DIY Mississippi Duck Hunting

[bigbassin]

Starting to look into a DIY trip I could do solo over a weekend this year that’s close enough to Atlanta to get by without taking a day off of work.

Anyone hunt mid to western Mississippi before? About 4.5 hours from the house so I could hypothetically drive over one Saturday morning, scout all afternoon then hunt a Sunday morning OR scout all weekend than go back the following weekend with a couple of spots in mind and hunt both days.

Is it worth it or would y’all just pony up a day or two of PTO and go the extra couple of hours to Arkansas/Louisiana? At that distance I’d need to travel Friday morning, scout hard that afternoon, probably scout again Saturday, then hunt hard Sunday and Monday morning.

I’d be taking a 14’ Jon with a regular 15 hp motor and about 3 dozen decoys with me.

 

[Kurts86]

I’ve hunted just north of there in West TN and it’s both definitely a major flyway but highly pressured. You need cold weather up north and January flooding to really do well in DIY public spots where the rivers flood timber. Frankly the last 3-4 years have not had great duck hunting in that part of the world. I have a few friends local to that area and the prevailing view is that the duck hunt quality in the delta has deteriorated in the last 20 years. You will see guys from all over in January in West TN, AR, MS, LA chasing the last few birds of the season.

I wouldn’t bother with West TN at all and Arkansas has basically kicked the NR DIY guys to the curb. I do hear the best things about MS all things considered. Regardless of which state you pick you need to be in the Mississippi River flood plain to consistory get on birds. Don’t short stroke it east by 1 hour to save drive time.

You have the right boat setup to hunt those areas. Lots of those areas have lots have deep enough water you don’t need a mud motor.

For me I’m done with timber ducks in the delta and will happily return to Great Plains puddle ducks in KS, MO & SD over any Mississippi River delta hunt.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Fun fact, there’s no Mississippi River Delta in Mississippi. You have to go to LA for that. It’s been several years, but I’ve hunted the alluvial floodplain of MS many times. I’ve had just as good luck hunting the middle of the State as the floodplain.

Good luck. Sounds like fun.

 

[Trapline]

I would go scout it, then whenever you see the news guy talking about a polar vortex pushing down from Canada go hunt it on the next weekend.

 

[WestTN2288]

The 14ft boat with a 15 outboard has me worried already. I hope your the exception, but too many bad duck hunting stories start with “too much weight, in a boat too small in unfamiliar waters…”

 

[JMasson]

A couple thoughts.

First, your boat is too small. The locals and other OOSers will likely have 18ft boats with 25-40hp motors. I’ve seen small boats like yours get swamped in the ditches, which is not a fun place to be at 4am when it’s 35 degrees.

Second, I drove all over NW Mississippi, NE Arkansas and West Tennessee last year…the rivers weren’t flooded. I saw more ducks than I had seen in at least 5 years but they were all on private reservoirs and flew right over the public timber. The reason, no water in the public timber. The rivers weren’t flooding, so they went where the water was. Unless there’s a lot of rain and the rivers are flooded, there won’t be water where you want to hunt. Do not waste your time in Arkansas. The public areas are just as crowded now as they were before the NR restrictions were put in place a few years ago. Do not pay a “guide” or “outfitter” for a “flooded timer” hunt in Arkansas. It won’t be what you want, it will likely be in a pit in a bean or rice field and you may kill some spoonbills. Maybe you’ll get lucky and you get put in a slough or buck brush swamp.

Third, I rarely hunt ducks in the Southeast US anymore. I have other places I can go to consistently kill ducks. I pretty much strictly hunt geese in the Southeast now. I’m lucky though, it doesn’t cost me anything other than volunteering a week of my time to guide some overflow hunters for a buddy of mine.