Photo by Marc Murrell

By Mike Schoonveld

Think of places to hunt waterfowl in Indiana and one's mind wanders to places like Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area (FWA), Mallard Roost, Hovey Lake or any of the private ponds and wetlands that haven't completely disappeared from Indiana's landscape. You probably don't think of the White River, the Tippecanoe, Wabash, Sugar Creek or any of the other waterways great and small that flow through the Hoosier landscape.

There are those waterfowlers who specialize in hunting Indiana's rivers and streams. Perhaps they prefer the kinds of ducks that frequent Indiana's river ways. Perhaps the river is close by and they don't have to burn tanks full of expensive gasoline to access some other hunting area. Perhaps they dislike the antiquated pre-dawn drawing system, which allocates the daily hunts on public areas to a lucky few and sends other hunters home, rejected and dejected.

Any of these are reason enough a few hunters have chosen to veer away from the typical behavior of Indiana waterfowlers. It could also be they like knowing that given a bit of luck and a dose of applied skill, they'll seldom come home empty-handed.

Our state's rivers and streams come in all sizes and most of them will attract some ducks, at least at some time of the year. The size of the flow helps dictate just what sort of hunting is going to be most productive. The simplest is called jump-shooting and is best done on streams ranging from small down to miniscule.

When I walk out of my house to go hunting, I'll go over a short checklist. Hunting license? Check. Gun? Check. Shotgun shells? Check. That's it. Everything else is just fluff. Some of the fluff is almost as essential as a license, gun and shells. Some of the fluff is mostly non-essential, but when it comes to jump-shooting, almost everything else is fluff.

Head for a stream, load the gun and carefully scan upcurrent and down to see if you can spot any ducks. A pair of binoculars might help, but many stream-jumpers consider even that aid to be fluff. The ducks won't be found in the main flow. Check carefully, however, in quiet eddies and just downstream of logjams or similar places where quiet water can be found. That's where the ducks will locate, often tucked up tight to the shore or under some overhanging brush.

Once the quarry is spotted, retreat out of sight, plan a route that will get you in range and start your stalk. Each situation will be different, but if all goes right, the end result is being in range when the ducks notice your approach. As they spring into flight, the shots are often more like shots at woodcock or grouse, so good luck.

Avid jump-shooters learn the locations of many "ducky" areas on the streams they hunt. They know even after bagging the ducks using one of the spots, there's a good chance by the next day or next week another duck or two or even a small flock will move in to take over the location. By knowing several good spots, a hunt is just a matter of moving from one to the next and to the next, until you locate where the ducks are the day of your hunt.

Early in the season, expect the most common stream ducks to be woodies with a sprinkling of mallards or other puddle ducks. By December, mallards and the occasional black duck are going to make up the bulk of the harvest. Not that there is anything wrong with any of these. All are at or near the top of any list of good-to-eat waterfowl.

If you want to hunt a medium-sized river, it's time to get a canoe or john- boat. Boaters afloat can still jump- shoot ducks, but far different tactics are needed for success.

It's not a matter of simply hopping in a boat and letting the current drift you downstream to where willing ducks will spring into flight, presenting you with easy shots. That's not going to happen. What might happen is by looking hard, or using binoculars, you'll float downstream and spot loafing ducks either before they spot you or while you are still far enough away they don't feel pressured to leave prematurely.

Once you spot the birds, beach the boat and stalk down the bank as you would if jump-shooting on foot. The boat is simply transportation from one spot to the next and an easy means to retrieve downed ducks once you have enjoyed success.

Just as bank bound jump-shooters need to learn the spots along their route to save time and boost success, boating jump-shooters can do the same thing. By repeatedly floating the same stretch of river, hunters will learn what stretches never have ducks and which areas to scrutinize carefully based on past history. In some cases, it's prudent to beach the boat or canoe and scout known hotspots from the bank.

A fun way to jump loafing ducks is almost as simple as floating downstream close enough to shoot from the boat. Few ducks are going to allow a bare boat or canoe to drift very close, but they just might overlook what they think is merely a floating brushpile or fallen tree. When I was in high school, a friend and I managed to turn an aluminum canoe into what looked to be a floating pile of debris using wire, sticks, burlap strips and natural cover.

We didn't turn the whole boat into a blind; rather, we constructed a screen that draped across the bow. The river we floated was a slow, sluggish stream with lots of logjam "drifts." When we spotted a drift ahead, we'd paddle to keep the bow pointed right at the drift until we were in easy range of any ducks that might be loafing in the slack water on the downstream side. Then the one of us at the bow would trade his paddle for a shotgun and the paddler at the stern would spin the canoe sideways as quickly as possible.

We learned for right-handed shooters, it's simple to shoot from about 90 degrees to the left to straight ahead. It's almost impossible to shoot to the right or overhead. Only the person in the front did any shooting - for safety's sake and because the stern paddler was responsible for putting the canoe in the right position and helping to stabilize the craft as the shooter was swinging his gun.

While true duck hunters don't worry much about hauling out of bed long before dawn, traditional pass- shooting or decoy hunters know the best action can occur in the fleeting minutes just after shooting time arrives.

An early hour alarm clock isn't really necessary if the strategy for the day is jump-shooting. While ducks frequent small and medium-sized streams suitable for jump-shooting during the day, they don't often spend the nights there. When it's time for them to go to roost, they'll choose a large lake or marsh over an isolated small body of water every time.

Late in the year, mallards often feed in harvested grain fields first thing in the morning, then again, just before sundown. It's only during the daylight hours when these ducks seek out the small streams to loaf away the midday hours. Jump-shooters heading out at dawn are too early. The ducks aren't there, yet.