a potato-like tubular plant, and wild
celery, a canvasback favorite and
another reason why ducks and geese
want to stay until ice pushes them
farther south.
Mussels are food for many of the
di vers. Scott does a lot of catfishing
on the river and can actually see
mussel shells when less river flow
exposes the bottom. He knows that
divers will be in these locations,
swimming down to eat the shells,
sometimes whole.
Thousands of ducks, geese, swans,
cranes and other migrants use this
feeding ground for energy before
flying farther south.
“I have other places to hunt but
love hunting the Mississippi River
because of the type of ducks that
might drop in,” Scott said. “A couple
of years ago I let a duck fly through
my decoys several times at first
light, thinking it was a mergan-
ser. A friend decided to check his
new choke tube on the duck and
dropped it at 40 yards. A f lock of
scaup came in and we dropped four.
I went after the merganser and it
turned out to be a surf scoter, more
common on the eastern seaboard.
Another friend recently killed a pin-
tail off the river that was banded in
Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2015.”
STAYING SAFE
“Safety is a big deal on the Missis-
sippi River,” Scott said. “You defi-
nitely want a big boat. I wouldn’t
go out in anything less than 18-foot
long. A south wind with a current
running south creates big waves and
whitecaps. Barge traffic is not bad.
They have navigation lights and stay
in the main channel. They occasion-
ally nose up to the bank, especially
when it is too narrow for two barges
to pass. But it is important for small
boats to keep their distance from
these monsters.”
Scott has hunted the Mississippi
20 years and torn up several boat
motors. He warns to never get in a
hurry when navigating the river in
daylight or darkness. Heavy current
creates ever changing sand or mud
bottoms. Obstructions in the water
like dikes or wing dams can be a haz-
ard when the water is low. They are
big muddy divers
98 WILDFOWL Magazine | September 2019 wildfowlmag.com