Duck Hunting in Texas
Story and Photos by Capt. Chris Martin of Bay Flats Lodge
July 31, 2010
Just one day ago, atmospheric conditions around here were nothing less than peaceful and tranquil. But you know what they say about our Texas weather, “If you don’t like the weather right now, stick around for five minutes and it will change.” And change it did! By noon yesterday, southerly winds were pumping in excess of 25-mph while thrusting rapidly inland directly off of the Gulf of Mexico and across San Antonio Bay. As night fell, the sky became swollen with rain-filled clouds. Just prior to midnight, the wind abruptly switched and began blowing out of the north. My electronic wind vain recorded overnight gusts greater than 40-mph as the palm trees in my front yard seemed to be bending halfway to the ground.
When I awakened just after 3:00am in preparation for today’s hunt, those previously-swollen clouds had already burst and were unloading one the most tumultuous northerly-influenced storms that I could remember. This wasn’t just a simple, relaxed rain shower. The rain literally appeared to be falling to the ground in sheets rather than drops. A glance out at the thermometer located on my front deck revealed to me an air temperature of 36-degrees, which would continue to fall over the course of the next few hours. In fact, yet unknown to me at the time, this day would later be entered into the history books as being the coldest day of many of the years on record. The weather channel on television was reporting wind chill factors to currently be down in the mid-to- low 20’s as I donned my foul-weather gear, filled a large thermos with duck stew, loaded-up the Air Ranger with guns and decoys, and headed over to meet today’s party of three.
While driving, I thought chances were really great that I would show up at the meeting place only to hear from my clients that they had already decided that today’s weather was simply going to be too much for them, and that they would possibly be requesting that we reschedule for another date later on in the season. And if that were to be the case, then that would not be an all-bad thing. Today’s date was February 19th and was my wife’s birthday, so my staying at home that day would have most certainly aided in keeping me out of the doghouse for another day, if you know what I mean.
As I approached the boat ramp with airboat in tow, my truck headlights immediately illuminated a crew of three that obviously had absolutely no intention of letting a little thing like bad weather beat them out of their chance at spending the morning out in a duck blind. They had already unloaded the gear from their truck and had their guns and waterproof shell bags bunched together on the tailgate. I could tell right away that these guys were truly duck hunting enthusiasts, and that if we didn’t bring home any birds at the end of the day it wasn’t going to be due to a lack of effort and persistence on their part.
With greetings out of the way, we stowed all the gear and launched the boat. I fired up the big-block engine on the Air Ranger and let her idle quietly while I issued ear plugs and head gear to everyone. I also handed each man a life vest, as we are most often required to cross a lot of deep water along this portion of the Texas coast while traveling to and from the majority of our hunting spots, and we needed to be extra careful this day. Not only were we going to be enduring tough conditions on our way to the blinds, we would also have the strong north wind pushing high waves against our transom, which can be a most dangerous challenge for any airboat driver, regardless of the numbers of hours they may have accumulated at the controls.
A short fifteen minutes later we had made our way across the deep, open bay waters without incident. I pointed the nose toward a brief patch of marsh grass which the airboat hurdled without hesitation as we entered a narrow estuary that would lead us to the back lake area containing the blinds we would be hunting out of today. Strong north winds tend to empty our Texas bay systems of massive amounts of water in a very short period of time, and today’s frontal passage proved to be no exception to that fact. We rounded the last curve at the mouth of the lake where our blinds were located and discovered there to be no more than three inches of water left in the lake. Had we not been fortunate enough to have the capabilities of the airboat, we simply would not have been able to hunt today.
I knew that it had been a cold ride as I stuck the nose of the boat directly atop a grass mound just next to the first blind in preparation for unloading one of my guide partners and one member of today’s party. What I had not realized is just how cold the ride had actually been. It had been really, really cold. When the two guys got up out of their seats to exit the boat, we all turned on our flashlights and instantly began laughing at what we all saw. Everyone had worn facial and neck coverings to protect us from the cold, but a thick crust of frost had formed around everyone’s nose and mouth. Even the nose and mouth of my chocolate Lab was white. We all looked like a bunch of clowns straight out of the circus.
Upon leaving the two guys at the first blind, the remaining two members of the party and I made our way over to the second blind located about one-hundred yards across the lake. We quickly unloaded our gear and I promptly took the boat over to a nearby marsh stand where it would be secure while we hunted. It wasn’t long before we had both blinds arranged to our liking and all the decoys set up to what we thought would be to the ducks’ liking. Now, all that was left to do was to sit and wait another twenty minutes before being allowed to legally fire our first shot. Those waiting moments left us at what seemed to be an unsurpassable level of anticipation. It being as early in the morning that is was, and with the inclement we were currently experiencing, we could not yet see anything. It was almost pure torture to have to sit and listen to the humming and fluttering noises made by the wings of passing ducks that were obviously in search of a place to land – we couldn’t see them, but we could certainly hear them.
The official shooting time finally arrived and it was only a brief few minutes before the three of us in our blind scored big with three downed birds on our opening volley. It was cold, windy, and it was still raining and sleeting, and the birds were on the move. We had ducks all around us, but we couldn’t always see them until they were making their final approach into the decoys, which made for a very challenging and exciting morning of duck hunting. We heard round-after-round being fired by our guys in the other blind, but it was a couple hours after sunrise before we were actually able to see the other blind.
We hadn’t reached mid-morning before both blinds had acquired our full limit of birds. An early limit is always beneficial, but today it was even more advantageous for us. We were all cold and wet, and the north wind had blown so much water out of the lake where we were hunting that most of our decoys were now leaning to one side in exposed mud that had previously been covered by water. The only trial left before us today would be to get out of this dried-up lake and back home safely – a task which later proved to be “no contest” for the mighty Air Ranger. Thank God for airboats!
Tags: Duck Commander Fishing Lodge Texas Hunting Saltwater Gulfcoast Seadrift Port O'Connor
