How to Whistle Ducks

How to Scout for Puddle Ducks

If you were to take a 30,000-foot view of the duck hunting industry, you’d see a lot of big-production hunts. You’d notice plenty of flat-bottom boats loaded with bags of decoys and shaking retrievers, field hunts with spreads that cost more than a semester at a State school, and dreamy timber setups on waterfowl leases with years’ long waiting lists. What you won’t see much of, is small-water hunts. Yet, puddle ducks are some of the easiest (and...

How to Kill Ducks at Midday

The half hour before sunrise is the favorite time of the day for most duck hunters, and for good reason: there’s a flurry of activity as the marsh wakes up and many birds move from their roost to their feed. But that quick action is commonly followed by a long lull, sending many duck hunters packing and headed for breakfast. But sometimes breakfast should wait because the hunting is just about to get good. The Midday Flight: Early to Mid-Season...

Video: How to Jump Shoot Ducks

When Duck Lore host Sean Weaver couldn’t make the trip to hunt waterfowl in Kansas last fall, Seth Morris and I took his place. Now we don’t quite have the calling and decoying chops that Sean has, but we can jump shoot birds with the best of them. Jump shooting is a good move to pull out of the bag of tricks when you’re in an unfamiliar place, need to kill time at midday, or just want meat for the freezer. While the idea of flushing and shooting...