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Sunday will be the final day of the 2023-2024 duck season.

For some this has been a banner year. Others report only resident Wood Ducks with a few Green Wing Teal or Gadwalls showing up on straps. One comment I hear from duck hunters is “where are the birds.”

These folks are South Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana duck hunters. Whatever the reason, waterfowl migrations appear to be changing. It seems the ducks and geese are coming our way later and later each year.

Some hunters blame sanctuaries or refuges holding the ducks up north longer. I have heard one conspiracy theory that “someone” has ponds with heated water to keep the birds around for hunting purposes. The fact remains, ducks and duck hunting are changing.

There are four defined flyways waterfowl use to travel back and forth for migration, the Atlantic, Mississippi, Central and Pacific flyways. We are at the western edge of the Mississippi flyway and on the Eastern edge of the Central flyway. East Texas duck seasons are typically hit or miss.

Some years are awesome, some not so much.

Recently, I hunted in the northernmost reaches of East Texas along the Red River and I have an announcement. This is where the birds are.

I hooked up with Dirty Dog Outfitters on a dry ground hunt near DeKalb. We got set up in layout blinds upwind of the decoys and waited. 20 degrees with a 18-20 mph wind is brutal especially on an old guy but by legal shooting time we had already had a few birds buzz our spread.

The next few hours were busy with decoying, calling and shooting….and missing, but most of a lot of fun!

The field we were in was literally on the banks of the river. The field was several hundred acres of plowed ground that was last year’s grain field. Birds of every size and species were using the field as a food source. The number of Greenwing Teal we saw was incredible.

To my surprise, Pintail were also present in large numbers. Of course Mallards and Gadwall made a showing but I am still amazed at the size of some of the GWT flocks. If you ever witness 40-50 GWT’s do a low flyby of your decoy spread, you will understand how hard it is to pick one bird, stay on it and shoot before something happen.

Explaining a three shot miss with wind shear, aerodynamics, G-Force and other meteorological terms did not seem to impress my fellow hunters.

The was my first trip of many more to come along the Oklahoma border. If you are interested in booking a hunt with the DDO guys, check them out on the Facebook page or give them a call at the numbers listed below. These folks worked hard, were knowledgeable and they had the best customer service.

Dirty Dog Outfitters: Dalton Hasler: 903-399-9312; Hayden Green: 903-801-0048