. Read More→

On a warm early morning in late-July, I arrived at the Deloach Ranch’s around 35-acre lake near Taylor.  Jeff Morris pulled up shortly after me.  We proceeded to unload our kayaks and get them ready for a morning of bass fishing.

This was Jeff’s first outing with his new-to-him kayak, so I made sure that he had everything that he needed to have a successful outing, including three spinning rod/reel combos, a small tackle bag, a fish stringer, and a net.

I launched my kayak, named Blaze, and headed across the lake to my favorite place to start.  I started chunking a Lunkerhunt Prop Frog in Green Tea color.  I’d throw it over a grass patch, hop it, and pause at the grass’ edge.  If I had no hits, I’d bounce it over the grass and resume hopping it on the other side of the patch.  When I’d get hit it was usually right after hopping over a grass patch. Read More→

It was dark and an uncharacteristically calm morning when I arrived at the Deloach Ranch’s around 35-acre lake near Taylor on the last Saturday in June – the 10 – 15 MPH winds that were forecast had yet to materialize.

I moved my equipment from my truck’s back seat to my kayak (named Blaze) and launched.  I paddled to the far side of the lake and started chunking my Lunkerhunt Prop Frog in Green Tea color, giving it short jerks, with varying pauses between jerks.  Over 90% of the bass that I’ve caught with a Prop Frog have been caught that way. Read More→

Sportsmen, especially men, often don’t fit in with others.  In social gatherings, sportsmen often find that hunting, fishing, or sports shooting are  foreign to their companions.  This is especially true of younger adults. Read More→

On April the 28^th, Ander Meine of Bassquatch Bass Fishing Guide Service announced on his Facebook page a contest for a free evening fishing trip that included a professional photo shoot.  The winner will receive a gallery of high-resolution edited photos, and the trip may be featured on his social media and website.  To enter one had to like the post, follow his Facebook page, and tag a fishing buddy.  I promptly liked his post and tagged five fishing buddies (I was already a follower of his Facebook page).

On May the 5^th, Ander informed me that I’d won the trip.  He asked if I was OK with Lady Bird Lake in central Austin as our destination.  I said, “Sure!” and asked my son, Ryan, if he’d like to be my fishing partner.  He promptly said yes.

On May the 8^th, we met Ander and the outdoor photographer, Trinity Lambiase, at the boat ramp by the Holiday Inn.  We launched and proceeded slowly west and down the lake via Ander’s trolling motor, as the lake has a rule against fishing boats using their gas motors. Read More→

In mid-May, Kurt DeRuiter announced at an FCS Sporting Clays Shoot that he was going fishing the following morning on a small reservoir near Taylor.  Mark Deloach, the owner, needed 1,500 lbs. of bass taken out of it (as it had too many).  Kurt said that kayaks were needed as the reservoir was too grassy to fish from shore.  Unfortunately, I was committed to taking a couple of people fishing on Lake Bastrop, or I would have jumped at the chance.

But late that evening I received a text from the lady who I was going to take fishing with her son, informing me that she had to cancel.  I had no one on my waiting list, and I deplore fishing by myself, so I called Kurt and let him know that I’d join him after all.

At 6:00 AM the next morning, I met Kurt and Russ Gibbs at the McDonald’s in Hutto.  From there we followed Kurt to the ranch, a short twenty minutes away.  We arrived shortly after first light, and I immediately liked what I saw.  The 20-acre reservoir was ‘U’ shaped and almost surrounded by approximately six-foot-tall canes/reeds.  It was indeed grassy and there was a small island around sixty yards from shore. Read More→

On a Friday afternoon in late March, David Chalmers, Warren Hoke, and I arrived at the El Portillo Ranch near Charlotte for an FCS semi-guided hog hunt.  There we met David Smith, the Texas Wild owner.  After paying him he showed us the ranch.

Later that afternoon, I took David and Warren to their chosen stands.  I then headed towards mine – an elevated box blind, around 10 feet high.  It was around 100 yards from a barrel feeder and had sliding plexiglass windows and a carpeted floor.  The plexiglass was relatively clear, so I could see through it fine. Read More→

Over the years I’ve been contacted by many outfitters who are under the impression or hope that the average FCS member makes annual hunting or fishing trips to Alaska, Africa, etc.  In reality the average FCS member, like me, is middle class and has never hunted or fished outside of Texas.

Outfitters’ offers often include extras such as food, lodging, using their night vision scope equipped rifles, clays shooting, shooting varmints, and fishing stocked ponds.  The ritzier ones include chef-cooked meals and field dressing, skinning, butchering, and packaging of meat.  I always shake my head at such offers, as they’re as wrong about who they think or hope we are as Darryl Zanuck, Chief of 20^th Century Fox, was in 1946 when he said, “[Television] won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months.  People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” Read More→

FCS self-guided duck hunts on Central Texas lakes Belton, Granger, Somerville, and Stillhouse Hollow have been poor overall for a decade.  Over 13 seasons we bagged 100 ducks during 69 hunts with 229 hunters – an average of 1.45 ducks per hunt and 0.44 ducks per hunter.

Due to the poor results trend, Burl Fulenwider and I made a course correction and bought hunting permits at Fort Hood during the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons.  We hunted ponds there and once hunted Lake Belton’s banks.  Although we usually bagged ducks, we didn’t do much better than we did on our lake hunts (our best was three ducks).  Plus we grew tired of Fort Hood’s inconsistent HuntTrac computer area reservation system and field training schedule, so we stopped hunting there. Read More→

During the planning of the annual FCS January blast and cast (self-guided duck hunt and bay fishing trip) at Port O’Connor (POC), Clayton Carrier informed Wayne Weilnau and me about public duck hunts at the Guadalupe Delta Wildlife Management Area (GDWMA), near Tivoli.  The GDWMA is rested four days a week, and is only open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Read More→

It was bright and 82° when I arrived at the ranchette where I was hunting near Bertram – hot for a Veteran’s Day deer hunt.

I first checked my game camera for activity and was dismayed to find no new pictures, although most of the corn at my feeder was gone.  Figuring that my camera had a problem, I went to the west side of the ranchette and looked for a place to move my 10’ tall tripod blind.  I’d hunted from it the night before and the sun, which was just beyond my feeder, proved to be a killer for my eyes. Read More→

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It was cold when my wife, Chris, and I arrived in Fort Worth at the home of her brother, Roy Brigman, and his wife, Margie.  It was a Christmas get-together, but as it was duck season, Roy, Chris, and I planned to hunt.  Before we arrived, I found some Craigslist hunt ads and booked the two outfitters that appeared to be the most promising.

The first hunt would be a semi-guided one with Simmons Waterfowl Service near Seagoville and the second would be a guided hunt with Three Curl Outfitters near Frost.  I also invited FCS members and guests to join us.  Jonathan Sherwin and James Songer RSVPed for the Seagoville hunt and Michael Armstrong RSVPed for the Frost one. Read More→

I sometimes receive the following question from acquaintances or strangers (but never from people who know me): “Why do you hunt?”

Hunting, like fishing, is not a sure thing.  I’ve gone home without firing a shot on many occasions, especially while duck hunting.  So, why do we keep hunting, knowing that most of us will have full bags or fill our tags infrequently at best?  It’s because hunting is about more than the thrill of knocking down a fast-moving dove or dropping a big buck. Read More→

On a cold and clear Saturday morning in January, four FCS hunters met Allen Ethridge at his father’s house between Franklin and Marquez.  Allen’s father, Ricky Ethridge, normally guided us, but Ricky was already booked that morning.  After signing the Ethridge’s releases, we followed Allen around 35 miles to a farm north of Donie.

After driving a couple of miles on a dirt road, we passed over a culvert and came to a stop.  We then piled into Allen’s UTV and headed to the hunting spot – around a two-acre stock tank (pond).

The blind, as all the Ethridge’s blinds, was well built and roomy.  I went in first and sat on the far right side of the bench.  As we got situated, Allen put out the decoys and created a wide decoy spread.  Then we waited. Read More→

It was dark when Clayton Carrier, Russ Gibbs, and I arrived at Lake Decker, on a hot, windless July morning.  After launching my boat, we headed to a small cove normally filled with lily pads in the summer, but for an unknown reason they were absent that year.  I activated my trolling motor and we started throwing topwater lures.

We hadn’t gone far when Clayton announced he had a fish on his Loon (black-colored) River2Sea Whopper Plopper (a cigar-shaped torpedo bait that makes a distinctive ‘whopping’ sound).  I spot-locked my boat’s trolling motor and grabbed my net.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t needed as the fish somehow got off at least one of the lure’s six hooks. Read More→

Isaiah 38:16-17

New International Version

16 Lord, by such things people live; and my spirit finds life in them too.  You restored me to health and let me live.

17 Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish.  In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.

It’s tough to write about such things but I know I’m surrounded by people who are also wild at heart looking for their something to make sense of it all.

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On the third Thursday afternoon in January, six FCS members arrived at Port O’Connor (POC) for our annual self-guided/chartered blast and cast (duck hunt and bay fishing trip).  As Thursday looked like it would be the best day for fishing, we decided to try that instead of hunting, as we often did in the afternoons.  It was too windy to head to the jetties, so we decided to head to the back bays. Read More→

Saturday afternoon started slowly at the FCS fall self-chartered bay fishing trip to Port O’Connor.  Three friends and I headed to the outer jetties in my bay boat.  We fished the rock pile at the start of the south jetty, but rocks were all we succeeded in hooking there.  After around 30 minutes, we decided to try the south jetty rock wall.

We went to a spot that we dubbed ‘yellow rope’ as it had a yellow rope lodged in the rocks near the water’s edge.  We proceeded to throw live shrimp, spoons, and Vudu shrimp to no avail.

After around 10 minutes, we decided to troll down to the yellow platform/tower, as it often has fish in the vicinity.  We threw lures as we went.  I sat in my boat’s bow (front) fishing chair, simultaneously throwing a gold spoon, and keeping my trolling motor running parallel with the jetty rock wall. Read More→

It was still dark when three friends and I arrived at Lake Decker, east of Austin.  We launched my bay boat quickly and soon were heading down the primary lake arm towards the lily pads by the power plant’s discharge.  We arrived and quickly discovered a problem – the lily pads were gone!  Most had receded out of sight of the water’s surface, as they typically did in the fall – but this was late August! (The current heat wave probably made them recede early.)

Still, it was as good a place as any to start, as there was a lot of surface scum and grass that bass could hide under to ambush breakfast.  We started throwing topwater lures – mainly frogs. Read More→

For years I’d heard about a white bass guide (Bob Maindelle) on Lake Belton.  Although he had a great reputation, I’d never investigated him as he practiced catch-and-release, and several FCS fishermen had communicated that they wanted to keep their legal catch.  But after years of inconsistent hybrid/striped bass fishing trips, where we averaged around three hybrid/striper keepers each per trip, I decided that catching several white bass each with Bob was appealing, even if we couldn’t keep them.

I found Bob’s website via Google.  All 25 reviews were 5-star.  Many reviews praised his knowledge, experience, professionalism, disposition, and top-of-the-line equipment, all of which I greatly value.  He also had an incredibly detailed website, which I also immensely value.  I contacted him about booking a trip and sent a poll to our FCS d-list.  Three guys wanted to go with me, so I booked a trip for early June. Read More→

On a cold, damp Saturday in mid-December, I sat in my pop-up blind at the little ranchette where I deer hunted near Round Rock, awaiting the dawn.  The morning broke late due to a heavy overcast.  As it started to get light, the gray skies, cold, and dampness made me wish I’d stayed in bed.

To add to the dreary day, the birds and animals seemed to share my depressed mood.  Nothing was moving – no birds, deer, or even squirrels, which loved the pecan trees on the property.

I scanned with my eyes right to left and back dozens of times.  I focused along the full creek, a favorite haunt of the local deer herd.  I had just made another sweep to the left and was returning to the right when, as if in the blink of an eye, there stood a young buck.  As I glassed him, I thought, “Where did you come from?  You weren’t there a couple of seconds ago!” Read More→

On a cold late afternoon on the last day of deer season, I sat in a ground box blind near a creek on a lease near Blanco that I shared with three friends.

To say that it had been a disappointing season was an understatement.  During the summer, the landowner had a barbed wire cross fence built that ran the length of the property.  We didn’t think his fence building would disrupt deer season, but the deer thought otherwise. I’d only seen two deer during my previous hunts there. Read More→

As anyone who’s duck hunted with me knows, I have a hodgepodge of decoys.  I bought most of them on clearance at Academy during several of their after-Christmas/30% off sales.  I’d buy a half dozen or dozen of their Game Winner brand decoys, usually, redheads or pintails, each year to either add to my collection or replace casualties from the ongoing season that were too damaged to repair, usually from people stepping on decoys while they were moving around in my boat. Read More→

In mid-December, my wife, Chris, and I went on a deer and hog hunt and bass fishing trip on the CZC Ranch near Mercury with my son, Ryan, and his girlfriend at the time, Beth.

On Saturday morning, Ryan killed his first three deer.  On Saturday afternoon, Chris and I hunted from an elevated stand.  Around 30 minutes before sunset, about 15 hogs ran to the feeder.  I wanted to shoot one of the big hogs, but they constantly moved and were blocked by smaller ones.  Believing I wouldn’t get a shot at a big hog, I chose a medium-sized boar at the front of the herd.  I was given a broadside presentation and squeezed the trigger of my Remington Model 700 in .25-06.  He fell without taking a step, as did a smaller boar behind him that we hadn’t seen.

On Sunday morning, I caught 14 bass, and Beth caught four (her first fish). Read More→

On a Thursday morning in late July, six friends, my wife, Chris, and I headed to Port O’Connor (POC) for an FCS bay fishing trip.

On Thursday afternoon, Chris and I fished with live shrimp at the south jetty from our bay boat.  We caught a few undersized redfish and trout, and non-game fish.  I also put a medium-sized crab on a 13/0 hook out in the channel, away from the rocks.

After 1 ½ hours, we decided to try another spot.  After reeling in my shrimp and securing the hook and rod & reel combo, I turned around to reel in my crab.  But something didn’t look right, and I quickly discovered the problem – most of the 120 yards of line on my baitcasting reel had been spooled, and all that remained was the initial loop knot holding the line onto the reel!  Fortunately, the line went at a 45-degree angle away from the jetties. Read More→

On a warm morning the day after Independence Day, my wife, Chris Rowley, and I headed to Lake Austin for an FCS bass fishing trip the day after Independence Day.  We launched at Mary Quinlan Park and headed north towards Mansfield Dam.

It was very foggy, so we had to go slowly.  We stopped at one of my favorite spots by Harrison Hollow, in front of a huge house on a tall hill, about 2 ½ miles from the park – the water level drops from around 7’ to around 4’ there. Read More→