Neches River NWR

[BrandonF]

Any updates on this weekend's hunt?

I plan to post a semi detailed hunting outline on Thursday.

Let’s get through this front tomorrow and hope movement increases.

I’m hunting the Walnut Branch unit this week, and Deadwater next week, if I don’t tag this week.

[Carta Valley]

BrandonF, wishing you luck man!

[BrandonF]

I know I had a few PM’s from some of you about the Walnut Branch unit. So here is my Neches River – Walnut Branch write up.

I scouted hard for this hunt, mainly because I only live 38 mins from the place. I scouted 3 different times concentrating on 4 different areas of Walnut Branch.

Arrived for the hunt orientation on Friday morning. The orientation took place at the main gate where the restrooms are right off of HWY 79, not at the main lodge. From my head count at orientation there between 35-40 people that were present for the hunt. These 35 people were split up into 4 different hunt units, Deadwater, Walnut Branch, Sandy Bluff and Rocky Point. Sandy Bluff and Rocky Point had maybe 5 people assigned to them, Walnut Branch had about 10 people and Deadwater had the remainder of the group.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you PRINT the map that is emailed to you for your unit and sign the signature page on the bottom. Also make sure you print a copy of your permit that was emailed to you. Lastly make sure you bring hunter orange for ALL hunts (archery and gun). We were told that it had to be worn while walking in/out / scouting, but not while sitting for the hunt.

Other Note: There is a primitive camping location that they cleared for these draw hunts right off of Hwy 79.

After we got a briefing of the units and Leo (onsite refuge manager) gave some clarification and answered questions, we broke out into each unit and met everyone in our units. We discussed amongst ourselves where we were “hunting” just so we were not all on top of each other and some of us traded phone number that were hunting near by each other. After that we were released to go hunt.

About Walnut Branch:
I found that the east side and south side of the unit is bordered by managed leases, which have feeders near the property lines, pulling deer out of the refuge. Most of the eastern side is stands of planted pine, most has been thinned and is easily navigable thought. There are some oak flats mixed in along the creek bottoms.

The southern end and western side of the unit set up similarly with planted pine thickets and bottom land oaks / some marshy areas.

There is a pipeline that was recently mowed and a gentleman in our group indicated that East Texas Seed Co donates seed for food plots that the Friends of the Refuge group plants in a few locations, one of which is in the pipeline. Arial views of most maps will show a couple of the other planted food plots. I biked by one but was not overly impressed with it. It seems like the lack of rain prevented much germination in the plot I looked at.

There are several access trails and old logging roads that make getting around pretty easy on both sides of the unit. I would recommend bringing a bike if you can.

About my hunt:
First day (Friday) got set up and in a tree by 9:45/10. I had already picked out a location that I liked from my scouting trips and found a scrape line that seemed to have more activity than anything else. After battling the wind for most of the day, I closed the evening with having seen 2 does out of range, but thankful to have seen them.
Second day (Saturday) was brutal to say the least. I had been following the Live Gus Engling thread and basically felt the same way. The wind was insane, and the warm temperatures sure didn’t help anything. I sat daylight to dark in the same spot and only left one time to take a crap, thanks to the kolaches from the donut store in Frankston (I don’t recommend). Although it was windy, I did see some game. Before first light I had a couple of pigs milling around under the stand and later had a couple of groups of does, a single doe being chased by something (never saw what was chasing her) and a small fork horn that hunt around in sight for 20-30 mins. I was hoping something bigger would be hanging around with him, but no luck.

Sunday, I stayed at home and went to church and spent the day with the family. The forecast was basically the same as Saturdays and I couldn’t do that again. Bought some brownie points for a later hunt.

Monday also did not hunt, warm and thunderstorms most of the day here in ETX.
Tuesday. After the front that came in last night, I figured something would be moving. Cooler temperatures, but that dang wind was still howling this morning. I saw on facebook that Palestine had recorded wind gusts of 59mph and it sure seemed like it in the tree! However, despite the wind, deer were moving. In the grey light time, I saw a doe and fawn moving, and then a little later I saw a group of three doe, just at my edge of bow range, but I wasn’t there to harvest a doe. Around 8:50 I had a small 6 point come wondering through and at about 9:30 I had a mature shooter come in at 18 yards working down a scrape line (but not hitting the scrapes). I regret that I am not bringing him home, despite a bad shot and not for lack of searching for him for basically the rest of the day. I did find a short blood trail and then it went dry. I spent hours grid searching out to 500ish yards for him, but never found him, or a bed. Makes me absolutely sick that I put a bad shot on him for what should have been a chip shot in the 10 ring. An abundance of excitement and a pull to the left caused me to him in his hip. A few buddies thought femoral artery shot and honestly that’s the first thing I thought of also. After watching him after the impact I thought I was going to get extremely lucky and be able to recover him, but once I got into the searching the blood was just not there.

I knew going into the hunt that Tuesday would be my last day of hunting since I couldn't make it out there Wednesday or Thursday. Now im equally bummed that I dont at least have one more day of looking for the buck I hit, even thought he might not even be in my unit anymore.

So, if anyone over the next few hunts stumbles upon a dead 10 point on the far west side of the unit, I’d be happy to know about it.

While I was grid searching for my buck, something weird happened. A collared buck snuck up within 5 yards of me and scared the **** out of me. Ill post a picture of him. At first I thought he was either a bad omen, or was going to lead me to my dead buck somewhere. Guess he was a bad omen because he never led me anywhere. He hung around me (withing 15-20 yards) for a solid 30 minuets while I was grid searching. I feigured that he was an orphan that was hand raised or something. Thats the only reason I could think that he would ahve an hunters orange collar on. The refuge mgr said he was not part of any kind of study that they were doing and was the first that he had seen/heard of a collared buck on the property.

Good luck to Kyle and Zak who are still out there at it for the next couple of days. I hope yall get one.

[mattkwebb]

I know I had a few PM’s from some of you about the Walnut Branch unit. So here is my Neches River – Walnut Branch write up.

I scouted hard for this hunt, mainly because I only live 38 mins from the place. I scouted 3 different times concentrating on 4 different areas of Walnut Branch.

Arrived for the hunt orientation on Friday morning. The orientation took place at the main gate where the restrooms are right off of HWY 79, not at the main lodge. From my head count at orientation there between 35-40 people that were present for the hunt. These 35 people were split up into 4 different hunt units, Deadwater, Walnut Branch, Sandy Bluff and Rocky Point. Sandy Bluff and Rocky Point had maybe 5 people assigned to them, Walnut Branch had about 10 people and Deadwater had the remainder of the group.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you PRINT the map that is emailed to you for your unit and sign the signature page on the bottom. Also make sure you print a copy of your permit that was emailed to you. Lastly make sure you bring hunter orange for ALL hunts (archery and gun). We were told that it had to be worn while walking in/out / scouting, but not while sitting for the hunt.

Other Note: There is a primitive camping location that they cleared for these draw hunts right off of Hwy 79.

After we got a briefing of the units and Leo (onsite refuge manager) gave some clarification and answered questions, we broke out into each unit and met everyone in our units. We discussed amongst ourselves where we were “hunting” just so we were not all on top of each other and some of us traded phone number that were hunting near by each other. After that we were released to go hunt.

About Walnut Branch:
I found that the east side and south side of the unit is bordered by managed leases, which have feeders near the property lines, pulling deer out of the refuge. Most of the eastern side is stands of planted pine, most has been thinned and is easily navigable thought. There are some oak flats mixed in along the creek bottoms.

The southern end and western side of the unit set up similarly with planted pine thickets and bottom land oaks / some marshy areas.

There is a pipeline that was recently mowed and a gentleman in our group indicated that East Texas Seed Co donates seed for food plots that the Friends of the Refuge group plants in a few locations, one of which is in the pipeline. Arial views of most maps will show a couple of the other planted food plots. I biked by one but was not overly impressed with it. It seems like the lack of rain prevented much germination in the plot I looked at.

There are several access trails and old logging roads that make getting around pretty easy on both sides of the unit. I would recommend bringing a bike if you can.

About my hunt:
First day (Friday) got set up and in a tree by 9:45/10. I had already picked out a location that I liked from my scouting trips and found a scrape line that seemed to have more activity than anything else. After battling the wind for most of the day, I closed the evening with having seen 2 does out of range, but thankful to have seen them.
Second day (Saturday) was brutal to say the least. I had been following the Live Gus Engling thread and basically felt the same way. The wind was insane, and the warm temperatures sure didn’t help anything. I sat daylight to dark in the same spot and only left one time to take a crap, thanks to the kolaches from the donut store in Frankston (I don’t recommend). Although it was windy, I did see some game. Before first light I had a couple of pigs milling around under the stand and later had a couple of groups of does, a single doe being chased by something (never saw what was chasing her) and a small fork horn that hunt around in sight for 20-30 mins. I was hoping something bigger would be hanging around with him, but no luck.

Sunday, I stayed at home and went to church and spent the day with the family. The forecast was basically the same as Saturdays and I couldn’t do that again. Bought some brownie points for a later hunt.

Monday also did not hunt, warm and thunderstorms most of the day here in ETX.
Tuesday. After the front that came in last night, I figured something would be moving. Cooler temperatures, but that dang wind was still howling this morning. I saw on facebook that Palestine had recorded wind gusts of 59mph and it sure seemed like it in the tree! However, despite the wind, deer were moving. In the grey light time, I saw a doe and fawn moving, and then a little later I saw a group of three doe, just at my edge of bow range, but I wasn’t there to harvest a doe. Around 8:50 I had a small 6 point come wondering through and at about 9:30 I had a mature shooter come in at 18 yards working down a scrape line (but not hitting the scrapes). I regret that I am not bringing him home, despite a bad shot and not for lack of searching for him for basically the rest of the day. I did find a short blood trail and then it went dry. I spent hours grid searching out to 500ish yards for him, but never found him, or a bed. Makes me absolutely sick that I put a bad shot on him for what should have been a chip shot in the 10 ring. An abundance of excitement and a pull to the left caused me to him in his hip. A few buddies thought femoral artery shot and honestly that’s the first thing I thought of also. After watching him after the impact I thought I was going to get extremely lucky and be able to recover him, but once I got into the searching the blood was just not there.

I knew going into the hunt that Tuesday would be my last day of hunting since I couldn't make it out there Wednesday or Thursday. Now im equally bummed that I dont at least have one more day of looking for the buck I hit, even thought he might not even be in my unit anymore.

So, if anyone over the next few hunts stumbles upon a dead 10 point on the far west side of the unit, I’d be happy to know about it.

While I was grid searching for my buck, something weird happened. A collared buck snuck up within 5 yards of me and scared the **** out of me. Ill post a picture of him. At first I thought he was either a bad omen, or was going to lead me to my dead buck somewhere. Guess he was a bad omen because he never led me anywhere. He hung around me (withing 15-20 yards) for a solid 30 minuets while I was grid searching. I feigured that he was an orphan that was hand raised or something. Thats the only reason I could think that he would ahve an hunters orange collar on. The refuge mgr said he was not part of any kind of study that they were doing and was the first that he had seen/heard of a collared buck on the property.

Good luck to Kyle and Zak who are still out there at it for the next couple of days. I hope yall get one.

Thanks for the details Brandon and I’m sorry that you couldn’t recover your buck. I’ll be hunting he Dead Water Unit the same time period when you are. Let’s talk after the briefing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ahlongslide]

I’m hunting a line of scrapes in the Deadwater unit and have only seen one little 6pt over the last couple of days.

[ahlongslide]

An almost legal 8pt just came and peed on the scrapes and wandered off

[Carta Valley]

Headed out soon for this weekend hunt. Wish me luck! Thanks fior the advice, Brandon.