Aransas Wildlife Refuge?

Anyone here drawn to hunt the refuge this week care to report in?

I bet it was wet. They probably got 3" to 4" of rain in the wee hours of the morning.

Yea I’m down here now and it’s soaked. The cotton fields (I think they’re cotton) on the drive in from Tivoli looked like Rice fields.

Good luck JB, I admire anyone that does time on the Aransas!

Well I was just down to relax a bit and take the kiddo's to the Lexington. im scheduled to go in on the 3rd hunt in early December though so I'll take the advanced good luck!

Any update from the lucky hunters?

I got drawn last year, not so lucky this year. Saw tons of deer driving in and out but only say one spike while in my blind the 3 days I hunted there. Took the spike so at least I didn’t go home empty. Mosquitos were the size of birds out there!!!

Next year, I might be able to help some via reports on the overall condition of the Refuge. I've started flying pipeline patrol over the refuge three days a week. It is incredible how underwater the property still is. A lot of the roads and sendero are impassable.

It would be cool to get a updates in late summer/early fall. That place can be a mess if it gets too wet.

Were you flying around the week of Dec 8-12th? I saw someone flying around the refuge at least one of the days I was there. Outside of some of the roads & little pockets, the whole place seemed underwater.

That would have been the owner of the outfit that I went to work for. He flew it on the 9th and 10th. I started on the 14th.

How did the hunting go?

It went really well. The Game Warden was a ton of help and really friendly, as were a lot of folks I ran into there. Shot a Buckquito (button buck) opening morning so was able to enjoy my time quite a bit more the rest of the trip since I already had one in the bag.
Its a pretty sweet place and I'll definitely look to hunt it again. From day 1 through day 5 I feel like I learned a whole bunch and will certainly enjoy giving it another crack next year if i can.

Outstanding!

Here is a view from the patrol cam on the southern end of the peninsula.

Wow, very cool gig!

Noticed that the Refuge was set up for some type of hunt this weekend. No blinds on Wednesday with blinds all set up yesterday (Friday). Blinds are all the same, large popups set where they would not be allowed during public hunts, on the roads within the hunt area. My airplane was in maintenance so I did not have a company radio to ask the guys on the ground if they knew what the hunt was for. Nothing on TPWD or Texas Youth sites.

I know they do a wounded warrior hunt a few times a year for hogs. I'd think that would be advertised somewhere, but maybe it's a special event done through the project directly. From what I heard, they really tear it up on these hunts.