Heat, humidity, swarms of mosquitos, plus a $48 Annual Hunting Permit are a small price to pay to get in on fast and furious public lands early teal hunting action.

Story and photography by John Gordon

Close to unbearable heat and humidity greeted the hunters at 4 a.m. as they left the boat ramp. It wouldn’t be so friendly later in the morning when the sun was up, and temperatures climbed into the lower 90’s. Now it was okay, especially taking the boat ride down the channel at decent speed. They would all be sweating though soon while traversing the marsh grass, tossing decoys and brushing a hastily built blind. Welcome to September early teal season!

“You hear that,” said Captain Zack Shannon upon guiding the boat to a stop along the channel and cutting the outboard. All anyone could hear was steady high-pitched droning, the sound of millions of very healthy mosquitoes. “That’s September marsh music boys,” he said laughingly. “That’s the admission price to get in on fast and furious public lands early teal hunting action. Well, that and no sleep.” Shannon was right on all counts; Texas public teal hunting is not for the faint of heart. You must get up when others won’t, get back into areas others won’t go, and scout and search longer and harder to find the birds. In other words, fun!

Shannon’s operations base is Bay City, in the heart of the upper coast. Within easy driving range, there are multiple public teal hunting opportunities. Especially if you have local knowledge of the bay and marsh systems learned from countless hours on the water chasing fish. His home territory is Matagorda Bay, both east and west sides.

“The key thing to know about early teal hunting on the bays is knowing when and where to go,” he said. “You can find ducks in shallow marshes, but you can also have success in the bay, especially the south shorelines with south winds.

“Don’t expect much success on opening weekend, however. It takes pressure to move those teal from both private and public shallow water moist soil areas. Once those teal have been shot at though, all bets are off. They will seek areas with little to no pressure and the open bays offer that.”

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