Here in Texas it’s a different story. I know there are a few of you that duck hunt here so don’t be offended.
Some of the back lakes I frequent are only a hundred or so yards wide and one is 7 miles long and the other 5 miles long and there are blinds from one end to the other so that rules out fishing inside the entire lake and also the outside shoreline because the barrier island is only a hundred feet wide at it’s widest. This is just an example, most of the other back lakes and main bay shorelines are the same. Another huge bay is over 20 miles long and there’s a blind every hundred yards or so down the south shoreline and during duck season almost all of them are occupied. Down here it’s nothing but blinds everywhere you go and lots of guide outfits drop guys off in the mangroves all over the place like a taxi service. I’ve been poling and come across dudes laying in the salt grass with no dog, decoy spread or anything and they talk shit because I was supposed to somehow know they were there. One guide outfit in Port O’Connor claims to have over 100 blinds and they only hunt ten or so any given morning. That’s just one lodge! Has anyone been to Lighthouse Lakes or Brown & Root Flats during duck season? Airboat guides taxiing 10-15 groups out To blinds from one airboat. They park their vehicles on the side of the road between Aransas Pass and Port Aransas and the guide picks them up. Good luck fishing anywhere around there. What I’m saying is if you want to make the duck hunters happy you might as well stay off the water until 10am or so. I’m not doing that, I’m going to fish and give the hunters the widest berth I can. I can post maps of these areas and you can see all the blinds, it’s silly. Not just one bay either, it’s pretty much everywhere on the coast. Duck hunters are so thick they burn each other’s blinds and shoot at anyone that comes near them, I’ve had to call game wardens because dudes shot over my head with my son in the boat for getting what they thought was too close. It’s ridiculous. I know not all duck hunters are bad, it’s just like everything else, a few bad apples ruin the whole basket.