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Date:1/11/2010

1/10/2010

   I took my annual late trip to Arkansas this weekend with some of my friends from Wisconsin and western Missouri. We left St. Louis on Friday morning with snow and temps in the single digits. Heading south for a warmer climate seemed to be the plan.

As we all know, even the best plans have been known to fail. We arrived in Biggers Arkansas to a balmy 14 degrees. The outfitter we were using had open water still when we arrived. That all changed overnight with low single digit temps. We arrived at our hunting spot to find 1 inch ice. This is not a big problem for most duck hunters and we had a hole clean out promptly.

The single digits were holding tight and we had to often get out and reopen the hole. Early after we got situated a trio of Greenwing Teal came in on a suicide mission and none left. It took about 30 minutes before a hen mallard flew over the spread to give us a look and she too was dispatched. Things really slowed at this point.

We headed to town for lunch and a quick discussion about the afternoon hunt. Some of the guys were ready to pack things in, but we convinced them to give it another shot. We took a long lunch break, considering the air was still in the low teens even in the afternoon. We arrived back at 3:00 pm and had 2 hours to brave the cold in search of more birds. This time the ice was still cleared from the hole and the sun had made an appearance.

The birds also decided to work for us some. Soon after settling in a flock of shovelers gave us a couple of passes before committing to the decoys. We all managed at least 1 bird from this group with a couple guys hitting doubles. No sooner than we got the birds retrieved a group of mallards did almost an identical pattern to us. Again birds fell, 5 in all. The next hour and a half was filled with working flocks of ducks and snow geese. We did fall a little short of complete limits by days end. 6 men walked away with 31 birds and 7 snow geese. It was a long hard day and we worked hard for the birds.

    The ride back to the lodge was filled with discussion. Some guys were still not looking forward to having to hunt all day and make the long drive back all night. The group from western Missouri decided to head home after dinner and the Wisconsin boys felt almost the same way. I agreed we were hunting a small area and it would be ice covered again by morning. The option decided upon was to hunt no later than noon on Sunday. That would get our furthest travelling member of the group back to Green Bay around 1:00 am

   Sunday morning as planned we had to open up the ice again. The cold birds were not too anxious to start flying right away. We had some pass shooting at singles and pairs dropping a few birds as the morning progressed. Around 9:30 we finally got a flock of birds to work a little. They made the circle twice, but this time decided they didn’t like something and moved away. They never really left the area and were soon back checking us out again. They again decided something wasn’t right and left.

We went out and removed the spinning wing decoy from the spread and when they finally came back the third time wings locked and they came right in. 7 mallards fell. We finished out the morning with a couple more birds. This time 4 hunters took 13 birds. I think we would have had limits if we had stayed the day. The snow geese were just beginning to fly when we were loading up.

I may return in February to chase them, but am undecided at this time. The drive home was uneventful and I was able to watch the late football game from my front room. I think we did well considering the conditions. This was by far the worst hunting weather I have experienced in Arkansas since I began hunting there. If you are interested in joining me next year down there please email. I am trying to get a trip together for November and another in January depending upon the season set by FWS.