Opening day finally arrived Saturday, and it blew in with a fury. The wind was howling and that would have been good, but the cloudy conditions made the birds a bit spooky. We still had a great morning. It wasn’t but three of us, but we killed a limit of 18 including six mallards and the rest pintails, gadwalls and teal. We saw lots of ducks.
Early on, I thought we might see more mosquitoes than ducks. It was 70 degrees at sunup and things were slow. But it picked up for us. We saw several big bunches of ducks and had some work right up until the final pass, then they pulled off just at the last second.
We talked to several other groups that had good hunts, but we had one party that only killed one duck. That seemed to be the theme of the day. It was hit or miss. Arkansas opened up this morning, too, and it was the same story there. A lot of it has to do with water. There isn’t any water unless you pumped it in and the public hunting lands are bone dry.
On the bright side, this front that is coming through tomorrow should bring more ducks to those that have water. Another thing that will help in a week or so is that the season in Missouri will open. The ducks that are sitting pretty up there will be heading south to try and find some place they aren’t getting shot at.
When you come by the store, let us know how you are doing. And keep up with the action every day of the season right here on the Simmons’ Duck Report. And come by and see us for all your waterfowling needs.
