Arkansas Sportsman

Wind makes for a sneaky duck hunt

I've never worked harder to kill a few ducks than I did Sunday with Alan Thomas at Lake Dardanelle.

I was tired, sore and scratched to ribbons at the end of the hunt. Al took a similar beating, and he does it almost every day.

We launched before sunrise at the Spadra boat ramp. Al chose Spadra because of a hard northwest wind that was forecast to hit later in the morning. That area is narrow, and high bluffs prevent the wind from rolling up the giant waves that occur around Lamar and Knoxville. That's potentially lifesaving information for hunters like Al who use small flatbottom boats.

We motored a short distance to a shallow lagoon between a cluster of small islands. Al calls it the "Cut-Through Hole" because diving ducks fly through the narrow cut between the islands. The lagoon also provides a small refuge from the wind for puddle ducks.

We pitched out a half-dozen mallard decoys and three coot decoys. The coot decoys seem to calm mallards and persuade them to commit to landing quicker than without them, Al said.

The wind arrived with a vengeance. The straight-line was about 20 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph. It roared through the trees behind us like an endless convoy of tractor-trailer rigs on Interstate 40.

As predicted, a flock of about 15 bluebills, or greater scaup, dropped like names at a cocktail party to below treetop level. They followed the cut and zipped past. Then it happened again. It always takes me awhile to range passing ducks in the open so I didn't shoot, and Al wasn't in a good position to shoot.

Shortly after, two mallards swam into the hole from the creek channel.

"Cut 'em," Al shouted.

They launched, but they were too slow and too close. I bagged the drake, and Al got the hen.

"That's what they do," Al said. "They land in the open water and swim into the hole."

It was easy to see how they came in so fast. Whitecaps rolled into the hole. The open water was in 18-inch rollers.

"Imagine what it's like downriver where the wind has room to pick up a head of steam," Al said. "There are some people down there who are going to have an uncomfortable time getting back to their ramps."

You have to get way out in front of ducks that are sailing on a 20-30 mph wind. I finally got the lead right and bagged a bluebill and a bufflehead.

The ducks quit flying about 9:45, so we packed up and went on a jump-shooting expedition. Al has a series of holes nearby that were unhunted that day. With the wind muffling our approach, we could sneak up on them undetected.

Reaching the first hole required a long walk through dense woods and brush. That's hard enough when you're dressed for it. It's a lot harder when you're wearing 5mm neoprene waders with thick, rubber boots lined with 1,600 grams of Thinsulate.

We spied six mallards, so we backed out and conferred. The final approach required us to crawl about 30 yards through brush and grass. Naturally, the ducks moved. Instead of bracketing them in a pincer, we squeezed them. They flushed before we were in position to shoot, and they escaped unscathed.

The next hole required a trickier approach. A group of ducks were on the other side of a stone revetment, about 20 feet away. Getting in a shooting position required skirting a deep pool that contains quicksand. We determined that the footing was solid if we hugged the rocks. Al went around the side of the revetment, and I went over the top. The ducks flushed when I appeared. I took too long to pick out a pintail drake and shot too late. Al didn't see the pintail, and instead dropped a pretty ringneck drake.

The third hole required another walk through brush, followed by a long crawl through mud and brush. The hole was full of mallards, gadwalls and other ducks. They bobbed and preened, oblivious. We pinpointed the mallards' locations and determined I had the best shot. I lurched to my knees, and the ducks flushed. I got one greenhead. Despite the barrage, the rest of the ducks escaped.

"That ain't bad at all," Al said. "One is really all you can expect to get when you jump shoot."

The hunting was a lot more arduous than usual, but that made success all the more rewarding.

Sports on 01/08/2015

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