Outdoors

By STEVE KNIGHT
Outdoor Writer

Northeast Texas duck hunters probably won't have a great year. They probably won't have a bad one either.

Call it average.

"Hunters get excited for great production years," said Corey Mason, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department waterfowl biologist from Athens. "We didn't have a great production year. Hunters are not going to look to the sky and see a different number of birds, but this is not one of those years that they will talk about for seasons and seasons."

Mason said this is going to be one of those years that hunters are going to have to put out a perfect spread of decoys and hone their calling skills to perfection.

"Our harvest is generally comprised of juvenile birds. Since we didn't have good production it is going to be more adult birds," he warned.

The three most popular species for Northeast Texas hunters are gadwall, mallards and green-winged teal with gadwalls and mallards flipping back and forth as most sought after. Although both are still above their long-term average, the number of gadwalls counted during this spring's breeding duck survey were down 19 percent from a year ago while the number of mallards were off 7 percent.

Green-winged teal were up a modest 3 percent, but remain 57 percent over the long-term count.

East Texas hunters should also benefit from a good local wood duck hatch thanks to wet areas in the spring.

With colder weather settling in to the north to push birds toward Texas, habitat conditions in Northeast Texas are good. Additional rain is going to be needed to make them perfect.

"We have had some isolated rain. I have seen some decent habitat conditions," Mason said. He added the situation is ideal if the region continues to get rain as the season goes along. The best scenario would be the bottoms and lakes filling completely by the end of November when the migration into Texas peaks.

"We are ahead of the game. We should have some water in the bottoms, but you never know. The water could come on or not. I have seen some of the lakes, and they are not where they need to be. A lot of folks get apprehensive if they are not full, but the best thing is if they come out gradually during the season," Mason explained.

The biologist said Cooper Lake continues to be the best lake for duck hunting in Northeast Texas, but adds it has become too popular with duck hunters and is overcrowded on the weekends.

There is a drop-off from Cooper to lakes such as Fork, Tawakoni, Cedar Creek, Palestine and Lake O'the Pines. Even at their best, however, he said they can't compare to more natural duck habitat.

"Eighty years ago we had natural wetlands, sloughs and oxbows. Now we have deep water lakes. It is kind of comical to talk about deep water lakes for duck hunting," said Mason.

Hurricane Ike is expected to have an impact on Texas duck hunting this winter, but Northeast Texas probably won't feel any residual effects. Salt water intrusion from the September hurricane has made much of the Texas marsh country inhabitable to ducks this year.

"I think the coast this year is going to be tough to hunt," said Dave Morrison, TPWD's waterfowl program leader. "The submerged aquatics are dead and there is not enough time for them to grow and not enough fresh water to flush out the system."

Along with killing the beneficial plants, the salt water intrusion also impacted exotic species such as salvinia, which should open some holes in the marsh country to ducks that hadn't been available for some time.

However, Morrison predicts the biggest winner will be hunters in the coastal prairies where the ducks are most likely to go looking for food and fresh water.

The Texas Panhandle is expected to hold ducks as well, the downside there ironically is that the region may be too wet.

"They will have ducks, but if they get chased off one pond they will just go to another and sit down," Morrison said.