Unfortunately we had a very similar experience as another poster in Arkansas over the weekend, although we did manage to shoot a few birds. Originally posted under his topic but don't want to hijack. Just curious what others think, especially about the calling, boat placement, hunting the same nonproductive holes day after day, etc.

10 of us killed 50 over the course of 3 days. BUT the guy running the outfit took out a group of 6 each morning and managed 1,3, and 2 birds total. Took the group out Saturday to the SAME spot that we hunted Friday and only shot 1 duck. That kind of angered us since his website advertised they had access to 3500 acres of artificially flooded timber. We got to see 1 cypress break in three days of hunting on a 20 acre piece of property.

They did take a group of 4 each day to the refuge. First day was decent with 24 birds, Second day to the exact same spot we shot 13, and the last day we shot 7. What was frustrating is they wailed on their duck calls from the moment they saw the ducks until the ducks left the area. There was no soft calling, parked the boat 10 yards from the nearest decoy and didn't bother covering it. Action looked like it was going to pick up Saturday so we started passing on hens. Had a single hen land in the decoys. We saw it and decided to pass. After yelling "kill it, kill it" several times and no one shot it, one of the guides stood up and water swatted it. Next flock was four hens, we all passed and the same guide stands up and drops 2 hens.

I saw more ducks Sunday than any other day. They would come in on a string until they got about 50 yards out and then they would flare straight up. The problem is when shooting through the trees you couldn't really shoot down the lake and could only shoot straight in front over the decoys. About time they made it to the decoys they were 60 yards up and climbing.

I asked one of the guides if they could pick up robo and got an emphatic "Noooo". they claim the birds cant see the boat through the trees and "The Quad Call" works. Well something sure as hell flared the ducks for 3 days straight and they did nothing different. They are simply lucky there are so many birds in the area a few of them are dumb enough to drop right in.

I know the video is horrible, but someone please let me know if they've ever heard calling like this before.

Also saw huge flocks of snows everywhere. We talked to multiple people that were hunting without guides and were from out of state. Nearly all of them were shooting limits of mallards EVERY day. We saw the limits with our own eyes. All of these people were getting limits and our guides couldn't get a duck to finish. 90% of the ducks we shot were over the tree tops, they WOULD NOT come within 40 yards of the decoys.

Holy cow. How can someone get into some of that goose action?

Probably just ask a farmer. We watched a farmer for about 15 minutes chase the geese out of his field with his tractor. They eventually went into his pond. Probably could have gotten permission, but were in a hurry to get home.

Is the video working?

Can't figure out how to embed it in the post.

Thats a sad story. How did you find those yahoos? It sounds like the calling was a bad ringtone. Nothing ever changed. There are a few loser guides in this area too and they prey on out-of-towners for the once and done steal. Write a review using their names and as many identifying words as you can that will come up in a search. Google is a powerful tool.

That calling Sounds like a song the actives would have made us listen to in Hell week when I was a pledge

Atleast yall were in actual flooded timber. And killed ducks. What was the outfitters name? Nobody can slander someone who does someone else wrong quite like us here on THF!

And ill take my guides horrible calling at the right times over your guides constant terror! You win on that one. Never thought I'd be talking about competing with someone on whose guides were worse lmao!

Wow!!

Quack quack quack quack , quack quack quack quack, quack quack quack quack, quackquack quack quack.

As Cody Malone would say in so few words

SWEET

You want to shoot geese like that go to the Harrisburg/Wiener area in Arkansas. Most farmers will let you shoot geese on their wheat fields. A flock will move in a pull up every piece of green wheat as it comes up. We let people set up on our farm on the corner of the wheat and hunt them all day, keeps the geese out of the field.

Sounds like they put you in an area that is not being rotated. Our farm is just over 8000 acres rice, soybean, and some flooded timber. We never hunt a place in the afternoon that we are going to hunt the next morning. I agree on the calling, not sure what they were doing. So glad I don't have to pay for a place to duck hunt.

Almost like never ending alarm quacks. No wonder the ducks flared. I'm surprised they even got that close.

Unbelievable!!

That calling would drive me crazy. Sounds like a bunch of horny cats.

Unbelievable. Like somebody else said one and steal and they want be around long.

I like to use that method when the birds are trying to sit down 50 yds off the hole

Unreal....hate you wen't through that

They call like that on Reelfoot lake in Tennessee ..

Even my cats didn't like that calling

I've only hunted Arkansas a handful of times and always up near Jonesboro. IMO its over-rated. There are tons of birds up there, and everyone should shoot mallards in the timber at least once, but honestly, I enjoy shooting the varied mix of species we have here in Texas much more. I've never shot so many different species in the same season as I have here. Another downside of AR is the most productive rice fields up there get black flagged and can't be hunted until much later in the season after they've been eaten out. So while you may see a ton of birds in a rice field, a good chance stands that it can't be hunted. If I wanted to hunt mallards specifically, I would much rather go to Saskatchewan or Manitoba over AR any day. Sorry you had a rough hunt, hopefully you found a way to enjoy the trip! And I agree that you should name the outfitter so others dont make the same mistake!

x2

The outfitter was "Greenheads and Labs".

I could not listen to that calling all morning. It would have ruined the hunt for me. Absolutely horrible.

Nothing like out-of-towners with money to spend.

I will be going back to AR sometime in the future. Tons of birds on the refuge. Next hunt will most likely be a DIY hunt. Most everyone we talked to didn't have problems getting on the birds.

The reason we chose this outfit is they guaranteed flooded timber and we wanted that experience. Said he had 3500 acres he could flood regardless of the river levels on the refuge.

Most other outfitters said timber on refuge if there is water or field hunts. We've all done the field hunts and wanted a timber experience.

Will never complain about lack of birds. Guides can't control that. The lack of effort and stubbornness in doing the same thing over and over when it obviously wasn't working is what was frustrating. They were simply blessed to have the numbers of ducks that were present and were content with the few birds that would drop in. No effort was put forth to try to coax many of the seasoned birds.

Try Popa Duck Lodge in St Charles. Been there the past few years and most of the guides there can call ducks in from a mile high. Dean Watson is the owner and former World Duck Calling Champion in Stuttgart. That guy is the best caller I've ever heard. Super nice too. And the food at the lodge is UN. FRIGGIN. BELIEVABLE.

its not about the guides being able to call as much as it is for the guides to be able to put us on birds, and if they are unable to do that, at least convince me that they worked their butts off to do so. Im perfectly fine with having a crap shoot and giving it 110% rather than going to the same stale hole day after day because its easy money that you don't have to work as hard for!