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 Watching Wild Wings with Billy Blakely
Editor’s Note: Billy Blakely, a duck guide at Reelfoot Lake in Tiptonville, Tennessee, is out on the water talking to waterfowl every day of duck season. Blakely knows that a quality pair of binoculars can play a major role in his success as a duck guide.
The easiest way to call and take ducks is to be where ducks want to be if you don’t have decoys, and you don’t use a call. To know where ducks want to be, you’ve got to be able to see where ducks are coming from and going to, which is why using binoculars is critical. When I’m out scouting, I can use binoculars to spot ducks resting on the water without spooking them, and I can see where ducks are flying from the refuge and out to feed. Late in the afternoon, I can see where ducks are getting up on the water and flying back to the refuge. By making all these observations from long range with a good pair of binoculars, I can make better decisions as to where to set up a blind, which type ducks my hunters are most likely to see, and where my hunters and I need to be before the ducks get there.
 One of the most-critical ingredients in bringing ducks into the blind is to know what ducks you’re trying to call to before the ducks get into range to be able to hear your calling. I use my binoculars to look at the ducks and try to identify them. Different ducks will react differently to various types of calls. The first thing I want to know is what kind of duck I’ll be calling, and a good pair of Alpen binoculars enables me to find those ducks before I ever make a call.
When one of my guides or myself begins to call, we need to look at the ducks and see what effect that particular call or that type of calling has on the ducks. Does the duck look down, interrupt its wing beat, start to pull our way or just keep flying? Once we know what effect a specific call has on a duck, we can modify our calling style to give the duck the kind of calls it needs to come into our decoy spread. We do a lot of long-range calling here at Reelfoot. We’re surrounded by three-different wildlife waterfowl refuges. Many times we’ll call to ducks that to the naked eye look like little black spots high in the sky. However, by using a pair of clear, bright, quality Alpen binoculars, we can identify the ducks and see how our calling affects the ducks.
 One of the main ways I use my binoculars is after the shooting begins. I want my dog to be able to pick up every duck we take. To direct my dog to the duck, I have to know exactly where that duck has gone into the grass. We hunt in a lot of potholes here at Reelfoot. Reelfoot Lake was created by an earthquake that caused the Mississippi River to run backwards and fill up the hole the earthquake created with water. All the trees and bushes and limbs that were on the earth before the earthquake, fell into the hole, so Reelfoot is a very stumpy lake and is filled-up with grass and weeds. When a duck goes down, I use my binoculars to try and spot the exact point or pinpoint some kind of landmark where the duck has hit the earth. Then, when I send my dog to retrieve the duck, I can use hand signals and voice commands to direct the dog right to the place where the duck has gone into the weeds. When I can get my dog that close to the duck, my dog almost always will find the duck.
I also use my binoculars to see who is coming across the lake. Is one of my guides looking for me? Is another hunter about to move into my area? Is one of my guides going in to shore who already has a limit? I can keep up with the movements of the dogs, the hunters and the birds, and for the most part, identify most of the hunters and fishermen on my way to the blind, when I’m at the blind, and/or when I’m leaving the blind. So, when I’m out on a day of duck hunting, a great deal of the information I’m getting comes from my binoculars. Oftentimes when I hear a motor stop out in the lake, I can use my binoculars to determine whether the boat operator has broken down, or, whether someone’s in trouble, playing around, going fishing or possibly setting up a blind close to where I am. Also, I use my binoculars as a safety tool. Because Reelfoot Lake has so many logs and stumps in it, if I break down, hit a stump or for some reason can’t get back to shore, I can use my Alpen binoculars to spot potential rescuers that I can wave a white T-shirt to or shoot up a flare near so that they can see me and come help me.
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