The first week of September last year, I drove through 200 miles of eastern Arkansas scouting for ducks. The temperature hit 84 degrees by midafternoon — not the type of day one might consider ideal when looking for Arkansas waterfowl. But I had no trouble finding teal flocks that sometimes numbered in the thousands.
A drive through Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge in White County turned up the largest numbers. The fields there were flooded, and all hosted sizable flocks of blue-winged teal. On one field alone, I counted more than 2,000. There were small numbers of green-winged teal as well.
On a friend’s farm in Cross County, I found more teal. I jumped several dozen on a pond and flushed another flock on the L’Anguille River. On the drive back home, I saw more bluewings in Dagmar Wildlife Management Area near Hazen. And when I drove through some of the recreation areas on the Arkansas River near Little Rock, I spied many flocks of teal on sandbars or flying in flocks that numbered from four birds to four dozen. Everywhere I checked, if there was suitable habitat for teal, these miniature ducks were present in impressive numbers.
As it turns out, I didn’t get to hunt teal during the 2013 season. (Life throws you curveballs like that sometimes.) I wanted to tell you about my scouting expedition, nevertheless, because I want you to know that teal may be much more plentiful in our state than you realized. If you’re a waterfowling enthusiast, you may want to plan a hunting trip to partake of this unseasonable bounty of ducks.
Our special teal season has a lot to offer. It’s a chance to get back out there after a summer with no hunting. Sharpen your shooting eye. Give your retriever its first real
workout since winter. Workout the kinks before regular duck season begins in November.
The 2014 season runs Saturday through Sept. 28, from sunrise to sunset each day. The daily limit is six. The possession limit is 18. For additional regulations, visit the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s website at www.agfc.com.
Teal facts
Blue-winged teal arrive in Arkansas as early as mid-July. They are common on shallow ponds and pools, in flooded fields and along rivers by early September, and often are found along the marshy borders of slow-moving streams such as the bayous, sloughs and Delta rivers of eastern and southern Arkansas. During wet periods, they often alight in pools of rainwater. By early December, all but a few stragglers have moved to their wintering grounds farther south.
Green-winged teal are much less common than bluewings during the September season, typically comprising 20 percent or less of the harvest. Scattered flocks may be anywhere in the state, but you’re most likely to find these birds in lowland areas such as the eastern Delta and southern Gulf Coastal Plain. These ducks like to do much of their feeding on mud flats, but where mud flats are lacking, they’re usually found in shallow marshes or flooded croplands.
Hunting techniques
You don’t need a blind for teal hunting. In fact, blinds arouse suspicion in the birds, making them difficult to coax in. Most hunters simply wear camouflage clothing to blend into the environment. Flop down atop a beaver house, hunker among willows, stand against a tree in the shadows or squat among cypress knees.
One nice thing about teal is the fact that they decoy well without calling. For hunters like me who aren’t good callers, that’s great news.
When hunting small waters such as ponds, six to 12 decoys usually are enough to draw birds in. When hunting larger waters, carry two to three dozen decoys to gain the birds’ attention. Mallard decoys work OK, but small-bodied teal decoys are easier to carry and work even better.
The pattern of your decoy set is vital in attracting teal and luring them where you want them to land. Most patterns have a pocket facing downwind where the decoying birds should land. These patterns often are described as C, V and J patterns, after their shape as seen from above. The pocket should be within shotgun range and encourage an ideal angle of approach. Decoyed teal land into the wind, which should be coming from the back of the blind, encouraging the normally difficult-to-hit teal to come in straight toward the gunners. It’s also important to place decoys where flying ducks have a good view of them. If the decoys are hidden by a high bank, trees or other obstructions, they are useless.
Where to go
Hunters should scout prior to outings to pinpoint teal concentrations, and in The Natural State, rivers and streams are among the best places to start. Scout for sandbars and other locales beneath major flyways, using binoculars to watch for birds using or passing through the area. The best have a southern exposure with a fairly tall growth of shoreline willows to break the north wind, an expanse of shallow water (2 to 3 feet deep) where teal can feed and eat grit, and are out of the current so the birds need not struggle to stay put. Most big-river teal hunters shoot from a boat hidden in bushes or other cover, or from a hiding place in natural cover.
Many hunters agree the state’s best teal hunting is along the 300-plus miles of the Arkansas River from Fort Smith to the Mississippi River, but many other streams are worth trying as well. In southwest Arkansas, hunters can ply the waters of the Sulphur River and Mercer Bayou on Sulphur River WMA south of Texarkana. Two WMAs — Dave Donaldson/Black River and Shirey Bay-Rainey Brake — provide good shooting along northeast Arkansas’ Black River. Flooded green timber along Bayou de View is open to hunters on Earl Buss/Bayou de View WMA near Hogue and Dagmar WMA near Brinkley, both in east Arkansas. The Cache River, world renowned for its quality waterfowling, flows through two public hunting areas — Cache River NWR and Rex Hancock/Black Swamp WMA in the eastern Delta. And the St. Francis River, one of east Arkansas’ largest streams, is accessible to teal hunters via St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA near Marked Tree.
Some of Arkansas’ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes provide exceptional teal-hunting opportunities, too. Several have adjacent WMAs where you can hunt, including Dardanelle, Greeson, Beaver, Blue Mountain, Bull Shoals, Greers Ferry, Millwood, Nimrod, Ozark and Norfork. If you use good judgment, however, and stay well away from developed sites such as marinas and homes, you can hunt practically anywhere on the Corps lakes without any problem. At times, when water levels, weather and other conditions are right, hunting can be spectacular.
There are many more hot spots around the state. I’ve killed teal in farm ponds, midfield mud puddles the farmer plowed around and shallow backwaters around river oxbows. Preseason scouting will help you zero in on areas with the most potential for good hunting.
No matter where you hunt, you’ll probably burn a few shells before you can consistently connect with teal. Even the most skilled Arkansas hunters know to take along plenty of shotshells and patience.
That’s part of the fun of hunting these fast little gamebirds. No matter how you hunt them or where or when, teal always offer plenty of challenges.