Very little gear is necessary for hunting wood ducks around beaver ponds, though a good pair of legs and a retriever are both quite helpful. Photo by Mark Fike.

Mild winters have been a blessing to many Virginians over the past three years, but the lack of arctic air has caused waterfowlers to see a noticeable shortage of traditional ducks, such as mallards, pintails, gadwalls, widgeons and black ducks. Many die-hard duck hunters kept rising well before dawn to go sit in the blind only to be disappointed at the lack of flights. Some hunters with access to prime water managed to scrape up a few birds each day. I know this to be the case, as I am a member of one of the former group and know guys in the latter group.

On a whim one early Saturday morning two seasons ago, a close friend and I decided to save ourselves the trouble of hooking up the boat, spreading dekes and driving to the boat launch. Instead, we simply put on waders and walked down to the swamp behind his house. The exercise was more to say that we had gone duck hunting and had not passed an opportunity to get afield. We certainly did not expect to see many, if any, ducks flying, since previous trips during the late season when the main river was iced in had proved fruitless for us at the swamp.

To say we were pleasantly surprised would be a huge understatement. We soon found ourselves in the thick of it with wood ducks flying steadily in whether or not we did any calling. A few mallards and black ducks made a showing, too. Our rusty shooting skills were painfully evident and the one box of HeviShot I had with me was soon empty. That was two seasons ago and since then, we have found ourselves in a swamp somewhere every possible day.

Is this a fluke? Hardly. We spoke with VDGIF's Migratory Game Bird Manager Gary Costanzo about what we experienced.

"In years when the weather is mild, the wood ducks may not take off as early as they would during normal years. And even if some wood ducks do take off because the weather turns a bit cooler, then hunters are apt to still see wood ducks because you have that leap frog effect where the wood ducks that are living farther north have left their areas and headed south to escape what has become too cold for them. Therefore, hunters will continue to see wood ducks in some numbers all season long. If the winter is unseasonably cold, then there may be fewer woodies around."

The explanation fits what we experienced perfectly. Surprisingly, we heard of few other hunters who were taking advantage of the windfall of woodies. This is too bad because hunting as we have the past few seasons has a number of advantages.

CONSISTENT FLIGHTS
First of all, there always seems to be plenty of ducks in the swamp. Since the ducks are "leap frogging" down the coast through Virginia, we did not have to be overly concerned that we were simply hunting a local resident population. With the state bag limit of two woodies per day per hunter, they were sufficiently protected anyway and we were still getting more action than we would on the main river or a large lake. Every few trips, we would make an effort to give the swamp a break and visit a different swamp a few times.

EASIER LOGISTICS/LESS HASSLE
Second, a wood duck hunter in a swamp does not need much in the way of gear. A pair of waders and a shotgun with shells may be all that is needed in some places. Certainly, a retriever is a big help, but a dog is not strictly necessary. This type of hunting is great for the solo hunter. As a schoolteacher, I have a few days off at Christmas and the occasional snow day or delay due to snow. Of course, on those days, I can be found knee deep in water and mud in a swamp cradling my shotgun.

On the days where we simply have a delay of an hour, I only take my waders, shotgun and shells plus my camo waterfowl parka. The woodies make their morning flight past my pre-scouted position; I bang away at them and then wade over and retrieve my dinner before hiking back to the truck to change.

Scouting before the hunt, however, is essential to know where to set up your stand. Little or no decoys are needed. A motion decoy is great for drawing in wary birds, though, and one such decoy will do the trick. Be sure to put it in a large pool in the swamp or pond where it can be seen, though.

BONUS BIRDS
Swamp hunting for wood ducks always seemed to turn up a few bonus birds, too. The occasional mallard, black duck or even a gadwall may come screaming into the half dozen decoys we put out.