# Sad times we live in



## reel thing (Jul 1, 2010)

Was on Mickey Eastmans show talking about how Bad the hunting is around Houston now. Hunted waterfowl all my life until 2006. Use to walkin at bastrop bayou refuge and shoot lots of geese. Last time we went didn't see a goose in 2002. Use to hunt the east side of Houston Winnie and out around jenkins road. Go to Lousiana you see NOTHING. I hear there are a few geese and ducks left around Eagle Lake. Ducks and geese have gone from our area now. That means your kids and grand kids will not get to experience the great hunting we USE to have close to Houston. Sad Times


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## RANCH (Apr 6, 2021)

I'm not surprised


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## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

yeal my deer/duck/dove lease in clear lake city dried up decades ago. talk about incredible, i'll never forget looking over the berm behind Ellington Field and seeing nothing but *green head green* for acres, wow some world class hunting we had. huge deer and excellent wing shooting, all gone forever. won't do any good to cry over spilled milk, as much as i'd like to.


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## gandjranch (Jul 19, 2011)

Unfortunately the amount of rice that used to be farmed in those areas is not there anymore. Eagle Lake was the goose capital of the world, at one time. The rice farms are just not there like they used to be. I'll let the imagination figure out why that is so, but uncle Sam may have played a part in that I'm told.


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## Gilbert (May 25, 2004)

Every place I grew up goose and duck hunting is now a subdivision. Farming died with the old timers and the kids cashed in on selling to developers. Called progress.


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## Drundel (Feb 6, 2006)

Also the more you visit out of state you realize how much more other states do for hunters than TX. Ie, the amount of public land, the state planting and flooding, the free e-caller license in AR, etc. is aimed getting more hunters to their area.

There are rumors of a 1 spec limit next year, if so, that could be the nail on the coffin of a lot of goose hunting around Houston.


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## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

we had a point system in the day, 100 points was a limit. bull sprig were ten points each, so ten apiece. a 30 to 50 bull sprig hunt was a sweet deal. green heads were 20 points each, the Livingston jungle was full of them. those were the days never to return.


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## RB II (Feb 26, 2009)

c hook said:


> we had a point system in the day, 100 points was a limit. bull sprig were ten points each, so ten apiece. a 30 to 50 bull sprig hunt was a sweet deal. green heads were 25 points each, the Livingston jungle was full of them. those were the days never to return.


In 1983 we hunted opening morning, 4 hunters killed 40 ducks. Lots of gadwall, widgeon and a fair amount of green heads. All in the 10 point system at that time. Only a few were more, don't remember those values, but the canvasback as 100 pts, I do remember that. 
We hunted the sloughs in the Trinity River bottoms and off of the river itself. Also, Robs Lake area which was full of divers, including Cans, and pintails. 
I remember sitting on a wood duck roost and watched HUNDREDS of woodies come into this little slough. No shooting, just watching. It was amazing. They were so close you could literally almost touch them.

Hunted another slough until quitting time and then just laid down in the grass on the downwind side of it, watched that little place FILL UP with mallards. They were calling and squawking the whole time. Flights of maybe 50 birds at a time. 

You are right, never to return.


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## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

RB II said:


> In 1983 we hunted opening morning, 4 hunters killed 40 ducks. Lots of gadwall, widgeon and a fair amount of green heads. All in the 10 point system at that time. Only a few were more, don't remember those values, but the canvasback as 100 pts, I do remember that.
> We hunted the sloughs in the Trinity River bottoms and off of the river itself. Also, Robs Lake area which was full of divers, including Cans, and pintails.
> I remember sitting on a wood duck roost and watched HUNDREDS of woodies come into this little slough. No shooting, just watching. It was amazing. They were so close you could literally almost touch them.
> 
> ...


My very first hunt on Matagorda Island was I think 1979, opening day first year open to the public, I had 190 points legally. The game wardens dropped us off and picked us up in a school bus. When they picked us up, I still remember one warden telling the other warden, that I had shot the canvasback as my last bird and so I was legal. 😁


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## Bowhntr (Aug 7, 2006)

gandjranch said:


> Unfortunately the amount of rice that used to be farmed in those areas is not there anymore. Eagle Lake was the goose capital of the world, at one time. The rice farms are just not there like they used to be. I'll let the imagination figure out why that is so, but uncle Sam may have played a part in that I'm told.


Right uncle Sam did have part in that. The new Farm Bill paid rice farmers NOT to grow rice in area. All this due to developing and such. Look at the the new Buc-ees and Jordan Ranch community (my duck lease was down that road where Jordan Ranch subdivision is now). Since rice no longer grows in area, the birds moved more up north.


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## joe78 (Nov 6, 2019)

We could have same conversation about oysters reefs in the bays.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J327A using Tapatalk


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## MARK MACALUSO (Sep 29, 2010)

Use to hunt right across the street of Pappa Blakelys on Westheimer and right pass the airport. So many ducks and geese you could still hear the geese when you fell asleep at night because it was so loud. Some people will never get to experience that..


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## quackattack (Jul 4, 2011)

The lack of rice is a huge contributor, but on the way down there are many heated ponds that keep the cold from pushing them further down to us. February a couple years back; I was doing a small job in Indiana, and there were birds everywhere. The guys on the site explained to me about all the private / protected properties with heated and(or) agitated ponds to prevent freezing. One of the guys told me he gave it up a few years back because they wont leave the ponds even during the summer.


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## Camper_bob (Jan 7, 2022)

I remember fields as far as the eye could see, full of geese. The clouds of birds were so thick, they looked like smoke from grass fires at a great distance when the whole flock would light off. I hunted many of them in the West Houston area through middle school & high school (all through the '90s). Toward the end of high school, early college, the migratory paths had been pushed so far West that it didn't make much sense for us logistically to hunt that far out. Plus guides had a tough time getting leases to hunt birds, what with all the development and dwindling farm land. Then a few years later, hardly any birds at all.

It was sad, really. I very much enjoyed getting out there with my buddy and our dads slipping in goose s#!t laying out a spread. Was hard work, but the hunting was fast-paced and fun most days (the "blue-bird" days notwithstanding).

I was at the Houston Museum of Natural Science recently with my son, and we read that corn had a lot to do with the shift/decline in the migratory bird behavior in the area. Rice fields were a big draw to the migratory bird population. Then as ethanol became more "popular" as a fuel additive, and corn became more lucrative, many/most of the rice fields were replaced with corn (or concrete). Just one more factor...

I will never forget touring an aircraft control facility (I don't remember exactly where we were) and seeing an aviation map of the migratory bird patterns across the continental US. The paths were presented in shades of gray; the darker the line, the more active the path. I'll never forget seeing a giant black line going right through Katy/Eagle Lake. Wonder what that map looks like these days?

Just the other day, 30 years later, I was telling my 7YO son stories from those trips.


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## Jess2015 (Feb 1, 2019)

For even more perspective a great read is "A Hundred Years of Texas Waterfowl Hunting" by R.K. Sawyer. R.K. Sawyer details and photos of bygone hunts, old times Ford Trucks converted into swamp mobiles, sloops that crossed Galveston Bay, pictures of successful swan hunts including a plethora of other species right here on the Texas Coast. To see that much ecological shift to what we have in the present day is staggering. Regardless, the book is an excellent piece of literature and Texas Wingshooters would get a lot out of reading it, I know I have.

The sadness is real but there can be solutions. The real question is what can we do now with what we have? I'll be googling around and make some phone calls, I doubt DU and Delta Waterfowl are ignorant of the situation. I'd be interested to see what their stance is and what we can be done to help.


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## bobbrown0311 (Sep 11, 2014)

I don't know what you are talkin about brother, I shot piles of birds the last three seasons. It was slow on the trinity river, that is once you picked up your woodie limit. Now i know the hunting ain't like it use to be 30 years ago (which i missed because i was born in 1988) but there are plenty of birds to be shot on public land still. We shot snows all winter down in the marshes in brazoria. Also look up a fellow by the Name Chris Slemp who works and guides out of pin oak farms in El Campo, he has been putting in lots of work for crane and goose habitat and they pull huge flocks of specks and snows. He has had a few 100 bird days a bunch of 70 plus bird days in the last three years I have been hunting with him. They shoot lots of ducks and geese in garwood and eagle lake still in the rice , but i promise you the salt marshes still have enough birds to get limits on public land. Not to mention the ducks that winter in the laguna madre, huge rafts of divers, i have video of literal clouds of pintail tens of thousands of them over baffin and in the icw by rockport. There are still plenty of spots to find good hunting around houston you just gotta get after it brodie.


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## mrsh978 (Apr 24, 2006)

The difference is a 100 day goose happened every hunt instead of a “few” - the skie line around Katy always had geese in them during winter. Lake Conroe you could shoot a solid limit of mixed ducks - mallards , cans , widg, gad, teal - every hunt. Had to be careful on cans the was 100 point bird .


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## greyghost7 (Feb 3, 2020)

gandjranch said:


> Unfortunately the amount of rice that used to be farmed in those areas is not there anymore. Eagle Lake was the goose capital of the world, at one time. The rice farms are just not there like they used to be. I'll let the imagination figure out why that is so, but uncle Sam may have played a part in that I'm told.


Guys I feel your pain... remember when they would burn rice fields in prep for next planting. Birds would migrate down and be in 1000's even worse out by Katy BassPro, fields covered in birds.
Now as for unc Sam
Who recall the rice farm bill? Many farmers were paid NOT to plant rice[win win for them]. That was when we sent Russia all that rice [I was in college then 82]. Since that time fields haven't recovered, but developed. Out by Katy that Jordan Ranch subdivision replaced good goose/duck fields... heck even Buc-ees was a nice field for duck. Memories


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## webphut74 (7 mo ago)

SO I am just getting ready to get back into duck hunting for the 2022/2023 season coming up here in November. I live in Spring, TX. It's been about 30 years since I was last duck hunting. I am finding it obvious that duck hunting for green heads has come down to slim pickings in the Houston area. I have researched and researched and it looks like the duck drought has creeped up to the far north, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Is there any public waterfowl hunting locations worth hunting with expectations of bringing home some green heads? I am thinking of a looking up north, possibly the Texas side of Texarkana, maybe even Oklahoma or Arkansas, but was hoping to keep my hunting within a four hour drive. Not looking too good. I am beginning to wonder if it might be cheaper to just buy plucked and cleaned wild mallard online. After fuel, shells and possibly lodging too depending on how far north I will need to drive, its looking cheaper to buy them online...I found them for sale, but almost $60 a bird.


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## Sgrem (Oct 5, 2005)

Shot this 5 curl mallard on public land in Christmas bay near Freeport ... good luck.


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## Jkmoore03 (Jun 19, 2015)

webphut74 said:


> SO I am just getting ready to get back into duck hunting for the 2022/2023 season coming up here in November. I live in Spring, TX. It's been about 30 years since I was last duck hunting. I am finding it obvious that duck hunting for green heads has come down to slim pickings in the Houston area. I have researched and researched and it looks like the duck drought has creeped up to the far north, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Is there any public waterfowl hunting locations worth hunting with expectations of bringing home some green heads? I am thinking of a looking up north, possibly the Texas side of Texarkana, maybe even Oklahoma or Arkansas, but was hoping to keep my hunting within a four hour drive. Not looking too good. I am beginning to wonder if it might be cheaper to just buy plucked and cleaned wild mallard online. After fuel, shells and possibly lodging too depending on how far north I will need to drive, its looking cheaper to buy them online...I found them for sale, but almost $60 a bird.


Duck hunting in general has become really bad down south. On the coast you can expect mostly trash eating big ducks (scaup, redheads, goldeneye, spoonies) with some eaters like pintail and gadwall. Of course teal are usually always around especially early. You’re better off going north if you want mallards. It’s a fluke to shoot one on the coast anymore. Canvasback is even rarer.

Good luck and remember, it’s always cheaper to buy meat than to hunt it. But it’s not near as fun. Don’t use cost as a factor for hunting or fishing, it will never justify itself.


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## WildThings (Jan 2, 2007)

webphut74 said:


> SO I am just getting ready to get back into duck hunting for the 2022/2023 season coming up here in November. I live in Spring, TX. It's been about 30 years since I was last duck hunting. I am finding it obvious that duck hunting for green heads has come down to slim pickings in the Houston area. I have researched and researched and it looks like the duck drought has creeped up to the far north, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Is there any public waterfowl hunting locations worth hunting with expectations of bringing home some green heads? I am thinking of a looking up north, possibly the Texas side of Texarkana, maybe even Oklahoma or Arkansas, but was hoping to keep my hunting within a four hour drive. Not looking too good. I am beginning to wonder if it might be cheaper to just buy plucked and cleaned wild mallard online. After fuel, shells and possibly lodging too depending on how far north I will need to drive, its looking cheaper to buy them online...I found them for sale, but almost $60 a bird.


It is against the law to sell wild birds. They may be domesticated (farm) birds. Or it could be a sting


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## webphut74 (7 mo ago)

@*Jkmoore03---> *OK, north it is then. Thats too bad. 

*@ WildThings --->*See, that's what I thought too., but then I found a couple websites that do sell it. It could very well be some of these ranches are selling farm raised game type mallard instead of the typical farm raised mallard which is night and day compared to the wild mallard. My wife bought a couple of them farm raised duck and right off the bat, I knew they were not the real deal. The meat is a different color all together and we might have just well been eating chicken as that was what it tasted like.


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## RB II (Feb 26, 2009)

In the late 70s or early 80s I was in Columbus picking up a truck rigged out for the work I was doing. I was headed back East on I 10, high norther blowing. Somewhere before Sealy there was a field of geese on the S side of 10 that probably had a million geese in it. They were stacked up because they couldn't fly high enough to cross over 10, the wind blew them back. A sight I will never forget.


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## BBCAT (Feb 2, 2010)

If you are going to put a price tag on it for table fare, give it up.


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## yakker30 (7 mo ago)

The birds follow the food. I hunted the Panhandle through the 90's. Ducks, geese, sandhills were thick. As the aquifer drew down farmers switched to dry land crops from corn. It didnt take long for bird numbers to drop noticeably. Toss in a warming climate and on moderate falls the birds have no reason to leave food in the lower midwest and just stop there. I remember those clouds of geese in Katy when I was a kid. Sadly those flocks dont frequent sprawling subdivisions.


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## schmellba99 (Dec 28, 2015)

gandjranch said:


> Unfortunately the amount of rice that used to be farmed in those areas is not there anymore. Eagle Lake was the goose capital of the world, at one time. The rice farms are just not there like they used to be. I'll let the imagination figure out why that is so, but uncle Sam may have played a part in that I'm told.


It is a combination of this, plus the increase in grain farming north of us in Kansas, Arakansas, etc.

I read an article, must be close to 10 years ago now, that discussed the decline in geese populations along the Texas coast. At one point the annual survey was anywhere from about 3mm-4mm geese that would migrate to the Texas coastline, but as farm land production has increased north of us and ours has declined, at the time of that article the survey was only about 250k geese along the Texas coastlines. There was one county in Arkansas that had more geese migration than all of Texas.

It isn't a function of cold weather like thought years ago, it is purely a function of food and forage, and geese simply don't have to migrate as far south as they used to in order to have plenty of available food.


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## Sugars Pop (Jul 10, 2008)

Actually, you can thank Ducks Unlimited for decline over the years with all of the $ they are spending on the fly ways etc from Canada to Mexico. Use to hunt the Marshes at Pecan Island LA back in the late 90's early 2000's and normally have limit of something by 8 a.m.
Now they are lucky to get a single limit from 1 of 4 blinds hunted on a given day.
Crawfish ponds is also a major culprit since since they hold water during Hunting Season.
Drastic changes have occurred the last 20 years and they all impact the hunting.


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## Mark0 (6 mo ago)

Jkmoore03 said:


> Duck hunting in general has become really bad down south. On the coast you can expect mostly trash eating big ducks (scaup, redheads, goldeneye, spoonies) with some eaters like pintail and gadwall. Of course teal are usually always around especially early. You’re better off going north if you want mallards. It’s a fluke to shoot one on the coast anymore. Canvasback is even rarer.
> 
> Good luck and remember, it’s always cheaper to buy meat than to hunt it. But it’s not near as fun. Don’t use cost as a factor for hunting or fishing, it will never justify itself.


Yeah, agree. Used to hunt a lot of waterfowl in general out here in TX, but for the last years found myself going to OK(friends live there) for that.


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## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

when i eat trout filets i realize i've spent approximately a few thousand per filet, give or take five thousand. this makes them taste better if you think about the cost while eating them. even at $500.00 per flying liver you will save money over hunting them.


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## greatwhite84 (May 15, 2016)

quackattack said:


> The lack of rice is a huge contributor, but on the way down there are many heated ponds that keep the cold from pushing them further down to us. February a couple years back; I was doing a small job in Indiana, and there were birds everywhere. The guys on the site explained to me about all the private / protected properties with heated and(or) agitated ponds to prevent freezing. One of the guys told me he gave it up a few years back because they wont leave the ponds even during the summer.


Many heated ponds? Fake news.




Sugars Pop said:


> Actually, you can thank Ducks Unlimited for decline over the years with all of the $ they are spending on the fly ways etc from Canada to Mexico. Use to hunt the Marshes at Pecan Island LA back in the late 90's early 2000's and normally have limit of something by 8 a.m.
> Now they are lucky to get a single limit from 1 of 4 blinds hunted on a given day.
> Crawfish ponds is also a major culprit since since they hold water during Hunting Season.
> Drastic changes have occurred the last 20 years and they all impact the hunting.


Yes. Ducks Unlimited is at fault for conserving breeding, nesting and loafing habitat. Thanks alot DU, this is all your fault.



The cause for decline of waterfowl on the Texas coast is simple. Mild winters, changes of food availability and loss of habitat. "Heated ponds" do not exist.


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## Stumpgrinder1 (Jul 18, 2016)

Grew up in the 70's hunting the marsh between greens and caranchua lake. Great memories and we killed alotta ducks and geese. I rarely ever see snow geese down here anymore. 

Ive been told that 80% of domestic rice farming now happens in Arkansas


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## Johnny9 (Sep 7, 2005)

gandjranch said:


> Unfortunately the amount of rice that used to be farmed in those areas is not there anymore. Eagle Lake was the goose capital of the world, at one time. The rice farms are just not there like they used to be. I'll let the imagination figure out why that is so, but uncle Sam may have played a part in that I'm told.


The Winterman family sold out all their lands and new owner shut down all rice farming a couple of years ago. Largest land owner in the area of Eagle Lake. No grain no birds.


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