The LSON crew headed down to the Coastal Bend area this weekend for a saltwater duck hunt and the results were not what the hunters were hoping for.
LSON’s Craig Nyhus reported high tides both mornings, with tough shoots both days near Port Bay, just west of Rockport.
Saturday was the toughest morning, with overcast skies greeting the hunters, along with a lack of wind and birds.
“It didn’t seem like any birds had arrived yet,” LSON’s Mike Hughs said of the opening morning hunt. “There were a few flocks heading into the marsh, but overall, there just weren’t a lot of birds around.”
Sunday morning the weather was downright nasty, with a light rain, overcast conditions and strong winds.
But the ducks flew better Sunday.
“There were 10 times more birds than Saturday morning,” Hugh said.
“Some of the blinds shot limits,” Nyhus said. “Most people got their limits of redheads, at least.”
Hughs and Nyhus’ tally for the last morning was three redheads, one bluebill and one pintail. Other groups had better success with spoonies and bluebills.
Very few teal were spotted and no wigeon were seen. The hunters did see one Mottled duck.
“There were wave after wave of redheads,” Hugh said.
LSON’s Conor Harrison spent Monday morning in a blind in Smith County near Mineola and reported good duck movement, just not a lot of birds coming to the decoys.
“We saw lots of flocks of gadwalls and wigeon flying high and mostly headed south,” Harrison said. “We managed to shoot one gadwall on a passing shot, but I think with the amount of food and water around in parts of East Texas, it is making it tough to pattern birds right now.
“But I was encouraged by the number of ducks we saw. We just didn’t get a shot at many of them.”
Harrison also saw several flocks of geese flying over and landing in cut cornfields in the area.
