Photo by Tom Migdalski

It was just a big mud puddle — a wet spot in a harvested bean field — but it was the perfect place to kill a few ducks now and then.

A friend and I hunted that pothole when we were teenagers. Our tactics were simple but effective. We placed all four of our duck decoys in the water hole close to a patch of smartweed. Then we hid in a willow thicket bordering the pool and waited for ducks to drop in.

Often as not, the ducks would spot us and flare away before entering our limited shooting range. About half the time, though, the birds swept in, dipping and tilting in the breeze before splashing down in the shallow water. When they drew near enough, we blazed away with shotguns.

There never were many birds — usually two or three at a time and no more than three or four flights during a hunt. Sometimes they were mallards. Other times teal, shovelers, gadwalls or the occasional prized pintail. We never used a call, never more than the four decoys. But the ducks came anyway. And during the time we hunted them, we kept our families well fed on waterfowl.

After college, I started hunting ducks seriously again, usually in public hunting areas. I took up goose hunting as well, and often spent time pursuing Canadas, snows or whitefronts on public hunting grounds. Unfortunately, many hunts on public land were marred by continual gunfire, sky-busters and other annoyances. I gradually withdrew from the crowds and started looking again for remote, overlooked waterfowl-hunting areas that might lure a few passing birds. Surprisingly, I saw, decoyed and shot far more ducks and geese on overlooked hunting areas than I did on big public hunting grounds. And I began enjoying the hunts again.

Regardless of where you live in Arkansas, you probably can find waters seldom visited by other hunters that serve up excellent gunning for ducks and/or geese. Begin by combing your vicinity for possibilities. Not all overlooked hunting areas offer good shooting. The astute waterfowler quickly discovers that of scores of possible locations, only a few appeal to the birds. When you find those spots, however, there won’t be hunters behind every tree, and if weather and water conditions are right, chances are good you’ll have plenty of opportunities to bag mallards, wood ducks, teal, diving ducks, Canada geese and/or other waterfowl.

Here are some areas to consider when seeking peaceful, productive waterfowling experiences before this year’s hunting seasons end.

OVERLOOKED WMAS
Some Arkansas wildlife management areas such as Bayou Meto and Black River attract hunters from throughout the Natural State and across the nation. Lesser-known WMAs can be somewhat crowded at times with local hunters, but during weekdays in particular, many receive hardly any hunting pressure. Those are worth checking if you have time for some pre-hunt scouting.

One such area is Whitehall WMA on the L’Anguille River in Poinsett County. The area is tiny — just over 100 acres of overgrown fishponds on one side of the river and flooded timber sloughs on the other. At times, though, the area is covered up with mallards, gadwalls, teal and other ducks. The WMA is on Highway 214 between the communities of Fisher and Whitehall.

St. Francis National Forest WMA (21,000 acres) in Lee and Phillips counties is another sleeper honeyhole. Although much of the area is atop Crowley’s Ridge, the entire eastern edge is comprised of bottomlands along the St. Francis, L’Anguille and Mississippi rivers. At times, you’ll find blue-ribbon waterfowling along the rivers, oxbow lakes and backwaters.

On the other side of the state, in southwest Arkansas’ Hempstead County, 7,500-acre Bois d’Arc WMA provides another lightly hunted environment for ducks, with 12 square miles of hardwoods, lakes, bayous and sloughs. Most of the WMA, which can be reached off U.S. Highway 67 or Arkansas Highway 355 in the vicinity of Spring Hill, is accessible only by boat, and you won’t typically find many other hunters there on weekdays late in the season. Mallards account for about 60 percent of the harvest, with wood ducks making up most of the remaining percentage. It’s typical green-timber hunting. Hunters stand in the shadows of trees in shallow water, calling birds in to decoys in the timber.

Other overlooked WMAs include Benson Creek Natural Area along Bayou de View on the Monroe-Woodruff county line, the Pine Tree Research Experimental Station WMA in St. Francis County, the Beryl Anthony/Lower Ouachita WMA on the Louisiana line in southeast Arkansas, and Galla Creek WMA in Pope County

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS IMPOUNDMENTS
If you don’t mind facing sometimes-rugged weather conditions and the other problems that can be associated with reservoir hunting, some of Arkansas’ Corps of Engineers lakes can provide you some exceptional waterfowling opportunities. Diving ducks find these impoundments attractive throughout the winter, and when the water on a given lake rises high enough to flood surrounding woods and vegetation, puddle ducks often congregate to feed as well.

Several of the lakes have adjacent wildlife management areas where you can hunt, including Dardanelle, Greeson, Beaver, Blue Mountain, Bull Shoals, Greers Ferry, Millwood, Nimrod, Ozark and Norfork. If you use good judgment, however, and stay well away from developed sites such as marinas and homes, you can hunt practically anywhere on the Corps lakes without problem. You’ll need a big boat to hunt effectively (waves and wind can be treacherous), and though you won’t often kill a limit of birds in a hurry, there tend to be enough ducks (and often geese) to provide shooting at scattered intervals. At times, however, when water levels, weather and other conditions are just right, hunting can be spectacular.

Each lake has different characteristics, so the best hunting methods vary with location. Bull Shoals, for example, is deep and tends to attract more diving ducks than dabblers. Millwood, on the other hand, is a shallow, timber-filled lake that attracts numerous mallards, gadwalls and other puddle ducks in addition to scattered flocks of divers. Scout before hunting, come up with a good game plan and you’ll enjoy success more often than not.

WOOD DUCKS ON SMALL WATERS
Wood ducks are tailor-made for hunters who prefer “get-away-from-it-all” sport in the backwoods of Arkansas. These beautiful ducks almost always are common in forested stream bottoms off the beaten path, providing plentiful shooting opportunities for waterfowlers who don’t mind going the extra mile to find the woodies’ secluded haunts. Nice thing is, it only takes a little extra scouting to locate wood ducks on many small streams with public access. Such waters are found statewide, from the Ozarks and Ouachitas to the Coastal Plain and Mississippi Delta.

The Saline River, from Benton to points south, is one example. There are numerous access points along this stretch of water that allow for short float hunts, and while wood ducks tend to be fairly common, hunters are not.

Bayou Bartholomew below Pine Bluff also serves up good woodie hunting most years, as do stretches of Cadron Creek in Faulkner County, the Ouachita River below Camden, the Antoine River along the Pike/Clark county line and Big Creek south of Marvell (Phillips County). A look at a Ouachita or Ozark National Forest map will turn up many small streams worth a visit as well, such as the Fourche la Fave in the Perry County portion of Ouachita NF and Big Piney Creek in the Johnson and Pope county portion of Ozark NF.

On most of these small waters, float hunting from a canoe or small johnboat is the tactic of choice. One hunter paddles from the rear while the other handles the gun in the bow. Both should keep a low profile, sitting, if necessary, on the boat’s floor. Keep the boat headed straight downstream, and remain immobile and silent. When approaching bends in the stream, hug the inside edge. This allows you to get as close as possible to any birds that may be around the corner. Regardless of the craft, camouflage it before each hunt with camo netting or splotches of flat brown and green paint. Dead branches or brush draped over the bow adds to the effect.

BEAVER PONDS AND FARM PONDS
Just about any beaver pond has the potential for attracting puddle ducks. Fortunately for ducks and for duck hunters, beavers run rampant in Arkansas these days. Trapped nearly to extinction by the mid-19th century, the Natural State’s largest rodent has rebounded with astonishing verve, establishing itself in just about every location that offers its two basic needs: water and trees. Beaver trapping seasons have been expanded to control the explosion. But still, you can poke any spot on your favorite topo map and bet there are beaver ponds within five miles.

Some beaver ponds are more productive than others. One of the best situations is a small creek with beaver ponds strung one after another for a considerable distance. Wood ducks, teal and mallards will work back and forth over several ponds that are bunched up, with the greatest activity occurring during early morning and late afternoon.

A good way to hunt beaver ponds is to sneak into the area before daylight, or a couple of hours before dark, and wait in hiding until the ducks come in. You can use a portable blind for this hunting, or simply wear camouflage and hunker down in brush near the water’s edge. Some hunters use three or four mallard decoys to help draw the birds in, but that isn’t always necessary, especially if wood ducks are using the spot regularly.

When the ducks do come, they’re usually close and fast. There’s little time to think, just seconds to decide which bird to swing on, no time to calculate proper lead. Everything either comes together in an instant, or it doesn’t.

Farm ponds also offer exciting shooting possibilities. Those covering an acre or less usually offer only a single shooting flurry per visit. On those, it’s important to figure out how to approach without alerting the ducks. If you know that birds on a certain pond usually feed at the shallow end, then it’s necessary to approach so you’re in range. If a cold wind is howling, ducks will usually be on the protected side, if there is one. In a gentler breeze, they may be on the windblown side because the stirring of the water brings them food.

Some ponds never hold more than two or three birds — transients dropping in for a short visit. A friend of mine told of hunting one such pond on his property. He hunted 30 minutes each morning before going to work, then 30 minutes late in the afternoon.

“Some visits I wouldn’t see a bird,” he said. “But during the first month, my score was 26 ducks. It was great. I was hunting within 100 yards of my house!”

ARKANSAS RIVER DUCKS
AND GEESE
The Arkansas River traverses more than 300 miles of the state, from Ft. Smith to the river’s confluence with the Mississippi in Desha County. A few stretches receive considerable hunting pressure, but the river’s vastness makes it possible to find many locales on the main river, and in backwaters and tributaries, that seldom are visited by waterfowlers.

This is “grab-bag” shooting, with more than just mallards to set your sights on. Other dabbling ducks use the river as a flyway as well, including gadwalls, pintails, shovelers and teal. All the diving ducks can be found there at one time or another, and there’s superb gunning for Canada geese and the occasional flock of snows or whitefronts as well. You never know what you’ll shoot at next, which adds to the fun.

Sandbars provide some of the best hotspots for Arkansas River waterfowl, but it’s important to scout for the best locales. The best thing to do is locate sandbars beneath a major flyway by using binoculars to survey the area. Then, when you’ve located sandbars with ducks and/or geese passing overhead, pinpoint those with other attractive characteristics. The best sandbars tend to have a southern exposure with a fairly tall growth of shoreline willows to break the north wind. They also have a decent area of water that isn’t over 2 or 3 feet deep, and are usually completely out of the current so the birds don’t have to swim hard to stay on the bar. In short, the best sandbars provide waterfowl a place to loaf around without expending much energy. And its loafing or resting they’re usually doing there, not feeding.

Most Arkansas River hunters shoot from a boat hidden in some bushes or other cover as a matter of necessity, simply because it’s difficult to find a place on shore where you can set up a blind. When hunting sandbars, however, it’s often possible to build a makeshift blind using materials indigenous to the river. Try to use materials like old sticks or driftwood that don’t look out of place, and try to keep a low profile. A big high-profile blind on a sandbar is obvious to ducks and geese, and if you want to get any action, you have to keep that in mind.

Use big decoy spreads if possible, so that passing birds can spot them from a distance. Combined with good loud calling, a properly set spread usually will attract several flocks of birds daily, and so you can enjoy plentiful shooting opportunities.

For details on all public-lands hunting areas mentioned in this article, check out the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Web site at www.agfc.com. The Web site provides season dates and regulations, a weekly waterfowl report, license information and more. You’ll also find information in the current edition of the Arkansas Waterfowl Hunting Regulations guide available from sporting-goods dealers and Game and Fish Commission offices statewide.