So Kansas has this late duck season around the end of January every year for 9 days. The last two years I’ve absolutely crushed the fat, red legged mallard drakes during this crazy-cold opportunity. Both times I’ve found small pieces of water that were still open when the rest of the county was frozen. Unfortunately those places were frozen up this year. It actually got down to -4 one night! Even the big irrigation lakes and areas with light current were frozen over. So what to do? Well, I tried a couple of things.

One was to go to the river. Actually I had nothing to do with this plan other than get in the truck. The Old Man and a pheasant hunting buddy had hooked us up with a couple of kids who had an awesome advantage no one else has:

I’ve been lucky enough to duck hunt around some real killers. I’ve seen a lot of places and operations. This was the single coolest piece of duck killing equipment I’ve laid eyes on. It was big enough to carry 5 guys, 2 dogs, and lots of gear with complete safety on some pretty big water. But better yet, it can run across ice and even dry ground! When you get to place where the river is frozen all the other boats have to turn around, this boat just hops up on the ice keeps going. I’m jealous, and plotting a way to convince my wife that we need one.

Anyway, we actually started out on a small side creek and got a bunch of ducks out while setting up:

But they all went and sat in an open spot in the middle of the river. So we loaded up the boat and got out on the Kansas River (“The Kaw”) proper.

But no wind and bright sunlight doesn’t make for very good duck hunting. We let a few browns go:

And killed a pair of classic late season drakes:

And that was it. It was as much fun as I think I’ve ever had for a pair of drakes, mostly just because I was in awe of the boat. Over the years I’ve hunted the Kaw several times, mostly around Lawrence and Lecompton. This was quite a bit further upstream near Wamego, and the river was quite a bit more rugged. Like I’ve said before, BE CAREFUL. The Kaw is dangerous, especially when it’s 8 degrees outside. This time last year a kayaker capsized and his body wasn’t found for several days. Just a few weeks ago a small boat filled with water close to my home and 2 duck hunters were extremely lucky that another boat was happening by at the perfect time or they’d almost certainly both be dead. Please be cautious if you get out on the big water! If you don’t know what you’re doing it’s best to at least start with some expert advice. I’d give these guys a call.

But my late season was far from over; in fact the best was yet to come…

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