If you have not hunted the Aransas Mosquito Refuge, you are in for a surprise.
There are some big deer out there, but they are not easy to get a shot at, but they are there. There are also a lot of hogs there, some are just flat huge. You can not shoot turkey or javelina out there, but there are both out there. I have been out there in the spring and seen a lot of turkey. I have only seen maybe 10 javelina in 25 years of hunting the place.
The things you need to watch out for as you are loosing multiple pints of blood, are the many alligators, water moccasins and then there are rattlers out there also. Over the years, we encountered multiple moccasins, and one rattler. One moccasin, went to town striking my boot, because I was standing on it and did not know. The one rattler we saw out there coiled and came very close to nailing a buddy of mine, he did not see the snake.
The gators are all over the place. Probably more so right now, after all this rain. There are small water holes all over that place and every hole, I don't care how small it is, likely has a gator in it. You would think a 10' gator could not or would not hide in a 6'X4' water hole, but they can and will do so. We found a creek bottom that was mostly dried up. But there was one small water hole, about 25' long and about 15' wide. We knew from past experience, there was mostly likely a gator in the hole. So we backed up and hid in the brush. Sure enough after about 10 minutes a 10' gator surfaced. Well the next year we went back to the same spot. I decided to check on the water hole and gator, just to see if the water hole was still there, we had not had any rain in a long time. Well the water hole was down to 6' long by 4' wide. We though that looked a bit small for the gator that used to be in that hole. Well we found that gator hiding up under the bank of the creek, they will dig out the banks and it turns out, they will dig out their water holes. That gator had dug out that water hole about 2' deep. It did not look like it was that deep, but it was and being the only water around. You can bet a lot of animals used it for water. That gator was still using that hole, so most likely it was eating very well.
Later on, I found that hole had completely dried up, that's how I know how deep the gator had dug out the hole.
We have found gators in basically big mud puddles, that were no more than 18" deep, then maybe 15' across and 20' long. We watched a gator stalk two hunters looking at tracks around the mud hole. We yelled at them to get away from the water hole, they had no idea, looked at us like we were being a holes. We went down to the mud hole after they left and threw a large dirt clod in the water hole and made waves big enough to expose the gator. That one was probably 12' long.
Just so you know what you are dealing with. If you find a trail through the brush or marsh and it is very smooth and has rounded sided, basically like someone dug it out about 3" to 5" deep and the sides of the trail are rounded, the whole trail is nice and smooth. You are on a gator trail. You will typically find them near water holes. Gators will use them to go hide up in the brush during the middle of the day, then as they choose to, they will take a stroll down to their water hole, however big it is. It might be a nice big pond, a small pond, a mud hole or it might be along the shore line of the refuge. We have found gator trails all over that place. One of them we found, where our favorite hunting place is. We used the trail many times, the one time, about 5:00 in the morning we were walking up the trail we had used many times before. We had flashlights off, sneaking in to where we were going to hunt. Then realized there was something large on the trail. Turned on a flashlight to find a 9' gator on the trail and he was not happy about us sharing his trail. This trail lead from the brush, down to the water along the shoreline.
The biggest gator we have seen out there was probably 14' long maybe a bit longer. There is a lake that is fed by a canal. That canal, will get schools of reds up in it, at times, typically in October. They will follow that canal all the way up into that lake or pond. There are hog tracks all around that lake/pond, hog wallows. It's a great place to hunt pigs or fish for reds. But the last time I was there. I was hunting in a tree that overhung the pond, waiting on a hog to come to the pond. On the other side of the pond, there are a bunch of cattails and a bunch of hog wallows in and around those. During the day, I had schools of reds swimming under me, following the bank. Then when it got later in the afternoon. I heard a large splash, over near the cattails. I thought it was a hog hitting the water to cool off. I kept waiting and waiting. Then finally I saw what made the big splash. It was the biggest gator I have ever seen. I have seen many 12' gators out there, but that gator, was easily much bigger than any I had ever seen. It went out into the middle of the pond and sunk below the surface, then would resurface in some other spot around the pond. At that point, I started getting worried about falling out of the tree I was in. Had no fear or thoughts of falling out of the tree before that.
The gators are something you really need to learn about, and be careful of. The moccasins, are scattered all over the place, the rattlers, seem to mainly be on the west side, where it's drier, that's the only place we have seen rattlers.
The mosquitos are going to be something you really can't fully understand, till you get to experience the place for a weekend or longer. I will admit the last time I was out there with my wife and daughter, the mosquitos, really were not that bad. They were pretty bad, if you are not from the coast, but having grown up there, that last time, they were not really all that bad. Now 20 to 35 years ago, back when we hunted the place a lot, they were extremely bad.
On the intercoastal side of the refuge. you can be out there along the marsh and see clouds of smoke going across the marsh. Those clouds of smoke, usually are tug boats going up or down the intercoastal. Without binoculars, you won't see the tugs, just the black smoke. They are out there probably 1500 yards or so. So we have seen that numerous times over the years. Well one time, we thought we saw smoke from a tug out on the marsh. I looked through the binoculars, turns out, that out there about 800 yards, there were two hunters walking through the marsh. That black cloud around and above them, was made of mosquitos. When you can see a cloud of mosquitos from 800 yards, that's a lot of mosquitos.
I don't know if they have done anything in recent years to reduce the number of mosquitos, or if the last time I was there, there was just a abnormally small mosquito population for some reason, such as a drought. When things are normal out there, the mosquitos are lethal.
One last warning on the gators. One year we were out hunting the marsh, on the intercoastal side of the place. We found a couple of really nice bucks out there. Then we discovered there were some sand dunes out in the middle of the marsh, and in the middle of those dunes, was a water hole. So we tried to find a trail coming and going from the water hole, that we could hunt. Figured any deer hiding in that marsh, would have to go to that water hole, more so, because it was surrounded by small sand dunes, so they would not be seen. So we walked the area, trying to find a good trail to hunt and a place to sit, to hunt one of the trails. Well in the process, I fell through the ground. Turns out there was a tunnel dug under the grass, that was big enough I could crawl through it. When I dropped into the tunnel, the ground level was just below my crotch. The top of the tunnel was maybe 6" to 10", below ground. At first we had no idea what would dig a tunnel like that. Then we got to looking at the floor of the tunnel and found gator tracks. I got out of that tunnel fast. We took arrows and punched through the ground, to follow the tunnel. We found it came out near the water hole, then went maybe 50 yards away from the water hole. I had no idea, gators would do anything like that.
It's just something to be careful of, if you decided to hunt the marshy area on the intercoastal side. the only place we found tunnels, was in that one area, of the marshy area, where it was sandy. Most of the rest of the marshy area, along the coast lines, was dirt or silt or mud, if wet.
There are some big deer out there, but they are not easy to get a shot at, but they are there. There are also a lot of hogs there, some are just flat huge. You can not shoot turkey or javelina out there, but there are both out there. I have been out there in the spring and seen a lot of turkey. I have only seen maybe 10 javelina in 25 years of hunting the place.
The things you need to watch out for as you are loosing multiple pints of blood, are the many alligators, water moccasins and then there are rattlers out there also. Over the years, we encountered multiple moccasins, and one rattler. One moccasin, went to town striking my boot, because I was standing on it and did not know. The one rattler we saw out there coiled and came very close to nailing a buddy of mine, he did not see the snake.
The gators are all over the place. Probably more so right now, after all this rain. There are small water holes all over that place and every hole, I don't care how small it is, likely has a gator in it. You would think a 10' gator could not or would not hide in a 6'X4' water hole, but they can and will do so. We found a creek bottom that was mostly dried up. But there was one small water hole, about 25' long and about 15' wide. We knew from past experience, there was mostly likely a gator in the hole. So we backed up and hid in the brush. Sure enough after about 10 minutes a 10' gator surfaced. Well the next year we went back to the same spot. I decided to check on the water hole and gator, just to see if the water hole was still there, we had not had any rain in a long time. Well the water hole was down to 6' long by 4' wide. We though that looked a bit small for the gator that used to be in that hole. Well we found that gator hiding up under the bank of the creek, they will dig out the banks and it turns out, they will dig out their water holes. That gator had dug out that water hole about 2' deep. It did not look like it was that deep, but it was and being the only water around. You can bet a lot of animals used it for water. That gator was still using that hole, so most likely it was eating very well.
Later on, I found that hole had completely dried up, that's how I know how deep the gator had dug out the hole.
We have found gators in basically big mud puddles, that were no more than 18" deep, then maybe 15' across and 20' long. We watched a gator stalk two hunters looking at tracks around the mud hole. We yelled at them to get away from the water hole, they had no idea, looked at us like we were being a holes. We went down to the mud hole after they left and threw a large dirt clod in the water hole and made waves big enough to expose the gator. That one was probably 12' long.
Just so you know what you are dealing with. If you find a trail through the brush or marsh and it is very smooth and has rounded sided, basically like someone dug it out about 3" to 5" deep and the sides of the trail are rounded, the whole trail is nice and smooth. You are on a gator trail. You will typically find them near water holes. Gators will use them to go hide up in the brush during the middle of the day, then as they choose to, they will take a stroll down to their water hole, however big it is. It might be a nice big pond, a small pond, a mud hole or it might be along the shore line of the refuge. We have found gator trails all over that place. One of them we found, where our favorite hunting place is. We used the trail many times, the one time, about 5:00 in the morning we were walking up the trail we had used many times before. We had flashlights off, sneaking in to where we were going to hunt. Then realized there was something large on the trail. Turned on a flashlight to find a 9' gator on the trail and he was not happy about us sharing his trail. This trail lead from the brush, down to the water along the shoreline.
The biggest gator we have seen out there was probably 14' long maybe a bit longer. There is a lake that is fed by a canal. That canal, will get schools of reds up in it, at times, typically in October. They will follow that canal all the way up into that lake or pond. There are hog tracks all around that lake/pond, hog wallows. It's a great place to hunt pigs or fish for reds. But the last time I was there. I was hunting in a tree that overhung the pond, waiting on a hog to come to the pond. On the other side of the pond, there are a bunch of cattails and a bunch of hog wallows in and around those. During the day, I had schools of reds swimming under me, following the bank. Then when it got later in the afternoon. I heard a large splash, over near the cattails. I thought it was a hog hitting the water to cool off. I kept waiting and waiting. Then finally I saw what made the big splash. It was the biggest gator I have ever seen. I have seen many 12' gators out there, but that gator, was easily much bigger than any I had ever seen. It went out into the middle of the pond and sunk below the surface, then would resurface in some other spot around the pond. At that point, I started getting worried about falling out of the tree I was in. Had no fear or thoughts of falling out of the tree before that.
The gators are something you really need to learn about, and be careful of. The moccasins, are scattered all over the place, the rattlers, seem to mainly be on the west side, where it's drier, that's the only place we have seen rattlers.
The mosquitos are going to be something you really can't fully understand, till you get to experience the place for a weekend or longer. I will admit the last time I was out there with my wife and daughter, the mosquitos, really were not that bad. They were pretty bad, if you are not from the coast, but having grown up there, that last time, they were not really all that bad. Now 20 to 35 years ago, back when we hunted the place a lot, they were extremely bad.
On the intercoastal side of the refuge. you can be out there along the marsh and see clouds of smoke going across the marsh. Those clouds of smoke, usually are tug boats going up or down the intercoastal. Without binoculars, you won't see the tugs, just the black smoke. They are out there probably 1500 yards or so. So we have seen that numerous times over the years. Well one time, we thought we saw smoke from a tug out on the marsh. I looked through the binoculars, turns out, that out there about 800 yards, there were two hunters walking through the marsh. That black cloud around and above them, was made of mosquitos. When you can see a cloud of mosquitos from 800 yards, that's a lot of mosquitos.
I don't know if they have done anything in recent years to reduce the number of mosquitos, or if the last time I was there, there was just a abnormally small mosquito population for some reason, such as a drought. When things are normal out there, the mosquitos are lethal.
One last warning on the gators. One year we were out hunting the marsh, on the intercoastal side of the place. We found a couple of really nice bucks out there. Then we discovered there were some sand dunes out in the middle of the marsh, and in the middle of those dunes, was a water hole. So we tried to find a trail coming and going from the water hole, that we could hunt. Figured any deer hiding in that marsh, would have to go to that water hole, more so, because it was surrounded by small sand dunes, so they would not be seen. So we walked the area, trying to find a good trail to hunt and a place to sit, to hunt one of the trails. Well in the process, I fell through the ground. Turns out there was a tunnel dug under the grass, that was big enough I could crawl through it. When I dropped into the tunnel, the ground level was just below my crotch. The top of the tunnel was maybe 6" to 10", below ground. At first we had no idea what would dig a tunnel like that. Then we got to looking at the floor of the tunnel and found gator tracks. I got out of that tunnel fast. We took arrows and punched through the ground, to follow the tunnel. We found it came out near the water hole, then went maybe 50 yards away from the water hole. I had no idea, gators would do anything like that.
It's just something to be careful of, if you decided to hunt the marshy area on the intercoastal side. the only place we found tunnels, was in that one area, of the marshy area, where it was sandy. Most of the rest of the marshy area, along the coast lines, was dirt or silt or mud, if wet.
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