duck hunting in Texas

Does anyone have any information on Duck Hunting the Trinity River in Texas? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I've never hunted it myself, but I've heard that it can be really good in the right spots. As with all river hunting, advance scouting is key (keeping in mind the water levels will fluctuate greatly).

Also, in Texas if you are hunting a river, remember that you must be hunting from a floating boat. Only the water itself is public property - the land on both banks AND the river bottom itself are private property (ie. you're trespassing if you beach the boat).

Unless things have changed recently, this is not necessarily true. The river bottoms of many, if not most rivers in Texas, particularly if the mouth of the river is over 30 feet wide, is public property. Exceptions may be land originally deeded from Spain and Mexico that can privatize the river bottoms also.

Hunting public river bottoms below the cut bank, is perfectly legal in many cases, again unless things have changed recently. To be sure you should check with your local game warden.

For more on this read...
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/texaswater/rivers/ riddellindex.phtml

Great website. And one I should have known first.

I wish it would have addressed the issue of recovering game from private land that was legally shot on the public waterway (always a sticky issue).

What I do in practice is: a) send my dog if it's a 'normal' retrieve (I stay in the boat)

b) get out and look WITHOUT my gun. Possibily still tresspass, but the rules are different without a firearm (not to mention it makes the landowner less wary if you're unarmed).