Diving into duck hunting was a new adventure for me in 2024. I have hunted most of my life, but had only been on one private goose hunt before, and had never seriously targeted ducs.There are several ways to go about this.

1. Pay to go on a guided hunt (recommended)
2. Try to find public land where you don’t need a duck boat or kayak
3. Duck Canoe

Like all recent hunting adventures, the first place to start is the Texas Public Lands hunting book that comes with your public land permit. That and jumping on Youtube and social media for a little research. 

Some of the better walk-in public places on the coast and other locations in Texas have a lottery at 3:30 am the day of the hunt. Word on the Internet is that they can be crowded. So I decided the only option was the duck canoe.

Beginner Tip #1 – Get a dry bag with baggy warm clothes and make sure it floats so you can survive dumping your yak in the freezing cold water.

Scouting for Ducks and Geese

There are 3 viable places near Austin to go Public Land Duck Hunting and they are  Lake Sommersville, Lake Granger, and Lake Marlin. I had been to all 3 before this season, including as attempt at a teal a few years ago on Lake Somerville. That trip was the maiden voyage of the electric trolling motor duck canoe rig. The other two locations are Lake Granger and Lake Marlin. All 3 places are very different, with their own ups and downs. 

Lake Sommersville is filled with waterfowl life and the premier public hunting land destination for ducks around Austin. But the only place you’re legally allowed to shoot is hard to get to, you can’t walk in. It’s a pond off the main lake that can only be accessed by a shallow canal, and the entrance to the canal is off the main body of the lake, so you have to deal with big water and shallow water. It’s several miles from the boat launch to the legal shooting area. This is best done in a bud boat, I had a canoe with a small electric trolling motor.  I went it was too dry to paddle the last 500 yards.  During the winter months, this was too dangerous to do alone or a decent mud boat, so I decided to not target this place.

My first trips was out to Lake Marlin, and I spent most of my time trying to get my gear in a little better shape, and possibly setup some sort of quick blind in the water. It was cold and windy the first day I made the trip. I was able to get my loaded kayak around what is known as the “old lake”. I was able to find plenty of flocks of ducks, but I could not find a decent place to set up a small blind to try to call them in.

This year I spent a little more time on the internet and social media researching how others go about duck hunting from kayaks, and aperlyly many people will turn the yak into a blind, lay down in it, and then pop-up and take the shot while in the kayak. I don’t even have the nerve to-do this in my canoe with outriggers. Maybe in a few years I will take a few practice shots in warmer weather. Despite the abundance of birds, I decided after one trip, it would give Lake Granger a shot next.

Despite my best attention, I didn’t make it out to Granger until final day of the season. Lake Granger is a huge large public hunting area with multiple locations. I had spent most of my time on Lake Granger on the South end of the lake that is closer to my home base, and the location of the main river and the big game.

During the dove season I took my first drive out to the north side of the lake, and there were cars and hunters all over the place, clearly the spot for the little birds. I skipped the shooting gallery that day and checked out a more secluded spot behind  the dam. But this spot was already on my radar for the start of Duck Season. I already knew there aren’t many ducks around the San Gabriel River entrance where all the deer and hogs hang out.

Like many days during this duck seasons, it was pretty cold and I wasn’t sure if launching the canoe or a yak was an option, or if I could find a place to put out a deco spread and blind. I decided it was too dangerous for a dark morning hunt at a new location and headed out for the afternoon hunt instead.

When I arrived there was only one truck at the entrance, and the layout looked really nice. I hopped out with excitement and went to grab the ye old thunderstick, as the tailgate raised a fear washed over me. Before the gate was even to the top, I realized I left my 12 gauge sitting next to my door 50 miles away. I had packed the car and trailer up with everything except the gun. I had left it right next to the door to load up as soon as my kid got back. After a completely unnecessary lecture to my kid, I stormed out to the house all flustered with my compound bow, fishing gear, and a dozen duck decoys, and no gun.

Now, I’m a half glass full sort of fella, so I got my binoculars, found the humor in the karma lessons I had learned, and just knew it was a given there would be a gaggle of ducks taunting me at the bottom of the hill. All right next to a prime location to put out my decoys and my one man mini blind..

I headed out without my boots or gun, tennis shoes and binoculars, and was genuinely excited about the possibility of seeing some ducks and geese, and finding a possible place to set up blind for next year. I walked about 200 yards into the fields, didn’t even mind the first cold puddle it stepped in, pulled out the bio-nos, 30 seconds of glassing and VOILA! There were about 15 ducks just hanging out on the other side of the creek. LEGAL BIRDS! 

I walked slowly down to the river, and there were little flocks of duck and geese everywhere. I sat there for about 20 min seriously considering running back up the hill, dropping the trailer, and hauling ass back to my place to get the gun, I could make it back with about an 2 hours of legal shooting, It would be tough to get in, put up a spread, wait for the ducks I flushed out to consider coming back, but I would have a decent chance of getting at least one. 

I decided to enjoy the moment and just be happy I found a cool new spot. I got to watch ducks for 30 min and and ponder ways I could jump stalk them next year.

After about 30 min of this and wandering around a little more, I packed up and headed back to the other side of the WMA to check out the white bass fishing, and bait some hogs.

It had been raining, cold, and windy for almost 2 weeks straight. By the time I got down to the white bass honey hole, the sun was bright and hot. I went down to the river to throw my rooster tail into a huge muddy mess of a river. I could hear all the die-hards about 100 yards away on a sand flats talking about the muddy water and catching nothing. I was just so happy with the sun on my face and a rod in my hand, I didn’t care nothing was going to bite.

Not far from the white bass honey hole is the entrance to a walk-in hunting gate close to where the hogs call home. So I made one last stop to find a new place to bait hogs, and do one last duck hunt with my bow. I had high hopes for my first set of public land ducks next year. Third time’s the charm I’v told.