Stars mottle a moonless sky as a squad of duck hunters count the minutes to dawn.
The air temperature is in the low 40s, but the edge of a sharp breeze seeps through insulated layers of modern fabrics. It stings the cheeks, but it feels different in the dark woods than it does when crossing a parking lot. It's a sensation that I have associated with duck hunting since I first felt it as a child.
Anticipation charges the air as the group assembles at the Long Bell parking lot at Bayou Meto WMA. A few of the guys exchange pointed barbs, then laugh as they turn the punchlines on themselves. There's much huffing as over-clad bodies squeeze into neoprene waders. Shotgun actions open and close with metallic crashes. Duck calls on neck lanyards sound like plastic wind chimes as they collide with every move. It is the sound of duck season in Arkansas.
Green timber duck hunting
Arkansas is world famous for duck hunting, but our season takes place in two distinctly different tiers. In the early part of the season, mallards, pintails and other species descend on the rice fields of the Grand Prairie around Stuttgart and Humnoke. Later in the season, mallards shift patterns and key on flooded timber in southeast Arkansas. This is what brings people to Arkansas in the winter, and when the hunting is good, nothing in the world rivals it.
Bayou Meto WMA
They call this 36,000-acre area Bayou "Metro" because of its proximity to Little Rock. It draws a lot of hunters, so it can hunt pretty small.
A boat will get you to more areas faster, but for reductionists, the Government Cypress Walk-In Area offers excellent hunting. It's a greentree area largely confined within levees, so its water levels don't fluctuate as much as they do elsewhere in the WMA. They generally stay shin-deep to knee-deep, which is a level that dabbling ducks prefer. George Cochran, a bass fishing legend who owns a cabin in the area, finds these areas by scouting.
"If you go out there and don't call, you'll see places where ducks just lock up and funnel into them," Cochran said. "They want to be there for some reason, and once they decide that's where they want to be, you can't change their minds."
One of these is the "Devil's Triangle." Cochran's son David has killed three double-banded mallards there. Carter Cochran, George's nephew, also killed a double banded drake there, as did George's cousin and fellow bass-fishing legend Larry Nixon, who wasn't humble about it, either.
"All night long, he was like, 'I'm gonna pour me a double-banded Jack-and-Coke! Or, this double-banded steak sure is delicious!' " Cochran said. "We were pretty tired of him by the end of the weekend."
Black River WMA
Covering 25,000 acres in Clay, Randolph and Greene counties in northeast Arkansas, Dave Donaldson Black River WMA is similar in many respects to Bayou Meto. It is largely forested with mature oaks and offers a true green timber hunting experience.
Water levels are highly variable and are governed by overflow from the Black River. Unlike Bayou Meto, it does not have a network of ditches and bayous that provide multipronged access to the interior. Hunters traditionally access the area from the Black River. They park their boats along the levee and transfer their gear and dogs to smaller "slough" boats parked on the other side. They use them to navigate boating lanes to a large collection of "holes" or openings scattered throughout the woods.
Opening weekend usually offers great hunting for wood ducks, but mallards arrive in increasingly greater numbers as the season progresses. You'll often call in groups of 6-9 ducks. That's a relaxed pace that spreads out the shooting opportunities while still allowing you to finish early.
Dagmar WMA
Covering 8,000 acres, Dagmar WMA is tiny compared to Bayou Meto and Black River. It's probably better known for deer hunting and crappie fishing, but its duck hunting is excellent at times. A couple of friends like to go early into Dagmar and shoot a limit of wood ducks and then hop over to Cache River National Wildlife Refuge to hunt mallards.
Cache River NWR
Established in 1986, the Cache River NWR covers 40,000 acres and brackets Dagmar to the north and south. It encompasses the Cache River floodplain and its adjoining timberlands and sloughs. Reaching productive hunting grounds is a big part of the adventure. I hunted there once with the late David Cox of Carlisle and an elderly gentleman who warned us to keep our heads low. He zipped through flooded brush that ripped the wires off his battery, extinguishing his lights at the most critical moments.
You can also go in from DeValls Bluff, but that requires a long, circuitous boat ride through a maze of sloughs. Or, you can go up the White River from Clarendon into the Cache River. When the rivers jump their banks, that entire section of woods floods and creates a long string of legendary duck holes. That area is very crowded these days, but David Carruth of Clarendon said you can still find good hunting if you're dedicated.
"If you're willing to work and walk in a pair of waders, you can walk back to some holes south of (U.S.) 79, but even the locals don't do it," Carruth said. That's because it requires walking up to a mile through brush and fallen timber with a shotgun and a bag of decoys slung over your shoulder. If you take the trouble, however, you'll find places where you can call down mallards without other hunters flaring them.
"We've had days where we've had 300 ducks come in on top of us. I mean come right in and splash us!" Carruth said. "There's something magical about that that you can't get in a field."
Lake Dardanelle
This big impoundment of the Arkansas River between Russellville and Ozark holds ducks all season, but it's best in a really cold winter when ice makes other areas inaccessible to ducks. Excellent hunting is available in the marshes, backwaters and flats near Spadra, Knoxville and Cabin Creek.
This is also an excellent area to enjoy late-season Canada goose hunting. There are a lot of resident birds on Lake Dardanelle. They get wise during the early season hunts in September, but migrant geese pile into the area by December, and that's when it really gets fun.
Duck hunting obscurities
Southeast Arkansas gets all of the duck hunting attention, but some excellent hunting is available in western Arkansas. Besides Lake Dardanelle, Ed Gordon Point Remove WMA, Petit Jean River WMA near Dardanelle and Frog Bayou WMA near Alma offer excellent duck hunting when the water is right. The green tree area at Lake Nimrod WMA can be outstanding, as well.
In eastern Arkansas, excellent duck hunting is available at Shirey Bay Rainey Brake WMA and Seven Devils WMA. All of these places are popular locally, but the hunting environment is more relaxed than the more famous areas.
Take some time to visit an area you haven't hunted before. You might find a new favorite!