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Fish & Game: Hunting in sloughs

With just a couple of weeks left, in a less than stellar duck season, Don has tips for finding resident birds.

In keeping with a decade-long trend, the winter waterfowl migration has had fewer birds this year.  But in some isolated areas you can find better hunting in tight places called sloughs.

"It's a little area that they like to come into to feel safe, with the trees around it they are secure," explained Grady Galliano of Hunttheisland.com.

"They just like to come in here and rest in the morning, do their thing, get in the trees and feed maybe a little bit during the day and then they leave in the afternoon and go to their sleeping spots."

"On the sloughs you're going to find mallards and you're going to find wood ducks, mainly wood ducks," Grady said. "We get a few mallards come in here and for this year for some strange reason we're having teal come in here.  We have some green winged teal and some blue winged teal. "

So how should you set up your decoys if you're hunting a slough?

"I set them up into the wind just like a normal set. I'll put my wood ducks in the middle and the mallards on the outside," he said.

How important is it to be out there early, especially when you're hunting wood ducks?

"Real early because at first light, first little light, they coming flying in so you've got to be careful and watch for the right shooting time."

Little sloughs can be productive especially late season when hunting pressure gets heavy and with a little scouting can be found on public Wildlife Management Areas.

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