Clarendon Arkansas Public Hunt - Day 1

Posted on January 21, 2004 by Shannon Nardi 

January 13, 2003 - Day 1
Wow, it is our last WaterDog shoot. I am very sad. It has been the best and only Duck Season for me and I can say that for some strange reason I am hooked.

The crew took off after noon on Monday. We were meeting at Wingmead to shoot some extra shots I remembered that I needed for the shows already produced.

Before we stopped there Justin wanted to check out an area we would be hunting the next morning. We stopped, put the boat in and took off down the river. Justin had marked some areas off a few days before but the river had raised up a couple of feet and finding the tape on the trees he had marked had become a challenge. We pulled into his "Honey Hole" as he so referred to it and started looking for pink tape. It was like a maze in the flooded river timber. We finally found it and retaped so that it would be easy in the morning for us to find. Now for some reason getting into the Honey hole was easy, getting out was another story. We just couldn't seem to find the same route we had taken in. I always seemed to have such great sense of direction but for some reason the timber just all looked the same to me once in the middle of it. We got stuck and had to get out and push our way back to the river. We could see the river, it was just 25 yards away. We just couldn't get to it. It was right there. Justin's Boat the really big boat was so hard to get thru the timber and pushing it thru was even harder when you can't really balance yourself in the water. Waist waders? Not good for pushing out a boat in the timber, especially when you lose balance and the water sneaks in. I think I received the most bruises ever in my life on my arms and legs from getting in and out of the boat and trying to push it thru all the logs and brush to get back to the river. Just a few more feet and we've got it. It was fun, sort of a challenge to see if we could actually push that bad boy out.

Now, that we got that done off to Wingmead and I have to say one of my all time favorite days. I would say in the top 15 days. Tim was our host at Wingmead and a wonderful guide as well when we hunted there. Justin and Tim talked about the season. Tim just referred to the ducks as being Mean! Season was slow again this year in Arkansas so it was the topic. We set up our shots and got what I needed. I asked Tim if we could set up some cameras and shoot some duck footage at the front of the property. He said yes as long as we didn't disturb them. So we decided to shoot some of the Ducks piling into the fields in front of Wingmead. I mean it was raining Ducks. I must tell you, it was amazing. Just amazing. It was like a well orchestrated ballet. The well choreographed chorus came in. Then you would have the Pas de deux of the Mallard pairs again and again and again. Small parachutes with wings cupped just dropping, then splash, splash into the fields. There were thousands of them. I bet we sat there for 2 hours and just watched. The binoculars went from one set of hands to the other. Yella just watched and watched and watched. Never took her eyes off. The white tornado of snow geese gave us our finale. With the sun set, it couldn't have been more beautiful.

I know that this is something I want to come and watch again. Digging in the dirt or playing in my garden has always been a form of stress relief or a clearing of the mind, but I think I just found something to top that.

Clay met us in Clarendon for dinner and He and JT set their plan. Up and adam up again for the last of the seasons hunts. Crew Call 5:00am.