We will have water

Third Coast will have water this hunting season, even though the LCRA is not providing water for duck ponds at this time.

Ninety percent of our properties have irrigation wells, so we will be able to pump water to our hunting areas.

Three years ago, we may a conscious effort to lease property with wells when we were faced with drought conditions. We are being proactive by not depending on the LCRA to provide duck water for our hunting club.

We will provide water for teal season and at the beginning of the season. If it still hasn't rained, we will give members the option to purchase more water.

In the meantime, let's all pray for rain.

Thank you!

Speckled bellies

Randy is asleep. He told me before he drifted off that they got 12 speckled bellies yesterday; however, I do not know where they were hunting. He said he was real proud of Chapman, our Lab who is fourth generation from Chodney the first Wonder Dog. He said that Chapman made a really long retrieve that only older dogs can usually handle. He retrieved the goose out of sight of Randy, then started making his way back to Randy with the goose in his mouth, just pretty as a picture. Then suddenly, when Chapman was just a few yards from Randy, a "s#*@ bird" flew up and Chapman dropped his goose to go chase it. It was one of those "Geeezzz" moments. Except with Randy's vocabulary -- and if you know Randy, you know he has a pretty colorful vocabulary -- I'm sure he would describe it with a different word. Anyhow, Chapman has a little growing up to do still.

Today they got eight speckled bellies, but, again, I don't know where they hunted. I do know that the speckled belly hunting will get better and better as November wears on.

On a somber note, I need to tell whoever is reading this blog that Nick's dog, Gunner II, escaped from his kennel the night before last and was killed on the highway in front of Nick's house. My heart goes out to him. He really loved that dog.

Tomorrow night my aunt and uncle are going to visit, so we might not write on the blog until Sunday. I'm making chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and chocolate pie. I hope they like the meal.

See ya!

http://www.texasgoosehunting.blogger.com

http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Woke up and went to El Campo to pick up my 4-wheeler. I brought it home, and put it together. I found out that the voltage regulator had shorted out against the frame of the bike, which caused the ESM (electronic control module) to quit working. Therefore the engine was not able to get any spark. It's running perfectly now. Not bad for an 11-year-old bike. I saw a large group of snow geese north of Markham. Drove from there to Garwood, and saw another large group of snow geese west of our Nada property. I talked to some people who were there in the morning, and they said a lot of geese had lit in one of our fields, staging and gritting for a while. I think we'll hunt there in the morning. I drove home and watched NCIS with my lovely wife. It was one of their better shows. See you tomorrow!
www.texasgoosehunting.blogger.com
www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

rain

I hunted north of Markham Saturday and Sunday. It was very frustrating on Saturday with absolutely no wind. There are lots of birds feeding in the Markham area. I hunted the same place again on Sunday. Again frustrating. Ended up killing eight birds. The rain snuck up on us, and we got caught in the rain and the mud. All in all, still fun. Made a little money. Looking forward to the next hunt. Chapman is progressing into a really good dog. He's very disciplined and calm.
See ya!
www.texasgoosehunting.blogger.com
www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

Left the house at 7 a.m. and filled up the pickup. Drove to north of Markham. A huge group of snow geese and speckled bellies were feeding about 1/2 mile north of one of our corn fields. Quite an impressive amount of birds. I drove back south toward Markham, and saw some more birds feeding in a plowed ground. I'm looking forward to hunting the birds tomorrow. I went to Sliva's and saw some ducks, gadwall and teal. Spent the rest of the afternoon answering the phone, then I drove with my lovely wife to Eagle Lake to visit Johnny's Sport Shop and bought some 10-gauge bullets. Good bull at Johnny's.
See ya'!
http://www.texasgoosehunting.blogger.com/

http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com/

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009

Went duck hunting with Nick south of Bay City. We bagged six ducks, five gadwall and one ruddy duck. Nick had to go to work by 7:30, so we left the field and I came back to the house. I went scouting in the afternoon. I found a large group of geese north of Markham. Birds were trading back and forth from an area of about 2 miles north of the feeding area. Another small group was feeding about 1/2 mile north of one of our corn fields. It looks like a goose hunt in the making.

See ya!
http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009

Lots of snow geese showed up over night. The Garwood roost was covered with them. The clear, calm weather and full moon, and the fact that our hunter was an hour late and we only had 20 minutes to get the decoys out resulted in a complete zero hunt. I talked to a very nice man about trimming his palm trees for blind cover. Turned out he's a friend of my beautiful wife, Judy, and we got lots of cover for our blinds. Lots of ducks north of Markham on the Blocker pond. We need some weather to hunt geese. Anything will be an improvement from this.

http://www.thirdcoatoutfitters.com/