The Carl Frentress Unit of Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area closed to general visitors on Sept. 18. Under Texas Parks and Wildlife's 2026–27 schedule, it stays closed for most of the time until noon on Feb. 1. The ducks start arriving in October. From Sept. 18 through Jan. 31 there are 136 days. The north unit is open on 24 of them, spread across three windows. If you live around Richland Chambers and want to see the wetlands at their fullest, those 24 days are your whole season, so plan around them.
Why the Gates Close When the Birds Show Up
The closures follow the hunting calendar. The north unit's 2026–27 map lists the whole area as closed Sept. 18–Nov. 5, Nov. 9–22, Nov. 30–Dec. 20, and Jan. 4–31. Those blocks cover TPWD's postcard selection hunts for early teal, feral hog, waterfowl, and youth/adult waterfowl. The same managed wetlands that feed tens of thousands of wintering ducks also host the drawn hunts, so for most of the season the gate stays shut to everyone else.
The other half of the WMA stays closed even longer. The South Unit, #703S, is 8,974 acres of bottomland hardwoods off FM 488 and used to be called the Trinity Unit. Its 2026–27 map lists the entire area as closed Sept. 1–Mar. 28. From fall into early spring, the Frentress Unit's 5,597 acres are the only part of Richland Creek a general visitor can enter, and only on the open dates.
The Three Windows, Laid Out
Each window opens at noon on its first day, not at dawn. Several also include special hunt days, which shape how a visit goes.
| Window | Opens | Last open day | Hunt days inside the window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early November | Nov. 6, noon | Nov. 8 | Youth and veteran/active-duty military waterfowl, Nov. 7–8 |
| Thanksgiving week | Nov. 23, noon | Nov. 29 | Youth-only waterfowl, Nov. 25 and Nov. 28 |
| Holiday break | Dec. 21, noon | Jan. 3 | Youth-only waterfowl, Dec. 23 and Dec. 26 |
The next noon opening after Jan. 3 is Feb. 1.
How Each Window Plays Out
The hunt days don't close the wetlands to birders, but they change the timing. Waterfowl shooting hours on the special-season days run from half an hour before sunrise until 11 a.m., and hunters can start entering at 5 a.m. On a youth or veteran hunt day, the morning belongs to the hunters and shooting stops before lunch. Every window also opens at noon. So by TPWD's own schedule, much of this season's access lands in the afternoon.
Early November is the shortest window: a half day on Friday, Nov. 6, then the Nov. 7–8 youth and veteran/active-duty waterfowl weekend. The lake gets busy that same weekend. Victory Fishing Events lists its RAD-Rides Grand Championship for Nov. 7–8 at Richland Chambers, based at Fisherman's Point Marina & Resort, 230 FM 416, Streetman. Victory's rules put the lake off-limits to competitors from Monday, Nov. 2, until the Saturday start. That weekend, then, has tournament boats out of Streetman and hunters on the wetlands in the mornings. Friday afternoon, Nov. 6, is the one stretch of the window with neither.
Thanksgiving week runs seven days, from noon Monday, Nov. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 29. The youth-only waterfowl hunts fall on Wednesday, Nov. 25, and Saturday, Nov. 28. That leaves Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday with no special hunt on the schedule. If family is in town for the holiday, this is the easiest window to work in.
The holiday break is the longest window of the season: noon Dec. 21 through Jan. 3, which is 14 calendar days. The only youth hunts are Dec. 23 and Dec. 26. It's also the deepest point of the winter that general visitors can reach before February. On Jan. 4 the gate closes again for the rest of January.
What the Wetlands Actually Are
People who skip the drive to FM 488 are skipping more than a duck pond. The George W. Shannon Wetlands are a water-reuse project run by the Tarrant Regional Water District with TPWD. Trinity River water runs through sedimentation ponds and then a series of wetland cells, where plants filter it naturally before it flows into Richland-Chambers Reservoir. Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine explains where the water goes next. Fort Worth draws from the lake for its municipal supply, so residents there "brush their teeth and wash their clothes with water cleaned by the WMA's plants."
According to the magazine, the idea came out of work that TPWD biologist Carl Frentress started with TRWD in the mid-1990s. A pilot project grew into the full wetlands, and construction finished in 2013. The two agencies put the size a little differently. TRWD's wetlands page says 2,200 acres, and the magazine says about 2,000.
The plants that clean the water also feed the birds. The annual wetland plants grow fast because they take up so many nutrients, and that makes them a high-nutrition food for waterfowl. That's why the north unit draws so many ducks in fall, and it's also why the north unit hosts the hunts.
"In the fall, the ducks come. Tens of thousands of ducks visit each year. … I still get excited about it every October when they start showing up."
That's how Assenheimer of TPWD described it to Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine in its August/September 2026 issue, naming gadwall, shovelers, pintail, and teal among the arrivals. The same article lists sandpipers and avocets on the mudflats, plus herons, egrets, and ibises as regulars. It also mentions otters, raccoons, and the occasional bobcat coming down to the water.
The birding records back that up. The eBird hotspot for the north unit shows 264 species across 953 checklists. That's an all-time total, not a forecast for any one afternoon. The hotspot's bird list includes Bald Eagle and several sparrow species. A checklist submitted on Sept. 18, 2026, the first day of the closure, recorded Wood Duck and Blue-winged Teal. The teal were already on the water as the gate closed.
The area has a strong record for single-day counts too. The magazine reports that a local Audubon group's Big Sit, a Great Texas Birding Classic event where birders count from one fixed spot, recorded the most species ever logged on an inland Big Sit in Texas. Fort Worth Audubon held its 2026 Big Sit at the WMA on May 7, and its event page says the previous year's group listed 105 species.
Anglers can use the same windows. Fishing on the north unit is allowed in daylight year-round except on the full-closure dates. Zachry Lake has no motor restrictions and is a no-wake zone. TPWD's fishing page spells it "Zachary," so expect to see both spellings.
Before You Turn Onto FM 488
- Get the right permit. For 2026–27, visitors 17 and older need either a $12 Limited Public Use permit, which covers bird watching, hiking, fishing, and wildlife viewing, or a $48 Annual Public Hunting permit. LPU holders can't hunt or carry firearms or archery equipment. Visitors under 17 get in free with a permitted adult.
- Register on site. Every visitor has to register on site, and access is daylight only through the designated entry points. The headquarters is at 1670 FM 488, Streetman. From Corsicana, take US 287 south to FM 488.
- Stay on the marked roads. Visitors have to stay on designated roads, which are labeled "DR" on the Frentress map. There are no designated hiking trails, but you can bike the existing roads.
- Bring your own water. The WMA has no drinking water and no restrooms, and TPWD warns that flooding can happen after heavy rain.
- Call first if the weather has turned. The area office number is 903-389-7080.
- Leave the dog home. Dogs are prohibited except that each permit holder may bring one while hunting migratory birds, squirrel, rabbits, or hares.
The windows fall Nov. 6–8, Nov. 23–29, and Dec. 21 through Jan. 3, and each one opens at noon.
At The Teel Team, we spend a lot of time on the south shore of Richland Chambers, and we're glad to talk about the lake communities nearest FM 488 and the wetlands, or to swap notes on the best stretches of the lake between visits. Contact us anytime.
