OUTDOORS

WITH LUKE CLAYTON

Beginning Sept. 1, hunting hogs or game from navigable streams with rifle or bow will be illegal.

A new law will go into effect in September that limits rights by the public to hunting on navigable rivers in Texas. This new law/regulation (SB 1236) was passed just last month and blindsided most Texas sportsmen and women. Texas Parks and Wildlife department had absolutely nothing to do with it, but I’m sure the game wardens were just given a monumental enforcement challenge and a quick learning curve to decipher this change in the way we hunt rivers.

I’ll do my best to describe what I know about this new regulation but keep in mind, the law is so new that even the game wardens are learning how to legally enforce it. Let’s begin with the existing facts: hunting with rifle and bow and, of course, shotgun has been legal on all navigable rivers in Texas with the exception of rivers in a few counties. Here is the current regulation that has been on the books for some time: It is illegal to “Discharge a firearm or shoot an arrow in or on the bed or bank of a navigable stream in Dimmit, Edwards, Frio, Hall, Kenedy, Llano, Maverick, Real, Uvalde, or Zavala counties. This law does not apply to persons fishing by means of archery equipment or shotguns loaded with shot, including buckshot. A shotgun slug is prohibited.”

Why only these counties? I suspect because of wealthy landowners in these game rich areas that applied pressure to politicians, but that is only speculation on my part. Hunting is currently allowed on all the other navigable rivers. By definition in Texas, a navigable stream is “a stream which retains an average width of 30 feet from the mouth up”.

Through the years, I have hunted wild hogs, turkey, and ducks on the Brazos River with shotgun and bow. I have friends that own or have owned ranches on either side of the river. The law clearly stipulates that hunting is allowed only in the streambed defined by the ‘gradient boundary’. I ran a survey field crew for many years and back in the seventies attended a class by Irving Webb, then state surveyor. Mr. Webb did a lot of work developing the complicated formula for determining this ‘gradient boundary’. After a few days under Mr. Webb’s instruction, I and the other surveyors present left somewhat confused. Determining gradient boundary is a complex thing. But for all practical purposes, the boundary between the river and private land is usually about halfway up the bank and begins where woody vegetation (trees) start.

Shoot a game animal in the riverbed that runs up the bank onto private land and the hunter has no legal rights to trespass and recover the animal. There can become a huge problem and the primary reason I limited my hunting to hogs, ducks, and turkey. I knew full well that it was entirely possible for a deer shot with a bow or rifle to make it to the top of the riverbank before expiring, and I didn’t have legal access to follow.

But now, with the passing of SB 1236, the only hunting allowed on these rivers, statewide is with shotgun with ‘pellets’. No more fletched arrows with fixed or mechanical broad heads for hunting hogs or game. Bow fishing with non-fletched arrows without broadheads and bows with reels will be allowed.

Imagine the questions that our Texas game wardens are having to deal with or will have to deal with come Sept. 1 of this year. I have a friend that has been a game warden for many years, and he informed me the legal department is currently working on deciphering the legalities involved in regards to enforcement.

I posed a few questions that the rank-and-file warden will have to deal with. One I posed is the use of big bore airguns. The new law mentions only firearms, i.e. rifles and shotguns with slugs and bows, no mention of big bore air rifles that are now legal to hunt with in Texas for game animals. What about using buckshot for hunting hogs and deer on the rivers? After all buckshot is a ‘shot’, albeit much bigger than shot used for duck hunting. Can deer legally be harvested with a shotgun loaded with buckshot?

I’ve always been a stickler for safety regardless with outdoor activity involving the use of a firearm. Personally, I’ve never hunted with a centerfire rifle along streams or rivers. I’ve always been concerned about the possibility of someone fishing along the shore, a landowner from the adjacent tract looking for livestock, or someone simply approaching by water from around a bend in the river. I have hunted with crossbows and compound bows, air rifles and, of course, shotguns for waterfowl.

Remember, there is a lot of land between the water and gradient boundary in some stream beds during drought conditions which, during the summer, opens up thousands of acres statewide to hunting. My personal thoughts of using centerfire rifles on rivers aside, I see absolutely no reason for banning the use of hunting bows and for not addressing the use of big bore air rifles in these waterways. If given a chance to vote on the matter, I would include the use of centerfire firearms even though I wouldn’t hunt with them myself along waterways, largely because I prefer bows and air rifles.

It appears duck hunting regulations will not change pertaining to river hunting. Rivers and streams attract waterfowl like a magnet and provide some excellent shooting in a safe setting. Most waterfowl hunters along rivers build blinds a few yards from the water, put out decoys, and shoot from stationary positions.

I guess the only questions I have that are unanswered pertain to the use of big bore airguns and whether or not buckshot can be used on shotguns for hunting hogs and deer. Much is still up in the air concerning this new regulation, and I’m sure all these issues will be addressed in the next few weeks before the new regulations become effective.

Contact outdoors writer Luke Clayton by email through his website www. catfishradio.org.