Challenging Duck Hunting on the Coast
November 21, 2025
The 2025-26 Texas duck season is currently underway, but the weather along the lower Texas Gulf Coast has not been favorable.
Unseasonably warm temperatures and low tides are contributing to a slight decrease in the populations of puddle and diving ducks, according to hunting guides.
Despite these challenges, some hunters are still managing to find decent numbers and achieve their shooting limits. A notable change this year is the increase in the harvest limit for pintail ducks, which has risen to three from last season’s one-bird limit.
In this region, the daily limits are set at three pintail, two redheads, two canvasbacks, one scaup, and one mottled, or dusty, duck, with a total daily limit of six ducks.
Duck hunting typically occurs off Port Mansfield and Arroyo City, as well as in the South Bay areas of the Laguna Madre.
Aaron Cisneros, a guide from Brownsville, noted that hunters have been able to take more pintail due to the new limits. However, he mentioned that the tides have affected hunting conditions. “November is usually a high tide month,” he remarked, “but this year it has been slow from the start. We don’t usually see that until December.”
Capt. Gus McGarraugh with Saltwater Adventures described the season as somewhat inconsistent so far. “We go one day and the ducks are there, but they are gone the next,” he explained.
McGarraugh pointed out that the major migration has yet to begin, but hunters are still managing to bag gadwall, scaup, redheads, and pintail. “It’s a little slower right now,” he said, “but there are still plenty of birds.”
In the South Zone, the duck season commenced on November 1 and will run through November 30. The second split will open from December 13 to January 25, 2026.
Source: https://www.lsonews.com/tough-duck-hunting-on-coast/
