Texas Hunting Leases

Texas Parks & Wildlife Report for November 25, 2009

Weekly migratory bird hunting reports are posted from early September through early February.

High Plains Mallard Management Unit: Goose hunters saw better decoying action near Dumas and Amarillo over the weekend. The slight cool-down and wind put birds in a better mood to work spreads. Specklebellies and Canadas were solid in Knox and Haskell counties over peanuts. Duck numbers continue to build in the Panhandle, with more mallards showing with the cool front. Playas are full of water, but the Knox City area could use the rain. Sandhill crane hunters enjoyed great decoying action over the weekend with the winds. Prospects are good.

North Zone Duck: Duck hunting remains fair at best in Northeast Texas and the Pineywoods. More mallards have shown, but the brunt of the greenhead population has not arrived. Biologists report most of the mast crop was washed away with the flooding. Sloughs and river bottoms are full of water and attracting good numbers of wood ducks. Gadwalls and wigeons have been taken in shallow coves of lakes and reservoirs. The diver population on lakes and reservoirs spiked during the past week with the cooler temperatures. Hunting remains best around the zone boundaries of IH-10. Freshwater impoundments have held pintails, wigeons, shovelers and wigeons. Most of the blue-winged teal have moved on, and hunters are waiting for waves of greenwings to arrive. Prospects are fair to good.

South Zone Duck: The coast continues to produce steady duck shoots on the prairies, marshes and bays. Gadwalls, wigeons, shovelers and pintails have been the norm on the prairie. Absent has been large wads of teal, since bluewings have moved on and greenwings have not arrived en masse. Bay hunters have seen an influx of redheads along the middle coast, and most hunts have been half-limits this past week with calm winds and mild temperatures. Good numbers of birds were reported in Rockport. Goose numbers are building, but snow geese have been absent across the prairies. There are some huntable concentrations, however, for the most part, many traditional goose spots are devoid of birds. That could change any day with the full moon approaching. Sandhill crane numbers are steady. Prospects are good.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Hunting - Upland, Hunting - Waterfowl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.