John Pollmann

1 month ago | ducks.org | John Pollmann

Like any skill, practice is the key to success. The off-season is the perfect time to refine and improve your technique. The months between the closing and opening days of the waterfowl season are the perfect time to brush up on your skills as a duck and goose caller. Here are four ways that you can improve your calling and put more waterfowl in the decoys this fall.

1 month ago | ducks.org | John Pollmann

Waterfowl, by nature, are continental travelers, so it’s no surprise that waterfowl hunters often find themselves on the road. Traveling to new hunting destinations is a great way to meet new people, learn new tactics, and see the different habitats that waterfowl use across the flyways. Here’s some advice for planning a waterfowl hunting road trip to new places. Freelance or Guided?

1 month ago | ducks.org | John Pollmann

During the spring and summer months, the numerous wetlands and extensive grasslands of the Prairie Pothole Region serve as vital cogs in a duck production machine that churns out birds destined for points across North America and beyond. If you shoot a mallard in a rice field in Arkansas, a redhead on Lake Erie, or a northern pintail along the Gulf Coast, there’s a good chance that bird was raised somewhere in pothole country.

Jan 24, 2025 | ducks.org | John Pollmann

In terms of the weather and waterfowl distribution, January has been full of surprises for hunters in the Central Flyway. When there is more snow on the ground in Houston, Texas, than there is in Bismarck, North Dakota, then you know the weather is doing some wacky things. That's exactly the situation heading toward the final week of January in many areas.

Jan 21, 2025 | ducks.org | John Pollmann

If there is such a thing as “beginner’s luck” for a waterfowl hunter, Mason Bowden could very well be the poster child. Last fall, the young hunter joined his dad, Nate, on an early-season hunt for geese at a large wetland not too far from his home in South Dakota. As a hunter, Mason had already crossed a number of “firsts” off his list—including his first whitetail and first turkey—but he had yet to shoot a Canada goose.