duck hunting

Early Season Duck ID

Early Season Duck ID By Nick Johnson It is common knowledge among waterfowl hunters who hunt early season that the drakes of many species of ducks appear dull and somewhat ugly in color. That beautiful drake Mallard or Greenwing teal whose plumage is striking come winter and spring often looks so drab that he resembles […]

Late Season Duck Hunting

Late Season Duck Hunting By Travis Mueller If you were to ask any seasoned waterfowler what his favorite time to hunts ducks would be, they’d probably tell you late. Well that leaves a lot to the imagination doesn’t it. Late could mean a lot of things. It could mean in the day, it could mean […]

Duck Hunting Small Rivers

Duck Hunting Small Rivers By Nick Johnson Hunting ducks on smaller moving waters is less common in Iowa than one might think. How you define a smaller river is objective and really can be anything from a reasonable stream to something like the Des Moines River in the northern half of the state. What comes […]

A Story of Safety

A Story of Safety By Drew Henry The ducks have been scouted. The spread has been set. You are waiting with sheer anticipation in your layout blind, blanketed over by the early morning darkness. You are blessed to have your father along on the hunt, both of you sipping hot coffee and taking in the […]

Prepare Now For Waterfowl Season

Prepare Now For Waterfowl Season Ugh the lull of fall! The turkey woods have gone silent, the mushrooms are all but gone, decaying or hidden in a jungle of poison ivy and May apples. The bugs have reinforced their armies, and the mosquitoes have once again started their aerial assaults. So now what? I guess […]

Five Tips to Better Wingshooting

Five Tips to Better Wingshooting By Tim Ackarman “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” – Vince Lombardi NFL football players are naturally gifted athletes. Yet they spend much of the summer […]

A Waterfowl Journey

A Waterfowl Journey By Nick Johnson It starts with a change. That first real bite of cold in early fall when the leaves have barely started to turn and daylight periods grow shorter. It isn’t a rapid change, but more of a coaxing that sends those first early migrants on their southward journey. Waterfowlers sense […]

Small Spreads Take Limits Too

By: Nick Johnson I can remember the first band I ever shot like it was yesterday. I was hunting by myself at a public marsh in central Iowa. I had scouted the evening before and found there to be a small group of geese coming back to roost after the evening feed, maybe 20 or […]