Last week, just before daylight, I found myself peering through red willows and cattails out over a spread of decoys. A shotgun rested across my knees, and I could hear the whir of dozens of wings in the sky above. No, I was not tucked down in a levee in Louisiana or hiding along a marshy oxbow in Mississippi or Arkansas. Rather, across the pond to the north and east, Mt. Blanca, one of Colorado’s fourteeners, was taking up a good sized chunk of the horizon.

Along with my son, I was being introduced to one of the best kept and at the same time vanishing secrets of the region. Namely, that there is some exciting and excellent water fowling in the San Luis Valley.

Andy Lee of Black Lab Outfitter was handling the introductions. It was his blind that we were in, his decoy spread we were looking out at, and soon it was his Lab, Charlie, that was threading her way through the reeds to retrieve the big Mallard drakes that had been seduced by Andy’s duck call and splashed down by Will and myself.

Andy, the head fishing guide at 4UR Ranch near Creede, is in his second season running his outfit. It has grown to the point that he now has negotiated the hunting rights to six private pieces of property from Monte Vista all the way down to Blanca. “You have to have options,” Andy said as we scanned the skies. “You have to have the flexibility to move around and be where the birds are.”

Andy went on to explain, that while those options and flexibility are considerations in duck and goose hunting virtually anywhere, it especially crucial in the Valley. “We have a lot of resident birds here,” he said. “As a result you can wear a place out very quickly by hunting it too much. These birds wise up in a hurry.”

We saw hundreds of ducks that morning. There were teal, Redheads, Scaup, but mostly Mallards. By a long shot. And, surprisingly, to Will and myself at least, most of those were drakes. “It seems like it is always like this down here,” Andy said. “I’m not sure why, but it sure makes it nice,” he added with a grin.

Nice indeed. Will and I had a limit of five birds each before noon, big handsome green heads to be dressed and readied for the kitchen. As an added bonus, one of Will’s drakes was a banded bird.

Some of the birds just came right out of the sky above us and dropped straight down with little coaxing. Others we could see a long ways out, and Andy had to really work on these to get them to pitch in to our set. Besides the great shooting and the thrill of working the birds, the trip was interesting and educational as Andy passed on the knowledge he has gained over the years by passionately pursuing this fascinating sport.

Andy can be reached via e-mail at blacklaboutiftter.com or 719-658-3015. He also maintains a regularly updated blog on current hunting conditions and details of his latest hunts, including photos, at blacklaboutfitter.blogspot.com.

The duck and goose season is a long one and the bag limits are generous. There are plenty of birds out there. Hunting these birds in the mountains rather than the marshes is a truly unique experience.

Randy Cameron, a shotgunner and big game hunter as well as a fly fisherman, guides out of Rio Grande Angler in downtown Creede.