DuckSouth.com

gator wrote:i consider james (wack) a good friend....i've hunted w/ him a time or 2. he's gotten into this picture thing and is getting some AWESOME results....

the rig he's running is the canon 20D w/ a 300 mm telescopic lens (think that's what he said)....he may have mentioned them in the pics, i don't go to the refuge forums, but have seen those pics elsewhere....

when i was looking for a camera, he's the dude i talked to about it....

i called him last night and was talking about those pics......wack's been at this gig for around 30 yrs, and he told me last night that this weekend was something he hasn't seen for a LONG long time....you can tell by those pics what he's talking about......

skippyj was in the pit w/ him and he told me that 80% of the birds they saw were sprigs....

from all accounts, i hear it was a great hunt and wish i coulda made it....

gator

I don't care what kind of camera you have, You got to be where the ducks are to get those kind of pictures....and it has been way too long since I've had that opporturnity.

I once subscribed to Outdoor Photographer magazine. One of the nationally renown contributors (I can't remember which) said that each of his photos was a small prayer of thanksgiving to God for the subject of the photo.

My hat is off to the photographer of those duck pics - I hope he appreciates the opportunity he was afforded.

Boys..I'm gonna tell ya....we got to our pit around 11:30 Sat. morning. No need to get there earlier, everything was locked up and would freeze back up until it got warmer. We pull up and it looks like a couple thousand ducks working the pit. RIde out, and clear a hole with the 4 wheeler, and while Wack is hiding it, I move most of the decoys in tighter to the pit.

Wack aint even sat down good gettin' his camera ready, and I've already lit a big bunch mallard/sprigs on the ice right behind the pit. His son wacks a fathead within about 3 mins of sittin' there. 2 other guys with kids show up and get settled and from then on, it was ducks as far as you could see trying to get in there. From 10 ft off the water to 1000ft up, one big huge tornado non-stop. Kids all wacked em a sprig first, which was easy because 80% of the thousands we saw were pintail. You could get a big bunch in low and make the fatheads drop out lower so the kids could get a shot. I can't tell you how many hundreds in 2.5hrs lit behinds us on the ice and would just stand there and call up to the ones dive bombing us. We just sat and laughed.....empty handed with it being the youth hunt. At one point I look at James and ask him just how many ducks do you think is above us......we both agreed atleast 3000 at that time.

2.5 hrs with 3 kids...3 limits..mallards/sprigs/wigeon. I may NEVER see something of that magnitude again. God help 'em if we do and it's big boy season!!!

I made a comment that it was like being in a tittie bar.....you could look all day...but you couldn't have any!!

man o man..now that's some ducks...

Those pics are absolutely amazing. If anything will make you wanna put down the gun and grab a camera them pics will do it.

Dam*it Man.....
The firewall at work has this site blocked. The man is always trying to be us down!!

That should say "bring us down".
can't type

I love ths one. He called it Segregation

looks like all the pintails got bands on there right legs?

i bet them kids won't skip a trip the rest of the year.
good pics !!!

swwweeeet pics, now that looks like the hunt of a lifetime

These pics are unreal. I have pic envy.

Thanks for all the compliments from you Mississippi duck wacking fellas. Ran down this link after my bandwidth got wacked from the views...so there are several of those pictures that can't be viewed anymore.

It sure has slowed down over here in Arkieville since our youth hunt, which was the weekend of December 10th. We still scratching out enough to keep us doing what it is we do...but that's about it.

I'll throw in a pic of my dog on the way out the door.

And we give the 'sunrise watchers' a hard time...but this one was kinda hard to pass up.
Hardest thing about taking duck pictures....is putting down that 12 guage.

Look closely at the one where the ducks are standing on the ice with the dicoys in the foreground. Look at their right leg. It looks like each one of them have a band. It's probably a mirage.

Here's the pic I think you are talking about. A lot of folks thought this was a sack full of banded pintail...but it was just the way the light was bouncing off the ice to their outside legs.

I blew it up just to be sure, and could'nt see any bands. But that would have been one heckuva picture if they would have been.