Maybe it’s our whitetail-centered mindset in this country, but there’s a pervasive idea that hunting season comes to an end when December comes to an end. There’s something to that, of course. The leaves are off the trees, it gets bitterly cold in some parts of the country, and things do tend to taper off a bit. Then, we’re left with the black hole known as winter.
For us Texans, January through March can be a rough one. We don’t have the option to go skiing like some of our western friends, but it’s generally not warm enough to spend the day lounging around outside by the pool, either. The good news is that there’s still plenty of juice left to squeeze out of our outdoor pursuits. In fact, things can get pretty dang good when the Christmas music begins to fade away and people recover from their New Year’s Eve festivities. It just takes a little outside-the-box thinking—mental gymnastics, if you will.
Outdoorsmen are busy folks, and we like it that way. So, in an effort to keep us busy in the best way possible, I’m throwing out some options to keep you sane during the slowest season of the year. It may not be peak fishing or deer hunting, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had in the great outdoors—not to mention the great indoors, but we’ll get to that shortly.
In the meantime, here’s my guide for surviving the late season.
Late-Season Ducks
All of my fellow waterfowlers spend November and December chasing their target, but the late-season migration can prove to be one hell of a good time as well. This partially depends on the weather throughout the fall and winter, but if we happen to hit a weather window where cold fronts push the remaining birds south, things can really heat up in January. If you’re reading this article in 2026, you’d better get to it—the season ends across the state on January 25.
Keys to success
The late season is a tricky time to chase ducks, but certainly not impossible. At this point, birds have seen plenty of hunters and there’s a solid chance they’re carrying a few pellets in their ass from poor shooting across the flyway. With that in mind, it’s best to keep your decoy game subtle. Try running small decoy spreads ranging from six to 24 decoys at most, and keep them sparsely organized and in pairs. Drakes and hens have paired up at this point in the season, so they won’t want to dive bomb into a group of 30 or 40 decoys—they want those ladies to themselves. Beyond that, you’ll need motion in your spread, but not too much. Keep the Mojo spinners in your bag, and stick to a more subtle jerk rig or pulsator decoy.
“If you haven’t joined in on this yearly event, you’re sorely missing out because it can be about as much fun as you can have without breaking the law.”
The White Bass Run
Starting sometime in February or March, drive across any body of water in Texas and you’ll most likely see plenty of trucks parked near overpasses, boat ramps, and trails leading to creeks. They’re there for one reason only: the legendary white bass run. If you haven’t joined in on this yearly event, you’re sorely missing out because it can be about as much fun as you can have without breaking the law. If you can time it correctly, and find the fish, it’s one bite after another with some great eating at the end of the day. Sure, it’ll be crowded on the water, but white bass (or sand bass, or sandies) aren’t going extinct any time soon.
Keys to success
This one is all about timing. There are plenty of theories as to when the bass start their yearly spawning run up the creeks, but I’d start dropping lines whenever the water temperature gets above 50 degrees or so. You’ll know when the run is in full swing because you won’t be able to keep the fish off your hook. As for where to go, simply look for any large reservoir or river, and then look for feeder creeks flowing into it—the bass will be heading up those creeks to spawn as soon as the water reaches that magical temperature. Don’t overthink the lure selection. They’ll pretty much eat anything at this stage, so make plenty of room in the cooler.
Turkey Season
This is an obvious one, but definitely worth mentioning. The spring turkey season generally kicks into gear in mid to late March, so it’s a great way to emerge from hibernation and celebrate the onset of warmer temperatures. The spring season gets all of the buzz in the turkey world for one good reason: the toms are ready for love, and willing to make some bad decisions. That’s great news for us, and I highly recommend you don’t miss it.
Keys to success
We don’t have enough time or space here to go over a guide to turkey hunting. Many books and online articles have been written on the topic, and they’ll all do a better and more thorough job than I can do in a few sentences. So I’ll keep it simple. Buy yourself a turkey call and start practicing. Watch YouTube videos on what an actual turkey sounds like in the spring when they’re searching for hens, and also pay attention to when you should make a bunch of noise and when you should be quiet and stealthy. Once you get that figured out, it’s just a matter of finding some timber and loading up the scattergun.
“The good news is that there are things you can do pretty much all year long to keep your deer brain in working order.”
Post-Season Scouting
Alright, now it’s time to think a little outside the box. As many of you know, I’m more of a generalist, but I recognize that it can be tough for the diehard whitetail hunters to fully turn it off when the season comes to an end. The good news is that there are things you can do pretty much all year long to keep your deer brain in working order. We’ll save food plots and land management for summer, but in the meantime, you can head for the woods and start scouting for next season. In fact, it may be the best time to do so. Deer are still in their cold-weather movement patterns, so the information will still be applicable for next season. They’ll still be working occasional scrapes and making rubs, which you can mark for future reference. All in all, any day in the woods is a good day—and always productive.
Keys to success
Now that the season is actually over, this is your chance to see where the bucks are actually bedding. As I mentioned before, look for scrapes and rub lines in the timber, and then (very) slowly walk until you bump something—take note of where the buck was bedded and the general features (elevation, wind, foliage, etc.) that led him to choose that spot. Even if you don’t end up hunting this particular buck, it’s valuable intel for other deer as well. It also helps to have a mission, and it’s always fun to go looking for antler sheds. Especially later in the winter, bucks will drop their antlers, and they serve as a great goal to keep you focused and engaged when things are gray and gloomy in the timber.
Work on Kitchen Skills
Surprise, surprise. You know I had to pigeonhole cooking into this article at some point, so here we are. If you were lucky in the fall, you have a freezer full of the best meat money can’t buy and now’s the time to start brushing up on your skills so you can make the most of it. I’m not against burgers and seared backstrap, but there are a million ways to cook venison, waterfowl, upland birds, and whatever else you happen upon during hunting season. Take advantage of the slow season to learn a few new techniques, and try recipes that you maybe wouldn’t normally try—there’s a 100% chance it’ll pay off.
Keys to success
Instead of tips and techniques, I’ll just offer some great places to start on your wild game cooking journey. I’d be remiss if I didn’t throw out some of my own references:
For more in-depth instruction, there are plenty of great wild-game cookbooks out there, but here are a few of my favorites:
- Afield: A Chef’s Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish by Jesse Griffiths
- Buck, Buck, Moose by Hank Shaw
- Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail by Hank Shaw
- Duck, Duck, Goose by Hank Shaw
- Taste of the Wild: A Compendium of Modern American Game Cookery by AJ McClane
Shoot, after reading my own list, I’m already feeling better about the long wait for summer. In our minds, we’re all in a hurry for warmer weather, but let’s not get too hasty because we’ll all be sick of that same warm weather when August rolls around. In the meantime, let’s soak up what we have right in front of us—namely, a hell of a good time during the “slow” season.
Photography by Jody Horton