Texas Game Wardens Bust Poachers with Three Times Daily Limit of Ducks

In a game of attempted hide and seek, Texas Game Wardens came out victorious after busting a group of poachers with more ducks than they needed last week. According to a post, Texas Game Wardens were patrolling the Brazos River in Bosque County when they heard a number of shots ring out in the area. Carefully listening to the nearby volley of gunshots, wardens worked their way through the area and stopped a couple of duck hunters along the way, but found no one in violation of any laws.

As the shots continued, game wardens turned to tech in an attempt to locate the mysterious gunfire and soon found a number of nearby private lakes that they believed would offer some great duck hunting opportunities. As game wardens approached one of the entrances to the possible locations, they came across a man decked out in camo. Wardens took note that the man’s behavior was evasive in nature and noticed that he was quite intent on sending what seemed to be a number of text messages in record time. Wardens stopped the man and had a brief conversation with him, who soon directed them to a duck blind where they found an additional three weary hunters haphazardly gathering up their gear. 

The group of hunters attempted to piece together a unifying story but ended up making themselves look foolish. Unable to give game wardens accurate information about how many people were hunting and where the remaining hunters had disappeared to only led warden’s suspicion levels to rise.

The wardens soon split up, leaving one to interview the hunters, as the other went to have a look at a pile of ducks left on a nearby bank. As he approached the pile, he noticed a fourth individual who was seemingly trying to blend in behind the dam as he worked diligently to stash a stringer of additional ducks. As the pursuing warden approached the fourth individual, he soon found that he was without a proper hunting license and had crossed two fences in an attempt to hide the 16 ducks in his possession.

The more wardens continued to dig, the more they soon uncovered. With numerous violations in hand, wardens were able to locate even more illegally killed ducks along with about 250 shotgun shells and hulls containing prohibited lead shot. Admitting to the wrongdoing, the hunters soon admitted that they were using leftover shot from dove season, full-well knowing it was illegal for waterfowl.

In total, wardens determined that only four individuals were involved in the hunting and three of the four did have valid licenses to do so. The group had a whopping 54 ducks in their possession - or three times the legal daily bag limit of six per hunter. 

“Three of the hunters, residents of Louisiana, admitted to knowing they had exceeded their daily bag limit but didn’t want to stop shooting as they claimed this was more ducks than they had seen all season in both Texas and Louisiana,” the post read.

The four hunters were hit with a slew of charges including exceeding bag limits, hunting without a valid license and using lead shot for waterfowl. They group was also hit with civil restitution for the illegal ducks which amounted to more than $7,000 and the ducks were processed and donated to families in both Hamilton and Bosque counties.

Multiple citations were issued for exceeding the bag limit, hunting without a valid license, and using lead shot for waterfowl. The hunters were also charged civil restitution for the illegally taken ducks. The fines and restitution total for the group was more than $7,000. The ducks were seized, cleaned and will be distributed to families in Hamilton and Bosque counties.