AMERICA'S BEST PUBLIC DUCK HUNTING

The Quacks Come In

EDITOR'S NOTE: My duck hunting partners, Tate Wood of Memphis, Tennessee, and Buddy Harris of Greenwood, and I hunted in Mississippi from a flat-bottomed, War Eagle boat with an Avery Quick Set Duck Blind that we could pop up in less than a minute and drop to the side of the boat in about the same time. I wasn't confident that we'd see many ducks in these public-land hunting areas. And if I hadn't witnessed our hunts with my own two eyes, I never would've believed that we would have the opportunity to take hundreds -- even thousands -- of ducks each day.

As Wood had predicted, the ducks came in to the decoys, looked them over and started to leave again. Fierce calling and pleading once more turned the mallards. This time the birds flew into the wind and headed straight for our decoys, never spotting us in our camouflage. I watched the mallards fall out of the sky, back-pedal with their wings and spread their feet, looking at the place where they would light. "Take 'em," Wood said as he threw the top of the blind back. All three of us began to shoot. I saw the duck I intended to bag. But then another duck flew in front of that mallard, and I quickly swung on the second duck instead of the first duck. When I squeezed the trigger, neither bird received the steel shot I had sent toward them. I adjusted my aim and went back to the first bird I had intended to shoot. But this greenhead climbed to the high timber faster than my shot could reach him. I readjusted my aim and squeezed the trigger for the third time. However, nothing but an empty shotgun shell fell to the water.

Wood and Harris did much better, each taking a greenhead. But because one of the downed ducks had fallen in the current, Wood said, "Let's go get him quick." We dropped the blind in less than 30 seconds with all three of us helping to untie the straps and fold down the blind. After we cranked the motor, the boat quickly moved from between the two trees. We raced to pick up one big mallard from the current, quickly scooped up the second duck, jammed the boat into the two trees where we had positioned it earlier and put the blind back up. In less than 10 minutes, we had set up to start calling again.

Avery's Quick Set Duck Blind enabled us to drop the blind, pick up the ducks and return to the hunting site before the next flight of ducks flew in. I spotted a flight of gadwalls coming in to the decoys. However, before they could look over the decoys, from another direction six mallards approached our blind. Wood and Harris talked aggressively to the webfoots. This time when the ducks came in, I decided to pick one bird and attempt to take him. I didn't want to make the same mistake I'd made on the first flight -- trying to shoot two or three ducks at the same time. I knew better than to attempt to shoot a second duck before I'd taken the first one. When the mallards tried to light in the decoys, I bagged my first mallard of the morning. Wood doubled, and Harris took his second duck. In less than 1 1/2-hours, we all had taken our limit of mallards.

"I can't believe the ducks still are coming in, and we have to leave," I said. "Although we've heard some shots in the distance, I know they're coming from some of the sportsmen who hunt with us. Why do so many ducks fly through here and so few people hunt this area?" "Folks in Mississippi think they have better places to hunt, and they don't believe a national wildlife reserve can provide as good hunting land as their private lands," Wood said. "We don't tell many folks how good we've found the duck hunting here. But I guarantee you won't find better public duck-hunting land in the nation." He got no argument from me.

TOMORROW: ANOTHER GREAT DUCK-HUNTING SPOT