My father and I make a trip every year to Arkansas for a little mallard hunting. Sometimes we get'em, sometimes we don't. A couple of years ago My dads brother and my cousin started joining us as it had been 20 years since we had all shared a duck blind. This year, I decided it was time for my son to go along with us.......And was I glad he did. It was one of those trips that will stick in my mind forever and something I will probably never experience again. We arrived at the lodge on a Friday afternoon only to find that we would be the only group in camp for two days. Gotta love that. They told us they were holding a few ducks so our excitement level went up a little. So the next morning, we head out to the blind which was in a little 40 acre rice field surrounded by flooded timber, part of which serves as a rest area. From the time the sun came up until about 9:30, there was not one second that there were not hundreds of mallards falling into the timber just 300 yards from us. It was unbelievable. They were locked on that patch of woods like I have never seen. We were guessing there were 30-40 thousand ducks in there. Our guide told us that the ducks would come out of there at some point and come into the field. As it turned, we had to return that afternoon to shoot our ducks. When they came out, they came out in numbers. We had a nice afternoon shoot and headed back to the cabin. That night, the owner of the lodge pulled me aside and said that he wanted my son to see all those mallards in the timber up close the next morning. He said we could go in there, but we would not stay long as it is the rest area and it would be all about the show. And what a show it was. From the time we got in the blind we had ducks by the hundreds landing on all sides of us. Coming down through the trees in every direction. From 6:45 to 7:30 it was a show I will never forget. We shot 40 ducks which included mostly mallards, some teal and a few gadwalls. As we took a few photos, the ducks continued to poor in. We eased out of the woods and it was like we were never there. The ducks were in there by the thousands. I know one thing, that little boy of mine will never forget it. And neither will Dad.

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