A typical day of hunting wood ducks

Calling and utilizing decoys will stack the odds in a hunter’s favor for harvesting more wood ducks.

A typical day of chasing woodies with the author starts out a blind he’s constructed at a favorite, abandoned farm pond in the middle of some big timber. It has a beaver dam across the spillway and cypress trees growing on the shallow end.

Arriving very early, he hunts the shallow end with a spread of four decoys, one rigged on a jerk-line. If the squealers land before shooting light, he waits until legal hunting time arrives, then call and work the jerk-line, hoping to get them to swim over for a flush and shoot. He does a lot of wood duck talk until mid-morning.

When the action has ceased, he will head to a section of hardwoods that has a big creek running through it. He will try his hand at ambushing and jump-shooting until he’s tired or lunch time arrives. He may stay and make an evening hunt, pass-shooting, sitting beside a group of oak trees on a field woodline between a roosting area and some beaver soughs. It’s then time to do some intermittent calling and stay ready for fast-flying action on the fringes.

Be aware of the limit, it’s three daily. The author tries to harvest only drakes, feeling like he’s conserving hens for future seasons.

About Andy Douglas 51 Articles
Andy Douglas is an outdoor writer and photographer from Brookhaven. A native of Lincoln County, he’s chased deer, turkeys, bass and most anything else the past 35 years. He lives the outdoor lifestyle and is passionate about sharing that with others through stories and photos.

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