"When the river's up, it pushes the water back into the willow trees at the Tunica Cutoff, and when the willow flats flood, the ducks really start coming into that area," he explained. "Prime time for ducks at Tunica is when the water on the Memphis gauge reaches 18 to 24 feet high. This type of high water means the ducks will be in the willow flats along any of the oxbows on the Mississippi River."

When the fields along the Delta portion of Old Man River freeze, duck hunting at the Tunica Cutoff really heats up. "This freezing type of weather and high water means the Tunica Cutoff will load up with ducks, especially on clear, sunny days," Driscoll pointed out.

Driscoll also does some hunting at Moon Lake, about 20 miles south of Tunica. He uses a 17-foot War Eagle boat with a 50-horsepower motor and an Avery Quick-Set Waterfowl Blind attached to it. Driscoll ordinarily puts out 50 to 70 decoys in his spread. "If you scout and get in the right place, you don't have to be a really good duck caller to get the birds down," he admitted.

Driscoll also has some ideas on where and when to target the ducks. "I don't worry about getting out on the water before daylight if there's not a lot of hunting pressure," he offered. I'd rather stay mobile, see where the ducks are landing, and then set up in the places the ducks are using.

"This tactic's much more productive than setting up in the dark, not knowing whether the ducks are coming or not. If you run the lake with your boat, you'll see the ducks getting up out of the willow flats or dropping into particular spots. That's where you want to set up your blind."

THE PICKWICK OPTION
A lot Mississippians know Iuka's Roger Stegall as a topnotch fishing guide, but in the winter, he also takes to the water with a shotgun in hand. And just as Pickwick Lake is his home water for angling, it provides him a place to duck hunt, too.

"On Pickwick, you see diving and puddle ducks," he said. "We get mallards, scaup, gadwalls and teal, and I've even killed a common merganser."

Stegall usually puts out 100 or more decoys on the reservoir, because the ducks need to see plenty of potential company to lure them in when they are flying over big, open water. Stegall uses both magnum and standard decoys in his spread in either a "J" form or scattered out in front of the blind with a hole for the ducks to land between the blind and the decoys.

"When you're hunting Pickwick, you have to remember that this lake shares boundaries with Alabama and Tennessee," Stegall cautioned. "All three of these states are particular about where you hunt. If you hunt the Alabama or the Tennessee sides of the lake, you need a hunting license for those states."

Stegall also hunts two of Mississippi's best-known waterfowl wildlife management areas -- Malmaison and McIntyre Scatters, both near Greenwood. Either can provide excellent public duck hunts.

"At Malmaison, you find plenty of stumpy flooded-beaver-pond type of hunting," Stegall said. "If you've never hunted there before, make sure you take a hand-held GPS receiver with you. Much of the terrain looks the same; you easily can get lost.