I grew up hunting deer and ducks in an area of Louisiana along the Mississippi River. My dad owned some land, and our family leased some additional land nearby. This area of the river is north of where the lower levees in Louisiana start and is subject to seasonal flooding with rises in the river. We would hunt deer when the river was low and hunt ducks when the river was high.
I first met Mr. Dickey Pendergist when I was a teenager. He had daughters close to my age and belonged to a big hunting club a couple of miles from us. His family had also lived across the street from my mothers family when they moved to Louisiana from Arkansas he took an interest in teaching the young men that were interested about his favorite pastime. We started out together when I was a teenager. I was immediately impressed with his duck calling and woodsmanship skills. He knew every inch of that swamp, how to find ducks, and how to kill them when he found them.
As years passed, as it so often happens, we started to lose a lot of the land that we hunted. My dad sold the property he owned and a few years later, the timber company we leased from sold out and we didn’t have a place to hunt! The club that Mr. Dickey hunted in was sold to become a NWR and now they shut the season down when the river comes up…shutting it down to any flooded timber hunting opportunities. Shortly after all of this; myself, Mr. Dickey, our good friend Brad, and Mr Dickey's nephew Ronnie all joined a hunting club further up the river in southwest Mississippi. We hunted there together for ~15 years. During that time, our relationship evolved to the point that my children call him Paw Paw Dickey.
Mr. Dickey would often share stories about experiences from his early years, duck hunting in northwest Arkansas. One year, on a wild hair, some friends and I took a trip to Arkansas to hunt some public ground near Mr. Dickey’s hometown. We tried to get Mr. Dickey to go but he couldn’t make the trip. He gave me some pointers and his uncle’s (Mr. Jerry Billy Pendergist) cell phone number. He told me that we should look him up while we were in the area. Mr. Jerry Billy is the owner/operator of Snazz Duck Calls and has been hunting ducks in that area for 70+ years. Needless to say, we had to meet this fella!
So, after a couple of days of hunting, with moderate success, we gave Mr. Jerry Billy a call, and made a visit to his camp. We blew duck calls, and he gave us advice on how to use “love notes” to finish the ducks in the woods. Everybody there that day remembers and uses the advice he gave us to this day.
Fast forward several years, and now the club we hunted in Mississippi has been mostly sold. Mr. Dickey is retired and owns a camp in his old hometown. He, Mr. Jerry Billy, and a couple of friends hunt together every day of duck season. I am fortunate enough to get the opportunity to make a trip or two up every year and hunt with them. I have a 14 year-old son who makes the trip when school, baseball, etc. doesn't get in the way.
I remember being nervous the first time I hunted with Mr. Jerry Billy. I was hesitant to blow my calls because I didn’t want to embarrass myself. I would say I’m pretty fair caller, but I knew the company I was in. About an hour into the hunt, Mr. Jerry Billy looked at me and asked, “Are you wearing those calls for show, or are you going to call ducks?” That told me that it was okay for me to call, and the rest is history.
The first thing he did was educate me on the calls I had were insufficient and that if I really wanted to be a caller, I needed to blow one of his Snazz Duck Calls! I concurred and quickly purchased one for me and one for my son. He sat in his camp with us for several hours and tuned the calls to our styles. His patience and detail when working on his calls (and the people blowing them) is unparalleled. His passion for the sport is evident in everything that he does. He calls duck hunting a “disease without a cure” and I think he’s right!
This year, Brad and I made the trip to hunt with them for the last few days of the season. The timing was perfect, and the swamp was full of ducks. I started to notice that when we were working ducks, I was the only person calling. After every group, Mr. Jerry Billy would call me over to him, and give me little pointers like, “when they're about to light in the back of the hole, give ‘em a little string note and they’ll turn and light in our face” or “keep those love notes coming. If they look like they're losing interest, mix in a few soft cadences. You gotta watch the ducks to see what they need.” Every piece of advice he gave me seemed to work perfectly.
On the ride home, Brad said my head could barely fit through the truck door because Mr. Jerry Billy let me do a lot of the calling. I thought I had the duck disease the whole time, but since i’ve been hunting with Mr. Jerry Billy, I think the case is now terminal!
People like Mr. Jerry Billy and Mr. Dickey are a throw back to what really made the outdoor sports we love great. They value the sport of the camaraderie and the relationships with the people & places. The shooting is a small part of the issue.
If you have a son, a nephew, or just some kid that wants to go duck hunting, buy him a Snazz Duck Call and teach him what’s important about the sport od duck hunting. Maybe he’ll catch the disease and grow up to be a better man because of it.
Matthew Martin
Jackson, LA