Darn teal!
After an action-packed opening to last year's early teal season, Alan Thomas of Russellville and I anticipated a repeat performance Saturday on Lake Dardanelle. I was so excited that I planned to go "full psycho," as Al calls it, by camping in my boat. The objective wasn't to hold a spot. Lake Dardanelle attracts a lot of teal hunters on opening day, but we have a lot of spots. I just couldn't wait, and I wanted to soak in the full experience.
I was going to bring a propane stove and a cooler full of bacon, eggs, maybe some shredded potatoes for hash browns. I was going to make fresh coffee with the percolator and sleep in the boat surrounded by Thermacells to keep the skeeters at bay.
"Nobody should brave the river at night alone," Al said. "I'll join you, but I need to do some scouting before we commit to a spot."
Scouting on Lake Dardanelle is probably more essential for duck hunting this year than any time in the recent past. That's because the floods of late spring and early summer reconfigured the river. Duck friendly flats of the past are now dry sandbars. Many shallow backwaters are now inaccessible because the passes and cuts are either sanded in or too shallow for a boat. One of our friends rudely discovered that they are even too shallow to access with surface-drive motors.
One popular spot -- and one of our favorites -- is one we call the "Bluff Hole." It's a shallow bay that used to be full of duckweed and coontail moss. Frankie Tucker, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wildlife officer stationed in Johnson County, said it looks like a wildflower field now.
On the other hand, the floods opened up new spots that casual hunters haven't found yet.
After extensive scouting, Al advised against going full psycho because planting a flag in one spot might restrict our options. He had a first option for starters, but he said we might need to resort to a second option and maybe even a third.
The bigger problem, he explained, was that blue-winged teal were relatively scarce last week. Leading up to last season's opener, he saw many flocks containing many birds. Last week he saw only a few flocks, the biggest numbering 25-30 birds. Even a great spot Saturday wouldn't attract nearly the same number of birds that good spots attracted last year.
Al shot the first bird Saturday, a lone teal that landed in the decoys. Ruth, Al's 12-year-old Labrador retriever, recovered it. It was a bittersweet moment because Al knew at that instant that it was Ruth's last hunt.
"She's really uncomfortable," Al said wistfully. "She lives for this, but she just can't do it anymore."
"It would crush her if you leave her at home," I said. "You could still bring her. Just don't let her work."
Al brightened at the compromise.
"You're officially retired, ol' girl," Al said. "Just enjoy the show."
Ruth is the daughter of the late Grace, one of the most phenomenal retrievers I've known. Grace was so good that Ruth didn't get much work until she was 7 years old. Ruth is more laid back, but she specializes in "hopeless" retrieves. Wounded ducks often wedge themselves under submerged vegetation and tangles to avoid being captured. Ruth finds those birds.
I was also with Grace on her last hunt, so it was a special honor to be on this hunt with Ruth.
Even though birds were scarce, we should have killed 10 if we would have shot better. Two groups flew past us low at 25 yards. My first option did the teal's classic duck, bob and weave just before I fired, as did the second option. I finally splashed the third option. The same thing happened to Al. Instead of doubling or even tripling in both flocks, we each got one.
We ended the hunt with two birds each.
A much better hole was about 250 yards west. Teal bombed it all morning, but they often caught the four hunters in that spot unaware. Several flocks made multiple passes without drawing a shot.
We waited until 10 a.m., hoping the exodus of hunters would stir up some teal and get them flying. If that happened, they didn't come to us.
"A lot of these people will never come back," Al said. "They're gonna say that guy that's always writing about Lake Dardanelle is an idiot."
We clinked our Thermos cups and wished all those folks the best of luck in finding better places to hunt.
Sports on 09/17/2015