Collinsville resident Justin Giles grew up hunting deer and small game, but more recently he became an avid duck hunter and caller. Giles has found that there are plenty of duck-hunting opportunities if you put in the time and effort to locate them.
“Depending on the current weather conditions, you may have a lot of ducks to hunt here and other times you have to hunt for honey holes,” Giles said. “But you can usually find a duck to hunt if you spend a little time locating holes before the season.”
Starting with the Okatibbee Lake Wildlife Wmanagement Area and expanding from there, Giles has scoured almost every stream, creek and tributary around the area and found many holding ducks at the same time, and a few more that will occasionally hold ducks — depending upon the water levels and duck population.
“Although we don’t have as many ducks as in the Delta, we do harvest teal, mallards, shovelers, mergansers, gadwalls and plenty of wood ducks,” he said.
Giles said he usually looks for any water off the main streams and waterways on public land.
“Usually the easily accessible spots will have ducks, but plenty of shooters on weekends and holidays, too,” he said. “The key is to locate several spots, and then check on them during the season and hunt the ones that have ducks and less hunting pressure.
“One key point is to find places that are off the beaten path, as well as hot spots on the main lakes. You can hunt the main lake, but you really have to get up early at times to get on a spot.”
So it’s more realistic to find areas off the beaten path, like flooded backwater beaver sloughs and natural creek oxbows that hold plenty of feed and acorns during the winter.
“I’ll start my scouting well before the season and continue right on through the fall and winter,” Giles said. “You will have some resident ducks here early on, at the beginning of the season, but later you have to check and see if more ducks have migrated down here, filling up secluded holes.”
Giles advised that scouting is the key to keeping abreast of the current duck-hunting opportunities and having ducks to hunt.
“On most of the local public lands based around our WMAs, the duck hunting stops at noon, and it gives the ducks a break and hunters an opportunity to scout,” he said. “We’ll scout some afternoons by using binoculars and putting in legwork so we’ll have places to hunt with ducks in them, rather than hunting for a place to hunt the morning of a hunt.”
During one hunt on Okatibbee Lake last season, Giles joined his friends Wade and Tyler Wood on a fast-paced teal hunt.
“Last year we harvested a lot of teal on the lake, and the action was really hot on one trip,” Giles said. “Our hunt started slow, and then teal began working our decoys and we had ducks working the hole until 10 a.m.
“Some of the ducks were flying along the tree line and would cruise by, swing around and spot our decoys and plop down right in front of us. They were really buzzing in like crazy, too. Some of them would fly by just out of range and we’d hit the teal whistle, and they would swing around and come by offering passing shots and we’d bust them.
“We actually harvested our limit of teal that morning and a few other days, as well.”
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