5 New Things to Try This Waterfowl Season

Matt Opsahl, Maverick Outfitters

1.) Leave Your Phone in the Truck

It’s hard to do, but it will change your entire perspective of the hunt. Try and allow yourself to experience the morning without any real distractions, buzzing in your chest pocket, or phone calls you don’t really need to take. You don’t need your 100th sunrise picture or a pile picture (you can do that when you get back to the truck, photos are important for memories down the road). The text can wait, the email can wait, the world can wait. Enjoy the people you're with or the time spent alone, you never know when a hunt can be your last!

2.) Hunt Alone

This is almost impossible for me to do in any year given my chosen career path, but I make time for at least one solo hunt with my dog Maverick every season. Hunting alone makes you slow down and really be present in the many moments that occur on any given hunt. I promise you that hunting alone will make you appreciate the season that much more. Try to enjoy carrying a dozen decoys to your spot, laughing while your dog sprints ahead of you to get ready. Enjoy the quiet of an empty blind and If you miss a shot, laugh about it with your dog, and move on. Mostly, just enjoy the peace and quiet, enjoy the world waking up around you, it’s hard to come by these days!

3.) Duck Hunt With Just a Whistle on a Late Season Day

On a really cold late season day, leave your J-Frame or Cutdown at home, and only bring a whistle. Getting quiet pays handsomely in the right situation! Make sure your brushed in really well, make your spread look as natural as you can get it, and use your whistle as a comfort call for any birds around you. In my experience, these hunts can be some of the best. Being different from everyone hunting around you does payoff!

4.) Bring a kid on his/ her first hunt

A kid experiencing there first hunt is not something to take lightly. The hunt is NOT about you, it's about the kid. Bring snacks, let them blow calls, bring a BB gun, but mostly just let them have fun. Keep the hunt short and fun, and you’ve made a duck hunter for life. 

5.) Hunt with one shell 

If you want to learn to finish birds, hunt with one shell in your gun at a time, you’ll save some cash too! Hunting with one shell makes any waterfowl hunter honest.  It forces you to learn to be patient while birds are working and it also teaches you how to read birds. If you miss, the bird probably wasn’t in the kill zone. Put a new shell in your gun, give the birds a little more time in the next group to finish, and you’ll see the magic. Give it a try!