A wood duck can run like a quail and hide like a rabbit. Add to those attributes the ability to hold its breath and swim like an otter and the odds of retrieving a crippled wood duck plummets fast if the duck hits a cypress swamp or a tangle of briers. Hunters should follow up all downed woodies without hesitation. The number of seemingly dead-in-the-air wood ducks that escape dogless hunters is high if downed ducks are not deftly retrieved.

Seldom is hunting a flyway near a roost productive in the afternoon because the ducks arrive too late. However, rainy or snowy conditions can compel a few wood ducks to arrive on the cusp of legal closing time.

Most hunters prefer hunting roosts it in the morning. While the first family groups leave before legal shooting hours, there are usually enough late-sleepers to give excellent shooting. But extremely clear days can lure all the ducks away 10 minutes before legal shooting time, while foggy mornings may keep the ducks grounded until the fog lifts.

Typically, a roost will empty of ducks within five to 15 minutes, with the average being seven minutes. Arrive a few minutes late and you'd have been better off to stay home.

Most hunters who take a stand along a roost flyway resort to another hunting method if they don't fill their limit. Some have the better of two worlds if they've picked a pass-shooting situation that also has enough open water for setting out decoys.

During my tweenaged years, I read and heard wood ducks don't respond well to decoys and calls. Well, perhaps they don't respond as well as mallards, but I've discovered both ways of thinking are extremely erroneous. Perhaps use of these highly effective methods was lost in the dark ages when wood ducks were scarce. But any trip to a hunting gear dealer today should turn up a few wood duck decoys and wood duck calls.

Wood ducks will decoy to nearly any species. I've seen them decoy to spreads of diver, mallard, teal, gadwall and widgeon decoys among others. I've had them decoy to large spreads in big water or small spreads in backwater oxbows or creeks.

But for the best results, wood duck decoys should be used. All ducks decoy best to their own species, and most ducks decoy best to wood duck decoys set in areas where the ducks want to settle down for a visit. Of all duck species, wood ducks are probably the most precise about where they respond to decoys.

Observation is the key to consistent success when decoying wood ducks. I hunt a particular stream entering the Cape Fear River in the southeastern part of the state where decoys are extremely effective at taking wood ducks. However, there are only a few good places for placing decoys where the ducks will try to land.

Most of these sweet spots were learned through observation, followed by experimentation. As I paddled the creek while jump-shooting wood ducks, I noticed certain bends, logjams and shallow places where wood ducks routinely spent the day. Some were unapproachable with floating techniques because the ducks could see the canoe from too far away.