Arkansas report

[Bert Rodgers]

Last week I had my 1st Arkansas duck hunting experiance and hopefully not my last.
Brother Harry and I were guests of some great folks from Memphis Tennesee at Bear Bayou Gun club which is about 15 miles from Stuttgart.

We started off meeting at the famed Mack's Prarie Wings megga waterfowl store. Think
Bass Pro with nothing but duck hunting stuff. This place is literally in the middle of nowhere and it's packed.

Bear Bayou is an amazing place. A huge clubhouse(7 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,pool table. 50" TV, monster fire place etc.) sits infront of a 200 acre man made reservior that acts as a refuge for thousands of ducks and a water source that floods 100 acre woods and 200 acres of rice fields.The whole thing is managed by a great guide and his wife who cooks up 22oz ribeyes for dinner and the whole 9 yards for breakfast.

The 1st morning we woke up to rain 50* which they said was less than ideal for hunting flooded timber, but our host is old school and insisted that we try the woods 1st. So we load into the john boats which are housed in a boat house on man made canals that circle the reservior. A 1/2 mile run between 2 levies and transfer to another boat on the woods side of the levie back to hole #8 which is a clearing in the woods.Instead of a blind they have benches built next to large trees including ramped platforms for dogs which Gidgit had no problem figuring out.

Unfortunately our guide,Dave Henry,was right about the conditions and we only shot 3 spoonies while flocks of mallards flew high above the trees towards adjacent rice fields.
At about 8:30 I hear Dave in a deep Arkansas draw say to our host "Fuuuck Yeww Howard"( I guess he has that kind of relationship with his boss)and slogged over to get the boat.

Howard being an 80 year old gentleman said "That's fine Dave, you take these boys to the rice after breakfast, I'm taking a nap and watching bowlgames." Football is religion to these guys and they have a bet on litterally every game.

After 3000 calories we got on 4 wheelers and headed to the fields. When we came off the trail through the woods and out to the field well over 1000 mallards lifted out of the rice. We split up into 2 blinds where fast and furious shooting ended in less than an hour with everyone limiting on mallards and gadwalls and alll back to the house to play pool, drink and watch football by 1:00.

The next day was a repeat of the 1st.

That's what Arkansas has that we don't have on the East Coast.And it's a good thing, because they got nothing else.

Bert

[Going Deep]

Great report Dave, your right about Arkansas having nothing else but their duck hunting is sure world class. Glad you were able to bag some birds, sounds like you had a good time.

[Glenn W]

Rice hunting's Kinda like middle age sex, uh Bert?--- Short, sweet, and no fooling around required

[Catcher's Mitt]

Rice hunting's Kinda like middle age sex, uh Bert?--- Short, sweet, and no fooling around required

glenn, that is a good one. lmao

[Tenacious]

Rice hunting's Kinda like middle age sex, uh Bert?--- Short, sweet, and no fooling around required

I don't care if your a liberal or republican that is funny!

Great post Bert, one day I'm going to do that hunt.

[Catcher's Mitt]

Bert, sorry i was laughing so hard at glenn's comment that i didn't tell you good report. where are the pictures of this great adventure into smoking ducks and drinking whiskey?