Winning Ways for September Early Teal

For some, the allure of a September wingshooting adventure is chasing a limit of mourning doves in the southeast, a combination bag of whitewings and mourning doves in Texas, sage grouse in parts of the West, or sharp-tailed grouse on the high plains.

But if you live near a marsh, a river, a lake, a coastal estuary, or even a mud flat, the month of September can mean that above all else, it’s teal time.

My home state of Texas is one of the strongholds of early teal hunting, with the 2024 season running from Sept. 14-29 with the daily bag limit remaining at six teal and the possession limit being three times that amount. For the record, while early migrating blue-winged teal are the primary species of early teal hunting seasons each September, green-winged teal and cinnamon teal are also fair game.

As the curtain comes up on this year’s early teal season, the prognostication is once again a good one in the Lone Star State, which has some unreal hunting action at times, from Panhandle playa lakes in a wet year to the rice farming reservoirs in the coastal plains and the estuaries and coastal marshes along the Texas Gulf Coast.

And that good early teal hunting forecast comes despite a drop in blue-winged teal numbers this year and a slow fall for several years now.

“Despite the decade-long decline in the breeding population, production of blue-winged teal is expected to be strong,” said Kevin Kraai, Waterfowl Program Leader for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, in a news release. “Overall, I anticipate an above-average teal season this September across much of Texas due to the wet conditions.”

In Texas, when you’re in the right spot at the right time, it’s early season shotgunning that’s almost too good to be true as fighter squadrons of bluewings buzz through at Mach 1 speeds with aerial maneuvers that would make a Top Gun pilot blush with envy. 

Down south along the saltwater in Texas and Louisiana—where the teal are headed for right now—taking a limit is almost child’s play if you can hit the proverbial broad side of a barn. At dawn, in the best locations, flocks of bluewings are everywhere, strafing just about any decent looking decoy spread.

If you’re north of those two Gulf Coast states, all hope is not lost either since there are a number of other great teal hunting spots. 

In fact, with the full moon happening on Sept. 17, and with weather experts anticipating a strong cold front that should push south a few days from now, expect a rush of bluewings as this September season progresses.

If that’s the case, other teal hunting honey holes like a Kansas farm pond, the Mississippi River in the Midwest, big reservoirs like Kentucky Lake, or even the Delmarva Peninsula region on the Atlantic Seaboard could deliver some more red-hot action before the 2024 season concludes.

Wherever you are swatting mosquitoes and hoping for a limit of some of duck hunting’s best eating birds, how can you find your way to a limit of early teal this month? By following several simple rules.

First, you've got to be there. Scouting is imperative in early teal hunting, so get out there and find out where the birds are roosting, what their daily flight patterns are, and where exactly they are buzzing into the marsh at the crack of dawn.

Second, be sure that you're there in that marsh—or stock tank, small lake, big reservoir, or river sand bar—the following morning well before the crack of dawn.

That was something that my late, great waterfowling friend J.J. Kent, a long-time North Texas waterfowling outfitter and pro-staffer for Mossy Oak, Zink Game Calls, and Avian-X decoys preached to me again and again each September.

"The main thing with teal here in North Texas is that it's typically over about the same time it starts," Kent would say prior to his untimely passing from a heart problem. "You've got to be there and be set up well before shooting light because the first 30 minutes is pretty much when it all happens. If you're late, you've probably missed the boat."

Next, be sure that you use the right decoys. In this case, with nearly all duck species currently sporting their drab early autumn plumage, the right decoy is generally a decoy spread that leans heavily towards the hen variety of dekes. While it's ok to use a few brightly colored blue-winged teal drake decoys for some visibility, don't overdo it and primarily stick with teal and even bigger mallard hen decoys.

Fourth, be sure that you are properly concealed while you are waiting to see what might happen around that decoy spread. Teal aren't as wary as late season mallards are, but by the time they push down south in mid to late September, they've already been shot at by a number of hunters on their journey down the flyways. 

Using a good camouflage pattern that has a mixture of brown, green and tan colors–Sitka Gear’s Marsh , Realtree's Max-7, and Mossy Oak Shadow Grass Habitat patterns all come to mind—will help keep you concealed in the marsh.

And on the receiving end of a few high-speed fly-bys and corkscrew maneuvers that blue-winged teal are infamous for as they try to “blued on by you.”

Fifth, be sure to use the right calls to attract teal. That means that you should skip the high-volume calls necessary later on this fall from your Elite, Rich-n-Tone or Echo acrylic calls. Instead, opt for a few timely staccato teal quacks or whistling peeps from a Primos fluttering whistle or a Duck Commander of Sure-Shot teal hen call. The bottom line is that while it doesn't take much to get the attention of these little birds right now, so the more realistic it sounds, the better off you should be.

"A few subtle quacks can get them to turn around and dump into the decoys," my late friend J.J. would say. "And like calling any waterfowl, you want to call at their tailfeathers when they're going away but when they're coming in, leave them alone."

Finally, be sure to match your shotgun, choke tube and non-toxic shotshell combination for the diminutive waterfowl. While I like the 12 gauge for all of my regular season waterfowl shooting, a 20-gauge is equally deadly, especially when coupled with an improved cylinder choke tube and non-toxic shot that is in the #4, #5 or #6 size ranges. You might even opt for a lighter, sub-gauge shotgun because you'll really want to get that barrel moving forward quickly since waterfowlers almost always shoot behind these early teal blazing on by.

With these tips in mind, if the season is already underway where you live and hunt, don’t fret too much because sometimes, the best early teal hunting action is near the season’s end as the autumnal change begins to accelerate, pushing these little ‘fowl south on every hint of a north wind.

And like the old coffee commercial once proclaimed, sometimes, the best is saved for last, since early teal hunting can be amazingly good all the way to the final drop.

"(One time), I had  three guys from Midland who hunted with me in the (Red River) area," my late friend J.J. recalled. "Five minutes after legal shooting time, we had a group of about 200 teal dump into the decoys. It was pure chaos and in less than five minutes, from that first bunch and a few others that followed, we had a four-man limit in hand.

"It was the fastest, most intense wingshooting that I've ever seen," he added. "It was over almost as fast as it started."

That hunt came on the final weekend of that particular season, as I recall, and it buoyed Kent to remain optimistic about early teal season all the way to the season’s final moments. In all my years of duck hunting, I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone more enthusiastic about the September early teal season than Kent was and that was true even on the final day.

"Typically, the last week of the season is very good most years anyway," he said with a deep laught and a thousand watt smile that made him one of North Texas' top guides for years.

And that’s why he’d be there every chance he could, all the way to the September season’s final bell. And so should you and I this fall, because while these little ducks are certainly early birds each September, literally here today and gone tomorrow sometimes, they are also much more than a warm up act or a September wingshooting kind of h'orderve.

Because sometimes, the duck hunting action they bring in September is as memorable as the main course will be a few weeks from now in October, November, December, and January. But you’ve got to be there to find that out.

"The sound of them buzzing over the decoys, it does wonder for the heart," noted my late waterfowling pal with a chuckle. "The only thing that rivals a nice flock of teal dumping into your decoys is to drop a flock of mallards down out of the sky with your call and to have them back peddle into the decoys. That's about all that will rival an early teal hunt."

An un-teal we meet again on the other side in a heavenly duck blind, amen to that.

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