Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i Wildfowl

When talking about duck calls, most hunters’ favorites these days are acrylic single-reeds. It isn’t shocking that the singles tend to drive sales. They have gobs of range, can be ungodly loud, or finessed down to the smallest notes. I personally carry two single-reeds on my lanyard. In a conversation just before writing this article I spoke to WILDFOWL contributor Shawn Swearingen and he asked if I knew of anyone that used a double-reed in contests—neither of us could think of someone who dares step on stage without the range of a single-reed duck call. The same trend seems to be manifesting itself in the marsh, with hunters everywhere wailing away on a solo piece of mylar plastic. And why wouldn’t they? Singles can produce all the flash, all the…

At the height of the wood duck migration through the prairies last fall, we found the mother lode. Floating a river with our kayaks, my son, Will, and I passed through a stretch where we flushed hundreds of those beautiful, tasty birds every time we drifted through. That convinced me to set up before dawn one morning and try to decoy those weepers, as we call them for that lonely whistling sound they are famous for. As a river rat, born and raised, I’ve used the silent approach every fall to locate an area where we can set up and decoy woodies. Because we do float trips in kayaks so often, I always yearn for a decoy hunt to enjoy some easy shooting. Drifting along down the river and having…

❶ Band: 1176-36039 Hunter: Adriano Corsini, Chatham, Ontario, Canada Species: Redhead (F) Banded: 8/7/2019, Sheridan County, MT Recovered: 11/11/2019, Detroit River, LaSalle, Ontario, Canada Comments: I shot a hen redhead after both my friends missed. It was incredible, the hen must have been banded and then flew south to the gulf and flew back a different flyway and ended up from the Central Flyway over to the Mississippi Flyway. ❷ Band: 1245-05313 Hunter: Tanner Montez, Cottage Grove, MN Species: Wood Duck (F) Banded: 8/3/2018, Sauk County, WI Recovered: 9/23/2023, Hastings, MN Comments: It was the Minnesota duck opener, and a 3-pack of wood ducks were flying around. I shot the only one that worked in, and it happened it be banded. ❸ Band: 1827-46169 Hunter: Joel Meeteer, East Wenatchee, WA…

WE’VE ALL SEEN THEM—images from a hundred years ago or more with waterfowlers posing, frozen in time, next to the spoils of their hunt and adorned in elegant apparel. The men wearing wool and tweed, silk neckties, pressed cotton shirts, and polished shoes. For the women, silk and wool, boas or furs, feathered hats, and jewelry. Did they dress this way for the hunt? Since the outfits aren’t covered in mud, or torn, and no one is ever soaking wet, the answer is probably no! This photograph is from the John Winter collection of 1910 to 1925 Texas images shared by his grandson Cliff Fisher and was taken at Bering Hardware in downtown Houston in 1920. The party had a good hunt, their harvest composed mostly of pintails, green-winged teal,…

MY SON, HUNTER, IS A waterfowl enthusiast just like his dad. At the age of 14, he saved up and bought a Weatherby Element, which he still uses today. Having used this shotgun on numerous hunts myself, I can personally attest to its reliability, rapid cycling, and smooth-swinging nature. The fit and feel are excellent, making it a top choice for any waterfowl hunter, and an absolute winner in the bang-for-buck category. Years ago, on a waterfowl hunt to test the then-new Weatherby 18i, I slung Federal’s 3-inch Black Cloud #2s at mallards over dekes. The weather was foul, with temps in the negative digits, and a biting north wind howled. The shooting, though, was intense. The shotgun’s inertia recoil reloading system proved its salt. I applauded the elastomer recoil…

MY BUDDIES AND I shoot a lot of drakes. It’s not always easy, and the task can be time consuming; but it’s always worth it. When it comes to picking out drakes, many benefits come with it and each of them will make you a better duck hunter. My drake shooting obsession ramped up four seasons ago when an influx of Eurasian wigeon began showing up in a valley near my home. For 45 years I hunted ducks before getting a Euro. Now, over the past four seasons I’ve shot five, and my friends have shot about the same. In this situation, picking drakes with the hopes of killing a special drake means playing the odds. About one in every 700 wigeon in this area is a Eurasian. Cut that…

IN SUPER BOWL LI, NFL football fans had reason to believe that the outcome of the 2017 championship game was all but in the books in the third quarter. The Atlanta Falcons held a commanding 28-3 lead over the New England Patriots midway through the third quarter, and things looked bleak for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his teammates. But after an unbelievable fourth-quarter comeback, it was Brady hoisting the Lombardi Trophy skyward in a storm of confetti. The idea of a late-in-the-game comeback gives waterfowl hunters an optimistic boost. For much of the early year, things looked bleak on the nesting grounds after a tough winter for pothole production. With months of dry weather, the fabled Duck Factory in the Prairie Pothole Region was nothing short of bone-dry heading…

FOR ZACH DAILEY OF Canton, Illinois, Nov. 12, 2023, didn’t hold high hopes for him or his two friends, Paul and Kyle, who had joined him in the blind that morning. “The weather had been well above average (temps) for most of the season, and this day was no different,” Zach recalls. Whether it was the right shift in wind, or just the right bird on the right day, the trio doesn’t know, nor do they care, because an hour into the hunt Kyle, who had never shot a banded bird, knocked down a banded drake mallard. Everyone was ecstatic. But the fun didn’t stop there. After another hour had passed a single drake swung into the decoys and Zach sent it spiraling down. When Zach’s dog, Hank, brought it…

ALTHOUGH THE DAY’S MOOD was sullen with fog hanging heavy in the warm air, Youth Hunt Saturday in October 2023 rang in the season with a bang. “It was no ordinary hunt,” said Rob Stroda. “We had five kids, four parents, my adult son Nathan, and another blind member. Overlooking 1,500 decoys, we told everyone how special it was to be hunting in this place.” Wood ducks squealed before legal light while grown-ups built up the excitement for the kids who had not before hunted waterfowl. Details, such as shooting within their lanes were explained. “Thousands of ducks were coming by, but we don’t shoot them unless they decoy,” Rob said. “Buck brush makes downed ducks behind the blind hard to find.” Mallards worked the decoys. Kids’ hands on shotguns…

It was still dark when Dad and I reached our usual spot on the tiny creek. As we’d always done, we tossed out a dozen mallard decoys. The water was higher than it ever had been in the three years we’d hunted it. As dawn broke, ducks were sparse. We were hunting in a rye grass field. Fresh sprouting grass was a few inches tall. The meandering creek had always produced in this spot. But not today. We noticed a few flocks of teal darting behind the grassy knoll behind us. I walked to the top and looked down where the creek entered the field from sparse oaks and maples. The water was high and spread out across a little flat. That’s where the teal were landing. We relocated our…