Me, my brother and my 15 year old kid have a chance to hunt pigs down in Texas the first weekend of January, none of us have ever hunted pigs before. We will be hunting in the Anna Texas area on private property.
From what I’ve gathered, we should look for watering holes first, food sources second, to be extremely cautious of our scent while in the field, and plan on hunting all night and sleeping all day as most hog activity is during the night.
Question about bait piles if we are allowed to place one - how long should a bait pile be placed before we hunt over it? A week, few days, put it out that morning and expect to hunt over it?
I had a longer more detailed post typed out, but evidently there is a 2000 word limit on posts, so I’ll try to add clarity whenever needed if I’m being too vague.

Put up feeders and cameras for at least a week. Check cameras for times of activity. Show up an hour before pigs. Sit downwind. Use whatever means “floats your boat” to kill. Have fun. Don’t worry about water or food sources or camo. The cameras will tell you everything you need.

How much land?
Does your property owner have cameras out?
Hogs are here one day gone the next.  Or there when you aren't and gone when you are.

They are smarter than deer. Patterns are unpredictable. They travel a lot so it's hard to plan for them to be at X at any given day

Wishing you the best of luck and hope y'all have a good time

Honestly we are going into this as blind as Ray Charles at the moment, I’m trying to get more info, my uncle, who isn’t a hunter at all really, has a few friends that own property, who in turn is giving us access to hunt. Right now, I have no idea as to the size of the property, if the owners hunt it at all, if there’s any feeders out or anything else, we are still pretty early in the planning stages currently, and that is information I’m trying to get from my uncle.
I’m hoping to get a location of the property so I can look at it via satellite and topo maps, but I’m not 100% sure if that’ll help us very much though.
I don’t have very high hopes of seeing anything, let alone getting a shot off honestly, but given the chance to hunt something new, in a different state with my kid, I can’t pass it up.

Two different hog hunts. Both were great fun. One was a real adventure because it charged me. But the meat tasted wierd to me. I gave it to family in ky and they loved it though.

As a local I can't imagine where in Anna you will be going. Hopefully away from all the recent development!

You might want to do some land ownership research. I kicked my last two people I gave permission to off my property two years ago. They ended up inviting 18 other people. Friends and family and supposedly good Christian people. Mom caught a couple in our shop. So they got the boot. I would get the land owners names and contact them before you attempt to hunt and meet and greet. By doing this you might have a place to come back to. There are plenty of land owners maps such as OnX and Hunt Stand that give you address information plus aerial maps.

@Buckshot_Jim

Lot of people in the Texas forum seem to recommend him as an excellent guide in the area & true "great white hunter" so if anyone could give you some general hog slaying advice it seems like he would be a good place to start.

However - In your post I'd be concerned that it is 3rd hand permission hunt.  Someone who is not the property owner has invited you to hunt on someone else's property.  Most likely still "O.K." but to cover bases it is best to get it in writing "Landowner X hereby gives Bill_Rights permission to hunt this property on these dates.".  You in turn sign off a Waiver of Liability so if you or your son step on a rusty nail you (or your estate) won't sue the land owner.  Landowner may have given your friend permission to invite down a few friends but it never hurts to cover all the bases for both parties.

Just my .02 cents

Thank for the compliment.
OP, going in blind is the bad part of your scenario. Baiting is fine. No hunting license needed to hunt pigs. If you shoot anything else, you'll need to have licenses. They are $315.00 for out of state hunters.
1: Make sure the actual land owner has given you permission.
2: The gentleman above talking about feeders and cameras is correct.
3: Hogs prefer to be in cover but will go anywhere for a free lunch.
4: If they're pressure at all, you will not see them during the day.
5: Since you're trying to do this in a limited period of time this is what I would do.
Have someone down here get a 5 gallon bucket. Fill it 3/4 of the way with corn. Buy the cheapest beer you can find and pour it over the corn until bucket is almost full. Put a packet of grape koolaid in the bucket and stir. Do this 5 or 6 days before your arrival. Find hog sign, ( a trail, etc) pour the corn out close to the hog sign. Come back the next day and set up so the wind does not carry your scent to bait sight or across the trail and wait. The smell of the fermenting grape flavored corn will draw them in.

Attached File

Going in blind is a recipe for disaster. Any other hunters? Property lines? Terrain? Gates? Parking?

Holy Hell!! Grape Koolaid & Beer Fermented Corn Bait?  

The things you learn on ARFCOM!

O.P. - you are getting sage hunting advice from one of the best guys known to us "Texans of ARFCOM".

Good Luck on your hunt & may you pop some piggies!

Bigger_Hammer

I appreciate all the tips so far, and getting direct permission from the land owners myself is certainly priority #1, I do not want to end up unknowingly trespassing, or not having the land owners know exactly who’s on their property hunting.
And with the baiting techniques, I am going to try and get my uncle to set out some bait, I just wasn’t to sure how far in advance we should set the bait out before we arrive to hunt.

I've used water and instant yeast packets for fermenting.

Beer is for

The beer I use is not fit for drinking