Texas hill country

[Newtosavage]

Hill Country between San Antonio and Austin is one of the top places on my list of where to move to. The only downside is lack of public land.

As many people that are moving to that area right now, I can't even imagine what it would be like if there were a large block of public land around there. LOL

 

[Fish_monger]

Can anyone speak to the fishing conditions in the gulf?

Most of my salt water experience is in the Florida keys where 1-2’ seas is the norm and you can be in flats, reef, or blue water in a 10 mile stretch.

would a single engine bay boat suffice or do I need 2+ motors and a deep V to go half way to Mexico?

 

[Red Letters]

Fishing in the gulf is awesome, finding fishable days is the problem. The guys that I know that fish in smaller boats say you get a couple/three good days per month and they're always on a Tuesday.
People do take bay boats offshore but you need to be really good at reading the weather and buoy reports. Not that long ago a buddy called and said everything was lining up for a good day to go offshore, I couldn't go that day... fortunately because guys swapped boats up and down the coast from Texas to Louisiana. That storm came up out of nowhere for all of those guys, yet others knew it was coming and stayed home and people like my buddy saw it once they got out and beat it back to the shore.
Anyway the Texas coast get more wind and waves than Florida and its not even comparable.

 

[Newtosavage]

Can anyone speak to the fishing conditions in the gulf?

Most of my salt water experience is in the Florida keys where 1-2’ seas is the norm and you can be in flats, reef, or blue water in a 10 mile stretch.

would a single engine bay boat suffice or do I need 2+ motors and a deep V to go half way to Mexico?

Gulf, or the bay. Texas has an extensive bay system and that's a very different thing than the open Gulf.

I have a 17' center console Carolina Skiff with a 70hp motor. I can get anywhere I need to in the bays, and if I pick my days, even to the nearshore rigs in the gulf.

That said, the fishing in Texas is hit or miss and will be nothing compared to what you're used to in FL.

 

[Mosby]

Small town people anywhere you go don't like outsiders who come in and tell them how much better things were where they came from. That's really what it comes down to. Small town folk are okay so long as you don't put down their town. They already know it sucks. They don't need anyone coming in to remind them. LOL

Over 20 years ago I bought some land about 45 minutes outside of my hometown and my hometown sucks. I lived in Ohio at the time. A guy calls me up and asks if I just bought the land and I said yes. Told me who he was and wanted to know if I was planning on building a house. I said no and why are you asking? He said....we don't like outsiders here. LOL...after I told him where I grew up and who my family was he said I was ok. He didn't like outsiders period. Just sold the land this week.

 

[gelton]

Can anyone speak to the fishing conditions in the gulf?

Most of my salt water experience is in the Florida keys where 1-2’ seas is the norm and you can be in flats, reef, or blue water in a 10 mile stretch.

would a single engine bay boat suffice or do I need 2+ motors and a deep V to go half way to Mexico?

A single motor is fine but I have been in 12' seas in the gulf. The mileage you have to travel to get to billfish waters depends on where you launch from. In South Texas, the shelf falls off rather quickly but still not as quickly as in Florida.

Central and South East Texas you are looking at about 130 miles to get into Bill Fish. Southeast Texas, you can head east towards Lousiana and cut that down to about 80 miles.

From SouthEast Texas - Cobia and King Mackeral are about 15 miles out on average, Snapper and grouper about 30-40 miles. Billfish ~ 130 miles - do a search for the Flower Gardens in the gulf.

Central Texas you can cut those miles in ~1/2....South Texas you can cut that down to ~ 1/4.

I have been offshore fishing in FL and was blown away by what we were catching with the condos still in view.

Edit - And to add, the seas as you know are largely dependent on the day you go with the caveat that squalls jump up rather quickly. With that being said, I have gone 15+ miles out in a 15x48 aluminum flatbottom with a 25 hp motor multiple times. I was young, stupid, and possibly inebriated. We usually just launched from the beach. I made it home just fine each time but more than once I got my truck stuck when trying to pull it out with waves crashing over the transom...

 

[Button]

A single motor is fine but I have been in 12' seas in the gulf. The mileage you have to travel to get to billfish waters depends on where you launch from. In South Texas, the shelf falls off rather quickly but still not as quickly as in Florida.

Central and South East Texas you are looking at about 130 miles to get into Bill Fish. Southeast Texas, you can head east towards Lousiana and cut that down to about 80 miles.

From SouthEast Texas - Cobia and King Mackeral are about 15 miles out on average, Snapper and grouper about 30-40 miles. Billfish ~ 130 miles - do a search for the Flower Gardens in the gulf.

Central Texas you can cut those miles in ~1/2....South Texas you can cut that down to ~ 1/4.

I have been offshore fishing in FL and was blown away by what we were catching with the condos still in view.

Edit - And to add, the seas as you know are largely dependent on the day you go with the caveat that squalls jump up rather quickly. With that being said, I have gone 15+ miles out in a 15x48 aluminum flatbottom with a 25 hp motor multiple times. I was young, stupid, and possibly inebriated. We usually just launched from the beach. I made it home just fine each time but more than once I got my truck stuck when trying to pull it out with waves crashing over the transom...

This is accurate information.
Fish can be closer to shore given the day but this man speaks truth, for the average day offshore.

 

[Newtosavage]

Over 20 years ago I bought some land about 45 minutes outside of my hometown and my hometown sucks. I lived in Ohio at the time. A guy calls me up and asks if I just bought the land and I said yes. Told me who he was and wanted to know if I was planning on building a house. I said no and why are you asking? He said....we don't like outsiders here. LOL...after I told him where I grew up and who my family was he said I was ok. He didn't like outsiders period. Just sold the land this week.

Such a sad, pathetic story that replays itself over again 1000's of times in and around small towns everywhere. No wonder so many people have moved to the suburbs of larger cities.

Nobody likes to walk into turf battles. Whether that's in a small town where every guy with an overinflated sense of importance wants to pee on every post, or on public land where somebody that's hunted those woods "their whole life" thinks they own the place.

When I moved to the (pop. 3500) small town I lived in the past 12 years I joined the local 9-hole muni and stared to play with the regulars. For over two years, every time another local would come in and see me for the first time, it was the 20 questions game (where you from, what's your last name, are you related to anyone here, WHO's house did you buy (that one always killed me), what did your father do for a living, what do YOU do for a living, etc., etc.... I got so sick of it. At first I thought they were just being curious or in some cases even friendly. After a while I realized no, they were trying to figure out where to put me on the social scale and whether or not they needed to be nice to me. Pretty ridiculous really.

The place I lived before that was also a small town, but it was a bedroom community for a larger town where there was a university. So pretty much everyone there was from somewhere else, or enough that the locals didn't bother trying to pee on their legs anymore. I miss that place.

Small towns are great if you don't mind everyone in town being in your business every single day. Most of them have nothing better to do than to snoop on or talk about the neighbors, especially if it's someone new because they've already snooped on and talked about everyone that's lived there a while. LOL

 

[WoodBow]

I transferred to Texas last year having grown up and lived in the mountains most of my life. If you like Texas, love living there, please don’t take offense…..I absolutely hated it. I was miserable for 13 months, now I’m back in Montana and happy as a lark.

It’s a completely different culture there than out west, and I just couldn’t live that way. I just flat refused to pay the cost of hunting there, $2500 for a buck I’d pass on any public land any day is nuts. Montana buck tag +/-$500, Montana antelope $225, WY buck $325. 3 tags, places to hunt, $1050 leaving $1450 for gas and a few supplies.

If you are used to “civilization” I guess you’d be fine, but if you are used to being able to hunt when/where you want, it rough.

My apologies to Texans, I know there’s lots of pride for the state, but it’s not for everyone, or we’d be 49 short.

Well you aren't wrong. But I will give an alternate perspective from my point of view.

As a texas resident I can hunt big game 365 days a years. Yes a good chunk of that is pigs. I can buy a hunting/fishing combo license and public hunting permit for just over $100. That comes with 5 whitetail tags, 2 mule deer tags, and 4 turkey tags. That also includes all small game and non game species. I either lease property for around $1k a year or I just hunt on permission places. This year will be all public and permission.

I travel to colorado and new mexico to hunt every year. I get it. Those places are great. But i can't imagine the possibility of only having one tag or maybe no tags in my home state.

 

[Ozarkansas]

Well you aren't wrong. But I will give an alternate perspective from my point of view.

As a texas resident I can hunt big game 365 days a years. Yes a good chunk of that is pigs. I can buy a hunting/fishing combo license and public hunting permit for just over $100. That comes with 5 whitetail tags, 2 mule deer tags, and 4 turkey tags. That also includes all small game and non game species. I either lease property for around $1k a year or I just hunt on permission places. This year will be all public and permission.

I travel to colorado and new mexico to hunt every year. I get it. Those places are great. But i can't imagine the possibility of only having one tag or maybe no tags in my home state.

This is definitely a good perspective, but as someone currently living in Texas I also think that a lot of the other southern states offer an equal amount of opportunity with much more public land access. You have a spectrum of Access->Opportunity, with Texas lying at the extreme end of opportunity, and places like Nevada and Utah lying at the extreme end of Access.

 

[WoodBow]

This is definitely a good perspective, but as someone currently living in Texas I also think that a lot of the other southern states offer an equal amount of opportunity with much more public land access. You have a spectrum of Access->Opportunity, with Texas lying at the extreme end of opportunity, and places like Nevada and Utah lying at the extreme end of Access.

Correct as well. Texas public hunting access is admittedly garbage. Though killing pigs and average deer on it is not a problem if you know what you are doing. I assume every single other southern state has 10x or more public land to work with.



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[Ozarkansas]

Correct as well. Texas public hunting access is admittedly garbage. Though killing pigs and average deer on it is not a problem if you know what you are doing. I assume every single other southern state has 10x or more public land to work with.



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I agree with you that It’s definitely not all bad. I love that active duty military gets free hunting and fishing licenses here, and I’m stoked to be able to spend less than $200 on tag applications in Texas but have opportunities for elk, Nilgai, bighorn, axis, auodad, mule deer, and pronghorn on public land. I’ll definitely buy a lifetime hunting license before I move away so I can keep applying to those.

 

[Tartan]

I don't have much perspective on living in hill country. I have been there a bunch and it can be beautiful. I'll just add my take to double up on what @WoodBow said.

I grew up in PA, moved to north texas 11 years ago. I now live on the northwest outskirts of DFW. Besides the recent craziness of the housing market (we got lucky and moved to a bigger place on an acre last fall) overall cost of living is good and it is a great place for me job wise. The school district we are in is smaller but top class in both academics and sports. I would love to live in the mountains, but I just don't see us moving.

I can hunt pigs on corp land 15 minutes from my house 365 days a year. I don't get out as much as i would like, but I get into pigs about 50% of the time. I can hunt squirrel and rabbits year round on public within 45 minutes of me. People seem to think there is a lot of pressure on the public land near dfw, but it generally feels less than the pressure I grew up with in PA.

Within 4 hours of me there is more public land in Oklahoma than I could ever hunt. And just a little farther to Arkansas. If you have a boat, there are some quality lakes to fish and if you want to fish rivers (we would have called them streams in PA) there are lots of those within a reasonable drive as well. Getting in a quick morning or evening hunt is harder but half day trips can be done.

I'm not sure that my experience is a good reflection of central texas. The general hunting culture is a bit odd to me. I have been lucky and made good friends with a family who own a 4000 acre ranch south of san antonio. I will never turn down an invite if I can make it. It's not as fulfilling of a hunt, but it's always good to fill the freezer. The average hunter seems to like most of their work done for them. Lease some land, sit in a blind, see a lot of animals, make a shot. I'm not going to knock them if that is what they enjoy. But, I've still met a lot of guys much more hardcore than myself that get it done the hard way.

I guess it all depends on what you focus on. I understand the allure of hunting the west, but as a guy that just enjoys opportunity, there are a lot of worse places.

It's been a couple years since I've been able to make a trip out west, but the kids will be more self reliant soon and I'll start making that happen every year as well.