I watch the sun rise through cypress trees on a cold Monday morning in late January. Across the state, groggy Arkansans are getting out of bed for the start of the work week. I'm the lucky one. As we hunt ducks on Jacob's Lake in southeast Arkansas, I get to call this work.
I've long been fascinated by the history of Arkansas duck clubs and have had the good fortune of visiting many of them. I've written columns about Wingmead, Hatchie Coon, Claypool's Reservoir, Grassy Lake and other storied clubs. Duck hunters across America know the names of these sacred places but will never visit them, because they're private.
We're in the legendary Thorn Thicket Blind, an elevated blind that's part of Tuf Nut Hunting Club. Dr. Michael Pollock, a Little Rock surgeon and club member, is calling in one group after another. We have our limit of mallards by 7:10 a.m. and then watch thousands of ducks fly around the lake. Though brunch soon will be served at the neighboring Circle S Club, we're in no hurry to leave. I could sit here all day and watch this scene play out.
"This was the narrowest middle section of the migratory funnel of the Mississippi Flyway," Dr. Wayne Capooth of Germantown,...
Source: https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2026/feb/15/a-duck-hunters-paradise/
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