Weekly migratory bird hunting reports are posted from early September through early February.
High Plains Mallard Management Unit: Goose hunters enjoyed better decoying action near Dumas, Spearman and Amarillo with the snow and colder conditions. Larger Canada geese are showing with frozen ponds in the northern states. Snow geese have been tough to fool over decoys without weather. Specklebellies and Canadas continue to work in Knox and Haskell counties. Duck numbers continue to build in the Panhandle, with more mallards showing on playas. Most hunters have had to break ice to find open water in shallow ponds. Prospects are good.
North Zone Duck: Duck hunters have taken good numbers of mallards in sloughs, creeks and river bottoms. Colder weather and frozen waterways to the north have encouraged more mallards to cross the state line. Canvasbacks and other divers have been steady on Lake O’Pines, Toledo Bend and Lake Fork. Backwaters around Toledo Bend has produced good mallard shoots as well. Gadwalls and wigeons have been taken in shallow coves of lakes and reservoirs. Wood ducks have been steady at first light in the timber. Hunting remained steady around the zone boundaries of IH-10. Freshwater impoundments have held pintails, wigeons, shovelers and green-winged teal. Prospects are good.
South Zone Duck: The coast continues to produce steady duck shoots on the prairies, marshes and bays. Gadwalls, wigeons, shovelers and pintails have been steady near Eagle Lake, Garwood and Wharton. Absent has been the large concentrations of green-winged teal that many hunters count on to fill limits. Bay hunters enjoyed limits to half-limits near Port O’Connor and Rockport. Redheads, bluebills, gadwalls and wigeons have made up the bay bags. Hunters in Trinity Bay have enjoyed half-limits of gadwalls and bluebills on the north shoreline. Marsh hunters near High Island and Sabine Pass have seen slow hunting. Snow goose hunting has been difficult, even with weather conducive to goose hunting. A small juvenile population of snows has been the culprit for slow decoying action. Specklebellies have shied from calling. Sandhill crane numbers are steady, but few hunters have set up decoy spreads. Most cranes have been harvested by goose hunters in white spreads. Prospects are good.
