If James Clayton of White Hall thought it was important enough to look me up and come to my house, then it was certainly important enough to listen.
Clayton's story is relevant to recent events at Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee and to chronic misbehavior at public duck hunting areas in Arkansas.
In January, David Vowell, 70, was charged with killing two young duck hunters in a duck blind at Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee. Vowell knocked on the door of the blind and asked the occupants if he could hunt with them, according to a third person, Jeffrey Crabtree, who survived the incident. When the trio let Vowell into the blind, he quickly shot two of the hunters before Crabtree disarmed and disabled him.
Vowell's body was found in the lake near the blind Jan. 31, the day our column ran about the incident. An altercation at Cache River River Wildlife Refuge could have had a similar ending.
On Dec. 14, 2019, Clayton was hunting ducks in the Cache River NWR with Derrick Wilson, 41, Carter Wilson, 17, and Jeff Ford, 40. Ford and Clayton were in a different boat than the Wilsons. Entering Straight Lake, a third, unidentified boat trailed the Wilsons, apparently trying to outrun them to a hole the Wilsons had been hunting. When the water became too shallow for boating, Derrick Wilson said he jumped out of his boat, ran to the hole and flashed a light at the unidentified boat to signify the hole was taken.
Such things occur every morning in public-hunting areas, but this encounter escalated. The driver of the unidentified boat is a real estate agent in Greensboro, Ga., who spends the entire 60-day duck season hunting in Arkansas. Derrick Wilson and Clayton said they know him well and have even hunted with him. Wilson and Clayton said his pattern is to join other hunters in productive holes, GPS the locations and then "jump" holes for subsequent hunts.
Losing this particular "race" seemed to have triggered the Georgian. After a heated conversation, Derrick Wilson said, the Georgian grabbed Wilson and clawed at his face, leaving bloody scratch marks. He also assaulted Carter Wilson, Derrick Wilson said.
The Georgian unsheathed his shotgun from its case, Derrick Wilson said. Wilson said he heard the shotgun's action close, and he called 911. At that point, the Georgian's partner got involved and tried to restrain him.
"He yelled at me to, 'Be sure and tell her [911] that it's not loaded. I wasn't going to shoot you with it. I was just going to hit you upside the head with it,' " Wilson said.
Clayton and Ford arrived, at which point the Georgian put away his shotgun. Outnumbered and with law enforcement alerted, the Georgian and his partner departed.
Clayton and Wilson are concerned that law enforcement let the incident slide. Wilson said he did not return to that area for fear of another encounter, and that Carter Wilson was so traumatized that he did not hunt ducks again for the rest of the season.
We know that the Georgian was cited for disorderly conduct on Jan. 16, 2020. He paid a fine of $205 on Feb. 3, 2020. We were told that the citation and fine were probably for that incident. We were also told that more serious charges were not filed because a game warden must actually see a physical assault occur.
Squabbles over hunting spots are facts of life in public land duck hunting. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has reduced conflict potential at wildlife management areas with a suite of regulations over the years, but much of that behavior has shifted to federal wildlife refuges, which are more loosely regulated. It's like squeezing a balloon. The balloon doesn't pop. The bubble just migrates to a different part of the balloon.
A lot of behavioral barriers that promote a civil society seem to be crumbling lately. When eroded standards pervade an arena where all participants are armed, the potential for catastrophe intensifies. When catastrophe finally occurs, it will define an area's reputation.
We don't want that reputation in Arkansas, and we don't want it as duck hunters.
Turkey Seminar
Join us via Zoom on March 6 at 10:30 a.m., as we discuss turkey hunting in Arkansas. We will talk about turkey hunting strategies, best areas for turkey hunting, turkey calls and my new turkey hunting novel, "St. Tom's Cathedral." To register, visit arkansasonline.com/all-access or call (501) 378-3847.