Oklahoma offers excellent and diverse waterfowl hunting
Situated in the southern Great Plains where massive bison herds once roamed, Oklahoma today attracts good waterfowl numbers. The Great Plains directly connect the Sooner State to the waterfowl breeding grounds in the northern United States and Canada.
“We’re located on the Oklahoma side of the Red River,” said Dakota Stowers, owner of Mesquite Hollow Outfitters in Waurika. “We hunt dry fields, flooded wheatfields, farm ponds, wetlands, lakes, sloughs and little timber holes. We go where the birds want to go.”
Ducks need water. Unlike the vast and mostly flooded Louisiana marshes and swamps where waterfowl can land practically anywhere, birds in Oklahoma must look for small ponds, creeks and other waterholes. Many landowners have built small ponds on their properties. Scarce water resources concentrate waterfowl.
Stowers and his guides run the roads after each morning hunt looking for duck and goose concentrations. Farm ponds for watering livestock and backyard fishing holes behind private residences can attract various waterfowl species. When the guides find a place holding birds, they try to obtain permission to hunt that property.
“We run about a 2.5-hour radius around Waurika,” Stowers said. “We’ll drive until dark trying to find six or seven different places to hunt the next day. We just keep rotating through all the different spots. We never hunt the same place back to back.”
Ducks and geese
On our first dreary morning, we hunted a farm pond. We set up a portable blind under a small grass-covered red-clay bluff that made an excellent background. Wigeons and gadwalls came in waves for about two hours after sunrise and committed to landing. Mallards like more sunlight, so they arrived later in the morning and circled wide before extending their big orange feet to land. Their orange feet and iridescent green heads added a splash of color to the gray gloom.
“We’re known for our wigeons, but we also kill mallards, pintail and gadwall,” Stowers said. “If our clients want to shoot a canvasback, redhead or wood duck, we can put them on those birds. We hunt divers on deeper lakes.”
The next hunt, we pulled into someone’s yard and rolled past a very nice home to a pond behind it. As the day grew lighter, we spotted golfers enjoying their sport on the well-manicured greens behind the trees across the pond. After a quick flurry of wigeon at first light, we watched empty skies until mid-morning. Then, we heard it! From beyond the far shoreline, sonorous honking erupted and grew more intense each second.
“This area is really known for its lesser Canada geese, or small cackling geese, but we have some big greater Canadas as well,” Stowers said.
Propelled by powerful broad wings, the largest waterfowl I’ve ever seen flew rapidly directly at us. Dakota and his guides played seductive notes on their calls. Then, Dakota commanded, “Take’em!” as the first of several waves of honkers flew over our backyard pond.
“Geese typically roost on a big pond somewhere,” Stowers said. “First thing in the morning, they get up to go feed. That could be on a wheatfield or a golf course. Then, at about 10 a.m., they come back from feeding and go to loaf on the pond. That’s when we kill them.”
What to do in Waurika
“Waurika,” comes from the Native American word for “pure water.” The town sits on the historic Chisholm Trail of cattle drive fame about 1.5 hours north of Dallas, two hours south of Oklahoma City and 45 minutes northeast of Wichita Falls, Texas.
While in the area, visit the Waurika Rock Island Depot, built in 1912. People can learn about early railroad travel and the history of Waurika. Grab a meal at Doc’s Place Restaurant or Bill’s Fish House. About 10 miles north of town, people can fish the 10,114-acre Waurika Lake for catfish, crappie, largemouth bass, walleye, various bream species and other fish.
About 10 hours from New Orleans, eight hours from Baton Rouge and five hours from Shreveport, Stowers and his wife Summer run a lodge in Waurika. Besides waterfowl, he and his guides hunt deer, hogs, turkey, doves and other game. To book a trip, call 903-815-9842 or see www.mesquitehollowoutfitters.us.
For area information, see www.travelok.com/waurika. For Oklahoma hunting seasons, see www.wildlifedepartment.com/hunting/seasons.
