Have any of you guys ever gone on a multi day duck hunt on a river in a kayak or canoe?

I'm planning a trip for mid November and wanted to get some insight on gear that others have brought. Going via kayaks, we will be limited on carrying capacity. I have a list put together already, but I wanted to see if any of you have direct experience with this type of hunting.

We're going to be going 2 nights, 3 days, people... We have to pack in everything.

Any help/advice will be appreciated. I've never hunted on the river but I have done multi day kayak fishing trips. So any pointers on actually hunting are appreciated too...

~Yakinthebox

Sounds like an adventure! what river?

Can't tell. Lol. It's in Texas...

I'd be careful. River hunting laws can be difficult. By law if your shot crosses a property boundary you've broken a law. Now you'd have to have an angry land owner etc to make a gw ticket you. But with it being deer season it could go down. Add that to camping etc things get blury.

But sounds like a great time. I've done some multi day canoe trips and enjoyed them. Just never mixed hunting in.

I've looked up the legality of it and am aware of the restrictions. You're right. Just gotta let the birds really decoy in well. We've camped this river before and a lot of the surrounding land is public land that is really inaccessible by foot.
We definitely plan to be extremely careful... Thank you ducknbass!

I have done it several times. Like mentioned you have to be careful of your shots. The problem arises with your possession limit. I spoke to a game warden once before and he told me that each days kills would need to be labeled with a wildlife resource document and kept separate from other hunters. The wings must be left on all birds. Possession limit is three times daily bag of six. So on your entire trip you cannot take more than 18 birds a person. So if it's a week long trip and you limit the first 3 days you can't hunt anymore. Unless you eat them all. Lol

Bottom line leave the wings, bag them by date with your name and attach the wildlife resource document to each of the three daily bags!

I would call the game warden for that area and confirm with him as well. Some are sticklers. The grey area as stated below says that you may possess more than a daily bag after you leave the field. While on a canoe river trip you may actually not be leaving the field. That would be up to warden interpretation. So it's prob in your best interest to call

Enjoy, it's fun.

Per tpwd....

Sounds pretty awesome. I have always wanted to do something like that but never really wanted to deal with all the legal stuff. I can see a landowner getting pissed pretty fast if he deer hunting but if your not doing anything wrong I guess it doesnt matter. Do you see many different types of ducks doing that? I know where I'm at the only thing you ever see on a river is woodies.

Depends on the river I guess. I've gotten woodies, mallards, gadwall, teal, redheads, etc. no different than a lake. Just more restrictive regulations due to smaller size.

I've hunted overnight a few times out of my Native Ultimate 12. Here's a bit of wisdom learned from trial and error.

Don't use down sleeping bags, stick with synthetic. And store it in a dry bag.
Use a sleeping pad.
Carry your shotgun in a floating gun case.
Carry anything important in a floating case.
Wear neoprene if you've got it.
Take leather gloves. You'll understand why after paddling a couple hours.
Carry extra rope in case you need to portage low water or drag your yak.
If you don't have handles on your yak, install some.
Take ziplock freezer bags to store stuff in.
Use paracord or coiled lanyards to tie important stuff to your boat in case you flip.
Practice open water reentry if your trip is gonna be on water over your head.
Don't take a cart. It's MUCH easier to drag your yak like a sled.

Try this on the Devils... I would love to hear the aftermath:)

I'd love to do it, but there are a lot of things to consider. I'm not certain enough of the way land rights work to try a multi-day hunting float. I'd be interested in hearing your experience though.

I figured it depended the area thats why I was asking. Only place I ever hunt is the Trinity river bottom and I have just never seen anything on the actual river but woodies.

I've tried calling the game warden multiple times and left multiple voicemails. No return calls. There are actually 2 wardens for this area. I've tried both...

So, The trip will actually only be 2 days of hunting. We're launching on the 11th(not open season yet). We won't hunt until the next morning when we're about 10 miles downriver. So max that we'll have is a double limit each. That is a great suggestion with the WRD's I will have some printed out and ready to go. Also, I doubt we'll clean the birds til we get back home on Sunday evening, so the wing thing wouldn't apply. I will most definitely bring ziplocs and WRD's to separate the birds though. Thanks for that tidbit!

You bet. No since ingetting in trouble if you don't have too. Hopefully you will get s call back. I'm sure they are busy chasing fools this time a year. I'd keep calling if you don't hear anything!

I know for a fact there are lots of woodies in the area. And I know a couple years ago when we camped on the river we saw several flocks of BWT. That was only like a week after Teal season so most of the big ducks weren't down yet. I'm really hoping to get into some Mallards. I've never shot a mallard. Where I hunt we just don't see them. From reading about river hunting in Texas, it seems as though it is slow early on but at about 9-10 it picks up. Apparently the big ducks go feed first and then come to the rivers to loaf. We'll see.

I'm pumped either way. I'd be happy with just Teal. Lol. But if I can bag some Greenheads, Pintails and Woodies, I'd be ecstatic!!!

ducks or no ducks, canoe trips are a blast

Yes Sir! And this is the first "Cool weather" trip I've done in a number of years. The last several have been HOT!!

Sulphur, Brazos, RR, or Trinity

I have hunted rivers for many years. In most cases ducks will congregate at the big bends in a river IF THERE ARE RAPIDS AT THE BEND. If there are no rapids at a bend then there will probably not be any ducks landing there. It is very unlikely to see ducks in the straight portions of a river. If there is a rapids in the straight portion you might see a duck or two but it is unlikely. Place your decoys in the calm water just before the rapids. No matter what anybody tells you wounded ducks do not dive down and hold onto grass at the bottom of the river and drowned themselves. Wounded ducks will swim underwater to the edge and hide in the over hanging brush and shadows. If you cannot find a wounded duck go upstream and start paddling downstream while running a stick under the overhanging bank. You will flush your wounded duck that way. If you are wearing chest waders do not walk into water deeper than the bottom of your rib cage. Rivers tend to have unexpected holes behind rocks and debris on the bottom, but they are rarely more than 6" deep. If you use the bottom of the rib cage rule you can keep from filling up your waders if you accidentally step in one of those holes.
Here in north central Texas rivers will hold mostly Gadwalls. We also shoot some Mallards, Pintails, Widgeons, and Teal.