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Savor September By: Tim D. Herald “The
September 2000 early wood duck season in KY, TN and FL may be the last, so make
plans to experience this special opportunity.”
For the past 19 years, the southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Florida have had the unique opportunity to hunt wood ducks for five days in
September. When this special season was granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, it was understood that it was experimental. It appears that the 2000
season will be the last in which wood ducks will be included in the legal bag
due to much controversy which has arisen from other states requesting and being
denied such a season. The three states mentioned above have collected sufficient
data that shows that this harvest does not adversely effect wood duck population
dynamics, but they are the only states with such data. That
being said, I urge everyone who has a chance to hunt one of these states this
September, to make plans and enjoy a very special duck hunt. The tactics used at
this time of year for targeting woodies are basically the same as hunting any
other states that have these birds around during an open season. These beautiful
ducks live in many different habitats, and an adaptable hunter can almost surely
enjoy great success. Last September, I
hunted for five days on what I have now nicknamed an “Autumn Oddessey”. Ryan
Tucker and I hunted wood ducks exclusively in as many different habitats as we
could within our short timeframe. We hunted main lakes, marshes, creeks, rivers,
and ponds during mornings, afternoons and evenings by both decoying and jump
shooting. We were successful in all of these applications, and hopefully the
account of our “Oddessey” will show that with a little planning and
ingenuity, you too can have a wonderful experience hunting what I consider one
of the most agile and delicious of all waterfowl. Day 1:
After a little preseason scouting, Ryan, his father Gib, and I
launched their War Eagle boat onto a foggy river in the cool September darkness.
We slowly made our way up river and into a creek with the help of a Q-beam
spotlight. After beaching the boat, we grabbed our gear and walked about 400
yards through the woods to two secluded ponds that we had seen well over 100
wood ducks on four days earlier. I placed 11 woodie
decoys on the duck weed covered water 10 to 15 yards away, while Ryan and Gib
set up our folding stools and make shift blind which was two dows with a piece
of Mossy Oak camo material stapled on. We got all settled in and waited for the
first ducks of the new season to make their appearance. The wait was short,
and just a few minutes after legal shooting time, we heard the familiar squeal
of a wood duck. I made a couple of soft calls on my Knight & Hale wood duck
call and almost immediately a pair buzzed our decoys. Ryan and Gib shot and made
two clean kills. Seconds later, another pair landed about 25 yards to the left
of our setup. Gib and I flushed and took these two birds, as they were on our
side. While we were reloading, a group of 6 flew straight at us over the dekes,
and though I got off two shots, Ryan was the only one who connected. The bird he
killed landed within four yards of his stool. Ryan took his black
lab, Timber, over to retrieve the birds we had dropped on the left, and I
reloaded since I was the only one who hadn’t limited. Within three minutes, a
lone drake dove straight for the imposters, and I hit him with a load of
Winchester 3’s as he put down his landing gear. It was 7:07 am, just 16
minutes after legal shooting time, and only 9 minutes after we had seen the
first duck. While Timber and my
lab, Teal, finished retrieving the birds, flock after flock of wood ducks poured
into our secluded pond. By the time we packed up the gear and took a few photos,
we counted well over 100 woodies that had passed our hide. Day 2: Ryan
and I decided to go hunt the mountainous eastern part of our state for a couple
of days because my father had told me that there were some woodies on a lake and a river rear his home there. We reached the lake at
around 2:30 pm and decided to scout a little before we were to meet Dad and a
couple of his friends for the evening hunt around five o’clock. We motored out into
the channel and decided that since we were on the narrow end of the 27 mile long
lake, we would run in the straight stretches, and paddle around the inside of
the curves. As we rounded the first bend, Ryan motioned ahead, and I saw a pair
of wood ducks on a log about 30 yards ahead. The birds flushed, and Ryan came up
to shoot. He missed with his first shot, but connected on his second dropping a
duck out in a field of chest high goldenrod. I sent Teal, and promptly she
emerged from the thick vegetation with a plump bird in her mouth. We saw a few more
wood ducks as we made our way down the lake, but never got another quality shot.
We headed up a long branch, and we saw a decent flock of ducks flush when we got
within a couple of hundred yards of the cattail lined head. We beached the boat
and decided to look around a bit. There was a very small creek that cut a
corridor through the cattails, and I suggested that we check it out. We walked
up the creek about 75 yards and saw the remnants of an old beaver dam that had
been washed out. Just behind it, three woodies jumped, and I made what was more
like a grouse shot than a duck shot on the last bird. It was getting
late, and we decided to head back to meet my dad. After hooking up with dad and
his two friends, we paddled, and then I dragged, my boat up as far into the
marshy head of the lake as possible. I pushed the boat up against an old tree
top, and we set up the Avery Quick Set blind and pitched out two dozen decoys. Just as we settled
in, a drake woodie buzzed by about 45 yards to our right. Ryan and I were
looking at each other with expressions of “he’s too far”, as Dad neatly
folded the bird to our surprise. Over the next hour and a half, we killed
another six wood ducks that either passed by for a look at our spread or whole
heartily committed. When sunset
arrived we were one bird short of a five man limit, but the show was just
starting. In the twilight, we could see large and small flocks of wood ducks
flying everywhere. Three different groups pitched into the decoys while I was
out picking up the fakes. Day 3:
We borrowed a canoe from a neighbor and decided to float an Appalachian river
for our next adventure. We put in just after good daylight, and were surprised
by a very heavy fog that cut visibility down to about 20-25 yards. The first
hour was uneventful, and we became concerned that we had made a mistake by
choosing this plan of attack. I paddled in the rear, and Ryan glassed as best he
could from the bow. As the fog thinned
a bit, I saw a suspicious looking bump on a log ahead of us. I asked Ryan if it
was a duck, and he told me that he had checked it out thoroughly with the
binoculars, and it was nothing. When we were about five yards from the log, I
asked Ryan why that “nothing” had legs and an eye on the side of its head,
and he scrambled for his gun. The duck flushed and cruised safely down river
with a trail of steel behind it. A half an hour
later we were paddling through some swift water in a shoal when I saw three
woodies to our left. I pointed them out to Ryan, and he dropped the middle bird
as they flushed. It was the largest drake wood duck I have ever seen, and he was
in perfect feather even though it was mid September. That bird went straight to
the taxidermist. A few hundred yards
downstream we saw another trio of ducks and tried to hug the shoreline for an
approach. The birds flushed at about seventy-five yards, but surprisingly they
turned and flew right back at us. Ryan dropped the lead bird, and when the other
passed straight overhead, I connected to make a double. Since Ryan had his
limit, we switched places so I would have the unobstructed line of fire in the
bow. We spotted another
duck after a half mile or so, and it flushed only to land on the other side of a
fallen tree that still had all its leaves. I told Ryan to keep the tree between
the duck and our canoe on the approach. When we got closer, the bird spooked and
took a low flight pattern. I found a hole in the tree top, and made a very
unexpected shot. We had about a mile
to go to our take out location, and we spotted about ten more wood ducks and
three mallards as we paddled along with our four duck limit. What started out as
a slow morning, had turned into a very relaxing and enjoyable hunt. We relived
the unique hunts we had experienced in the mountains several times on the two
hour drive home that afternoon. Day 4:
I had a commitment to guide two novice duck hunters on the Saturday of our wood
duck season. The setup that morning was to be a large curve in the river
mentioned on Day 1 that has several oak trees extending over its banks. Again
we tossed out eleven imposter woodies, and we settled in behind the Avery blind.
A full half hour after daylight, a lone drake slid unannounced into the decoys.
I flipped the top and called the shot. My hunters were caught a bit off guard
and missed cleanly. About ten minutes later I spotted a group of eight birds
coming in. When the first bird touched down in our spread, the guys made up for
their earlier miss. Three birds floated within 15 yards of the boat as their
flockmates made a hasty retreat. Later in the
morning we cruised up the river looking for another bird. We headed into a
creek, and Ryan and I took up the paddles. We positioned the shooter in the bow,
and he was taken by surprise when a woodie exploded from some roots as we
rounded the first bend. In the second turn he was more prepared, and he made a
nice shot on a drake that flushed from behind a log jam. Our new hunters
were hooked, and they said that was one of the most enjoyable mornings they had
ever had. It is always a thrill to see someone take his first duck, and even
though Ryan and I never lifted a gun that morning, it was my most memorable of
the early season. Day 5: The last
day of the “Oddessey” found me and another long time hunting companion, Russ
Franklin, nestled next to the same secluded pond, I hunted the first day.
The birds didn’t come in as quickly as on the opener, but by 8:00 am we
were once again heading home with a limit of wood ducks that were coaxed into my
hand full of dekes with my Knight & Hale woodie call. I hated that the short
five day season was over, but I had enough memories to get me through until
Thanksgiving and our regular duck season. Who knows, maybe
the powers that be will extend our early wood duck season for another few years.
We all need to make our opinions known to the wildlife managers in charge.
However things turn out, try to go out this fall and target wood ducks for a day
or two. Most likely there are a few squealers close to home in one of the many
common habitats that they use. Some
states are lucky enough to have woodies around during their regular seasons, for
those of us less fortunate, make the best of the 2000 early season and Savor
September. |
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