Snow Down

Weiner Arkansas is apparently the epicenter of rice growth in the United States.  Maybe not, I’m not sure but I do know they are serious about producing rice.  And anyone who is familiar with rice farming or has the slightest notions of the concept knows flooded fields are a basic requirement.  Approaching Weiner the first thing you will notice is a major push to create water retention.  Another thing quickly noticed is the amount of waterfowl habitat created as a side effect of the agricultural deployments of said farming practices.  Most of the fields are drained in early February and the pumps are dormant silently waiting on another planting season. On our trip recent heavy rains had an impact leaving standing ponds and some fields completely covered with a few inches of water.   As we make our way from Memphis to the sparsely populated area south of Jonesboro we continually gaze at the clear horizon looking for our first view of flocks of geese.  I expected the skies in Arkansas to be full of the classic “V” formations of migrating birds traveling the North South corridor as a part of the migration.  I clearly had a lot to learn about the snow goose and its tendencies. 

My education of the Greater Snow Goose had started and would be well earned.  Back to Weiner which is a small farming community of around 700 hardworking Americans. I’m quite sure that population swells during duck season if the amount of pits and ground blinds can be taken as an indication.  We arrived in the small town a few hours before sunset and cruised from one end of town to the other in a matter of seconds.  We found our lodgings for the evening and went about the general area in search of snow geese.  The fields we drove by had been vacant at this point and none spotted above either.  We stopped by a gas station and filled up and I asked the attendant “where’s the geese”.  She replied I saw a bunch yesterday out near Grubbs.  We had a direction and set a course which happened to run parallel to the Cache River.   I’ve now learned that snow geese fly with river systems.  As we drove along the Cache River we found the huge flocks of geese and many fields had active feeds going on.  We headed back to our camp for the evening as giddy as school kids with anticipation of the upcoming hunt. 

A quick inventory of our gear and our thought’s turned to the warmer than expected weather and the amount of standing water in the fields.  A trip to the home improvement mecca provided the needed attire to meet these conditions.  We purchased disposal white painters suits and 2 gallon white painter’s buckets as gear totes. The last thing these good ol boy’s want to do is lay in the mud all day then climb into pickup truck covered in said mud.  Disposal clothing is a must in these conditions.

The 4am alarm clock came quicker than expected.  It was a quick trip to the decoy layout and we had to shift the spread to match wind conditions.  The field we hunted had several different decoy styles.  Some as simple as cutouts or socks and some motor driven flying in a circular motion.  It didn’t take long for the action to start.  We had a single goose fly in 20’ from the ground out of a patch of fog and immediately we had our first “Snow Down”.  

Snow geese are considered a nuisance in much of the heartland of the country.  In many states the regulations are relaxed and during a special snow goose season and you can hunt with a free license and in some cases without a plug restricting ammo capacity.  Many hunters purchase extended magazine tubes to enhance the experience.    

Our first day in the field was a great experience with mostly cloudy conditions and a low hanging fog.  We used an electronic calling system to lure the weary flocks in closer.  Many times birds would drop in from out of nowhere for a peak at our decoy spread.  It was not uncommon to harvest 4 or 5 birds from these groups. 

Day two we headed back to the same spread a found a much clearer sky with higher flying geese.  We laid on our backs in the drying field and watched as the huge flocks of migrating birds headed back North.  The geese seemed weary to the decoy spread and we spent many hours watching a feeding frenzy in an adjacent flooded corn field.  Thousands of snow geese and speckled belly geese fed alongside many varieties of duck while we peered on with amazement and wonder.  Occasionally the masses would rise up and fill us with great hope only to drop back down on the flooded acreage.  We speculated on how many geese a man with somewhat average shooting skill could take from the area with one shot.  It would seem ten or twelve would be easy from a sky that was dark from the circling waterfowl.

The last day of the hunt we moved to a duck pit located on the banks of a large lake.  It’s hard to describe the amount of birds we saw heading to other feeding grounds from the side of this large lake.  Shots were far between on the day but it’s something I will never forget.  Imagine looking in the sky in any direction and layer after layer of bird formations flying across the sky.  All the birds were going in the same direction north, but all with a different bearing.  A slow rain began to fall and after a little while turned into a steady downpour.  We eventually relocated back to our original field and killed a few more geese, but I now had an idea of what barrel burning action could look like with the right conditions. 

This trip gave me a taste of the snow goose action and left me wanting to return.  

Shelby Byrd

 

Reviewing the Fenix UC35 2.0 Flashlight

 Over the last 5 or 6 months I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the Fenix UC35 2.0 1000 lumen s flashlight.

Fenix UC35 2.0

The newly designed Fenix UC35 2.0 is the best light I’ve touched period.  I own several great lights from other manufactures but the UC35 2.0 raised the bar in my opinion.  The light has worked well on the way to the deer stand and also has been very handy traversing muddy river banks while heading to the duck blind. 

Wood Duck Hunting-Western Kentucky Lake Barkley

 

 It almost feels like cheating now that I’ve not had to purchase the expensive batteries after extended time in the woods or on the water.  The USB charging feature is hands down the only way I’ll go if and when I need an additional light.   Another nice feature of the UC35 2.0 is the battery level indicator on power up.  I’ve not run into a low power situation yet using the light and the power up indicator helps ensure I don’t.  The light offers 6 different modes of varying brightness from low intensity 800h run time to get out the tanning oil bright as the sun mode.  I typically use the light on the 3^rd setting and I’ve been very happy with the performance.  This light is easy to shift brightness using the 2 button format.  The end button works as the on/off control and another smaller push button controls the brightness.  I find this much better than having to click through all the modes to turn on and off the light.   If you find yourself in the market for a well-built feature packed setup give the pocket sized Fenix UC35 2.0 a try.

Snow Goose Hunting- Northern Arkansas

         

Lyerla Lake Duck Hunting

Duck Hunting at Lyerla Lake Farm. Left Joe Perkins, Jeff Slaughter, Keith Slaughter, Tim Bond and Shelby Byrd

 Over the years I had several preconceived notions regarding duck hunting.  It seemed to follow one basic thought, 4 am in a boat on a frozen lake or river. Over the last 12 months I’ve got my feet wet to the basics.  And yes I literally got my feet wet but that’s story for a different time.  Our adopted family in Kentucky are about as big into waterfowl hunting as it gets.  These guys sit around in the deer stand and day dream about opening day of Duck Season.  I’m sitting on the couch looking at fresh pictures off the game cameras and they are finely tuning duck calls.  It’s not that deer hunting does not interest the guys but it’s more like a burning passion for the winged creatures.  It’s a love hate relationship that you can only understand when you’ve watched a buddy fluent in the language of the duck blow on a call for 5 minutes.  It’s a fine art and you can spend the rest of your life watching videos and reading books on mastering the technique of luring weary birds to your spread.  The caller might start off with a “Greeting Call” and then move on to the “Feed Call” and if neither work they may fall back to a “Come Back Call”.  The Come Back is more times than not followed by a few explicit words that may or may not be directed at the ducks as they fade from vision.      

I will take this time to document one of my favorite experiences from duck hunting this past year.  A friend invited several of us on a trip to Southern Illinois to the middle of the Mississippi river flyway for a waterfowl experience.  By this time I’d been duck hunting on Lake Barkley in Western Kentucky a few times with brothers Jeff and Keith Slaughter and looked forward to the experience.  We would be going on a weekend hunt with Greg Kline on the Lyerla Lake Farm.                                

We struck out from South Alabama on a seven hour drive to meet up with friends in Western Kentucky.  From Kentucky we headed North West and three hours later arrived at our destination.  The hunting farm is a half a mile and a busy train track away from the Mississippi River.  It’s a beautiful farm that supports many different styles of hunting: flooded corn fields and flooded timber represent the basic theme with some dry cut fields offering plenty of variety.  The farm is located on the edge of its name sake Lyerla Lake and just outside a wildlife refuge.     McClure, Illinois is the nearest town to the farm and is very small.  We found great accommodations across the river in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Mississippi River Frozen at Cape Girardeau, Missiuri

Our first hunt we went unguided to a beautiful pit that backed up to a small lake.  The setup was in the middle of a large cornfield, and directly in front of the pit and out a couple hundred yards was the large and beautiful Lyerla Lake.  The Kentucky brothers donned hip waders and immediately changed the setup of the pond to allow a proper flight/landing area for incoming ducks.  This was something I never considered, it’s common knowledge among experienced hunters to move the decoys to accommodate wind direction.   You want to create a space for the approaching birds to zero in on and feel safe when gliding in for a landing.   15 short minutes later and the sounds of duck calls were echoing through the large tank pit.  These tanks are dug into the ground and work perfectly for an epic hunting setup.         

Jeff and Keith worked several groups of ducks coming out of the big lake.  Some would tilt their wings and shift direction a little to get a better look but seemed to have other ideas.  We saw deer running across the fields and other animals feeding along.  Several more ducks buzzed us but not in range.  Tim spotted ducks in the distance and the guys fell in with calling and apparently made quite the impression on a group of Gadwalls.  Two birds peeled off the rest of the group and made a fatal approach to the spread of decoys floating on the small lake.  When the sun finally dropped below the horizon we made our way back to the rustic barn with 6 dead gadwalls and a diver duck.  We dropped every bird we could bring in range. 

Greg had some fine pork steaks hot off the Traeger Grill and some spicy river bottom baked beans paired nicely with a fresh slice of white bread.  I’ve tried emulating the meal a few times over the summer but have not got the same flavor yet. 

I don’t have much experience to draw from but here are a few observations I took note of from the hunting base camp.  This particular camp was housed in a huge and I really mean huge old barn.  The open area when entering the barn offered a great area to park trucks out of the elements.  Nothing like changing boots in a graveled dry area.  The site offered a drying/hot room for leaving wet gear to dry overnight.  And it had all the other needed accommodations for a great experience.  The large barn had quite a history and was once the home to a horse made famous in western TV shows. 

Day two was a guided hunt and we setup in the dry pit.  This pit is located in the middle of a rather large cut bean field.  We saw thousands of ducks flying high over leaving the wildlife area shortly after dawn.  The morning started a little slow but was very enjoyable.  It’s an experience watching high flying flocks of snow geese heading south.  Groups of speckle bellies flying high overhead would offer a distraction as the guys pulled out several different types of calls trying to get their attention.  

Shortly before lunch the skies cleared a little and the sun peeked through the clouds.  With the sun came the ducks.  We dropped a couple of mallards and things started to pick up.  We dined in the blind on pizza graciously provided by Greg and no one stayed sitting long for lunch.  The ducks were flying and we all looked towards the sky.  We ended the day with eleven mallards and I’d started understanding the draw to this sport.  My good friend Joe warned me duck hunting was a consuming habit.  

 

Restocking the blind with stalks

Day 3 goes down as my best experience of the trip.  We trekked into the field before daylight and the pit setup was astounding.  It filled the bill on exactly what I would expect a world class setup to look like.  Picture a flooded corn field with a long narrow pond stretching in front of the blind.  Dean was our guide on this hunt and with him was a top of the line bird dog.  The dog’s name was Chief and he was of the Chesapeake Bay retriever breed best I could tell. Chief was a well-educated and good mannered dog.  If my dog could read I’m sure he would bite me for saying this but it was my first real experience hunting with a high caliber retriever.  

I guess I never really gave it much thought on how a dog would find a down duck in a lake or flooded corn field full of scent from other kills and duck activity.  But it’s amazing to watch.  Dean would give him the signal to retrieve the bird and off the dog would go.  Dean would blow the whistle and the dog would stop and look back at him for a hand signal for direction.  Motion to the right and the back and the dog would run to the right and further back from the blind.  When he got closer Dean would blow the whistle again and redirect.  We kept Chief busy all day and brought back our limit of ducks in several different varieties.  

Shelby Byrd

As I reflect on the last year and the experience I can say it is a must try hunting experience.  I’d also have to say don’t expect me to be selling my deer gear anytime soon.  I think both Duck and Deer hunting offer a great complement to each other.  Duck hunting is more of a time to fellowship with friends and share stories while in the blind.  Whitetail deer hunting is a time to disconnect and get away from it all.  But I’m planning to head back North in a few weeks to attend the annual Kentucky Duck Blind draw and maybe try our luck at few Teal if time permits.