I got a tip from my nephew who fished Sunday. He dropped a pin for me on Google Earth, where he found some fish in Matagorda Bay. This happened to be a spot I had found some fish a year ago at this same time. I like this spot because it is skinny water with a mix of grass and shell. You also need a four wheel drive to access this back lake. I set my alarm for early Monday morning hoping to arrive near sunrise. I did not realize that we would be under a dense fog advisory as I loaded up and rolled out of the driveway. What should have been an hour and a half drive turned into a creep along, two and one half hour trip. Once there, I had to buy a beach permit to travel to my destination. The tide was super high, and I had to navigate through a lot of loose sand. As I made my way through the dunes, I noticed one truck with a kayak bed extender already there. I never saw him until the end of the day. The fog was still very thick as I turned my phone on to navigate to the correct spot. As fate would have it, I accidentally veered to the right where the channel splits thinking I had gone to the left. As I kept paddling, I saw what I thought was my destination to my left. Through the thick fog, I made my way to a large flat. I heard the sound of scattering bait and diving pelicans as I entered the flat. The water was off color, and the wind was blowing about 10 mph out of the east. I set up to let the wind push me across the flat toward the west bank. The closer I got to the windy bank, the more feeding action I saw. My first red fish hit fairly close to the bank. They were obviously feeding on bait as it got blown into the grass shoreline. This one was a lower slot fish with some shoulders. After two more casts, I caught another slot red with a tail that looked like it had been half-eaten by a larger predator. The funny thing is, it fought even harder than the first fish with a good tail. Once the sun came out and the fog burnt off, the bite seemed to move more toward the middle of the flat. Schools of rat reds and trout were chasing bait fish as I lowered my anchor and caught several more. When the bite slowed down, I looked at my phone. It was eleven o’clock, and I realized that I was not where I wanted to be. I pulled the anchor and began my paddle back to the spot my nephew had caught fish on Sunday. I entered the narrow passage way into that grass flat and made a few casts. I thought this would be a good funnel area for fish to ambush bait. The tide was now going out fairly strong. When I was not expecting it, an upper slot red fish exploded on my topwater lure. As I reeled up the slack, the fish thrashed several times, and the lure came flying out of his mouth right by my kayak. That got the old heart pumping with excitement as I made my way to the open grass flat I was originally supposed to be in. With time running out, I made one drift across the flat with no luck. I decided to call it a day and head back to the launch. As I approached the mouth were I lost the big red, I made a couple more casts. My Down South lure came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the channel. The shaking head and less resistance let me know I had caught the largest trout of the day. I slid the trout back into the water and started my way back down the main channel to my truck.

As I paddled back, I reflected on how well the day had gone even though I got lost along the way and did not end up where I had intended. The foggy conditions had landed me on a spot were I caught plenty of fish, and again I could use my previous fishing knowledge to take advantage of the cards I was dealt. Life can be like that. Sometimes we are dealt situations that we may not have anticipated. If we learn to make the most of any situation that arises, we can have a strong influence on how things end up. Keeping a positive attitude, serving others and giving the glory to God in all situations is what Christ wants us to do. It is amazing how you feel and what you can accomplish with that mind set. Deuteronomy 11:22

I hope you enjoy the video from last Monday!

God bless you!

Tim Lumpkin

Blog: Legacy-outdoors.net

YouTube: Legacy-Outdoors

Facebook: Legacy-outdoors-net

Instagram: @tlump10

Sometimes in our lives, we are forced to make alternate plans when we are not expecting to do so. Yesterday was one of those days. I had plans to kayak fish a certain bayou that opened up into a flat, marshy area with a few deep holes in the back. It would be an easy paddle to get to the bayou mouth from where I have parked in the past. The winds were going to be light, and the weather was going to be beautiful. The low was 50 degrees that morning, and the high would reach the mid 70’s. The tides were good with an outgoing tide in the morning. My plan was to fish the mouth of the bayou first, hoping to catch trout, reds or flounder, ambushing bait coming out of the marsh. I would then make my way back into the marsh looking for some crawling redfish during the low tide. The only negative would be that I was fishing the back side of a full moon which is usually not that productive.

When I arrived I was greeted with a fence where I used to park which had a no trespassing sign on it. It has been a year since I have fished this spot. I had no idea that it was being developed into a canal home community. It seems as our population has grown, there are fewer access points for public fishing and kayak launches. I turned the truck around and drove further east looking for another place to launch my kayak. At the end of a different road, there were two other people launching their kayaks and another person already fishing from his kayak. The only issue was that the road was posted with no parking signs. I asked the anglers if they had launched here before, and they said no. There was a manmade break in the rocks and a long piece of carpet put in that space. It was obviously put there for kayaks to launch without scraping up the hull of a boat. We all decided to launch there as we unloaded our gear and then parked our trucks down the road past the no parking signs. The launch led directly to a marsh drain with a rock groin on one side and a private bulkhead on the other. The tide was going out rapidly, and there was some bait in the current, so I fished there for a while without any luck. I decided to go on the marsh side of the rocks and fish along side them for some reds. It looked really promising with marsh islands and grass nearby. There was plenty of bait in this area but no feeding fish to speak of. Before I came to the end of the rocks, I saw some submerged bulkheads and decided to see if there were any fish around that structure. While I was drifting over the bulkhead, I noticed a slick out in open water. It was not overly large, so I made my way toward it hoping I was not too late to the feeding party. On my second cast, I connected with a keeper trout. I was thinking this would be easy and that I would effortlessly catch five fish out of this school, so I put the fish on my stringer. Casting in and around the now diminishing slick, I realized I was on the tail end of the feeding frenzy. In an effort to locate the school, I continued fan casting in the area. On a long cast toward the east, I connected with a 19 inch red. As I continued to work the area, I noticed this flurry of action was in conjunction with the setting moon on the horizon. I have always heard that the moon set triggers a minor feeding period, and it proved to be true this morning. Running out of time, I paddled into the real shallow areas of the marsh looking for reds. I found plenty of mullet but no redfish. As I paddled back to the launch, I was happy to see that my truck was still there, and it had not been towed.

As I loaded up my truck, I thought about the the fact that I really enjoyed exploring this new area. Being able to put the boat in the water and fish an area you know very little about is always a challenge. Your attitude and ability to read the water and your surroundings can greatly improve your chances of catching fish. Recalling successful patterns in similar areas can usually produce some positive result no matter where you fish.

Life is like that. Sometimes you get thrown a curve ball and you have to rely on past experiences and recalled knowledge to navigate situations. It helps if you rely on God’s word, too. [Deuteronomy 29:29] I hope when you are confronted with a barrier you are able to explore new areas in your life and are led by His word.

God bless you and thanks for reading my blog.

Enjoy the short video I made of my trip.

Tim Lumpkin

Legacy-outdoors.net

YouTube Channel: Legacy-Outdoors

Instagram: tlump10

I got an invite to go wade fishing in Matagorda with my nephew last Friday. It was a beautiful day with pre-front conditions. The water temps were finally coming down into the 70’s, and wade fishing was on the menu. We started out before daylight and were greeted by a beautiful sunrise and a wind protected shoreline. The tides were super high with the fall equinox. When we began our first wade after we power-poled down between two drains, the tide was just beginning to move out, and bait fish and shrimp were coming out of the marsh drain. My first cast was actually from the boat to adjust my reel. To my surprise it yielded a 19 inch red. I did not have to wade too far from the boat before I caught a mix of 10 undersized trout and reds. Today our goal was to have fun but also to keep some fish for a family fish fry. My nephew caught over thirty fish in the opposite drain, but only two were legal size. One was a red and the other a trout. The bite dwindled as the sun got higher, so we loaded up and headed for another spot.

A deeper back lake was our next destination. It didn’t take long before we were drifting from back to front catching trout on every cast. Many times our lures would barely hit the water and the trout would be making a run for it. The only problem was these were all 14 inch fish, just shy of legal size. We saw some schooling action of what appeared to be some keeper size reds, but they did not want our soft plastics. When all else fails, tie on the old gulp and popping cork. Bingo – a drag stripping 27 inch 8 pound red! It was a perfect tournament red that looked a little beat up. One more keeper red later and a bunch more undersize trout led us to decide to move again.

Our next stop was also a marsh drain which produced more undersized trout and one keeper red. A frontal boundary was beginning to show to our north, so we decided to make our way back towards the harbor to be closer in case the weather turned bad. On our way we saw literally six to ten different sets of birds working in open water. This is one of the perks of fishing saltwater bays on the Texas coast in the fall. Most of the time you catch smaller trout and gaff top catfish under the feeding birds. We decided to try to fish the birds just in case there were some keeper fish among the schoolies. To our surprise we managed to finish out our limit with a few more barely legal 16 to 17 inch trout. Right before we left the schools, I put on a heavier, larger profile bait to get down under the small schooling fish. On the second cast, something jolted my 30 pound braided line and headed into the sunset. It stripped 30 yards off my reel in less than 5 seconds. I felt a strong tick as the fish made off with my mirror-lure, “double d” custom color, $15 dollar bait. I was guessing a small jack or a small shark wanted the purple and gold offering.

The dark clouds and rain were approaching fast, so we decided to fish a drain closer the harbor. We put on our rain suits and entered the back lake to find some dark-stained, marsh water coming out into the muddy, wind-blown water as the tide continued to drop. As the rain began to fall, and the cool wind switched to the north, we managed finish our red limit with a 22 inch fish feeding in the stained, outgoing current. We also caught more small trout that matched the dark-stained water they were living in.

We reached the harbor as the sun was dipping below the horizon and began to clean our day’s keep. We managed two 1-gallon bags of filets which would feed my nephew’s family and their visitors. We had to filter through over 100-plus fish to get our limit that day but would have kept fishing all day even if we had caught our limit early. That is just how much we both love to fish.

God blessed us with a beautiful day and some quality time on the water. I am always thankful for the grace of God and the love of the outdoors he instilled in me. I encourage you to use your God given talents to the fullest as you give Him all the glory. [Ephesians 2:8-9]

God bless you and thanks for reading my blog. Enjoy the video and don’t forget to subscribe and follow.

Tim Lumpkin

Legacy-outdoors.net

YouTube: Legacy-Outdoors

Instagram: @tlump10

Surfing in Texas means you have to be ready when a swell arrives. Hurricane Zeta provided the swell peaking at bouy 42019 about 3:50 pm on Wednesday. The wave height of 12.1 feet at 11 second intervals provided a fun playground for surfers all day and got bigger as the sun went down. The arrival of this swell was unique in that it was met with strong northwest offshore winds from an approaching frontal boundary. I have not seen that scenario play out in a while and was excited about surfing a good, long period swell with offshore winds.

I arrived at the Galveston Fishing Pier around two in the afternoon and took a few shots of the short boarders screaming down the line on chest high faces. The current was fairly strong from west to east and required a lot of paddling to stay in the best spot. As I was taking pictures, I noticed the right side of the pier had less current. A few long boarders were catching some good rights from just inside the t-head and connecting to the inside section. I quickly put my camera up, threw on my wet suit and paddled out into the lineup. As the afternoon went on, the sets got bigger and the prime takeoff spot moved further out past the t-head and about 75 yards to the right. Even with the strong offshore winds, I was able to get some no paddle takeoffs. The waves set up nicely with long wind-groomed walls which got steeper as you approached the inside sandbar. Occasionally, you could get a cover-up and come out of it. Most of the time you got worked as the wave pitched and closed out on you. I was definitely not tube dodging and paid the price time after time.

After sharing fun waves with good people for about three hours, I got out and got my camera to take some more pictures. I went out on the pier to get some closer shots as the sets were breaking out past the t-head. I mainly focused on the short boarders on the left side of the pier. There were several people getting barreled and having a great time.

Mother nature was showing off today and was a true blessing for the surfers. I can’t help but be concerned for the good people of Louisiana who took another hit from a category 1 hurricane. I pray that everyone stayed safe, that no life is lost and property damage is minimal. As I was driving home, I was reminded of the beauty of God’s creation by the deep red glow of sunset after a wonderful day in the water. I hope you got to enjoy the good surf with friends. Don’t forget to give God the glory for all he has blessed you with. Luke 2:14

Thanks for reading my blog and enjoy the video from today. God bless you.

Tim Lumpkin

Legacy-outdoors.net

YouTube: Legacy-Outdoors

Instagram: @tlump10

October is one of my favorite months to fish on the Texas coast. Cooler air and water temperatures seem to invigorate one’s soul. The unbearable heat of summer has for the most part disappeared. The fish become more active with the cooler water temps and autumn breezes. One of my favorite things to do is fish under a harvest moon using my can lights to attract bait fish and speckled trout. Here is a pic from the Texas City Dike of that scenario.

On Wednesday night I decided to try something I have been wanting to do for quite a while. Instead of fishing with my can lights, I decided to fish the lights of the canal homes close to a friend’s beach house in my kayak. I checked the weather forecast, and the high easterly winds made me think twice about venturing out in an area I was not that familiar with. I had already set everything out and was ready to go if the winds layed down. I went to bed at 10 pm, and at 2 am my wife leaned over to see if I was still going. I checked the weather app, and the winds were less than 10 mph out of the south east. It was go time as I loaded up my kayak and gear. In less than an hour, I was paddling away from the boat ramp in search of trout feeding in the canal lights. My lure of choice was a Down South Lure in glow and chartreuse along with the white ice color DSL. I used a number 10 treble hook putting one hook through the head of the plastic lure. This allows the lure to float on the surface with two of the hooks balancing the lure underneath and exposed, making it look just like a glass minnow. If the fish want the lure under the surface, you just change to a size 8 treble hook, and you get a slow fall which can sometimes be the ticket to triggering a bite. Something about the tight wiggle of the tail when it is swimming makes it look exactly like a glass minnow. The scent in the lure is also highly effective for fooling Mr. Yellow Mouth. It did not take long before I saw trout feeding in a green light just ahead. On my first cast it was fish on. The explosion of a trout on your lure during the night seems to be magnified in the dark. Watching a fish approach your lure in a green light also magnifies your sense of anticipation. As I went from light to light down each canal, the same scenarios played out. Not all lights had a lot of fish in them, but most had at least a few. It was almost like going to a buffet deciding at which fish to throw my bait. I can tell you I caught a lot of trout that night but most were not big enough to keep. Thus the title of this article “Dink Fest”. I was not planning to keep any fish that night, so I was just enjoying the experience.

Right before sunrise I made a move to a lighted pier in the subdivision and found more feeding fish under the many overhead pier lights. These fish were busting glass minnows on the surface in every light on the pier. Once again they were all dinks. As the sun was coming up, I picked up a different rod with a minnow jerk bait on it. On my first cast, I caught the largest trout of the morning. It was about 18 inches long, and I put it back also.

It doesn’t matter to me the size of the fish I caught that night. I was just happy to get out in God’s great outdoors and experience the peace and quiet of an early morning fall on my kayak. God wants us to enjoy and experience all the things he created for us here on earth. Genesis 1:21 Take the time to get outdoors when all is quiet and reflect on all the good things God has done in your life.

Here is a video I made of that night. I hope you enjoy it. Remember to be respectful of the homeowners and the fact that you are fishing in their lights. If they don’t want you to fish there, be polite and move on to another one. This will preserve the ability for all of us to enjoy this style of fishing in the future.

God bless you!

Tim Lumpkin

Legacy-outdoors.net

YouTube: Legacy-outdoors

Instagram: @tlump10

This post is not about fishing, hunting or surfing. Since it was outdoors I think it qualifies. I went to Sylvan Rodriguez Park today and shot some footage of the Wings Over Houston Air Show. I thought you might like to see some of the pics and footage. Have a great week and God bless you!

Tim Lumpkin

Instagram: @tlump10

YouTube Channel: Legacy-Outdoors

Blog: Legacy-outdoors.net

Today is Friday and as I write this, Hurricane Delta is bearing down on the Louisiana coast. My prayers are with those who are being affected by yet another storm in the same general area where Hurricane Laura hit less than one month ago. I pray that there is no loss of life, and that the property damage is minimal. Just a few minutes ago my daughter-in-law texted me a picture of her fence that blew down, and they live in Chambers County. We are experiencing forty mile per hour gusts, but only a few branches have fallen in the yard. Being on the backside of a hurricane and a few hundred miles away has kept us from the fury of wind and rain more than once in my life. Living on the coast forces us to take the good weather events with the bad. Hurricanes are something we will always have to deal with.

One of the positive things for surfers about being on the dry side of a hurricane is the fact that you get the swell created by a hurricane and the counter clockwise winds create an offshore flow which holds up the waves and gives them good form. I have chased hurricane swell all my life from Galveston to South Padre Island. The best waves on the Texas coast are usually swells created by tropical systems. At some point during a hurricane swell, you get a longer period swell. This means that there is usually a longer lull between waves. A taller wave height (4-6 ft) with a longer period between them (10-15 seconds) combined with moderate offshore winds to groom the face of the wave is what every surfer on the Texas coast dreams about.

Wednesday I checked the cams in Galveston and noticed some lines coming in from the southeast. The buoys were reading approximately 4 feet at 6 second intervals. I loaded up my board and drove the 40 minute trip to the seawall. The surf was about waist high on sets, and I was able to find some fun waves with some friends next to a pier.

The next day, Thursday, the swell was starting to show from Hurricane Delta, and the northeast wind was creating a strong current going into the pier. I decided to tuck behind one of the jetties on the seawall and surfed for about two hours. When I got out, I drove back to the pier to find a much bigger swell and many more surfers taking advantage of the swell filling in. I took out my camera and shot some pics primarily of the short boarders having fun on the best part of the sandbar.

Here are a few of the pics from that Thursday in Galveston.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pics. The quality of the pics is not as good with the overcast sky, but you can see everyone was having fun.

Thanks for reading my blog and God bless you. Ephesians 2:10

Tim Lumpkin

Legacy-outdoors.net

YouTube: Legacy-outdoors https://youtube.com/channel/UC5umY595hNZzTQNGjgGsUMg

Instagram: @Tlump10

Last Thursday my nephew texted and shared some pictures and stories of an incredible day of fishing with a client in the Matagorda marshes. He asked me if I was ready to go, and of course, I said absolutely. The next day we planned to get on the water after lunch in hopes of a repeat of the day before. We started out going to a spot he had never been before but had heard of good red fishing in the area. Upon arriving, we noticed that the vegetation and water depth were not ideal for our plan of attack. We caught a channel cat and had several gators follow our topwater lures. We soon left to return to the spot where he had caught the reds previously. When we pulled up to the shallow marsh area, we saw plenty of bait but no reds aggressively feeding. Occasionally a red would give away its location, and we were able to pursue it. Two factors that seemed to be different from the previous day were the presence of a stiff northeast wind and high barometric pressure as a front had come through during the night. I am not sure if red fish are affected by those weather features, but the bite was definitely not as good as the day before. I simply think redfish move with the tide and bait, and we were just not on them that day. The other factor affecting our success could have been the fact that we were fishing on a full moon. I have always heard the fish bite better in the afternoon after a night with a full moon, but we were not experiencing that.

It never ceases to amaze me how you can have tremendous success catching fish one day and the next day not have much success. I guess that is what keeps us going back and why they call it fishing and not catching. We did catch a few reds and a flounder, and no matter how the afternoon goes I always enjoy spending time with my nephew. The day was absolutely beautiful despite the difficulty of fighting boat position in the stiff wind. We were treated to a fabulous sunset and a harvest moon as the winds backed off right at dark. What a great day to be in God’s great outdoors.

Here is a short video of our trip. You can watch other videos I have posted on my YouTube channel Legacy-outdoors.

Thanks for watching and God bless you. Psalm 145:5 “They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty – and I will meditate on your wonderful works.”

Tim Lumpkin

Legacy-outdoors.net

YouTube: Legacy-outdoors

Instagram: @Tlump10

It was Saturday in Matagorda, Texas. The harbor was buzzing with boats waiting to get gas and bait so they could squeeze in one more trip before Tropical Storm Beta bombarded the Texas coast. The wind was picking up and forecast to blow twenty to twenty five miles per hour out of the northeast. This would not be good fishing conditions for east or west Matagorda Bay. Fortunately, my fishing partner and I were in a shallow draft cat boat which would allow us to get into some back lakes with very skinny water. My guide had been catching a lot of reds there on his previous trips. I am very lucky to have a fishing partner (my nephew) who loves fishing as much as I do. I have watched him grow up to be quite an accomplished fresh and saltwater fisherman and a good husband and father to his two boys. He was my guide today, and I am very thankful for the invite.

There was just enough light to start our journey as we sped down the intercostal waterway to find a back lake full of bronze backs. As we arrived at our first destination, we were greeted by a group of birds working over a shell reef. The wind was blowing bait into this shallow corner, and something was feasting on them. On our first few casts, we realized that the predators were small trout quite willing to take our artificial lures. The trout were fun to catch, but we had our sights set on some larger reds further back in the estuaries. The wind was not ideal for our location, and the speed kept increasing as the morning continued. With the help of an experienced captain, a trolling motor and of course, a power pole, we were able to set up properly to take advantage of the wind and shallow water conditions. Most of the fish seemed to be on the windy shorelines, in and around drains and on the backside of a windy points waiting to ambush our soft plastic lures. The bait was plentiful as we saw a lot of mullet and shrimp jumping for their lives and giving away the locations of our prey. For most of the morning, we stayed in the same location catching one red after another. Occasionally we would catch a small trout, and my nephew even caught a nice flounder. We were not interested in keeping any fish to eat this day, so we released all the fish we brought to the boat. As lunch time rolled around, we estimated we had caught and released twenty plus trout, twenty plus reds and a healthy flounder close to twenty inches in length. Had we targeted the flounder by dragging our lures across the bottom in the mouths of all the drains, we probably could have snagged a few more of them. It was an awesome morning, and we were both ready for some lunch and a break from the stiff winds.

Back at the harbor, we grabbed some lunch and then went to the local tackle shop to replenish the color lure that seemed to be the most effective. We also grabbed some batteries for the remotes for the power pole and the trolling motor and headed back to the dock. By now a lot of the guides and corporate outings had began putting their boats on trailers in anticipation of tropical storm Beta arriving the next day. The wind had picked up even more as we headed out in the opposite direction in hopes of an aggressive pre storm bite. As we arrived to our first spot, we noticed the absence of bait. Just a few days ago, the same area was teaming with bait and aggressive reds willing to show themselves. The only thing I could think that happened was that the flood tides had pushed the bait and fish further into the grass and flooded flats. The tide had slowed down to a trickle which is usually a factor for the lack of feeding fish. We started looking further back for movement, but they rarely gave themselves away. Soon we realized the shallower the better as the fish of the day exploded on my soft plastic back behind some large clumps of grass and algae. The advantage of using braided line allowed me to pull the fish through the grass and into my grasp. The freight train strike was not expected, as the lure was very near the clumps of grass, and I was just getting ready to lift the bait out of the water and over the grass. It just goes to show you as long as your bait is in the water, you still have a chance to catch a fish. As we tallied up the afternoon catch, we were able to add seven more redfish and five more trout to our total for the day. As the sun began to put on a show on the horizon, we started to feel the advancement of the legions of swamp mosquitoes and were soon on our way back to the harbor. We zipped through the narrow water ways with the aid of a bar light mounted on the front of the boat. The wind had actually come down a bit as the night settled in. Back at the harbor, we noticed a lot of the boats had been taken out of their slips in anticipation of a forecasted four to five foot tide. The new forecast had Beta coming ashore just above Matagorda. My nephew would come back to get the boat the next day just in case the storm intensified. Luckily, the wind shear kept the storm from becoming a hurricane. Other than the tidal surge and the large amounts of rain, we were spared from the devastation which could have been.

Just another reminder that God is in control, and we are just along for the ride. The ride was good that day, and I am always thankful for the chance to fish with my nephew. We can all be reminded in this crazy year of 2020 by the truth of Hebrews 2:1 which says, “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” Stay focused on God’s purpose for your life, love one another, forgive as he forgave us. Enjoy God’s creations and share the great outdoors with those around you. Thanks for reading my blog and enjoy the video.

God bless you,

Tim Lumpkin

Instagram: @Tlump10

Last season (2019) I had the privilege to hunt the last two days of teal season with my son and his wife. This year I have been looking forward to hunting with them on the opening day of teal season which was Saturday. Unfortunately this year my daughter-in-law couldn’t hunt because she is expecting a baby girl in November, and her doctor advised her not to go. It’s a small price to pay for the health of our second baby girl grandchild. Friday I made the one hour drive to Anahuac, Texas, to help my son Kyle brush in a blind on a flooded field and replace a bench in a blind on a reservoir. It was a hot, late summer day, and we both felt the sun on our backs as we weaved palmetto leaves around the wire frame of the blind. After and hour of exterior design, we had completed the cover on the blind and supplemented it with some fence line shrubbery. We did not see any teal or other ducks at this blind location, and it was on to the next one.

At the next blind, we were greeted by the land foreman who lives very close to the reservoir. It was good to visit with him and his lifelong friend who were going to hunt the reservoir Saturday morning. I truly consider it a blessing to be able to hunt this property with my son and really appreciate his kindness. As we were replacing a rotten bench in one of the blinds, we stood in the blind and watched groups of thirty plus teal move about the reservoir. I love the sound of whistling wings and the missile like movements as they buzzed over our heads. This just added much more anticipation to the next morning’s hunt.

After leaving this location, we drove to our morning hunt destination in a flooded rice field. It was the same field where we hunted the last two days of teal season last year with great success. You can scroll through the blog entries to find my post of those two hunts including two videos (one from each day). On the way Kyle shared with me a video of this location he had taken on his phone earlier in the week. I was excited to see wave after wave of teal flying low across the levee over the not yet flooded field in the video. Upon arrival we saw a few mottled ducks and a lot of egrets but no teal. The blind was in good shape as Kyle and Hank had brushed it in on Monday. After doing a drive by and not seeing any teal, I was beginning to think that we were not going to have a lot of success in the morning for the opener. We both kept a positive attitude as we drove away hoping the north wind forecast for the next day would bring more teal to the coast.

The alarm went off at 3 am as I was already awake in anticipation of the day’s hunt and being on time. After loading up my gear in the truck, I was on my way to Kyle’s in Anahuac. On the way I stopped by Daylight Donut Shop on Hwy 146 and bought some boudin and sausage kolachies. This was my first time to try this shop, and I will definitely go again as the dough had a nice crust and flavor and they were stuffed with good ingredients. I pulled into the driveway at 4:38 and checked the radar for showers and lightening. All looked clear as the porch light came on and I was greeted by Goose, the chocolate lab, eager to get started. I think he knew what was about to happen and was itching to chase down some teal. Kyle came to the door with a smile and a cup of hot coffee. We loaded up his truck with decoys and guns and Goose and were soon on our way to meet up with Wayne, Chris and his son Nick. I always like hunting with a young person who might be experiencing his first or second duck hunt. The look of amazement and excitement before during and after the hunt reminds me of my first duck hunt and the wonderful impressions it left on me.

We arrived at the barn at 5:15 and loaded all their gear in Kyle’s truck and began conversation of what we had seen yesterday and reminisced about last year’s closing weekend we hunted together while we drove to our destination. At 5:50 am we were situated in the blind with decoys in the water and an anxious Goose placed on his perch. The winds were steady from the north northeast which set up perfectly for this blind. The first light began to crack the horizon and we had not heard any teal buzzing overhead. Shooting time was 6:33 (thirty minutes before official sunrise). At 6:32 we heard a series of gun shots from a hunting club to our west and soon saw a single land in the decoys. It sat there for a short time before jumping up and becoming our first offering. Soon larger groups began to fly by and as it got lighter they were seeking shelter in our spread of decoys. For an hour we saw fairly steady flights of teal attempt to land or buzz by us escaping the guns of other hunters nearby. By 7:30 am, Goose had retrieved thirty teal. I think he was glad we had reached our limit.

Goose is a three year old lab who has just recovered from heart worms and was surprisingly in pretty good shape. We were still cautious with him this opening day. He did an outstanding job even though he was noticeably tired by the end of the hour. I heard a lot of reports from many successful opening day teal hunts which leads me to believe that the state of the teal population is healthy no doubt due to positive conservation efforts. It makes me think my duck stamp money is being put to good use.

I thoroughly enjoyed our father/son time as I always do and I hope all you fathers out there have a chance to share the great outdoors with your son or daughter this season. I look forward to hunting with my granddaughters when they are old enough. I hope you take the time to thank your father for taking you hunting or fishing (living or not). Don’t forget to thank our heavenly father for Jesus Christ for what he did for us so that we may have eternal life with him in heaven. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Enjoy the video of our opening day teal season hunt!

Have a blessed week and thanks for reading my blog!

Sincerely,

Tim Lumpkin

Legacy-outdoors.net Instagram: @Tlump10