Jan

Stepping Out by Randy Rowley 1/14/25 ©

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.

Securing a hunting spot there is on a first-come-first-served basis. Clayton gets there between 2:00 – 3:30 AM. At around 4:30 AM the gate opens and hunters proceed to the check station in line, and, when it’s their turn, tell the TPWD biologist which available spot they want. Hunters drive to their spot’s parking area and then walk to their spots. The walks are between 100 and 1,400 yards. There is a lot of mud and a few spots require wading up to 200 yards through up to thigh-deep water. The maximum-sized hunting party is five and hunters must possess the Texas Annual Public Hunting Permit.

Clayton had already hunted there six times that season and bagged 19 ducks, including green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, and spoonbills (shovelers). His results were significantly better than our latest POC blast and cast trips with many more hunters (during the previous year we killed two redheads, the year before that we killed one redhead, and the year before that we killed a duck (probably a redhead – I didn’t record what it was) – a total of four ducks in three years). Clayton’s results excited me. We decided on a hunt date and I informed the FCS members and future members.

The night before the hunt, Mike Pozhenko and I were at the blast and cast at Port O’Connor, so we had only a 30-minute-long drive to the WMA. We arrived around 2:30 AM and were around the 20^th truck in line. Fortunately, Clayton was already there and was around the 10^th truck in line. Out of the available spots, Clayton selected Spot 9. We drove to the dirt parking area and parked in front of the sign for our spot.

We gathered our gear, including Clayton’s plastic drag sled that he used to hold some of our gear, and headed down the trail to our selected spot, along with Clayton’s dog Abby. It was a long walk. Clayton and Mike took turns dragging the sled, but I still struggled to keep up with them, due to being around 25 years their senior and at least 50 lbs. heavier. We made it to our spot, which was at an around 20-acre pond, but Clayton didn’t want to set up there due to the wind direction, so he decided that we’d wade out to a nearby island.

Silently, I wasn’t elated with his plan. I was already pooped from our several hundred yards walk and part of me wanted to hunt right there, but I stepped out and followed Clayton and Mike into the shin-deep water.

Clayton and Mike had no problem wading, but not me. With my extra weight, I frequently sank into the mud. Fortunately, my tripod stool doubled as a cane and enabled me to free myself. By the time I reached the island, they had already set out the decoys and found hiding places. I chose a spot south of them that involved the least amount of walking in the sticky mud.

We had around 45 minutes until legal shooting time (LST), but ducks started landing all over the pond, many of them within our decoy spread. Then, at LST, someone from one of the other two groups on the pond fired and ducks took flight everywhere. We got around four ducks from our initial volley, but that was just the beginning. For around the next two hours, we saw hundreds of ducks flying in all directions.

For some reason, the ducks that came to our decoys liked landing close to Clayton on the north side of our spread. After he limited out, we swapped places. Within a few minutes, I also limited. Mike had five ducks, but around 9:00 the ducks weren’t nearly as interested in coming near us. We ended the morning with 17 ducks (one short of a three-man limit), including six green-winged teal, four gadwalls, three pintails, two blue-winged teal, a wigeon, and a spoonbill.

On the way back, I again had to deal with wading across the pond. Except, now I was more tired. I put my shotgun diagonally across my back, opened my chair, and used it like a walker to make it back to the other side of the pond. My bad back screamed at me the entire time.

When I made it home, I determined via Google Earth that we walked at least 600 yards to the pond, plus another 100 yards across it. As Google Earth measures in a straight line, and the trail wasn’t straight, we probably walked 800 yards one way. I’d made longer walks than that at the Union Grove WMA on Lake Stillhouse Hollow and at the day hunt area on Lake Somerville during the year that my boat’s motor had blown a piston, but this walk was harder, as it included wading, and I was six years older.

As I thought about our hunt, I realized that God had placed the trail in front of us, including the unseen trail from the pond edge to the island, and we only had to step out in faith and trust that he would take care of us.

The book of Exodus recounts that after God delivered the 10 plagues to the Egyptians through Moses to force Pharaoh (the Egyptian ruler) to let the enslaved Israelites go, the Israelites left Egypt and camped by the Red Sea – they wrote the book on long walks. But Pharaoh changed his mind and led his army to re-enslave the Israelites. The Egyptians, who were in their chariots, were closing in fast and the Israelites complained to and lashed out at Moses.

Exodus 14:11-12 recounts, “They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Moses responded in verses 13 – 14, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

God became involved in verses 15 -18, saying to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

Moses obeyed God. Exodus 14:21-22 recounts, “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”

The remainder of the recount is harrowing. The Egyptians followed the Israelites through the sea, Moses stretched out his hand, and the water flowed back, drowning the Egyptians.

The Israelites only had two options – either surrender to the Egyptians or step out on the trail that God laid out before them. They were probably still afraid, but they stepped out and walked into God’s salvation for them.

Thankfully, we’re not placed into situations where we have to walk across the bottom of a sea on dry ground. However, God frequently asks us to trust him and step out in faith when we’re following his will.

So what do we do when that happens? Do we give up and stay where we are like I wanted to do at the pond’s edge? Or do we turn back to the lives we’re accustomed to like the Israelites wanted to do at the edge of the Red Sea? Or do we trust God and step out?

What trails has God put before you that you’re holding back from stepping on? Are you tempted to stay where you are or to turn and go back to a familiar place? If God calls you to do something he will make a way. If you don’t step out, you’ll never be content. Look for the trails that he’s laid out for you and step out boldly. He won’t allow you to get stuck or the walls to crash in on you.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” God will lead us to the trails that he created for us, but we must step out onto them.