Is it huntable? Most of the little islands are on the edge of The Island ..read a forum from 3 years ago that everything on the eastside of the laguna, south of JFK is pretty much off limits, but then I hear you can hunt it all, all the way to port Isabel can someone please explain? Trying to zone in on a spot to hunt for my first time on the first day of the second split!

You can definitely hunt it.

Ur talkin my backyard now! Anything 1000 ft from the road is legal and what you need to worry about is on the Kennedy or king ranch shoreline or the national seashore, as long as your not on the banks of those three then ur good, 1000 ft is the general rule from those so just find an island, not tidal as in the island is always an island no matter what the tide does then ur ok

Okay. Is that the same rule for mustang island too? Thanks y'all I appreciate the help!

Hey Cayman you hunt the upper Laguna as well? Been looking for fellow hunters in the area. Want to make sure I'm not stepping on any toes and would like to know the way around. Will be heading out this Saturday for my first go. Pumped up!

To be honest with you I haven't hunted the Laguna in a few years, I hunted hard about 5, 6 years ago. Hunted every day of the season for about 4 years. Lot of guided trips too that kind of burned me out, but yah all of mustang is legal but the thing is now where all the decent walk in spots around shamrock an dead mans have been blocked off to private land so it's all boat access now but if you get closer towards the church or the fill dirt properties there where the littletons own it's still ok to drive in just have to be sure your not on state park ground. Pretty much south of fish pass and all that is good right now. Just not that many birds down yet this year. Scout around the church over there, there's plenty of birds that way but you'll have to compete with other hunters as well I'm sure

Actually you can hunt on their shoreline, anything below high tide mark is public land. The game warden told me I could hunt on the bank of the national wildlife refuge as long as I kept my shot over the water and didn't go above the high tide mark.

May wanna check with your local gw to make sure, they all have different opinions

Exactly, I've been in this situation with park rangers before trying to defend myself saying I was past the tidal line shooting in the water. I advise not to do so lol, stay 1000 ft and avoid confrontation. Hunting on a national wildlife refuge is a federal offense, loose your gun, truck or boat, hunting license for I don't know how many years, bookoos of dollars and fines, yah I think I'll stay away from the seashore lol. Not worth being mis informed about some ducks

The refuges and the king ranch don't own the water. They can't tell you anything if you don't step foot or shoot onto Their land. I was checked almost every day by the game warden while on the bank of the refuge. Ranchers and refuge officials may not like it but there's nothing they can do. If your game warden says it's okay then I say go for it. They're who has final say anyways.

Not to mention there's hundreds of blinds along the banks of the laguna Atascosa nwr in the lower laguna. I talked to both state and federal game wardens about it and was told by both that it was legal. All land that is tidaly influenced is public. But like I said call amd check with your local game wardens to be sure for yourself.

Also I may be mistaken on this but I don't believe there is any law saying you have to be 1000 feet from the road or private property. If every road and every ranch had a 1000 foot easement then I wouldn't even be able to hunt my deer lease as its only about 600 yards wide. I was also told by a game warden that it didn't matter how far away I was as long as I didn't shoot from or across the road. It's just like hunting a river, as long as your feet stay wet and you don't shoot over the bank then you're fine. If I'm wrong then someone please post a link with the regs to correct me. I'm just speaking from exactly what I was told my multiple game wardens

Yeah I'm stuck walking in until I can nab a kayak for cheap. Seems like there is still plenty of room to hunt without bumping elbows although I could be wrong. Hope not!

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=766163

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Hunting-Too-Close-for-Comfort-You-Decide-128926143.html

It's not a texas parks and wildlife law. This is why you will not find in there regulations. There is a law that says you can not discharge a firearm 1000ft from a PUBLIC LAND. Depends who stops you or not, game warden most likely cool, cop is going to write you a ticket. This is a subject that I know, this law is real, you drive down Laguna shores here in corpus and there are signs that say no waterfowl hunting within 1000 ft of road. The city police put pamphlets out in the convenient stores with all the regs and distances to legally be from roadways and such.
It's a law and if whoever you have a run in with knows the law then they can take action against you.

And Erich I would love to see you set up on the national seashore bank and start whackin ducks and see how long it takes for you to be sittin In the back of a park ranger vehicle. Not gonna happen bud, just because some Game warden told you something doesn't mean you should share misleading info. The tpwd is not the only law enforcement agency out there. Know the laws

I believe the regs you just posted are city ordinances if your hunting in a city limit. Outside city limits there's no distance regulations. The cops amd gws further up the coast must have completely ddifferent opinions than the ones I've always dealt with. I've even been told by the sheriff department that it was legal to hunt on the bay side of South padre island as long as I kept my feet wet. I know those are not state laws because we Dove hunt hubt right on the city limit line of Bastrop, less than 100 yards from the baseball field and houses and the game warden and sheriff check us every single day. 1000 feet is over 300 yards, that would illuminate so much public land that is hunted every single day, there's no way that is accurate. Please show me I'm wrong with an actual link to a state law.

Maybe pins has its own regs, I'm not saying you are wrong about that. I'm just saying other than that there's no distance regulations outside of city limits

Ok well look at the title of this thread. I'm giving this man info about the subject matter and the exact location that he's interested in. Every location is different and I understand that but he is asking questions about land that I've hunted for a very long time and am extremely familiar with. Everything that he posted about is pretty much city limits. He didn't ask about hunting bastrop, or south padre island, I referred accurate information about the exact location he wants to hunt, not some wishy washy gw said this or this is how it is where I'm from stuff. Where he wants to hunt is most likely going to be city limits, 1000 ft from the nearest asphalt public road that you drove in on and your safe. Never meant to argue about this but I thought the topi of thread was what we were talking about here not texas as a state.

The part about the king and Kennedy ranch shorelines is mostly what I was referring to. I've never been to that area so I didn't know what was in city limits or not. I thought you were referring to any public land or road regardless of city limits. My bad on that part.

I've had my run ins with guys on the king ranch and Kennedy. Cut us some slack but we were hunting on a little island about 20 yards off the bank of the king about 5 years ago and they came out there in the big swamp buggy and showed us in writing that they have rights to all land that is in any form connected to the mainland via tide movements. So seeing it being a high tide or not abnormally low the island we were on was completely surrounded by water but during a really low tide that island then becomes par to the mainland. This is kind of referring to what I was talking about there. The law that pertains to that would then be hunting without owners consent, because you are technically now on private land. Better to be off the mainland than pay a bunch of money in fines tryin to kill some ducks. He said she said only goes so far when it's the landowner vs the hunter. Landowners gonna win that battle most of the time If your anywhere close to that property. Couple hundred yards away and avoid confrontation, I just speak from experience on multiple occasions so take it how you want but I've been there done that

I'm not saying your wrong, I'm just also speaking from personal experience. I don't understand how the king ranch can own tidal influenced flats and islands when even the national wildlife refuges can't claim them.

Even txpw states in their laws that you may not hunt above the high water mark on private land bordering the gulf of Mexico or its bays, however any land below the high water mark is legal to hunt.

Yeah ill be in the general upper Laguna. Pretty much all of corpus city limits. Mustang and such. I'm curious about Baffin but would hate to deal with king ranch, I have a slight idea that maybe if just wade out and setup a pom fron blind ill be okay. Glad my waders are neoprene.

Well I guess I can only lead the horse to water. You can decide to do what you want once you get there

Check out the OSO creek (corpus christi area) tidal islands...same thing for the Winn & Chapman ranches, they CLAIM them and have purple staked all those islands and tidal flats to let hunters know they are off limits.

And as already stated if you're hunting a tidal area near the national seashore you're basically asking for trouble.

Man this just got tougher than I thought... I'm stumped. Say i cruise to mustang island from corpus, drive up to a dirt parking lot just south of the church, wade out 1000 ft. And sit my @ss on a bit of ground. Will I be on the danger zone or in the clear? Period.