5 Strategies for Freelancers

Phil Kahnke/Banded.com

When waterfowlers talk about freelancing, they are usually discussing a mobile style of hunting that occurs outside the confines of a permanent blind. Although it can include some private land scenarios (knocking on farmhouse doors on the prairies, for example), freelancing is mostly a public land endeavor, where you’re free to scout and hunt in a manner that suits you, and where success depends on your skill in putting together a strategy after considering a host of conditions and variables. Freelancing is rarely easy, but it’s far and away my favorite way to hunt.

From the big rivers of the East to the flooded timber of the South to the sprawling marshes of the Great Salt Lake, savvy freelance hunters depend on some common strategies. We asked three hunters who excel at this style of waterfowling to share their secrets for success.

1. Avoid Heavily Hunted Areas

BillBuckleyPhotography.com

Fred Zink, co-host of DU TV and founder of Zink Calls, often hunts the windswept waters and sprawling marshes bordering Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. These big waters hold a lot of ducks, but they attract a lot of hunters too. Zink says the birds quickly learn to avoid the spots that receive regular hunting pressure.

“You can hunt those traditional areas and see plenty of birds, but it’s difficult to be effective once the ducks have been pressured,” Zink says. “The biggest key to success when hunting public water is to hunt the spot that the ducks have just moved into. Say it gets cold and they move out of a marsh and into more open water. Even if they are the same birds that have been around all season, when they move to that new spot it’s just like they’ve migrated to a new area, at least for a short time. They don’t know where the bogeyman is, and this can make even stale ducks easier to hunt.”

Freelancer’s Tip | Hide That Layout: Layout blinds are essential gear for setting up on big-river sandbars and islands, but they don’t make you invisible. Look for areas with some sort of overhead cover, like a leaning treetop or deadfall, and consider bringing a folding shovel to dig a slight depression to help lower your blind’s profile.

2. Follow the Water

Ed Wall Media

If a shift in wind direction calls for knocking off work one afternoon, a rising river can be cause for a full-on vacation. Matt Harrison, DU’s digital communications manager, has been hunting public land in southeast Arkansas with his brother, Michael, for years. He says there is still outstanding freelance hunting to be had in this area for those who are willing to put in the work. “We love hunting public ground, where everyone else has the same chance that we do,” Harrison says. “And there’s nothing like mallards in green timber. If we have the choice of shooting a few birds in the woods or a lot of birds in a field, we’ll take the woods every time.”

For timber hunting, Harrison depends heavily on the onX Hunt app. By dropping GPS pins and using saved offline maps, he can quickly find his spots in the dark. And if one spot is taken, he can easily move to a different one. After years of mapping and pinning his favorite areas, while also watching river levels, Harrison has learned exactly when these spots will have just the right amount of water for a good hunt.

“New water is the key to finding ducks in the timber,” Harrison says. “If we know the water is just beginning to spill into an area, that’s where we’re going to go. You can find birds in spots with only three to six inches of new water. The apps and online data that are available today make it simple to check all of that in real time.”

Freelancer’s Tip | Call as a Team: Good calling strategies are an asset in flooded timber. “We might have five guys blowing cut-down calls,” Matt Harrison says, “because we set up in high-traffic areas where aggressive calling works. Once we break a group down, we have a lead caller who finishes them.”

3. Scout More Than You Hunt

Clayton Holmes

Rafe Nielsen, director of marketing for Browning firearms, has hunted the expansive marshes and flats of Utah’s Great Salt Lake his entire life. When he was younger, he and his buddies used to hike to their spots carrying feed sacks full of decoys over their shoulders. These days, he accesses his hunting spots by boat and mud motor, even though some walking is usually required as well.

Despite his years of experience in the area, Nielsen says he still usually needs two days—one to scout and one to hunt—to be successful. “Without that day of scouting, it’s usually a struggle,” he says. “But if you do your homework, the hunting here can be pretty good.”

Nielsen does most of his scouting with binoculars and a spotting scope. He parks at vantage points that allow him to see a long way and looks for concentrations of feeding ducks. Ideally, he wants to see ducks on the water as well as traffic in the air to give him a good idea of how birds are working a particular spot. When he’s out hunting, Nielsen keeps his binoculars handy, always on the lookout for something promising for the next day.

Freelancer’s Tip | Mind the Sun: When considering where to set up, Browning’s Rafe Nielsen is more worried about the sun than the wind direction. “A lack of shadows makes it exponentially more difficult to hide,” he says. “In a marsh, I can usually work around the wind. In fact, I like to decoy birds in a crosswind, and I don’t mind them quartering over the top of me if the setup is good. But almost none of it works if they see you shining in the sun.”

4. Make Magic with Motion

Tom Martineau/WildFrontImages.com

Most freelancers are very particular about their decoys. On the Great Salt Lake, Nielsen likes a mixed spread of mallards, gadwalls, and teal, along with a handful of goose floaters. In the Arkansas timber, Harrison and his crew typically deploy two dozen hyper-realistic mallards. Zink likes big spreads on Lake Erie when migration flights are on, but he downsizes to a smaller spread of his most realistic decoys when local birds become stale. Without exception, though, all the hunters we talked to stressed the importance of motion.

“I don’t use spinning-wing decoys that much, but I love jerk cords and motorized feeders,” Nielsen says. “Anything to make a ripple seems to really help, especially in the smaller marsh areas where I like to hunt.”

Harrison adds, “Where it’s legal, we’ll have a spinning-wing decoy out 99 percent of the time. Also, pulsators are great to have, and we love jerk strings. I’ve never seen a raft of ducks where the water wasn’t moving, so add as much motion as you can. In the timber, you can kick the water too.”

“On public water, you’re typically hunting educated ducks,” Zink notes. “If it’s been warm with no new birds, I don’t suggest running a spinner. But if there’s some migration or inclement weather, a spinner will help. Probably six out of 10 birds will still flare from it, but you will attract some birds that will finish right over it. In most cases, the more ducks you can attract with the flash, the better off you’ll be, even if many birds in the area are wise to it.”

Freelancer’s Tip | Call with Caution: Nielsen thinks that calling can actually hurt more than it helps in the open marshes where he hunts and where pressure is high. “I almost never call out there,” he says. “The competition is just hammering on calls all day, so I keep quiet. I depend on good scouting to get me in the right spot, a lifelike spread, and being perfectly hidden.”

5. Hunt Overlooked Spots

Michael Harrison

Duck hunters love pretty spots. Big marshes, flooded green timber, and rolling grainfields can captivate our imagination and, at times, monopolize all of our scouting effort. But good freelancers know that some of the best spots are overlooked and in some cases not all that aesthetically attractive.

To this day, one of the best duck hunts I’ve ever had was over a 20-yard-wide three-inch-deep mud hole in the middle of a North Dakota crop field. The ducks were roosting on a nearby lake and dry-feeding in the field. My buddies and I set up next to that mud hole with layout blinds and just two dozen full-body decoys and two spinners. All morning, we enjoyed steady shooting as small bunches of mallards and pintails broke off from the field and dropped right into our spread.

Zink says areas just like that are choice spots for prairie freelancers these days, especially in Canada. “It’s more difficult than it used to be to get permission on the big, obvious fields that are full of feeding birds,” Zink says. “But it’s still easy to get permission to hunt the small loafing ponds, because you can’t hide 10 guys around them. The key is to understand the difference between a true roost pond, where ducks spend the night, and a loafing or watering pond, which is often near the field where the birds are feeding.”

In flooded timber, hunters often gravitate toward the big, open holes near the boat lanes. But Harrison and his hunting partners usually end up hiking a mile or more to their best timber spots—some of which are scarcely more than a bit of extra sunshine in the tree canopy. “One of our favorite spots is a tiny hole where a single big tree blew over,” he says. “My brother and I hiked in there one time and shot our four mallards each in less than 30 minutes. Especially late in the season, ducks like to get into the thicker cover and sit where they’re not bothered.”

Freelancer’s Tip | Don’t Sweat It: Even in cold weather, you can expect to start sweating as you haul decoys and other gear on foot. Dress lightly on the front end of the hunt and carry extra layers with you in a backpack. Also, consider trading your blind bag for a shell vest or sling pack.

FREELANCING GEAR

1. Jetboil MightyMo Stove

Hot food makes it easier to stay out there. This compact stove weighs just ounces and will work in almost any weather. One fuel canister will last much of the season. Use it to boil ramen noodles or fry eggs and bacon in short order. jetboil.johnsonoutdoors.com

2. YETI LOADOUT GoBox Gear Case

Most duck boats lack abundant dry storage, but you still need a safe, dry place to stash phones, keys, extra shells, and emergency equipment. Last year, I put a YETI Loadout GoBox 60 Gear Case in my boat, and it has kept my gear and valuables perfectly dry even in torrential rains. yeti.com

3. Hawke Nature-Trek Spotting Scope

This 16-48x65 scope doesn’t have the bells, whistles, size, or weight of many spotting scopes, but it is ideal for stashing in a boat or truck with a lightweight tripod or window mount, and with 48x magnification, you can see ducks from a long way. hawkeoptics.com