What Happened to the 8-Bore Shotgun?

Ducks of the Great Salt Lake 

by Kenneth L. Kieser

Imagine watching a huge flock of pintails flying through an azure sky, framed by the snowcapped Wasatch Mountain Range. The first flock propelled through cold air, searching for open water. They quickly were gone and another flock of pintails entered our airspace over the Great Salt Lake Marshes that is shared by high-flying military fighter jets from nearby Hill Air Force Base. 

Moments later another flock made a much lower approach from the west for a closer view of our set. A couple of drakes dropped down, never to rise again as Chad Yamane and Rob Friedel of “Fried Feather Outfitters” filled their daily limit of one pintail each. Our sky soon filled with scores of ducks inbound from every direction. 
Widgeon, mallards and cinnamon teal slipped through the air, some responding to our calling and whistling or perhaps just studying the brilliant-colored decoys highlighted by sunlight reflecting off ice about 40 yards away. A northern shoveler drake skirted our set, just daring someone to shoot. No one but Friedel wanted this dabbler while widgeon, mallards and teal were available, so the shoveler was allowed to move on. 
Scores of ducks and swans flew high over our pool to find succulent sago pond weed at Harold Crane Wildlife Management Area, one of the few freshwater impoundments in this region managed for waterfowl. Utah builds this type of impoundment to damn up freshwater, although it gains some salinity while maintaining shallow depths for aquatic plant growth. We were where the ducks wanted to be, an important factor of successful waterfowling. 

The adventure began earlier that morning when Yamane and Friedel launched in the salt marsh, then boated to a dike that separated saltwater from freshwater. I watched in amazement while the men pulled a cable from their electronic wench mounted on the boat’s bow and hooked it to a half-buried heavy steel pipe on the freshwater side. 

Thick plastic conduit was laid across the dike to help guide their Gator Trax Boat with a Mud-Buddy surface-drive motor. The boat’s bottom was coated with Steelflex, making it slicker and more durable. The entire unit dragging over dirt with loaded equipment and a concerned-looking Labrador retriever weighed at least 2,000 pounds, probably more. The cable smoked but held and minutes later we were skirting through freshwater depths of 18 inches and often less. Ice cubes flew through the air off the shallow running prop blades, brightly reflecting a spectrum of different colors from the brilliant sunlight.

We eventually reached our spot where Friedel and Yamane had broken ice the previous evening. A few passes with the boat busted up the fresh layer of ice that formed overnight. Decoys were quickly arranged and phragmite, a terrible European invasive plant that grows from eight to 16 feet heights, was cut with a battery powered hedge trimmer then spread over the boat, blending us in with the surroundings. 

Big flights of pintails and other species started early in the afternoon when our lake started to thaw. Hundreds of ducks meandered back and forth over our set. Some responded to our calling while most were on another agenda. By December ducks are educated. They had been shot at since October and were wary. A hen mallard flew low over our set several times, seeming to know we would
not shoot and no one did.

Later that afternoon, a mature pintail drake landed in our decoys about 20 yards from my corner of the blind. I blinked in disbelief at the opportunity to take a mature bull sprig, then stood up and the beautiful duck flushed, creating an easy shot. Yamane’s black Labrador retriever, Chloe, made a picture-perfect retrieve of the beautiful trophy.  

“This freshwater area is managed so we can grow food for the ducks,” Friedel said. “Sago pond weed is a freshwater plant that waterfowl devour. We were hunting in two feet of water with a murky bottom and set up on a frag-island edge, put decoys out and camouflaged the boat.”

All in the party secured pintail limits the first day along with a couple of mallards, widgeons and teal. The boat was winched back across the dike when the hunt ended at dusk while hundreds of ducks were still visible in the evening sky.

The following day’s temperature started out in the lower 20’s with high skies and ice on the pools. We left midmorning to hunt the great Salt Lake Marshes where most of the water was ankle deep depths and special equipment was required.  

“The second day we used an airboat,” Yamane said. “We were hunting over skinny water and plowed through rows of heavy vegetation. From the start we were two miles from the boat ramp as the crow flies, but we traveled about nine miles to get in and out. There are shorts cuts, but for safeties sake we took several easier paths.” 

We loaded up on a Diamondback airboat build in Cocoa Beach, Florida, powered by a 540-big block Moon Motor Sports motor that runs about 700 horsepower with a four-blade prop. Airboats tend to be deafening, so we all wore hearing protective earphones. I looked down

in amazement to see Friedel’s black Labrador retriever, Roux had on earphones too. 

“Our dog always wears hearing protection on the boat,” Friedel said. “We remove them soon as the boat stops, because Roux knows it’s time to take them off and flips her head sideways, throwing her hearing protection in the water, never to be seen again.”

Friedel and Yamane studied the marshes as we plowed through hundreds of acres filled with heavy aquatic growth, propelled by the huge motor. Patches of shallow water was still iced over while southern exposed pools were thawing or thawed. 

Pools to our north filled with thousands of ducks, were kept open by their swimming and body warmth. Yamane and Friedel agreed on a spot and the airboat was hidden in high phragmite growth. Several dozen decoys and black silhouettes were set in the shallow open water across about 30-yards.

Few ducks flew early, languishing in existing water and waiting for salt grass to thaw and became edible. By mid-afternoon the flights started milling about to feed and moved nonstop until dark. Ducks were everywhere, but a problem quickly surfaced in the brightly-sun-lit marsh. 

 A portable blind had been set up and covered with boughs of phragmite. The set looked extremely good with one exception—shadow. Friedel and Yamane quickly realized the blind created a black shadow that was clearly visible from the air and different from the surroundings, a determent for duck hunting. Waterfowl survive with their sharp eyes by avoiding anything out of place and the black shadow must have been visible for great distances.

Ducks avoided the blind by flying about 60-yards away from our open water and decoy set. A change was quickly made. 

“We have learned to adapt according to duck behavior,” Yamane said.  “I think hunts are better in high grass without blinds, especially during late season when the ducks have seen everything. We laid the blind down and hunted by our decoys on the pool’s opposite side from where our portable blind was originally set up. A small table was set by the stools for Roux to sit over the ankle-deep water.”

The ducks flew and our shoot started. Thousands of ducks, swans and a few geese flew towards our position. Swan season was still open but we didn’t have a legal tag. Ducks dropped low for a look at our Greenhead decoys while others continued on. Several ducks were taken off pass shots, especially when huge flocks flew over and the lower birds blundered in range. 

Roux made several beautiful retrieves, especially one widgeon that flew about 100 yards and dropped dead. The experienced Labrador retriever marked the duck and took off on Friedel’s command, running straight to the spot in heavy foliage. Few sights are more special than watching a good retriever work. 

That day we watched an astonishing assortment of waterfowl species flying over the marsh.  

“We are not noted as a mallard state, but we saw a lot today on the brackish water side,” Yamane said. “Cinnamon teal, pintails, widgeon, gadwalls, geese and swans were plentiful too. Shovlers, goldeneye and greenwing teal are the most common to stay through Utah’s winter months.” 

- The hunt ended with duck limits secured, mostly mallard drakes and the promise of an airboat ride into waning sunlight that illuminated the pools with orange and yellow hues. I had to laugh under my warm face mask while remembering all the queries received from friends and family on why ducks would want to visit the Great Salt Lake? I asked Yamane and Friedel the same question.     

“We have ducks because Utah is a desert state and we are split between the Pacific and Central flyways,” Yamane said. “We are right in the middle of these flyways where The Great Salt Lake is our biggest body of water. Most waterfowl visit the 200,000 acres of delta marshland that surround the Great Salt Lake for aquatic plants like salt grass. Some waterfowl feed on brine shrimp in main lake areas, including sea ducks.”

The Great Salt Lake, in northern Utah, is the largest lake west of the Mississippi River and the largest Salt Lake in the Western Hemisphere at approximately 75 miles long and 28 miles wide. This unique body of water that splits the Pacific and Central Flyway is a critically important habitat for four to five million native and migratory birds and is a federally managed bird refuge. It is also home to several types of algae, brine shrimp and brine flies. Notably, greenwing teal, shoveler and goldeneye have adapted to feeding on brine-fly larvae and brine shrimp cysts. 

“We are one of five states to have a swan season,” Yamane said. “We have a draw system to tag one swan. Utah is allowed 2,000 birds per year. The season runs from October 1st through December 10th.  They visit our freshwater impoundments in the afternoon and that is when we hunt them.” 

 Several million-waterfowl annually drop into the area, but hunting can still be a challenge.

“If you’re coming from out of state, please understand that hunting ducks here is not always easy,” Friedel said. “We put more time looking for ducks than we do shooting. A lot of scouting is required, because ducks in the Salt Water Bays constantly change patterns. We have 107-days to waterfowl hunt in the Pacific Flyway. In Utah we start the first Saturday in October and hunt through the middle of January. I would strongly recommend that you hire an outfitter.”

Hunters beware of The Great Salt Lake’s dangers, especially during a winter hunt. Reports claim that four to eight-foot swells can quickly swamp a boat. Two hunters died of hypothermia in these extreme conditions a few years ago.   

Waterfowl hunters should have this destination on their bucket list, I did.

Kenneth Kieser is a perennial award-winning  outdoor writer, avid duck hunter and Waterfowl Hall of Fame inductee who headquarters out of the Kansas City area.