"Parking and hunter access is restricted to designated public boat ramps." You have no choice but to yak 6 miles if your accessing it for hunting. Maybe something will change and they will add hunter access points at the bridge ends like they did at Ray Bob, but all the different wording including this one clearly limits us to boat ramps for now. I read the shoreline management plan too and it being a water supply lake foremost, it is very possible the lake will be closed again by hunting season. "Because of navigational hazards that were not removed during construction, public access boat ramps will generally be closed to restrict Lake access when water levels fall below 525 feet MSL."

I've been saying for years there should be some no motor zones in NTX. But this seems pointless if they don't make a hand launch only off hwy 82 for access.

From the wording and the very limited access at this time it appears they do not want much hunting to occur on this lake and I wouldn't be surprised if they shut it down really quick once water levels start to get low.

No motor zones is hippie bull crap.

How much you think a ticket will be and probability of getting a ticket? $250 and 10% probability? Trying to finalize my hunting budget for next season. $250 x 10% = $25 per hunt, a little over $4 a duck, not too bad.

I bet $150, and who knows if they'll enforce it. I know some young bucks that have been hunting a restricted area for years and they've gotten one $150 ticket in all that time. Most of the "permit" lakes enforcement is nonexistent. If I ever do wanna mess with it I got a plan.



I don't imagine I will tho. My goal is to always get away from the zoo.

Ray Bob, it was not enforced in the first year or two. Only warnings. I have hunted it from the first day it was open for hunting so experienced the progression. During those first couple years it was frustrating to paddle miles from the designated access point doing it legal and see guys illegally walking in to the same spot from the road. Early on I even called a GW to ask if I could enter at a spot close to an access point and got permission, only to be checked by a different GW the next day to be told the law is the law and you have to use the designated access point down the road. A local had seen my truck and called it in. Though I did not get a ticket because of the other GW, they had stopped giving warnings. Those obvious easy non designated access spots on the road started getting tickets and I have not seen hunters parked at those places ever since. Locals had found out about the rules and were calling operation game thief or the local warden. That is how it is is going to get those sneaking in like poachers from 82. Locals driving by will call them in. Especially since the hunting rules are posted on billboards at the ramps.

Good to know

Since I'm a "boat enabled person" (yes, that's poking fun at wokeness), I'm selfishly not concerned about enforcing access points, it's the non-motorized area. Is it even marked? Are they gonna be back there waiting for boats to cross the line? I'd bet it's gonna be more of the typical wait at the boat ramp and question folks that match a description.

I don't know. If people can see someone running a power boat in there from the road, they may still call them in. Other hunters might also. The GW could just watch them from the road too and then wait at the ramp to issue the ticket. That GW in my story had to walk at least a couple miles and waded out to our canoe. He was determined and not real happy about not giving me a ticket. The full tale is a good campfire story if we are ever hunting together. Another time someone at Denison Dam saw me place a fish in my cooler in my truck instead of my stringer and called the GW on me. Two Wardens watched me for 6 hours with night vision and finally gave up on witnessing me "hide" any over limit stripers and visited me. Should have seen their faces when I showed them what I had put in the cooler. It was weighed in later that morning as the State Record River Carpsucker. Maybe it is more of a duty to act thing if it is called in on the hotline. Not just those two personal experiences. I have witnessed more than a few times where they went above and beyond on public land to enforce a relatively minor infraction on someone. It may not matter. It was an area created as one of the required things to do for building the water supply lake. It's purpose was not to benefit waterfowl hunters. I have not seen the area, but it is possible it will be dry 99.9% of the time anyway.

let me warn y'all about our gw up here, mcgee won't mess around with warnings if you get caught, I would say you would have a 95% chance of being ticketed.

I would not want to be on his bad side for any reason.

and for those wondering about getting caught, one word, drone.

For the record I was joking with my post, I’m not that desperate for a duck. My favorite spots are next to the boat ramp.

Something I just noticed. That billboard map does not include the wetland area as part of the hunting area. It will be interesting to see if the APH map changes next season.

Good eye, I didn't really look at the sign's map. I had yesterday afternoon off and wanted to go play with my livescope setup so I ran out there. Did a lot of exploring. I did fish a spot way back through some dense timber that I'm 99.9% no boat had been in before. 3" of water getting in, that was kinda cool. As of now there is no way to get all the way down south anyway. BD creek is chalked full of log jams. You can run to the power lines on the north/west shoreline and can get a bit south from there, but nowhere near the actual wetland area. If it stays like that the duck hunting will be a bust. That lake is in hilly terrain so there are only 2 or 3 spots in the hunting area that had a flat. Not near enough room to mess with. Maybe things will change before fall as the timber dies or maybe some really dedicated guys will go in there with chainsaws and ropes and clear the way. After seeing a cottonmouth as big as my forearm chillin' on a log I was about the hop I turned back around. It's literally miles of backup and canopy. There is one possible route that I found off the creek, but there's a hundred yard stretch or so that would need to be cleared better and I was running out of daylight. I did see a beaver along the creek so fat my first thought was I saw a hog out the corner of my eye.

Already tv commercials selling "lakefront" property starting at $99.9k!

not sure if it is lake related but the traffic on fm 100 seems to be picking up, used to see 1-2 cars a day avg. and now probably 20-25.

It’s because Sniper John named the lake.

Got a mailer for property (tiny houses) at/near the lake last week.

Morning All. Good topics on this lake.
My question is "hunting the surface of the lake".
So the boat is obviously in the water, most likely near the shore.
If you get out and walk on the shore are you now in violation If the GW sees you? With or without your gun.
What if you drop a bird on shore and you have to finish it off?

Just wonder what you all think about this.
Sounds like the GW in the area might be tight fisted on this subject.

He’s tight fisted on everything. I don’t know him on a personal level, but I’ve ran into him a couple of times and have friends that have dealt with him more so. I don’t care for his attitude. My experience with him has been that he assumes you’re doing something wrong and he’s out to prove that you are. I’m not a law breaker or rule bender, btw.

mcgee is a good dude but he won't tolerate chit from anyone and gets a lot of it thrown at him from idiots around here.

he does his job and he does it well.

The kind of game warden that gives all of them a bad name. There is a husband/wife duo down here on the coast that has a similar attitude. If I saw them in distress I would probably keep driving... they had it coming.

Aren’t they all like that? It’s like a cop that pulls you over for traffic violation, they are going to approach the vehicle with thought that “this guy could have a gun, and could kill me”. They would be a pretty lousy GW if they walked up on every hunter and said “I know you got your license and permit, you don’t have lead, you didn’t shoot over your limit or the wrong duck… etc….this is just formality I have to check you…”.

When I see a GW coming, I have my license out and gun unloaded before they get to me, and it’s yes sir no sir. That’s just me tho, I like to butter them up then ask them where the ducks are.

I bumped into him last year. His compadre a younger man from the east, flat footed called me a liar. That escalated.very quickly and McGee was actually the cooler of the two. The guy half apologized when it was all said and done.

I remember when these guys put this together. I can relate to being connected to land that may not be worth a lot on paper, but is priceless nonetheless.

This is a story that has played out countless times. I remember as a kid talking to some old men at a bait shop. They were lamenting the loss of the lands impounded by the lake. Just like these two on Bois d'arc, these old men had used to hunt what is now Ray Hubbard. Every lake in Texas (except Caddo) has this story.