Bad weather spoils duck hunt

2023-01-05 18:32:56 By : Ms. Kelly Chen

How dramatically a change in the weather can affect duck hunting.

From Christmas week until about New Year's Eve, readers texted or emailed ecstatic accounts of sensational duck hunts. An arctic cold front had pushed ducks into the state, and they concentrated on fairly sparse amounts of water.

Several such accounts came from Jess "The Undertaker" Essex of DeWitt. The hunting of late was a flashback to the glory days of his younger days on Mill Bayou. His texts reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode, "Changing of the Guard," an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" in which the ghosts of a retired teacher's students return in his darkest hour to tell him how he molded their lives.

Over the Christmas holiday, some of the young men that Essex mentored over the years returned to squire him about his favorite haunts. The hunting was as it was in their youth, and it seemed to make them all young again.

"Done by 8:30!" Essex crowed. "What a day, and my young hunters took care of me like I was the Mogul of Calcutta!!"

A lifelong friend who lives in Fayetteville reported tremendous goose hunting success at his place in Arkansas County.

"Daily limits," he wrote. "Never seen anything like it. Sustained for 4 days, done between 5 minutes and an hour every day."

He sent an update two days later.

"I'm still in shock," he texted. "We lit groups from 6 to 100! Tuesday and Wednesday we were done after two groups and 5 and 15 minutes."

My anonymous friend got exasperated with me because I did not immediately speed south to hunt with him.

Essex, meanwhile, took migration's largesse as an omen to hastily schedule the year's annual meeting of the Purple Hull Society. It is a group of 16-gauge shotgun enthusiasts that meets at least once a year to hunt waterfowl with 16-gauge shotguns. To possess a 16-gauge for that day is the only requirement for membership. The events are always memorable. Sometimes the hunting is very good. A few text messages to Purple Hull Society members assured a quorum, and Essex set the meeting's agenda.

Federal magistrate judge Joe Volpe of Little Rock has also enjoyed some superb hunts of late. I accepted an invitation to join him and his son John Volpe for a hunt Tuesday, but Hendricks Luck made its usual unwelcome cameo.

The storms that rolled rolled through Arkansas Monday night dumped a ton of water on the landscape. The sudden emergence of fresh habitat allowed ducks to disperse, and the wild weather dispersed them. The sudden arrival of spring-like weather overnight didn't help. We plunged the tips of our marsh stools into fresh mud and huddled in a cramped blind with Cooper, Volpe's lovable yellow Labrador retriever.

A few ducks eyed our spread from a cautious distance, and a lone drake mallard cupped momentarily over the far end of the decoy spread before flaring. We raised our guns but did not shoot.

A couple more ducks gave us a look. John Volpe squealed a note that made the ducks peel away and hit their afterburners like Blue Angels. Volpe was in mid-blow when I started laughing at him. He started laughing, too, and had to stop calling.

"You don't have to blow that hard," Joe Volpe said.

"I wasn't blowing hard," John Volpe protested. "I was laughing. I can't call when I'm laughing!"

The two of them cracked on each other throughout the morning as fathers and sons often do. We also lamented the absence of Shawn Tobin, who is garlic to Volpe's salt on these outings.

One really stupid duck ensured that we wouldn't start 2023 in the skunk column. A lone gadwall drake flew over the decoys. Several shots missed, but then the gadwall wheeled around and circled back over the decoys. The Volpes tag-teamed it, and Cooper retrieved it.

When I returned home, my phone buzzed with a text from Essex.

"Well, shoot! 8 1/2" of rain changes things," Essex wrote. "We're gonna have to postpone the purple hull hunt until the water falls back out."

We got to work alerting Purple Hull Society members in our respective circles. That includes Joe Volpe, who obtained a 16-gauge solely to join the club. Mainly he just wants to share a blind with Essex, whose personality is as large as Arkansas County.

Print Headline: Bad weather spoils duck hunt

This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

Material from the Associated Press is Copyright © 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. All rights reserved.