Illinois Sports Outdoors (Feb 97 issue)

Yes that's right ... the real Duck Capitol is NortheasternArkansas and not in Stuttgart. Well you say, how can that be? Everyone knows that the greatest place to hunt ducks is at Stuttgart. I for one can put up a pretty good argument on that matter. This past January my friend Walt Davis, an avid duck hunter, was traveling through parts of Arkansas looking for a good place to hunt the wily green head. He has been hunting ducks all of his adult life and prides himself on being a good duck hunter and I can vouch for that. I kid him about being a Duck- Ologist, that is a person who knows his stuff when it comes to duck hunting. He ended upin a place called Wynne, Arkansas, about an 8 hour drive from Peoria. He hunted for one day at a duck lodge with little success. The locals told him that all the ducks were up at a place called Walnut Ridge, that's an hour north of Wynne. So with a short driveand a little luck he was able to find the feathery gates to duck heaven.

Charles Snapp has hunted all his life and has guided for almost as long. He has been able to put together some of the finest duck shooting places in all of Northeastern Arkansas, with rice field leases all through Lawrence County. And with 14,000 acres of thebest flooded pin oak timber in state it's hard to beat.

Well after having a nice shoot in the green timber, Walt was sold on this place. He found the gates of duck heaven only 7 hours south of home. After coming back he called me and asked if wewould be interested in shooting a TV show in Arkansas. I said,"you bet ", and off we went a few weeks later.

We arrived on a Sunday night in Walnut Ridge and met up with Charles Snapp, owner and operator of Alamo guide service and Alamo Courts Motel. Charles has been hunting ducks since he was old enoughto carry a gun and that's been over 30 years ago. He has huntedwith many a celebrity, people like Charlie Rich, a country singer,governors, congressmen, millionaires and a some outlaws just to name a few. His good friend Paul Bennett, has hunted with President Carter's wife mid has taken The Walton's from the Walmart family to the fast and furious rice fields just south of town.

After a good nights rest we pulled out and went to the rice fields the first day. We were met there by Paul Bennett. They use all terrain vehicles 4 x 4's to go to the fields. Its the only way to go unless you want to walk a mile and a half. The fields are flat as a pancake with only I to 2 inches off all the way across and that may be a field that's 160 acres or more insize. The ground is good old gumbo and can hold you down in the mud like a suction cup. The pit we hunted out of was below thewater line, we stuck up about 2 foot out of the water, and a local cane was used for cover. The pits can hold up to 6 people very comfortably.

It wasn't long till ducks started buzzing our blocks, andwe started taking a few long shots to no avail. We all had duck fever and couldn't control ourselves, it's been 3 weeks since we saw a duck let alone shot at one. Before long the snow geese came rolling out. of the fields by the thousands. And not long after that until one dropped right in and I shot him. Snow geese in rice fields will decoy like mallards quite frequently with a little calling from a cackler call, and a nice spread of whitesnow goose decoys.

Charles uses an old D2 Olt and does a fine job of calling, they call a little different than we do with a raspier sound, but not a great difference. It wasn't long and we had ducks all over us behind and in front. We shot till noon and took a break to have lunch with 15 already in the bag. We felt like we hada good morning shoot. That afternoon we came back late and shot 5 more before sunset and had a great time filming and shooting ducks in the fields.

The next morning we went to a place called Rainev Brake Wildlife Management Area. It's 14 thousand acres of flooded green timber full of pinoaks, cypress and tupelo. A place you don't dare goin with out a compass. Everything looks alike. With little or no known markers it is one damn hard place to navigate. But once in this flooded forest of opportunity you can see in short timewhy they call this place the Real Duck Capitol. With all this area it's hard not to find a good place to set up. Charles uses all mallard drake decoys that are freshly painted so the ducks can see them in the timber. The holes are not that big for it is illegal to cut or open any new places. But the ducks, once they have committed to your calling and have made that decision to dump in there's no turning back. At times we had as many as 4 to 6 hundred swing our holes not once but quite often. Charles likes to get the some of the ducks on the water while the others are still fighting to get down through the trees. Hunting ducksin the timber has got to be one of the 10 wonders of the world. One of the most exciting experiences has got to be when 300 ducks are fighting to get next to you and they don't know you are there. We hunted 3 days in the timber and did well all times. We limited out most days and the days we didn't was our own fault.

Walt likes to get them in real close and I like to shoot'em a little high, but just in range. But all in all an experience I will remember the rest of my life. I highly recommend the hunting at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas and if you want to have a good timewith good people Charles Snapp and Paul Bennett will make sure of that. I failed to mention my partner and good friend John Fiskworked real hard recording the hunt and deserves a lot of credit for sacrificing his gun for his camera. We should have a great video coming out this month about the hunt.

While we were there Charles and his beautiful wife Jackie celebrated their 2nd wedding anniversary and had a wonderful mealprepared by the Chef at the Alamo Courts, Alfred Morgan. That man can cook duck like I never have seen before. He prepared it in a raspberry sauce that was fit for a king or for someone like me.