By M.D. Johnson

My mother always said to start with the hardest task first because it makes the rest seem easy by comparison. So let’s begin with ducks in the northernmost reaches of the Mississippi Flyway—the hardest thing to have to report. One word: Done.

Well, done for the most part anyway. My home state of Iowa finished in two stages: the North Zone on Dec. 6, and the South on the 13th. It was a less than stellar year for many, with the phrase, “Worst season ever,” heard on a regular basis. There were some Iowa hunters who did well. Those gunning the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers had good shoots throughout the season for both mallards and divers. Inland, I heard sporadic tales of success. But it’s over now for another year. I, along with others, can relax now and not feel guilty that season’s in and we’re not out. [ Read Full Post ]

By Duane Dungannon

West Coast duck hunters want not only a white Christmas but also an early one that will deliver all the ducks on their wish lists. But the recent warm weather is saying “Bah humbug!” Ron Lara of Western Wildlife Adventures (www.wildlifeadv.com) in Chico, Calif., managed to beat the odds last week and offered this photo of his lucky seven mallards. “I went out to a honey hole last week and took seven mallards in one hour. But it's been slow otherwise,” Lara said. “It's always about weather. Cooler temps should pick up the hunting.” Curt Wilson of Avery Outdoors (www.averyoutdoors.com) in the Sacramento Valley said the warm weather has cooled off the duck hunting. “All of the water from the latest storms and rains has the birds spread out,” Wilson said. “Warm weather has slowed things down, and we need new birds to migrate into the area. I did kill three mallards on Sunday, but there were very few birds around.”

North of the Oregon state line, it’s been a similar scene on the west side of the Cascades, while the onset of cooler weather in eastern Oregon has duck populations literally on thin ice.

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By Wade Bourne

Prospects for duck hunting at Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee are improving, thanks to a new influx of birds and a forecast for a strong cold front pushing through early this week.

Reelfoot guides Billy Blakely and Ben Parker confirm that a flight of new ducks – mostly mallards – hit the lake on Dec. 5. [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

Have you ever had a moment with your dog that you desperately wanted to capture on camera—a first point, first retrieve, some poignant milestone—and then utterly missed it, either through sheer operator incompetence or equipment failure? It happened to me yesterday morning on a duck hunt, and I'm still kicking myself for it.

Like many other duck hunters in my area, my season has been hampered by a profound lack of huntable water. Almost all the areas I hunt are either bone-dry or so low as to be rendered effectively un-huntable. As a result, the dog's and my duck season has been pretty miserable to this point. Nevertheless, after seeing thousands and thousands of mallards on a recent South Dakota pheasant hunt (more on that in the next blog) and reading about them  I decided to put on my walking shoes (or waders) and go find a spot to hunt on my local reservoir, and low water be damned. A cold front was coming through and I had visions of shooting a few of those 750,000 mallards that were sure to be pouring into the state ahead of it.

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By David E. Petzal

So, there I was, sitting in a box blind in Maine 10 minutes before last shooting light, looking through my scope at a hillside with a whitetail on it, trying to decide whether the creature had horns or not. This was complicated by the fact that the whitetail was already in deep shadow, and that the hillside was backlighted by the setting sun, and by the fact that it (the deer, not the sun) had its buttocks toward me and its head down in an infernal tangle of branches, weeds, and other annoying plant life.

I was looking at the critter through a Zeiss Conquest rifle scope and, good as the scope is, I was unable to tell if it was time to pull the trigger. Finally, since the light was running out, I said the hell with it and picked up a Zeiss 10x42 Conquest HD binocular (a loaner; sent it back yesterday) and saw at a glance what I could not see through the scope—that the beast was a doe and that the day was over. [ Read Full Post ]

By Jonathan Miles

Here’s how to cap off an adventurous day afield with an adventure at the grill. With its crispy, smoky crust, grilled pizza is a majestic thing, and this recipe cranks up that majesty by topping the pizza with an earthy combination of dove breasts, wild mushrooms, and sage. Your local pizzeria will usually sell you a round of raw dough, or use fresh or frozen store-bought dough to make life easy.

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