Last days of Duck Season

Last days of Duck Season

By John Criner

Times Outdoors Columnist Only a couple more days of this duck season left.

For most duck hunters it has been a difficult season.

This last weekend finally brought some cold weather and some new birds that have not been hunted very hard. Let’s hope this last weekend of the season has “duck weather” and hunters can go out on a positive hunt. At last some positive reports with commercial clubs like Languille River Duck Club having good hunts for their clients. For many clubs that have prepared plenty of food plots and adequate water early, it’s been a costly disappointment.

Because of the high Mississippi River, the best hunting has been in the back waters near the river.

Last Saturday hunters near Elaine were boat hunting when the storm and high winds came through causing dangerous tree branches to break off and fly through the air. They managed to get back to their cabin with nobody hurt. Boat hunting is fun and an effective way to chase ducks because of the mobility, but there is no place to hide if the weather turns sour. Having been caught in a high wind and rain storm while hunting at SnowLake, it really scares you and it is great to get into a nice snug cabin with a wood fire burning. It is surprising how fast bad weather can sneak up on you!

The recent warm weather, in spite of the rain, has produced some fair fishing, with crappie leading the way. There are several small ponds that warm up early and enough crappie are being caught to make it interesting. Papa Duck and a friend fished a private lake and caught several medium sized crappie and small bass. Much to my surprise, a pretty nice bream bit on a blue jig.

Horseshoe Lake fishermen are catching some nice crappie trolling jigs that are tipped with live minnows or nibblets. Horseshoe would not have been the place to be Saturday morning. There were some serious sized waves making it very dangerous and very cold. Please be careful around this cold water.

It was about time for some good results and on MLK day Papa Duck joined long time friend Matt Wilson and his boys on a river back water duck hunt on his private club near Marianna. It was a perfect mallard morning with a skim of ice and a brisk north wind and bright sunshine. We had the decoys out and were in the blind by shooting time.

As usual, just before legal time, ducks were quacking and lighting in the decoys.

10 minutes after shooting time, we got our first pair of mallards and the shooting remained good until about 9 a.m. when the last drake was downed. Matt’s boys are good shots and they did not mind burning some bullets! I called Matt’s first duck and its fun to be with hunters you have known for many years.

This makes up for a bunch of poor hunts this year.

There’s only a couple of days left for ducks, so take that young hunter with you. I just did and it was wonderful. Lakeside Taxidermy appreciates mounting your trophies with speed, reasonable prices, and beautiful mounts. Send some pictures!

Papa Duck Lakeside Taxidermy 879-732-0455 or 901-482-3430 jhcriner@hotmail.com

John Criner