DALLAS -- I never think about duck season without remembering the best duck hunter I ever knew. His name was Charles Smith, but his friends called him Smitty, Smith or the old man. His wife even called him Smith.
I called him Mr. Smith. I was 25 the first time I shared his duck blind. Mr. Smith was 70, with thinning hair the color of cotton and pale blue eyes. He always wore a Jones-style hunting cap and shot a Remington 1100 that was kept spotlessly clean, not easily done in the places we hunted.
Mr. Smith was retired. He had plenty of time to hunt and didn't know many other duck hunting fanatics whose jobs afforded them weekday hunting time. Luckily, my job did.
Although I've hunted with other great duck hunters, none has come close to Mr. Smith. He was a former state champion duck caller whose calling style in the duck blind sounded nothing like the perfect quacks that mesmerize contest judges.
Mr. Smith used to joke that you could enter a hen mallard in a calling contest and she'd be lucky to finish in the top five. He used a Sure-Shot duck call made by a guy who lived just up the street from me in Groves, a Port Arthur suburb.
Mr. Smith visited the Sure-Shot warehouse a couple of times a year to go through the reeds waiting to be assembled into wooden calls. He'd try out a variety of reeds in his own battered call until he found just the perfect combination to make the sounds he wanted. It was like watching Willie Nelson tune his guitar.
When Mr. Smith blew his call, the ducks paid attention. There were plenty of ducks in those days. It was the 1970s, and the limit was based on a point system that allowed selective hunters to kill as many as 10 ducks daily.
Mr. Smith had a pretty good lease on the Port Arthur Hunting Club marsh. It's now the McFadden National Wildlife Refuge and, though I haven't seen that place in nearly 30 years, I could take you right back to the big freshwater marsh ponds where we hunted.
That is, if we could make the walk, sloshing a mile or more though coastal marshes to reach the backwater ponds, carrying a sack of decoys over one shoulder, a shotgun over the other. Mr. Smith and I did just that for nine consecutive days during teal season one year. I was in my late-20s; Mr. Smith was pushing 75.
There were so many blue-winged teal that season that we took turns shooting as the little ducks flashed over the decoys, each shooter loading one shell into his autoloader. Otherwise, we'd have shot a two-man, eight-teal limit in 15 minutes or so, and we were in no hurry to abandon the spectacle.
Another time I was hunting with Mr. Smith and a friend of his when the old man lured a huge flock of pintails into our spread. When he called the shot, about 30 ducks were drifting over us on set wings just 15 yards high. The three of us fired nine shots and picked up nine pintail drakes.
Mr. Smith could see ducks coming when they were still dots in the sky a quarter-mile high and proclaim them pintails, our favorite ducks. He was almost always right. It took me three seasons to learn that 90 percent of the ducks flying that high in such large flocks were pintails. The old man was practicing a Jedi mind trick.
In between the shooting, I asked Mr. Smith about when to call and how to call ducks, how to set up the decoys and every other waterfowl question imaginable. In those days, I thought duck hunting was about filling your daily limit.
It was many years later before I realized that duck hunting has a sensory elegance that far exceeds a pile of dead ducks. It's about Technicolor sunrises and the peeps, quacks and whistles of passing birds. It's about blowing a duck call just right and watching a mallard drake bank into the wind and come to the spread with his gaudy orange feet straight out, his wings back peddling for a landing. It's about the feel of a north wind on the back of your neck and watching a flock of wild birds passing high in an annual migration that's older than the human race.
I wish now that I'd tape-recorded those sessions with Mr. Smith. He had forgotten more about duck hunting than I'd ever know,and now I've forgotten most of what he taught me.
One thing I never forgot. In all the times I hunted with him, Mr. Smith never made one derogatory comment about anyone. He was a true gentleman. About 1986, his wife sent me a card to let me know that her husband had died. Somehow, I already knew. I'd sensed a subtle shift in an ancient sport played at a level that too few hunters had ever experienced. I was one of the lucky few.
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NEAT DUCK HUNTING PRODUCTS
Mesh decoy bags with backpack straps to help distribute the weight of two dozen or more decoys.
Much-improved decoy-rigging materials, including a variety of anchors for different hunting situations and anchor line that stretches for tangle-free storage.
Waterproof gun cases with enough flotation to float a favorite shotgun. Waterfowl environments are hard on guns.
Excellent portable blinds that are easy to transport and set up. Hiding from the keen eyes of overhead ducks is one key to success. L.L. Bean has a great-looking blind that's expensive at $329 but weighs 12 1/2 pounds with room for three hunters and a dog.
Neoprene parka for your retriever. It adds buoyancy to help on long retrieves in deep water and insulation to hold in body heat on cold days.
THREE DUCK HUNTING TACTICS
Scout your hunting spot well ahead of the hunt and have backup spots in case the weather changes or other hunters beat you to your first choice. Even when you're hunting, you can scout by noting where the ducks are landing near your hunting spot. Try to determine why they like that spot.
Whenever possible, set up a decoy spread with the wind at your back. Ducks land into the wind. Do not place decoys at maximum shotgun range unless you're good at long shots. The idea is to pull ducks in for a close shot.
Conceal yourself as thoroughly as possible. Ducks have excellent eyesight and they're looking down from an elevated viewpoint. They fly in flocks, and it takes only one duck in the flock to see something it doesn't like. Wear camouflage that blends with the background. Use a face mask or face paint and hide your face, particularly on a sunny day, and remain as still as possible until it's time to shoot.
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