The good old days of waterfowling weren’t always good. Anyone who’s waited out a cold rainstorm on the marsh wearing waxed cotton will tell you that. But we have lost a few old-school duck hunting tips and tricks along the way that are still more than relevant in a world of GORE-TEX, spinning wings, and Texas rigs.
The following vintage waterfowling hacks work just as well today as they did 50 or 60 years ago. They can help you make do on hard days of duck hunting and might even impress a few of your hunting buddies in the process.
Paint Your Face With a Cork
One duck guide I know won’t take you hunting unless you have some way to cover your face, and he makes a good point. It’s usually the one thing that pokes out of a blind and tells birds that your decoy spread isn’t the real thing. You could wear a ski mask, neck gaiter, or paint your face, but I’ve found that a burned-up wine cork works best.
Make sure you’re dealing with real cork—not the plastic stuff—and take a lighter to it until one end turns black and catches fire. Blow out the flame and let it cool for a minute, then rub the burned end and soot on your face. If you need more soot, light again and re-apply. The soot is lighter than face paint and much easier to wash off. It also has a matte finish that’ll make your ugly mug all but disappear in a blind.
Make Some Marsh Hens
If you’re ever hunting at low tide or in a marsh with just a few inches of shallow water, you can round out a thin decoy spread with a shovel and a little elbow grease. Scoop up mud with the shovel and pile it up until it pokes out of the water.
After that, channel your inner sculptor and shape the mud so it roughly resembles the size and shape of a duck’s body. Don’t worry about the head. The brown color will match a hen’s coloring, and from a distance, the mud lumps look like another duck feeding in the water.
Don’t Be Afraid to Jump Shoot
I know one 70-year-old duck hunter who can’t stand sitting in a blind. It’s because he knows how effective jump shooting can be. In areas with tidal creeks, it’s especially deadly at low tide. When the water level drops, ducks and geese will sit well below the bank. While they’re hidden from predators, the high banks keep them from being able to look around and spot danger. It’s the perfect time to sneak up on them.
Creep in low and crouched to creek bends or other areas you’ve scouted ahead of time that you know to hold birds. If you can’t see birds in the bottom of the creek, then they can’t see you. Try to get as close as you can to the water’s edge before standing upright and jumping the birds to fly. The same tactic can work on freshwater creeks or any body of water that sits lower than the bank.
Walk the Plank
Sometimes, the only thing separating you from where all of the birds are is a little bit of water. If you have a boat, you’re usually in luck. But mud or deep sinkholes are still impassible no matter what kind of boat you have.
A plank of wood is just the ticket for making temporary bridges or for walking over deep boot-sucking mud. Get a lightweight 10-inch-wide plank of pine about six feet long and add it to your duck boat. Planks of wood are also good for sitting on when in uneven or muddy terrain.
Build a Pond Box
Waterfowlers on the Atlantic Coast have long made use of a simple boat called a pond box. The boat looks like a long jet sled or a miniature Jon boat, and it’s just long enough for one hunter to lie flat with a slight ramp toward the bow. The ramp helps the boat move in the water, and it serves as a backboard when the hunter lies in it on dry ground or the water’s edge.
You can use pond boxes to drag decoys and camouflage onto a marsh and haul dead ducks off of it. They can also be pressed into service for paddling to retrieve ducks in calm water. But they’re most effective as a layout blind. On dry ground or at the edge of a marsh, you can conceal a pond box easily, and some designs even feature grass rails.
Old school hunters would lie in pond boxes to hunt brant and black ducks, covering themselves and the boat with a piece of burlap. Today, you can use the same setup or upgrade to radar netting and raffia grass for camp. The gunwales on the pond box will keep the wind off of you, and because it's waterproof, you can stay hidden even when the ground is soaking wet. Just remember to keep any paddling to shallow, calm water, and always wear a PFD.
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