I'm sort of confused on what waters are open to duck hunting? If the water is within town limts that are a "bird santuary" then I figure you can't hunt. What about any regular large bodies of water you can put a fishing boat on- can you also hunt ducks? On marshes, where does the public water versus private water begin or end? Thanks.

Great question. Hopefully get some good answers here. I am curious about this as well.

same here

Just FYI dont name any exact spots. You will not like the outcome.

Not every body of water is open to public hunting. Some are. Some are not. Some part is open and part is closed. Best to call the Game Warden or the owner of the water you are interested in.

TPWD mails you a book when you buy a hunting license. It has all the public water open to waterfowl hunting shown. Check it out. Hope this helps.

Picture this...you've spent a ton of time on the internet researching various lakes within a few hours drive. You've called and talked to the controlling authorities of these lakes. You've spent plenty of money and time behind the windshield of your truck pre scouting. You hook up your boat and try to get to know the lake(s) well enough to hopefully find the X and be able to do it in the dark.

How much of that hard earned info are you willing to share on the World Wide web?!?

You have to buy annual public hunting permit when you get your license. Otherwise can't hunt any public land. Also, only when you purchase this permit will they send you the public land map book. If you are planning on hunting corp of engineer land you have to have the public permit AND a permit to hunt the specific corp land you want to hunt. FYI though, a lot of the corp permits have already been given out. They only issue a certain amount.

Forgot to also mention that during early teal I was stopped by the sheriff and asked for all of this.

All public land and water is not the same. Each has it's own rules and fall under various controlling authorities. Click on the sticky post at the top of the forum. A lot of work has been done for you. On that page you can find the rules for or find the controlling authority contact information to ask for most every public waterbody in texas.

You do not have to have a public hunting permit to hunt "all" public land. Some corps lakes have permits and some do not. Just call the project office and the hunting coordinator will be able to answer most of your questions.

This is not true. Some corps lakes do not require a permit. Some corps lakes require a corps permit issued by that individual lake's corps office. Some corps lakes have hunting right leased to tpwd and required an aph permit. Some corps lake hunting areas are leased to a municipality and require a city permit. None require both aphp and corps permit together. Rules and requirments vary greatly between different places and are constantly changing from year to year.

uh oh

Not true. many lakes and bodies of water simply require a regular hunting license and all other permits (i.e. state migratory stamp, federal duck stamp etc.)However to hunt Type 2 land you need the public land permit (this is where you get the book with all of the Type 2 public land). Best to contact the game warden.

True or not you can either spend all day calling a bunch of different authorities, I can get the number of the county sheriff's office if anyone wants to tell the sheriff he's wrong, or just go get the permits. APH $48. Corp permit $0. After a great day hunting last thing I want is a ticket.::

I will gladly tell the sheriff he is wrong... if you have your book that the COE gives you, you can let him read it himself.

Your sheriff may be wrong. You don't need the APH to hunt all public lands. You need it for Type 2. There are many many lakes that don't require one. Some lakes don't allow hunting at all, some only require a hunting license, some require the APH, some also require a permit. Like said before, figure out which lake you want to hunt, google the game warden or tpwd office for the area, call and ask the guy who would be writing you the ticket. Wouldn't hurt to also ask about any rules on setting up certain distances from houses or permanent duck blinds. Good luck

I'll tell him he's wrong, wouldn't be the first popo I told that he was wrong.

The best thing for you and the op is to look at the sticky at the top and go from there. And good luck, there's not a lot of water left in alot of places.

Public - opposite of private.


Each body of water is manged by someone, so you check with them.

For example, LCRA manages the highland lakes (not effectively, but that is a different post\rant) There is no duck hunting on any of the lakes they manage.

Its sort of a dumb rule, as everyone knows, there are no ducks in central texas.

Search tpwd article titled a river runs through it. Clear as mud!

there are 3 public places here to hunt that are NOT in the book!!! i have hunted all 1/3 the other 2 barely have any water that is designated for hunting!!