“It’s all about the Lake”, Jim said, gazing off into
the distant hills. His eyes seemed wise and always in need of finding something.
Jim has been a conservation officer his entire life, and now in his retirement,
he is constantly searching for the next bird, buck, or walleye. The “Lake” he
is referring to, of course, is Lake Erie. If you are a waterfowler, and especially
a duck hunter in the Mississippi flyway, his words hold great importance for
your hunting season.
I live and hunt in southern Ohio. The river runs right
through my little coal barge town, and often before the swamps and lakes have
even begun to freeze over, we quite frequently choose to hunt the river. Swamps
are fun and usually easy to hunt, especially in early season when the majority
of our puddle ducks haven’t migrated south yet and wood ducks are plentiful. All
you need is a pair of waders and maybe a dog and you can shoot your limit of
woodies over a half dozen decoys on any given cloudy day in a healthy marsh.
Most wetlands here in the southern part of the state have vehicle access within
a mere hundred yards of where these birds roost.
Another great place to get a pile of birds is over a cut
cornfield, and around here it’s hard to throw a rock without hitting one,
outside of town. About halfway through our early season, farmers start to
harvest their corn and leave plenty behind for our tasty, feathered friends.
Many Saturdays, my friends and I would get a pizza and a few dozen decoys and
shoot birds all afternoon in a freshly cut field. Woodies, mallards, Canadas,
and the occasional prized black duck is what we primarily would take, but the
true prizes were found on the river.
To hunt the river takes more effort, but the
possibilities are virtually endless. The essentials are: a boat (obviously), a
dog (hopefully), and a couple dozen floaters rigged for at least 15-20 feet. With
a boat comes licensing, lifejackets, fuel, etc. But, with hunting the river
comes scaup, buffleheads, redheads, and on occasion, even the trophy canvasback.
Of course, none of these are a guarantee but we are talking about hunting;
nothing is guaranteed.
The logic is really quite simple, but the devil is in
the details. According to the Ohio DNR, as many as a quarter of a million birds can live on Lake Erie on any
given day. As the weather gets colder, these birds start heading south, and a
great deal of them use the river as a navigational tool, feeding and roosting
on it all the way to the Mississippi or wherever else they decide to winter. Birds
north of Lake Erie often end up at the lake later in the season, as it is the
coldest time of the year. And on the rare occasion (as of late because of
consistent unseasonably warm winters for the last few years) when the lake
freezes over, those birds are forced to fly further south. These birds are
primarily arctic birds, so the cold weather isn’t what is pushing them down,
but the absence of water.
Back to the birds who live on the lake throughout the
year. These birds are not considered arctic birds, therefore, when the weather
becomes uncomfortable, they leave. This means anywhere south of the lake is
fair game. The majority of ducks fly the river because their final destination
is the Gulf of Mexico or the southern states in the flyway. Either way, the
river is their avenue. Common sense tells us that any swamp, crop field, or
golf course within a short distance of the river is a good place to find
migrating birds. Experience shows us that some of these birds want to stay
right on the water. Plus, divers like to dive, thusly, we hunt over the water.
Of course, we should hunt fields, swamps and the
river, but often during late season these birds are educated. They don’t like
to eat in fields during shooting hours, and swamps are intimidating before the
sun goes down. Remember, these birds have been shot at every day for months on
their way to your blind. Instead of trying to draw them off the river, it
may be easier to take the show to them.
We are not in the best part of the country to kill a
massive diversity in species as you would in somewhere like the Dakotas,
Arkansas, or down south, but the river has become the pathway for all types of
waterfowl to journey south. This past season alone, my hunting companions and I
spotted over ten different species in one day. These birds are out there, we
just have to learn where they are going and how they are getting there.
foggy morning on the Ohio R.
Jake and his first goose, taken in a field along the river
