Some waterfowlers drive hundreds of miles to hunt ducks in Arkansas. Russell Gardner might drive two when he goes duck hunting at Beaver Lake.
Gardner, 23, finds good duck hunting close to his home near Rogers. This season has been one of the best at Beaver Lake for him. He started hunting on the lake six years ago when a friend took him on his first duck hunt.
"Used to be that friends would ask us if we saw any ducks. Now the question is how many ducks did we shoot," Gardner said. "Rarely have we come back empty-handed."
Sometimes the action at Beaver is as good as it is in Stuttgart, which bills itself the duck capital of Arkansas. It's a long drive to Stuttgart, in east Arkansas, where Gardner has hunted a few times. The lake is five minutes from Gardner's home in the Prairie Creek community.
The state's duck season opens around Thanksgiving. It ends on Jan. 31 this year. Hunting can be slow those first few weeks, Gardner said. Once January rolls around, better carry lots of shotgun shells. It's game on.
"The second week of January has been the best so far this season, and that same week has been the best for the last three years," Gardner said. "That's when it finally gets cold enough to freeze a lot of the ponds and there are more ducks using the lake."
Action varies from hunt to hunt. Some days Gardner and his hunting buddies see a gorgeous sunrise and few ducks. Then there was the day three weeks ago when Gardner and two pals killed eight mallards. The daily limit is six ducks per hunter, but only four may be mallards.
The high lake level helps.
"When the lake is up in the trees and bushes, there's actually some food for the ducks to eat. They can get around those flooded trees and find some acorns," he said.
Mallards are the prized duck for hunters, particularly the mallard drake. "Greenheads," hunters call them. Gardner bags his share of mallards, but other species fly into his spread of decoys.
He uses 18 decoys when he hunts from the lake shore. Gardner dresses in camouflage from head to toe. He uses shoreline bushes and trees for a natural duck blind. Or he hunts from his boat outfitted with a blind he built himself.
The boat blind is covered in grass that is woven into mesh netting. In the up position it hides the hunters. When it's time to shoot, half of the blind folds down in an instant for clear shooting when ducks glide into the decoys.
Sometimes Gardner hunts in the middle of the lake and always uses his boat blind there. He anchors the boat with a concrete block in water that might be 100 feet deep. In this open water he uses 30 decoys. Each decoy is attached to a long line that is tethered to the boat.
Open water is the realm of scaup, buffleheads and other species of diver ducks that eat mainly fish. Dabbling duck species, such as mallards and gadwalls, generally feed in shallow water near shore.
"Those mallards come floating down from the sky nice and easy. But if you want a real challenge, these diver ducks go flying by at about 40 mph," Gardner said after a recent hunt. Gardner and two friends, Dave Williams and Andy Brazle, both of Rogers, killed three ducks and a Canada goose that morning.
"We actually saw some canvasbacks, which is an unusual duck for Beaver Lake," Brazle said.
Gardner's most frequent hunting companion is his chocolate Labrador retriever, Gunner. This is Gunner's first season, and the dog is retrieving ducks like a champ.
Some hunters like Alan Bland, an Army Corps of Engineers park ranger at Beaver Lake, use their boats to go get the ducks they shoot. Sometimes ducks splash down in shallow water after they're shot. Hunters wearing waders can walk out and retrieve them.
Bland and his hunting buddy haven't enjoyed quite the success Gardner has. They've seen a lot of ducks this season, Bland said, mostly at a distance.
"I'd like to say I went through a whole box of shells on one of our hunts, but I've had the same box for a pretty long time," Bland said.
Gardner has had lots of time to hunt ducks this season. He graduated from Harding University in May and hopes to start dental school soon. He's used that time to introduce some new hunters to the sport, just as he was introduced. Gardner has taken family and friends duck hunting on Beaver Lake this season.His mom, Margaret Gardner, went with him one morning.
"We had a great time and got to see a real pretty sunrise," Gardner said.
Flip Putthoff may be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAFlip
Sports on 01/26/2016