Duck Hunting

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The Association hunter with duck hunting as his primary interest is composed of two not very surprising major groups, the resident and non-resident duck hunter. It is duck hunting over that of goose hunts that is the local hunter attraction. Traveling waterfowl hunters seem equally interested in our goose and duck hunting.

The other facet that distinguishes between our duck hunter and all the other Association hunt disciplines is that waterfowl hunters as a group are on par with our archery deer hunters for having the highest renewal rate. The common feedback has been more ducks on one hunt in Missouri than can be seen in a traveling hunter's home state.

It appears that waterfowl and archery deer hunters are the most seasoned of all hunters. That seasoning is through the high failure rate, work involved for a good hunt and equipment requirements of their discipline of choice.

That level of seasoning has the additional effect that once those hunters experience our approach to DIY hunts they return for years of enjoyment of making their own self guided duck hunts. These hunters return due to the quality of the wetlands habitat and the chances for successful duck hunts are higher than any other duck hunting option that exists.

All that sounds good and there is the other side. We have days when there is not a duck to be seen. Our season long hunting access mitigates that to a great degree. All may watch the migratory bird reports and weather. Combining the two will show well when to duck hunt.

Of our resident waterfowl primary interest hunters frequently hunt the wetlands that have the shortest driving distance rather than selection of wetlands by habitat type (flooded crop, timber, mash, open water).

For these members their season is strongest at the first half especially that part before Kansas pheasant season opens. After that, waterfowl reservations follow the strength of the migration that is easily detected through casual observation. Peak migration may see as many as half the blinds occupied and lows finding most duck hunters out in the pheasant fields.

A slight diversion of the local waterfowl enthusiast is the small group that find their fun on the watershed lakes and farm ponds rather than on the wetlands. While the effort may be focused on duck hunting other opportunities exist for goose and upland bird on the same property as the water body.

These hunts are unstructured in terms of no numbered duck blinds or wade-in areas.

On farm pond duck hunts these hunters reserve the entire pond, setup as they see fit with quick to erect blinds or no blinds and a dog or canoe for retrieving.

These hunters while most concentrate on ducks also seem to collect the most geese during the season as well. This is through hunting on the farm ponds surrounded by large crop fields with both located just outside of one of the many waterfowl refuges that dot the Lower Missouri River Basin portion of the Mississippi Flyway.

The New To Association Waterfowl Hunter

By now our approach to duck hunting should be established as self guided duck hunts for the do it yourself hunter. However, we will not let the new to the Association duck hunter flounder. We will get him to the wetlands habitat of choice and provide the local lodging options. That is as far as we take it. We get him to where he needs to park his truck, the duck blinds, wade-in or layout boat area and once there the rest is up to the duck hunter.

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