Dawn was still a good hour away as my buddy's truck rumbled across the cow pasture. When we topped a small hill, his headlights washed across the small farm pond that was our hunting destination on this frosty November morning. Immediately, we spotted what we'd hoped for. The pond was covered with dozing Canada geese and a variety of ducks.

"It's gonna be a good day," said Ed, a huge grin on his face.

The birds swam nervously toward the far end of the pond, but didn't immediately take flight -- at least, not until we got out of the truck and slammed our doors. A sudden thunder of beating wings and honking geese shattered the morning quiet.

Within 30 seconds, the pond was void of waterfowl. We began scrambling to set up our decoys and our layout blinds. We knew the birds would be back and when they returned, we wanted to be ready.

By the time the first rays of daylight had displaced the black of night, we were hunkered down in our coffin blinds surrounded by 100 shell and full-body goose decoys. On the pond in front of us, a dozen mallard decoys and 18 fake Canadas bobbed up and down on wind-driven ripples.

I was fumbling with the calls on the lanyard around my neck when I heard the telltale whistling of wings overhead.

"Ducks!" Ed said in a hard, excited whisper.

Before I could even get the duck call to my lips, the birds were cupping their wings to land on the water.

"Take 'em!" Ed called out.

We both came up firing, just as the small flock of mallards touched down. By the time the echoes of our shotgun blasts had trailed off, two drakes and a hen floated motionless on the pond.

Ed was recovering the birds with a long, telescopic pole when I heard a honk in the distance.

"Ed, get back!" I yelled. "Geese are coming in!"

He dropped the pole and ran back to his blind with one drake in his hand. The other two mallards were still floating on the water.

Just as Ed closed the doors on his blind, a string of five geese glided over the top of the hill to our right. Obviously they were heading for the pond, but for insurance, I chirped out a few clucks on one of my short-reed calls.

The geese started double-clucking when they locked their wings and dropped their feet on their final approach to the pond. Just before they hit the water, I made the call.

"Take 'em!"

FARM POND BASICS
Farm country waterfowling is one of the finest hunting experiences the eastern United States has to offer. Their annual fall migration brings hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese south from Canada through farm country all over the region. A lot of hunters think of waterfowling as a big-water sport that's practiced on rivers and lakes. But I'll take a farm pond or a freshly cut cornfield near a large lake or river over big water any day.

Farm-country waterfowling can be as simple or as involved as you want to make it. Hunters who simply belly-crawl to the edge of a pond or creek and then jump-shoot unsuspecting birds bag more than a few ducks and geese each season. For this type of hunting, camouflage clothing, a shotgun and some shells are all that's required.