Annual NTX Waterfowl Scouting report

Well, it's getting close to the magic time. Scouted lake A today. Obviously, water is low...very low. Preferred ramp is closed. If we get rain this is going to be a banner area. Grasses are grown and seeded out. Someone is going to figure out how to walk in on this and find flooded grass. I need to get the boat in and look closer. I forgot the Binos so no duck reports but I thought I saw ducks on the water.

Will scout new lake B next week.

If you are hunting NTX I would suggest rethinking your strategy. There may be many more walk ins with the level low. You may have to drive your boat much further than before. If you were around in 14 and 15 you already know what it looks like.

Looking forward to the reports. Im going out Saturday to scout. Half my spots are dry. Like you said, if the lakes come up 2-3 feet it should be awesome. But if not, and it stays dry and warm like they are predicting per the la Nina its going to be another tough season. I'll report what I see on Saturday.

Within the 5 year historical lake levels for the places I scout, in only one year did levels rise during the fall. On that front I'm hopeful but not optimistic.

And that was probably from a big hurricane system coming up from the gulf into north texas.

Holy [censored], conditions look bad. Did some scouting today in north texas. Lots of my places are dry, which I kinda already new that based on lake levels. Things are deffiantly looking challenging for this season.

Fingers crossed we get significant rain tomorrow and friday.

There saying up to 2 inches. Hope so. Two fronts coming in so maybe one of them will produce.

Maybe just maybe this could bring some more.

https://zoom.earth/storms/roslyn-2022/

Perfect if it makes it here.

Todays NTX Annual Scouting Report:

Rain. Decent amount at that. Many lakes only need a couple feet. Some more than that. I don't think we will get that today but any raise floods grass. That can't be all bad.

Good news. So far the rains have reset the lake levels up to where they were...

Last Tuesday.

We got some really heavy rain in north Dallas this evening. Hopefully so did the rest of NTX and we see some good run off from it.

This rain won’t touch lake levels, might help on ponds which should pull birds off the lakes…

This!

You wont see any big pushes of birds til everything starts freezing up North. Normally mid December thru end of January is the best. November is always a crap shoot with the weather and duck numbers.

Won’t even fill in cracks

I disagree, Sinky. Already seeing build up of birds on Red and in moist soil in the general vicinity.

For the last 20yrs +, some of the most consistent hunting for us has been late October to Mid December. After mid December, or rather the winter solstice, I just don't believe birds migrate much. They will move around with a freeze, but they aren't moving far. Those early fronts don't seem to do much, but birds are moving on them consistently for us.

I wish TPWD would start North Zone on first weekend of November and give us the 2 week split after Thanksgiving again. That 2nd split opener was always good....now, not so much as 5 days of rest doesn't help any.

Not only do we need water we need cold weather. Talked to a coworker today in Omaha Nebraska andnits 70 degrees there today.

Looks like alittle rain for Friday. Lake levels didn't really come up much.

Going to go out scouting on Saturday.

Dry creek outfitters in wichita falls is reporting alot of ducks already showing up.

Lake Pflugerville, which is in city limits and can't be hunted, has tons of birds on it. However the over whelming majority are coots.

Scouted new lake E today (no, that's not the first letter of the lake name). No vegetation around the shore. No birds in the section I scouted. Lake did not appear to have much food. No shore birds viewed. Water does not appear to be running from river, but I was on land and it may have been hidden. No waterfowl flying but no other birds flying today either. This trip was mainly to judge access. Some ramps were closed. Channel appeared to be navigable. Saw some coots feeding in a concentrated area on another branch of the lake so there must be some plant life existing. I'm not going to judge this area by first look, specially since others have reported birds in the area. We had a decent south wind and warm weather. I'll come back to it in mid November and give an update.

The theme so far is boat access to areas that don't provide walk in access. Looks like were going to have to work for that. Good news may be some flooded willows that may be huntable with water down.

No spoonies? Maybe coot needs to become the central Tx mallard…times are tough…

I've committed to shoot a couple pouldeau this year just to see what they taste like. See if them Cajuns are as nuts as everybody says.

Scouting report. Saw quite a few people out scouting today. Saw some GWT and wood ducks, a few big ducks, and a couple big groups high that looked like migrators. The rains helped alittle, lakes are still very low. Looks like 80 degree weather next week and then a possible minor cold front on Friday.

I haven't seen many reports from the NTX outfitters I follow on social media. Overall pretty quite and no reports from any kids hu t this weekend.

South zone folks I follow seem to have shot alot of teal and spoonies. Seemed most faired well, but a few indicated the recent rains down there have scattered the birds.

I’m gonna guess you are in ETX.. did some scouting in NTX and didn’t see much. Water levels are low. Didn’t see much ducky food in my area either. Might try ETX tomorrow hopefully for some better luck. Won’t be able to get out during the week before season opener

Had to drive down to my old office today. Decided to check out some of the tanks along the way. No birds on b, c or d. Tank f which I almost never report on, had half dozen feeding greys. Mallards have not shown up to tank A yet. Still a few days early.

Honkers were in the field at the grass farm. Couple dozen. I expect they're Mrs Baird's geese but can't be sure.

Geese showed up above my house Saturday. Right on time with the last few years.

Wow. That'll work.

I have a four acre lake below my house. So far, I haven't seen a single duck on it. This morning I saw probably 50-60 birds. I'm guessing the coming front is strong enough to finally push some down.

Noticed the 1st robins of the year today.

I finally pulled the trigger on a new rig. I went out to a place in North TX I haven't hunted in prolly 10 years to get used to driving it. Place was loaded up. I can't imagine the chit show that's gonna go down there Sat am with 20 boats trynna hunt an area that'll hold 3 max.

Isn't that pretty much everywhere in texas these days.

If its close to the metromess it'll probably be Friday morning. Last year I scouted early Friday morning and was third at the ramp. With the water low some lakes are going to be off limits to bigger boats but there's more walk in opportunities. Some lakes that don't allow perm blinds already have them that's gonna be a fun time. Not for me. I'ma get there early and try to stay out of the way.

What did you get, Larry?

Not RR NW arm, normally I got it all to myself!!

I've been hunting a bit with a group of young bucks the last couple of years. They're considering giving it a go and camping out. Not this old dog, been around too long to know how it'll go down. Get the X, fend off other groups the best you can, then have some yahoos come in 15 minutes before LST and setup 75 yards downwind from you with the "it's public water defense"... then sky blast anything within 100 yards. I've had enough of that. I'll be far away where there are less dux, and less hunters, but enough for me and mine to have a good hunt.

Ended up with a 2020 Gatortail 1748 with a GTR 40. I've been in the market for a couple years, just waiting for the right opportunity to come along. Got both kids out of college so that lessened the pucker factor, too. Gotta admit it's a lot more fun to drive than I thought it would be. Now I gotta sell the ole SeaArk center console... lots of good memories in that boat.

They are in fact fun to run. Like a 4 wheeler on the water.

Good boat. I need to upgrade but the wife has a loaded shotgun for just such contingencies...kidding...at least I think I am. All my out of the way places are dry. I'm spending some shoe leather Friday hoping there's water in some new places. It's a mile and some back in there. I'll probably get back there and find somebody's drone hovering overhead. What size shot for a drone? Does it have to be nontoxic?

Anyone else struggling with deciding on where they are going to hunt Saturday morning?

Nope. Ill be on Ray Roberts! Unfortunately...in a bass boat though!

I will be right here on Cottonmouth Lake…. They finally showed up.

Looks good Rockie. We checked our farm last week. Boots, divers, and teal. Basically millet rodents! Lol.
Our boys have a high school tournament on Roberts Saturday, so next weekend will be our opener.

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s pics from the weekend. Some good weather moving in.

I struggled until Sunday and decided on the lake. I'm scouting it again tomorrow so I may change my mind.

Thanks bud. Good luck on fishing Saturday!

I would hunt off of past year experience. First good cold front coming in. There will be new ducks in areas you may have scouted in the last few days or week and now there are here.My place birds just showed up 3 days ago.

Hunt #1
Heard ducks flying over head when I got out of the truck at 5am. Had about a thousand yard walk to where I was going to be hunting this morning. Got to the spot with no other hunters. Had ducks landing around me while setting the decoys out. Had gadwall and mallards flying over head 15-20 minutes before legal. As lst approached the action slowed down. Had a few birds catch me off guard and buzz the decoys. You know how that goes, your looking left and they come from the right and are out of range before you can get on em. Overall only a couple dozen birds seen, most didn't really want anything to do with the decoys. Maybe the lack of wind had the birds a little finicky. At 8am had a lone mallard drake work the spread perfectly. Ended with 1 spoonie drake and a mallard drake.

Scouted lake E Friday. Birds flying all day. Geese and cranes working the surrounding area. Claimed a spot about 5 pm, put out a light and went to sleep in the truck. Motored back out when the first boat showed up at midnight. Heard birds flying all night. Had birds buzz the set just after LST but I didn't see them early much less id them. Few teal buzzed by but no takers. With the low water I tried to make the boat look like a big log but in the daylight it just looked like you would expect in flooded stumps. I did turn some mallards from about 1000 yards off and they gave it a couple of go arounds but the blind just didn't cut it. I should have just muddied a sheet and cover up on the shore.

I think they moved out overnight with the north wind and partially full moon. There was a huge flock of birds rafting on the open lake Saturday mid morning. I think these were migrators. The birds I saw Friday were loafing in the flooded stumps.

Hunt #2
Went into a small creek off the main lake. Its normally pretty good for wood ducks but I've never hunted it this early in the season. Needless to say I only saw 2 wood ducks. First skunk of the season.

Saw alot of ducks rafted up on the main lake. It was glass calm. Didnt hear much shooting from the main lake.

Hunt #3
Strughle bus continues.. Hunted the main lake. Ducks still just rafted up in the middle. Lake is low so they have no reason to be near the bank as there is nothing for them to feed on. Its not unusual for them to raft up in the middle due to pressure. But with no food there is little chance they will come the bank or be huntable. Overall saw decent numbers of birds, they are likely leaving the lake the feed and just coming back to loaf in open water.

Scouted lake A this afternoon. Well, sort of. Glassed from the boat ramp. Didn't see birds on the water but birds were in a tank close to the lake. Walking in tomorrow morning. I'll have to look at what's wet and what isn't. Probably going to be a muddy mess.

Saw zero waterfowl at a NE Texas lake this AM - at least where I was hunting. Very few shots heard. 1st time being completely skunked there - actually first time not killing at least 3-4 birds.

Hunt #4
Slow slow slow - had 3 gwt come by at first light. Was hoping they would have worked better but didn't. Had 3 pintail come in but than start to flare off at 40 yards. Not to surprising considering I was hunting a mud flat. With that said I though the panel blind was blended in as best as it could.



Very little shooting on the lake. Very little bird movement.

Per social media, the guys on private that have the managed holes with millet, corn and other groceries are absolutely loaded up with ducks.

With most my spots dried up I'm out looking for new areas, but its been tough going in blind so far this season.

And the joys of hunting with a golden. Spent an hour and half getting all these cockaburs out.

Hunted lake A this morning. Tough walking in. Decided to test the mud and broke through up to my thigh. Had to fall back and work my way out. Found no hard bottom near the water. Moved up the creek channel hoping it would be better but I finally just picked a spot on the creek and set up decoys close to the bank. Not a lot of birds flying. Saw 9 grey's and 7 teal. But i couldn't see behind me. I wanted to cross the creek channel as I expect more birds were moving on the other side.

Private tank that's not hunted was loaded. I'm just not finding food on the main lakes and the holes are all dry. The tanks got some help with the last rains but the lakes and the lake holes not so much.

Last weekend we hunted small ponds on private land in east TX and did well. Put the miles in and scouted public Tuesday and Wednesday and found enough to head out in the boat shortly. Weather seems good. Will have several motion decoys to include pulsators, a swimmer and a double jerk rig. Maybe we can hypnotize them. lol

I’m hunting Haggerman this weekend. They’ve got all the birds

I drew hogs up there two years ago and set by a small creek in some flooded timber. Watched the mallards come and go for a couple hours. I was so enamored with their activities I forgot about hogs for a while. This was a very small water source about 10 feet across and 30 feet long. But there were some leftover acorns.

If I don't find any birds before the split I'm heading north. I usually take a couple newbies duck hunting each year and I need to get some productive spots for them. North or east is what I'm thinking. These are the times I wish I still had some private ponds to hunt.

Hunt #5 was another Skunk. Went into a spot a checked out last year, but never got around to hunting it till this morning. Its decent looking spot, a few ducks flying around but only had 4 teal buzz the decoys that I wiffed on.

After the hunt I checked out several more areas and didn't really see much. A few ducks here and there, but nothing to get excited about. Didnt hear much shooting either. Not much on the tanks while driving home either.

I'll just keep bouncing around looking for birds.

2 1 duck days - in Vanzandt, don’t get them until first week December, rest has been one 2 and 2 3 man limits. Great year so far. Tomorrow hunting w 2 maybe 3 guns, if one buddy shows in AM.

Scouted northwest NTX. I'm not going to label the lakes and tanks since it was a random drive and look. Some tanks held as many as 70 birds. Wide variety. One lake was full...of coots. Although I expect there were some ducks out there. Probably a lot, just what I saw was coots. Tanks held water but were low. Lakes were low as you would expect. Didn't get to all the lakes in that region. I did try to scout some private I have access to but I couldn't see the tanks from the access point and didn't have my truck. Will scout some other areas during the split and report back. I'm not hunting ducks until the second split. I need to go get a deer and a hog for the freezer. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and has plenty to be thankful for.

I'm no longer a huge football fan. At least since they took over calling plays from the sideline. But the Cowhowhow boys won so that's something.

Unitas took Eubanks one time, when Eubanks tried to call a play from the sideline, "Coach, this is your team from Monday to Saturday. But on Sunday it's my team." Or something to that effect.

Also, The Texas drought map looks like it shrunk a little. Not much but it appears to be getting smaller rather than larger.

Hunt #6
Finally found some birds. Quick limit of teal this morning.

The NTX drought map has shrunk with a small portion returning to normal and a lot of the area listed as abnormally dry. Soil moisture is fair. One month outlook is remain in drought and three month outlook is drought continuing. This is before yesterday's rain. Oklahoma has improved some but Kansas and Nebraska do not appear to have improved. NETX remains normal to abnormally dry. Austin area is still in extreme drought before yesterday's rains.

We've got some lakes in NTX that actually came up enough to potentially make a huge difference.

Lots of ducks around!

Naturally, The split has begun.

Im talking about from the first of season til now.

That's true. Wasn't meant to be sarcastic. More of a "that figures, now that I can't hunt them they show up" kind of post.

Didnt mean it like that. Was just saying this has been the best opening split in a while for not just myself, but alot of buddies of mine hunting all over Texas.

Best for me since 2015, hunted solo or with a buddy. 6 hunts 48 ducks, 39 of them teal, couple gads and the rest green heads.

Best first split since 2016 for us. We have pretty much found good numbers of ducks where they should be. Haven't had to scout quite as hard as the last few years to find them. Hoping second split is as good!

We had a weird morning the other day.....for NTX at least. Private pond that I got invited to last minute....they didn't scout the day before and no blind built. Sitting in tall weeds on a tank dam hunting the wrong side in a north wind. The tank wasn't very big so we made it work. We ended up with a mixed bag of redheads, two bufflehead hens, some bluebills, one gwt and a few spoonies.
Historically it is mostly gadwalls and gwt in the area.

Scouted Lake D yesterday. Between 800 and 1200 (estimate) resting. Mostly grays, pintail and teal.

Fun to watch that many ducks on the water. I learn something every time I watch

Common this year. Must be weather and food combo. Tons of red heads, some Canvas backs, piles of ring necks in areas never seen them in. I’ve had 100-150plus last 2 weekends on a moist soil lake I have never shot or seen a diver on

Hunt #10
Only saw 2 birds flying today. Full moon, no wind, 60 degree weather, not sure..... but no bird movement today

Scouted lake f. Walked about 3 miles. No birds, no feathers, no shotgun shells. Water looked good though. Didn't see any birds flying at dusk. Cold front up North hopefully will push more down this weekend.

For you duck hunters, strong northern wind casted to accompany cold front for eastern part of state shifting east as the high moves through. My guess is as Oklahoma freezes up birds will move through North Texas as our tanks freeze and continue to the coast. An open tank on the flyway or large spreads on open water may be the ticket Saturday through Monday.

Anybody have estimates of ice formation on still water for this weekend?

Mallards show up at tank A finally. Fewer than previous years and later. But it does seem the changes to A did not alter their flight plan. Or some of them at least.

You will have ducks for a week plus. Will be enough open water on big reservoirs to hold ducks thru deep freeze. Not worth the risk IMO- especially public in boats.

Too risky. Not that mad at them. Letting my private holes rest/ will be plenty of ducks to shoot after Christmas.

Happy Holidays to all

I was at my place in western Young county last few days & not seeing many ducks at all on tanks driving around. Drove from there through San Saba today & very few ducks seen the whole way. Normally see quite a few on the ponds.

I'll be walking in tomorrow. Not going to risk it in the boat. Don't trust the weather man on when we are going to get hit with the front. Hopefully they show up before the front. If not, I have all week next week to get after them.

Smart

Hunt #18
Was able to get in and out before the front hit. Nice limit of GWT. Family time from now till after the first of the year. Kinda sad I've got time for about 10 more hunts then the season will be over.

My golden will hardly ever look at the camera. Smh

Nicely done

Nice, I love shooting a limit of GWT, especially drakes, they are noticeably bigger/nicer breasts, more fat in thee skin, feathers pluck off easy.

GWT have always been one of my favorite ducks. I'll shoot a limit of them anyway of the week.

When I first saw that picture I thought, what kind of dog is that... then I realized it was his hide.

seems like the birds are doing a lot of back and forth right now with the weather, one day a few, then the next loaded, then the next day empty

agree 100%. Can't tell if they are moving big water to tanks or north and south with the weather?

Slow for me today. Hardly saw any birds flying.

Most of our birds have left

I think they are moving north on these south winds. Need some more snow and freeze up north. One of these days I'm going up to the Dakotas to hunt fat mallards that aren't all worn out from flying 5000 miles.

Well get another big freeze first week of February like we always do, lol

Hunt #22
Good hunt this morning. Now that the full moon is gone birds seem to be more consistent. Got my limit with 4 gads and 2 gwt. Got 2 more weeks left. Not going to lie, I'm ready as I've been thinking of spring turkey alot lately.

Lost 70% of our ducks in NT, struggled to get 10 3 guns today. Big water, Ivy League ducks. More mallards and GWT last few weeks though

Southern NTX hunt in flooded timber Saturday. Would have helped to have some wind. We managed 11 . Mallards and pintails with a few blackjacks thrown in. Based on my season, this was a good day.

Zero on my wetland at 2pm, vs 100 plus 2 weeks ago. WOW. South of I20

We still have a good amount of birds. Going to let it ride this weekend, and burn it up next weekend with some friends of mine coming in with their kiddos!