James Shuler is a south Texas waterfowl guide without a blind.
He likes it that way.
“I used to hunt out of a blind but I’ve kinda given up on them,” said Shuler, owner and operator of Fin & Feather Guide Service out of Port O’Connor, Texas.
“We set up in the mangroves,” he explained. “Where we hunt it is all public land. We can move easier and follow the birds. And you have natural cover. These are black mangroves; they’re only about 3 or 4 feet tall, so it’s easy to stand and shoot.”
The strip of the south Texas coast near Port O’Connor is anchored by the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, and is surrounded by acres of shallow water bays. It is a waterfowl magnet, particularly when the waterfowl are redheads.
The North American population of the handsome diving duck has stabilized at around 1 million birds, according to Ducks Unlimited. They don’t all winter in South Texas. But many do.
“Redheads are what we have the most of,” Shuler said. “Most of our ducks migrate to the south Texas coast because we have less river runoff and cleaner water. We also have some widgeon and blue-winged and green-winged teal. We don’t see many mallards. We don’t see gadwalls. But we’ll get flocks of 10,000 to 15,000 redheads.”
I was scheduled to hunt this slice of duck paradise with Shuler and John Gordon of Memphis-based Avery Outdoors, for whom Shuler is a pro staffer. Unforeseen circumstances forced me to make a late change of plans, but with the trip on the books and season dates filling fast, Gordon headed for the marsh. Shuler was waiting.
Their report would have made any waterfowl hunter envious.
Hunting in shirt-sleeve weather the men bagged a limit of redheads (two birds each) the first day and sacked a mixed bag of teal, widgeon and redheads the next.
“It’s just a different way of life on the coast of Texas,” said Gordon. “Texas is a unique state itself but things are just a little slower on the coast. The people are friendly. It’s really a hunting and fishing paradise down there. I love it.”
It’s easy to see why.
Port O’Connor is an unincorporated hamlet of about 1,300 that hugs the coast roughly halfway between Corpus Christi and Galveston. It’s surrounded by sprawling Espiritu Santo Bay, Matagorda Bay and San Antonio Bay and countless smaller waters. The shallow water bays, which include hundreds of acres of shallow, wadeable water, harken to migrating ducks.
It’s good fish cover, too.
“This same habitat that’s good for ducks is good for redfish and speckled trout,” said Shuler, who guides for both species in addition to his waterfowl work.
How hurricanes help nature
This edge of Texas is also where Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Aug. 25. The storm’s 12.5-foot surge easily overcame the coastal elevation, which is about 6 feet.
The storm moved inland, of course, soaking Houston with more than 4 feet of rainfall. Flooding hit historic levels. Nearly a third of the city was underwater. Loss of life and loss of property followed. It was a disaster by any measure.
However, from a wildlife habitat standpoint, hurricanes don’t wield the same havoc and destruction they level on heavily populated and urban areas. While no one welcomes a hurricane, they do deliver something of a natural cleansing force.
“From a habitat standpoint tropical systems are mother nature’s natural reset button,” explained Taylor Abshler, a biologist for Ducks Unlimited and the guy who oversees DU’s Texas Prairie Wetlands Project. “The saltwater intrusion into marshes will knock back noxious plants such as cattail and giant reed, creating open water (and) allowing for vegetation of higher quality to grow in its absence. As the storm surge recedes freshwater will flow into these systems to return salinity to normal ranges.”
This hardly makes up for the havoc and heartache storms inflict on humans who live in their path. But they are part of nature’s rhythms.
Abshier noted that habitat changes inflicted by hurricanes do not occur “overnight” and in some cases recovery can be years long.
The Port O’Connor coast and surrounding bays, however, have rebounded quickly.
“The coastal marsh has recovered well,” Abshier said.
If you go
The 54-county South Zone (which includes Port O’Connor and Calhoun County) 2017-18 Texas duck season runs through Jan. 28 (the earlier session was Nov. 4-26).
“Typically, after the break the hunting gets a little better because it gets cold up north and more birds move,” said Shuler. “But those birds have also been shot at and sometimes they don’t decoy as well. But it’s still good."
Fin & Feather Guide Service: finfeather.org; 979-541-3552; finfeather98@yahoo.com.
Gary Garth writes a monthly outdoors column for USA TODAY.
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