Wading away from the beaten path

Duck hunting as it was meant to be — away from the crowds

Sammie Faulk of Lake Charles, La., enjoys a peaceful moment after a successful duck hunt on a tract of private land near Humnoke. Many waterfowlers do all their hunting on public areas, but private lands often provide more privacy and better shooting.
Sammie Faulk of Lake Charles, La., enjoys a peaceful moment after a successful duck hunt on a tract of private land near Humnoke. Many waterfowlers do all their hunting on public areas, but private lands often provide more privacy and better shooting.

Arkansas’ duck season opened Saturday, and contemplating the season ahead has led to me reminiscing about a place a friend and I often hunted when we were teenagers.

It was just a big mud puddle — a wet spot in a harvested bean field — but it was the perfect place to kill a few ducks now and then. Our tactics were simple but effective. We placed all four of our duck decoys in the water hole. Then we hid in a willow thicket bordering the pool and waited for ducks to drop in.

Often as not, the ducks would spot us and flare away before entering our limited shooting range. About half the time, though, the birds swept in, dipping and tilting in the breeze before splashing down in the shallow water. When they drew near enough, we blazed away with shotguns.

There never were many birds — usually two or three at a time and no more than three or four flights during a hunt. Sometimes they were mallards. Other times, there were teal, shovelers, gadwalls or the occasional prized pintail. We never used a call, never more than the four decoys. But the ducks came anyway. And during the time we hunted them, we kept our families well-fed on waterfowl.

After college, I started hunting ducks seriously, usually in public hunting areas. Unfortunately, many hunts on public land were marred by continual gunfire, skybusters and other annoyances. I gradually withdrew from the crowds and started looking again for remote, overlooked waterfowl-hunting areas that might lure a few passing birds. Surprisingly, I saw, decoyed and shot far more ducks on overlooked hunting areas than I did on big public hunting grounds. And I began enjoying the hunts again.

Regardless of where you live in Arkansas, you can find waters seldom visited by other hunters that serve up excellent gunning for ducks and/or geese. Begin by scouting your vicinity for possibilities. Not all overlooked hunting areas offer good shooting, and the astute waterfowler quickly discovers that of scores of possible locations, only a few appeal to the birds. When you find those spots, however, there won’t be hunters behind

every tree, and if weather and water conditions are right, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to bag mallards, wood ducks, teal, diving ducks and/or other waterfowl.

Wood ducks are tailor-made for hunters who prefer “get-away-from-it-all” sport in the backwoods of Arkansas. These beautiful ducks are common in forested stream bottoms off the beaten path, providing plentiful shooting opportunities for waterfowlers who don’t mind going the extra mile.

Nice thing is, it only takes a little extra scouting to locate wood ducks on many small streams with public access. Such waters are found statewide, from the Ozarks and Ouachitas to the Coastal Plain and Mississippi

Delta.

The Saline River, from Benton to points south, is one example. There are numerous access points along this stretch of water that allow for short float hunts, and while wood ducks tend to be fairly common, hunters are not.

Bayou Bartholomew below Pine Bluff also serves up good woodie hunting, as do stretches of Cadron Creek in Faulkner County, the Ouachita River below Camden, the Antoine River along the Pike/Clark county line and Big Creek south of Marvell (Phillips County). A look at a Ouachita or Ozark National Forest map will turn up many small streams worth a visit as well, such as the Fourche la Fave in the Perry County portion of the Ouachita NF and Big Piney Creek in the Johnson and Pope county portion of the Ozark NF.

On most of these small waters, float hunting from a canoe or small johnboat is the tactic of choice. One hunter paddles from the rear while the other handles the gun in the bow. Both should keep a low profile, sitting, if necessary, on the boat’s floor. Keep the boat headed straight downstream, and remain immobile and silent. When approaching bends in the stream, hug the inside edge. This allows you to get as close as possible to any birds that may be around the corner. Regardless of the craft, camouflage it before each hunt with camo netting or splotches of flat brown and green paint. Dead branches or brush draped over the bow add to the effect.

Just about any beaver pond has the potential for attracting puddle ducks. Fortunately for ducks and for duck hunters, beavers run rampant in Arkansas these days. Trapped nearly to extinction by the mid-19th century, The Natural State’s largest rodent has rebounded with astonishing verve, establishing itself in just about every location that offers the animal its two basic needs: water and trees. Beaver-trapping seasons have been expanded to control the explosion. But still, you can poke any spot on a topo map and bet there are beaver ponds within 5 miles.

Some beaver ponds are more productive than others. One of the best situations is a small creek with beaver ponds strung one after another for a considerable distance. Wood ducks, teal and mallards will work back and forth over several ponds that are bunched up, with the greatest activity occurring during during early morning and late afternoon.

A good way to hunt beaver ponds is to sneak into the area before daylight or a couple hours before dark and wait in hiding until the ducks come in. You can use a portable blind for this hunting or wear camouflage and hunker down in brush near the water’s edge. Some hunters use three or four mallard decoys to help draw the birds in, but this isn’t always necessary, especially if wood ducks are using the spot regularly.

When the ducks do come, they’re usually close and fast. There’s little time to think, just seconds to decide which bird to swing on and no time to calculate proper lead. Everything either comes together in an instant, or it doesn’t.

Farm ponds also offer exciting shooting possibilities. Those covering an acre or less usually offer only a single shooting flurry per visit. On these, it’s important to figure out how to approach without alerting the ducks. If you know birds on a certain pond usually feed at the shallow end, then it’s necessary to approach so you’re in range. If a cold wind is howling, ducks will usually be on the protected side, if there is one. In a gentler breeze, they may be on the wind-blown side because the stirring of the water brings them food.

Some ponds never hold more than two or three birds, transients dropping in for a short visit. A friend of mine told me of hunting one such pond on his property. He hunted 30 minutes each morning before going to work, then 30 minutes late in the afternoon.

“Some visits I wouldn’t see a bird,” he said. “But during the first month, my score was 26 ducks. It was great. I was hunting within 100 yards of my house.”

I hope the day never comes when I am no longer awed by wood ducks streaking along a mountain river or surprised by a dozen mallards exploding from a secluded beaver pond. When hunting in places others rarely go, I dictate the quality of the hunt. The pressure is off, the crowding is gone, and the excuses are mine and mine only.

That’s the way duck hunting was meant to be.

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