I was checking out the public land online and wondered if anyone here owns or has a lease on or close to the coast. What's it like, and how are the deer?

Nannie Stringfellow WMA and Justin Hurst WMA are a few miles from my house. I've also hunted Aransas NWR a couple of times. It can be pretty good on the coast but you won't see as many deer as the hill country and the racks aren't as big as S. Texas or the panhandle. Where ever you hunt though, be prepared for mosquitoes from hell and lot's of mud (normally anyway, the drought has turned the gumbo into black rock)

....And lots of hogs.

Yea, there's a few runnin around here.

Some of the deer will rut along the coast in some areas in a couple of weeks. Deer can surprise you on how good they are in good years on some of the bigger ranches with light hunting pressure. Mosquitoes are big.

We fish a lot in matagorda and on fm 2031, along the opposite side of the Colorado, there a lot of feeders and almost everyone has a hog trap with it.

I hunted on Matagorda Island one time. Mosquitoes were bigger than Hummingbirds. When it started getting dark you could hear them coming and they sounded like bomber planes.

one of the guys we fish with swears up and down he saw a buck chasing a doe one day in october when he was fishing san antonio bay that was pushing 200 inches on the shoreline of Aransas NWR.

The mosquitoes aren't as big as everyone says. I have rarely seen one over the size of a man's fist.

I almost hit a very young 150 ten pulling into the bird island ramp..last year

Love burning the king shore line this time of year...some big boys our there

Hunted 600 acres in matagorda for the last 25 years... LOTS of deer on out place... Not many bigguns. Biggest weve ever killed was a 140 ten pt. Ive seen a few in the 150s from the area... The county record is 166. Weve seen as many as 75 deer from one stand in a morning. No feeders either. Lots of hogs and lots of mosquitos. Ive had many mornings bow hunting when they were too think too breathe. No lie. Bring a therma cell or 2

i've "heard" that bucks in madagorda fail to attain big size because the sandy soil wear out their teeth to such a degree that most deer die by their 4th year.

I have a place on the coast near Port O'Connor (Seadrift). On the mainland, there are a fair amount of deer on the peninsula, but they tend to be smaller deer. However, from time to time the Powerhorn ranch puts some exotics out on their low fence. They stay around because they can't get off the peninsula without hoofing it a long way and crossing HWY35.

In addition, there is a HF place (Falcon Point) that used to have loads of exotics,and they some escaped the high fence by taking to the bay (have seen some on the tiny barrier islands to the ICW).

We've seen Red Stag and blackbuck on the side of the road free-ranging just outside of town.

Over the 40 years I have been fishing down there, we see TONS of deer on Matagorda Island. That place is chock full of deer. Seen them swimming across the bay and back lake lagoons. Lots of hogs too – and yotes.

A lot of them are small – real small. Like I’ve seen Great Danes that were bigger.

However, there are a fair number of HUGE deer on the island. From time to time while fishing in the cooler months we have seen bucks that were EASILY over 170” – so a 200” is definitely believable. Biggest we’ve seen was a 14pt that was about 250 lbs – but we were pretty far away and I would begin to estimate a score. We’ve seen what we are convinced is the same deer (12pt) that hangs around Cedar Lake back toward the beach. The 14pt was seen on the north shore of FishPond many years ago, and we’ve seen several 10pt and 12pt deer around there in the past few years. There is a nice 11pt we’ve seen the past couple years down on the beach near Panther point.

If you dig around and find the harvest stats for the public draw hunts on the island, you’d be amazed at some of the deer. While most are does and average bucks, it is not uncommon at all to have hunters bring in 10pt, 150”+ deer. That’s why I put in for the hunt every year (and hope to get drawn this year). You actually have to go by boat to the island to hunt – and it can get nasty crossing the bay in the winter.

STXRANCHMAN is absolutely right (again). The rut on the island occurs very early – probably the earliest in the state. It would not surprise me if the rut started down there in the next two weeks. We routinely see bucks chasing does in October while fishing.

Folks are right about mosquitos too. Biggest baddest I’ve ever encountered – but they are not as bad this year. There are also more rattlesnakes on the island per square mile than anywhere else in Texas. Not big ones, but the little nasty 8-10” are EVERYWHERE.

Hunting on the island is cool. It is mostly sand dunes and small brush where the deer are – you will see them coming a LONG way off – and they will see you. You should be prepared to take 200yd-plus shots if needed. There are a few freshwater ponds on the island (which ALL have lots of gators in them) and the deer are never far away from these.

Besides the island, the Aransas Wildlife Refuge offers public hunts. It is not a draw, but an application process. From what I’ve heard, there are almost always openings – and you can show up and apply right there just before a hunt. The wildlife refuge has oodles of deer – although I have not personally seen any big ones (But we’ve seen some monsters in the corn/milo fields driving into the refuge). The brush is so thick inside the refuge that finding a spot with visibility more than a few dozen yards is tough. I’ve heard from folks that hunt there that getting your deer out is the challenging part. You have to walk into your hunt area – and if you shoot and it runs off a 100 yards into the brush, it will be heck finding them and getting them out.

I think it's been brought up here before, but the deer down here on the coast are a different sub-species. They are the Avery Island Whitetail, Odocoileus virginianus mcilhennyi. They don't mix a whole lot with other whitetails because they rut so early. The bucks are chasing does in the woods right now around here.

i would imagine hunting matagorda island would be a good test of ones equipment.

Palehorse, you are correct. There are a lot of the Avery sub-species on the island. I don't know this for sure, but the way I was told you can tell the difference is that Avery tends to have a black/dark stripe down the back.

We have definitely seen deer that have this stripe or generally very dark in coloration.

However, there are a good number of "regular" whitetails. All the deer down there don't hesitate to swim. We have seen several times deer swimming off the mainland (wildlife refuge) across the ICW to the spoil islands, and then walking swimming their way over to the main island. On one occaision we saw a whole herd of about dozen swimming just fine across the middle of Mesquite bay at 4am on our way duck hunting (during deer season no less).

Freaked us out - like "What's that up ahead in the Q-Bean?" "Holy-smokes! - it's DEER!" and then "Ain't nobody going to believe us". "Hey, one of them is a nice buck!" "Heck, I have a slug-shell - I could shoot one" .. "Shoot one, heck we could motor over and grab it by the horns and flip it in the boat". "yeah, then what?" LOL!!


Funny thing - in all years down there we have never seen one swimming TOWARD the mainland - always away.

Here is a picture of a pretty nice Avery Island Whitetail. This is inside Dow Chemical in Freeport near the landfill. Most of the mature bucks around here have darker horns. It might be the tannin in the local wood(oak and pecan) that stains them when they rub off the velvet. This pic was taken a couple of years ago the first week of August.

There are 2 size mosquitoes on the coast- the ones small enough to fly thru the mesh wire on a screen door and those big enough to open the door and come inside.

We have seen sign of deer and pigs on matagorda island but never have seen one. We did see a yote last year that walked right past us and never looked our way. John you say you can hunt deer on there? We have seen the duck blinds but didn't know anything else was hunted.

I hunt Matagorda County outside of Bay City going towards Wadsworth... We have big body deer and some are Tecomate Class... Lots of culls, but when we see a good one, it's a real good one... No hogs on our place in years... Lots of trophy raccoons though!!!

Great looking buck,beautiful coloration.

KeithStone ...
Yes, TPWD has draw hunts for Matagorda Island every year. This year they have three hunts, 1 during the week, 1 weekend, and 1 youth hunt. It is already too late to enter the draw, but you might try to show up standby for the weekday hunt.

You cannot hunt or carry firearms on the island other than the sponsored draw hunts.

The hunting regs are bit fuzzy for the island, as TECHNICALLY all those duck blinds are illegal. But I think they have an "exception rule" that allows hunters to duck hunt on the island on "coastal shorelines with direct access to ESB or SAB".

If you carry binoculars with you when fishing, I'm sure you will see deer early in the morning toward the dunes looking from any of the lakes - fish pond, lighthouse, army hole, pringle, contee, twin, power, cedar, or panther. They are usually a LONG way off - but they are there most every morning. However, occaisionaly you will see them close to the water near army hole, fish pond, lighthouse, and pringle.

I have not been at Panther pt a single night when the hogs didn't come rootin' by at some point during the night.