I won an archery hunt for Aransas NWR and am looking for strategy advice on the area. I will miss the scouting weekend because of scheduling conflict with another bow hunt.

Current game plan: ground hunt the central area of the NWR by identifying brush-grass edge areas on satellite maps. pick up and move every 3hrs or so if I do not see any movement. a coworker hog hunted there years ago and said there are no trees tall enough for tree stands, and the grass is hopelessly tall for sitting in a ground blind. he hunted by slowly walking the firebreaks. while this worked for pigs, there is no way I'm getting the drop on deer hunting like that. I assume this is going to be a Type 3 Fun hunt.

I am looking for any advice on special preparations I need to make, general strategy, and what boneheaded mistakes I need to avoid if anyone is willing to talk about any of those things.

If you want to meet up out there, or need help on your hunt let me know.

Thanks!

During the BOW hunt Most if not all fire breaks are going to have lots of hunters using them to get in and out of their hunting spots, so if you're stalking them, you may get some dirty looks or worse (LOL).
The archery hunt is nothing like the Rifle hunts. The rifle hunts you can pretty much flag a break and set up a tripod on it and more likely than not no one will come bee bopping down it for fear of being shot.
It's not unusual to see lots of vehicles parked at the Breaks and ROW's. The dead end of East Shore Road will have 6 or more trucks parked there every day for the hunts.
Do not think that since there is not a vehicle parked at a flagged area that no one is there hunting or plan to be hunting it at some point. I have been walked in on numerous times after being dropped off by my hunting partners.

It is a 9 day hunt. People will come and go all during the week.

If you flag an area and are going to leave and not return please take down all your flagging. If they do like they did last year during the rifle hunts and make you put your permit # on the flagging that will help keep the over flagging down.

Tips and Tricks? Only advice I can give is Deep woods off and have way more cans than you think you need, Snake Boots/ Chaps, mosquito head netting.

Don't be surprised if you find fresh tracks everywhere and set up and not see anything for days.

Good Luck

Thanks for replying!

I went back and re-read the NWR brochure that I got with the permit. It talks about flagging rules, but that it's for marking your trails and stand location if needed but does not state that you can stake a claim to a location that way. Are you saying that folks will be marking off trails and firebreaks with the expectation that no one else will enter that area? The NWR brochure says that no one can reserve an area and I imagine that flags can be very ambiguous as to what they are marking off.

Guys will mark off anything and everything that looks good. When in fact you’re only supposed to mark the stand site give or take.

Expect every fire break to have a flag trail running down it from access road to god knows where. Last year they acted like that would be going away but who knows.

It is first come, first serve.
I think for the Archery hunt that the ROWS and Breaks are fair game to travel, there will definitely be flagging right off the road going to them and to me that tells others hey there are hunters down them somewhere so keep an eye out. I personally stay away from the breaks and ROW's during the archery hunt. Yes, they are the easiest ways to get back in deep, but also if it's been dry, they become soft sand and walking becomes tiresome over long distances.

It is not easy to pack in stands / scout and mark trails to and from your hunting area in 90 plus degree heat so I treat others as I want to be treated. If someone has already marked the area, I wanted to hunt I will move on and I hope others would too. It is way too many acres of land for people to be right on top of each other.
Yes, it's an Archery hunt and I know there is a possibility that I could have many hunters within a couple hundred yards of me and that is fine, but I do not want to see them sitting 50 yards across a pond from me either. I will leave an old orange hat or tie an orange vest to my stand hoping hunters will see it and move on out of eyesight. Some guys can really camo out the tripods and if you aren't right on top of it you won't see it.

Man I hate to be a debby downer but that was the worst hunt we’ve drawn. We did a rifle hunt.

1. Stolen ground blind
2. My 12 year old and I set up blinds about 75 yards apart and a dude set up his in between us. While we were setting up ours. It was so weird, it was spooky. I asked if we would be racing to shoot a deer and he just giggled.

The “everyman for himself” nature of noncompartmentalized hunts on small tracts of land dont make sense to me.

Yes !!!!
The area as soon as you turn onto Middle Road on the right side all the way to the Oil company house at the start of Burgentine Loop always has hunters every 100-150 yards. Talked with a guy one day who was hunting that area and said he could have shot a Buck early morning but the only shot opportunity the buck gave him there was a truck behind it back towards the road. He said he was watching the buck and that it was going to be stepping into another shooting lane in a few more yards, but before that happened another hunter that he didn't even know was there a hundred yards away shot him. That is another area I stay away from, its easy access without long walks so everyone wants in.

my then 8yr old son and I had an insane experience at the Lone Star Pass dove fields on opening day last year, similar to this. Guys were all piled up in one corner shooting at the same dove, shooting over the highway(while cars were passing too), shooting at each other, just every sort of thing that you would scoff at when getting a in-briefing or attending hunters Ed and they say "dont do this". I had to leave after we had a dude 30yds away shoot a dove 10' in front of us about 10min into the hunt.

Hopefully I have a conflict-free archery hunt at the NWR.

I also drew 2nd rifle tags here, So I'm pretty motivated to go. Expecting to stay at least 100yds off the road most of the time.

Which rifle hunt did you draw?

I see there is an area of tropical weather that the National Hurricane center is eyeing in the Caribbean, says not sure if it will develop over the weekend or not, but they are showing the cone of uncertainty is the Texas coast. Hopefully it stays away. 🤞

I scouted Saturday and it was very dry. I had originally planned to hunt the end of point pasture and when I arrived the road had not been mowed and you could barely see where the road was. I drove to the dead end turned around and decided I did not want to have to drive in on that road if it rained and flooded in the next 2 weeks. I was the first one there and, on my way, back out to the gravel road I passed 5 trucks. I ended up setting up in my 2nd and 3rd spots and was out of the refuge @ 11:40. One is about 300 yards in and the other about 700
My boy Has Homecoming Football game Friday night, so I will getting up and headed out at 3 AM and Driving in for the Hunt Sat. morning.