Virtually all of the waterfowl hunting done in Tallahatchie County with Catfish Flautt is over small water-holding areas and assorted water resources duck hunters have always referred to as potholes. These “open waters” are not lake size by any means; potholes can be everything from a small depression in a field of corn or soybeans to a low-lying area along a creek, bayou or slough.
In normal seasons, with a lot of natural backflow waters from the Tallahatchie River, which feeds the bayous and sloughs, water is standing everywhere, and if not frozen, then ducks are in the water. A pothole can be a hundred acres or one stand-alone acre.
“The water depth is usually, let’s say ideally, no deeper than a guide and his hunters can walk through with chest waders on,” says Catfish.
Often the water depth can be measured in mere inches.
“Like 2010, though, we had to pump water into many of our duck holes because it was a severe year of drought,” said Flautt. “We do a lot of center pivot irrigation of our corn and soybeans, so we are prepared to pump water into the low spots to create our own potholes.
“Water and food are essential for great duck hunting.”
As a side note, potholes also usually come with interesting names. Catfish has 63 different duck potholes to use throughout the season with such names as Swan Lake, Treeline, the California Hole, Snow Hole, Cypress Drain, Rice Field, Ollie King, Combine Hole and the No. 1 Duck Hole, just to mention a few.
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