OTHER OPTIONS
As good as the duck hunting is in the delta, there's plenty more to make Natural State hunters smile. No matter where you live in Arkansas, you're not far from some rewarding and widely varied waterfowling opportunities. Following are some options to consider.

CORPS LAKES MIXED BAG
Hunting ducks at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake like Ouachita or Bull Shoals is a lot like fishing there. Most of the lake will be empty of ducks, just as most of the lake will be devoid of fish. But even as a fisherman who's familiar with these lakes can locate fish, so can a duck hunter who knows what's what find birds.

There'll always be a few ducks on these large lakes, but severely cold weather and/or fast-moving fronts will usually make the hunting better by putting the resident birds in the air and bringing new ones in. Watch for the flight patterns of ducks trading back and forth on these large lakes, and watch for ducks on the water as you move around the lake. Watch for geese, too, since most large Corps lakes in Arkansas hold a decent complement of Canadas.

Maps are important for most types of hunting, but at a big lake, they're crucial. Not only will they let you safely navigate a big lake and keep you from getting lost, but they can also guide you to likely duck and goose hotspots.

You might get by with the small-scale maps published by the Corps for each of its lakes -- available from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission at (501) 223-6300 -- but there's a better option: Go online and check out Fishingmap.com -- ground mail address, 21869 Birchmont Lane, Nisswa, MN 56468; phone, (218) 831-1058 -- which sells detailed topographic maps for Millwood, Dardanelle, Ouachita, Bull Shoals, Norfork, Greers Ferry and Beaver lakes -- the lakes that, pretty much in that order, provide the best big-lake duck hunting in the state -- for less than $10 each.

Look for long, narrow points extending into a lake, broad, shallow bays, and shallow flats at the back ends of coves or on the sheltered sides of points or islands. Main-lake points are good flyway features and may yield good pass-shooting and decoying opportunities as well, especially for diving ducks. In extremely cold weather, these main-lake points will sometimes yield oddball varieties of duck not usually encountered by Arkansas hunters -- species like the oldsquaw, the goldeneye and the ruddy duck.

The shallow areas are favored feeding and loafing areas and are better for puddle ducks than for divers. You'll likely have a mixed bag -- mostly gadwalls, widgeon, teal, a few mallards and maybe a wood duck or two.

WOODIES ON WOODED CREEKS
Pass-shooting wood ducks along a creek or bayou or in flooded green timber is possibly the sportiest thing going in Arkansas waterfowling. Because of that, and in light of the bird's excellent table qualities, I've always been puzzled why so few people hunt the wood duck on purpose --particularly when you consider the breathtaking beauty of the drakes. It just doesn't make good sense to pass up wood ducks, but that's exactly what a great many Arkansas duck hunters do.

Wood ducks can save the day when the mallards don't come -- or, as has often been the case in recent seasons, when the mallards aren't even in the country. It's usually an early-morning thing, and by the time the sun clears the horizon most of the action is usually over. But for that 30 minutes of legal shooting time before official sunrise, the action can be fast and furious. And it can be pretty humbling to boot.