MOUND CITY, Mo. | Ah, if only the Missouri duck season had opened a few minutes earlier on Saturday morning.
Then Rusty Burnam and Josh Dean would have been celebrating a successful start to the season, instead of lamenting a big disappointment.
Just five minutes before the start of shooting hours, they sat in a pit blind near the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge and watched the ducks put on a show.
First, a line of teal buzzed the decoys. Then two mallards hovered over the imitations. And just moments later, a few ducks plopped down at the edge of the decoy spread.
“Have to wait,” Burnam said, glancing at his watch. “We still have a few minutes before we can shoot.”
Once the season opened, the ducks vanished. Oh, Dean did shoot a green-winged teal that swept down on the decoys, tipping its wings as it attempted to land. But the vast majority of the early arrivals left for parts that are still a mystery to Burnam and Dean.
“Sometimes, you’d swear they can tell time,” Burnam joked. “They seem to know when they’re not going to get shot at.
“But once shooting hours open ... ”
Such was the story of another duck opener for Burnam, a pro staff member for Avery Outdoors, and Dean, a guide at Squaw Creek.
The day started with great promise. On a scouting trip the evening before, Burnam and Dean had watched ducks regularly land in the decoys. And they were heartened by the fact that the latest surveys at Squaw Creek had shown that 90,000 ducks were using the protected wetlands in northwest Missouri, a promising sign for hunters on private land surrounding the refuge.
But there are no sure shots in duck hunting, not even when the odds appear stacked in your favor.
With the weather calm and mild, the ducks weren’t moving Saturday. The silence in the bottoms where Burnam and Dean were hunting told the story.
Only an occasional shotgun blast was heard, a sign that few ducks had shown up for the opening day party.
“We need some wind and some colder weather,” Burnam said as he sat in the blind surrounded by flooded corn.
Dean nodded.
“Around Thanksgiving is when it gets good out here in this flooded corn,” he said. “When it gets cold, these ducks will come to this corn.
“Right now, they have plenty to eat on the refuge and there’s no reason for them to fly out, especially when it’s as mild as it is.”
Dean paused and added, “But you have to be out here for the opener. That’s just tradition.”
Dean has the perfect setup — once those ducks do start to stir.
He guides for Northwest Outfitters and Gabe Hayes, who farms a large chunk of acreage just to attract migrating waterfowl.
Hayes cuts lanes through the corn so that hunters can make their way to blinds and so that ducks will have landing areas. Then he floods a portion of it so that there are pools.
Pit blinds that are camouflaged with corn stalks blend into the landscape and provide ideal hunting venues. Dean and Burnham talk about past hunts they enjoyed when large flocks of mallards circled the decoys.
But early in the season? Well, that’s more about being there than experiencing memorable hunts.
“The first few days of the season usually aren’t the best,” Dean said. “It usually doesn’t get good until at least mid-November.”
Still, both Dean and Burnam wouldn’t miss opening day. They both count the days until the duck season opens.
To reach Brent Frazee, The Star’s outdoors editor, call 816-234-4319 or send e-mail to bfrazee@kcstar.com
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