When shooting light arrived, we knew we were in a bad spot. My buddy Austin Crowson and I were hunting a slough, and it didn’t take long to realize we were set up between two groups of fellow hunters.
The group to the north was a couple hundred yards away on a gravel bar that extended into the river. The hunters to the south were closer, in a bigger slough. Ducks were flying, but with all the public-land pressure, none were dropping into our decoys. After an hour of seeing ducks but not firing a shot, we pulled the decoys and moved to the head end of the slough.
We cut our decoy count in half to two dozen, including a dozen wood duck decoys tucked tight to the brush. A couple groups of mallards rounded out the spread. We stood in nearby alders, and soon
