Weather also plays a big factor in ag field hunting. “My favorite weather condition to hunt ducks in the fields would have to be rainy and windy days, whereas if I’m hunting them in the marsh I’d prefer a bluebird day with little wind. It seems that when the rains come through, the birds head to the fields to feed on freshly flooded habitat,” he added.

The next morning I was able to see some of these tactics put to good use as we hunted over a small pothole of buffaloed pasture in which we had put out about 3-dozen decoys the evening before. Our spread consisted of mostly wigeon, pintail and bluewing teal but also included a wad of mallards used in conjunction with a Mojo duck on a remote. Six Avery FFD specklebelly full body decoys were the centerpiece of our spread and Campbell was quick to note that a remote control is critical for any spinning winged decoy if you’re planning to hunt specks in the same field as they seem to flare off of them more often than not. He was also careful to put 15-20 yards between the specks and nearest duck decoys as he feels that though ducks will work into most anything, specks often seem reluctant to work in over duck decoys.

Darren Digby, of Cajun Outdoors Magazine, with a beautiful greenhead.

Sure as the sign we noted the day before, we spooked mallards out of the small hole in the pre-dawn darkness with an eruption of wings and alarming quacks. Correspondingly, a nice greenhead turned out to be the first bird of the morning with others seen circling the area. The barrage of shooting that morning more closely resembled a steady thunderous roar than any sort of distinguishable gunfire, like nothing I’d ever heard before as there seemed to be a good supply of birds in the area. As we saw later on the straps of others, the teal were out in full force that morning and made up the bulk of most straps. Though we were hampered in hunting such a small hole in the otherwise overgrown pasture, our bag consisted of mallards, teal, and spoonbills. As the norm on any opening day, crooked barrels and hollow shot patterns resulted in a strap well below its potential, especially considering our chances were limited in the small pothole compared to the bigger waters of fully plowed fields. Nonetheless, it didn’t take much calling to get our birds in for favorable shooting opportunities, with many working the relatively “small” spread just as we intended. Mallards lit with mallards and teal lit with teal. And spoonies just did what they do no matter the decoy species and we were happy to have them.

Give some of these tactics a try next time you’re chasing ducks in the ag fields of our great state. Though each hunter has his own personal tweaks for their field, you can’t go wrong with these tried and true methods to put more ducks on the strap.