Chasing Green Heads in Oklahoma

Watching the sun set on the Arkansas river waiting for ducks

I know that most if not all duck hunters have had the dream of a never ending stream of ducks coming into their decoys, one perfect flock followed by another. This is a dream I had a chance to live out this year. My good friend and hunting buddy moved to Oklahoma last year and has been working hard to get me to come down and see what they had to offer in the way of intense duck action. The only problem was…. the timing.

So I agreed to be on stand-by for the month of December, knowing that when I received his call I would have to drop everything, pack up the truck, leave and hope the ducks would still be there when we arrived. Well we got the call on December 18th, which was way closer the Christmas then we had hoped. So crossing our fingers, hoping we would have a family to come home to, the FLG Quaka Killa Team left for Oklahoma at 2am the next morning.

To say that the drive was filled with anticipation would be an understatement. I had brought my bro-in-law Richard aka “sleepy” along for company and driving help but it wouldn’t have mattered on the way down, I couldn’t sleep. Josh called every couple hours to give us updates, which further fueled my dream. Reports of thousands of birds dumping into the fields will keep any waterfowler up at night.

It was 10 min after we arrived that we were suiting up and heading towards the river for a quick evening hunt, it would have been a longer hunt but we HAD to stop at Bass Pro Shops to get some “supplies”. We loaded up on Josh’s decked out duck boat and headed down the Arkansas river to the mouth of the Illinois river. I couldn’t keep my mouth closed, I had never dreamed of this kind water in Oklahoma; Marshes, rivers, sloughs, fields….. It was perfect.

We had a pretty uneventful hunt that night, saw a few birds but only one group committed and we all botched our shots. Rich, who had never hunted ducks before was excited but also wondering what this was all about. Where were all the ducks? Well thats what the next morning was all about…..field hunting.

The alarm went off at 4am… and we were up loading the trucks and off to our field. It is always kinda a race to see who gets there first, knowing that there were other hunters with permission on these fields we wanted to leave nothing to chance. We got the field we wanted and started setting up and digging in. It always amazes me how much work duck hunting is, digging in 4 layout blinds, setting up 5 dozen decoys, cooking breakfast, getting my truck started because I left my lights on, and getting settled in 15 min before shooting hours started, then the waiting.

Well this morning we didn’t have to wait long, the birds we up early and headed….right towards the guys the set up in the field next to us….@#%@ what happened they were in this field yesterday. We were pissed to say the least, but we waiting knowing that some birds would come our way. Less then 10 min later Josh was clucking and calling in a flock of 100 green heads (Mallards). Hearts were beating out of our chests as they committed to our decoys. If you have never had 100 ducks basically fall out of the sky into your decoys, you haven’t really lived. A smaller group of 6 ducks broke off and dropped in faster then the others and when I heard the words “take em” 3 ducks fell to the ground. Rich aka “sleepy” looked at me with eyes wide and said ” that was the coolest thing I have ever seen.”

We had many more flocks that would almost commit, but the shooting that was being done by the guys in the next field would push them off, Josh kept say “these ducks get smart so fast” and that was the truth. By 9 we had 6 ducks on the ground, far from our limit but still some of the best “encounters” I had ever had, when I shouted geese….On the horizon was a pair of geese, who with a lot of coaxing by Josh committed to our spread and then fell from the sky for the last time. There is something special about watching, calling, hoping and having geese approach.

By 10am the show was over, but what a good show it was, we saw over 10,000 ducks, hundreds of geese and enjoyed some great time in the blinds with good company… An almost perfect duck hunt, but then looking back when is a hunt ever “perfect”…

We spent the next 2 days chasing some very educated ducks, rarely getting skunked but never hitting the mother load like we wanted to. I never thought that Oklahoma would hold ducks like that. I can tell you one thing and that is next December….I will be waiting for the call saying “the ducks are in”

PT

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