"There are also a few other waterfowl areas where hunting is allocated on a self-check basis. They include Coon Island near Poplar Bluff, Little River, Hornersville Swamp and Ben Cash near Kennett and Seven Island between East Prairie and New Madrid. Coon Island and Little River are pumped, and have water available to hunt. The others are flooded opportunistically when nearby streams or rivers flood. Portable blinds are allowed on all of the latter areas."

Dennis Molli of Arnold and his hunting partners -- Greg McLeod of Arnold, Gene McLeod and Richard Iverson of Oakville along with Jim Turner of Imperial and Bob Bliven of Lampe -- all hunt the managed conservation areas when they draw a blind.

In Molli's understanding, the best hunting is usually for a couple weeks after Thanksgiving. The hunters keep a diary and log in dates, birds killed and species. Last year the partners managed to record 65 hunter-days, during which they bagged a total of 184 ducks -- an average of 2.83 per hunter.

"There are usually a lot of hunters that show up for the drawings every day at the top areas," Molli said. "The hunting is pretty good. Last year our best hunting was between Dec. 2 and 18. Our best hunts were on Dec. 2 and 18, when four of us bagged limits -- a total of 24 birds each day. We took 18 on the 4th and 18 again on the 14th."

According to Molli, mallards dominated the bag. Of the 184 ducks taken in total, 97 were mallards, 40 green-winged teal, 24 gadwalls, 10 shovelers and the rest included ring-necked, pintail and wood ducks.

Bliven joins his old hunting partners a few times each fall. "My favorite hunting has been the standing timber at Duck Creek CA adjacent to the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge," he said. "However that area isn't as productive as it used to be, and the Conservation Department is doing some renovation work on it. Otter Slough and Ten Mile Pond have been good.

"My favorites over the years have been Duck Creek, Otter Slough and Ten-Mile Pond. We know it sometimes takes a bit of luck to draw a blind, but once the mallards show up, it's worth the effort."

The harvest of ducks on public land such as the conservation areas makes up only about 15 percent of the total kill in Missouri. Scores of waterfowl setups exist on private land, particularly when it's in proximity to state and federal refuges in the southwest. MDC conservation areas and rice fields in the southeastern corner of the state are prime spots.

Numerous private duck clubs are found in the south, particularly in the Nevada area, Truman Reservoir and in the rice country in the southeast corner of the state. Information on some of these is available from MDC offices and area sporting goods stores.

Hunter Johnson and a partner, Ken Minton, run a hunting operation near Otter Slough called MO-Duck. Last year they hosted about 400 hunters, who averaged 4.1 ducks per hunter on guided hunts and 2.3 ducks on non-guided hunts. Johnson reports that last year's kill was a record high for them, as was the kill at nearby Otter Slough CA, where hunters brought down a record kill: over 16,000 ducks and 575 geese.