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Duck hunting bonds Arkansas businessmen

4 min read

Duck hunting has been called “the prestigious business trip of the ’90s, right up there with golf,” by no less an authority than The Wall Street Journal. With a reputation as the “mallard capital of the world,” it’s only natural that the groundwork for many a business deal is laid in the flooded timber and rice fields of Arkansas.

“There’s probably more business done in duck blinds in Arkansas than people would ever believe,” says Tommy Hillman, a farmer, avid sportsman and chairman of Riceland Foods.

“To build a strong business base, you need to really know who you’re doing business with. When you hear someone in Arkansas say, ‘I wouldn’t share a duck blind with him,’ that’s all you need to know.”

The Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas aren’t the heart of duck hunting country.

However, you might be surprised at how many Northwest Arkansas businessmen will schedule their time around duck season over the next three months. With annual parameters set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arkansas’ 1999-2000 duck season is Nov. 20 through Jan. 23, with only a five-day break, Dec. 21-25.

“To me, there’s just nothing more fun than duck hunting,” says Mark Blackwood, executive vice president of Blackwood Martin/CJRW advertising agency in Fay-etteville. Using weekends and vacation time, Blackwood has averaged 20 to 25 hunting days over the past four seasons. He entertains some clients, but most days are spent with friends who share a love for the sport.

“There’s a communal aspect to duck hunting that many hunting sports don’t have,” Blackwood says. “When you can experience the same thing in some of the most beautiful places in the world, it provides a lot of fodder for subsequent discussion.”

Few people see any beauty at 4 a.m., any time of year, anywhere. Throw in winter weather and sloshing through a swamp, and you’ve eliminated any aspect of beauty for 99 percent of the world.

But that, too, is part of the bond in the duck hunters’ fraternity. Taking a “boat ride from hell” through flooded timber to hear the whistling wings of ducks as they find your decoys while silhouetted against a winter sunrise is an unforgettable experience.

“It just blows your mind,” says RE/MAX independent real estate agent Phil “Gumbo” Madison of Fayetteville. “Last year, I took a couple of guys from a logging company in south Arkansas and they were just bug-eyed. They said it was the greatest thing they’d ever seen.”

Madison grew up duck hunting in Newport, along the White, Black and Cache rivers. His waterfowl hunting territory has branched out to Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Around the country, duck hunting takes place in open water along the coastline and in the open waters of lakes, rivers and flooded grain fields. Arkansas is best-known for duck hunting in the flooded bottomland hardwoods of the Mississippi Delta. Even the most experienced open-water duck hunter will jump at the chance to see this Arkansas specialty, where mallards flutter down through a thick tree canopy to land among decoys floating in 18 inches of water. Sometimes the ducks come so close you can feel the air pushed by their wings and the splash of the water as they land.

Madison has developed a network of real estate clients through many of the top corporations in Northwest Arkansas, including Staffmark Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc.

“I try to get good customers in on one of those green timber hunts,” Madison says. “Once you do that, they’re yours. They can’t stop talking about it. Their friends will say, ‘You did what? You got up at four o’clock in the morning to hunt ducks coming through the trees?’ It’s an unforgettable experience.”

Again, the bonding effect of that experience can be the basis of trust for future business.

McIlroy Bank & Trust president Gary Head grew up in Eureka Springs, about as far from duck hunting country as you can get in Arkansas. Real estate developer Jim Lindsey took Head on his first duck hunting trip about 15 years ago. Head has been hooked ever since. He’ll average hunting eight to 10 days each season. While business isn’t the basis for most of those days, it can establish groundwork for the future.

“It’s a great opportunity to know a lot about the person you’re doing business with,” Head says. “There’s no better way that I know of. Unlike a round of golf, you might be with someone two or three days on a duck hunt. Plus, the way a man hunts tells you a lot about him. Does he play by the rules? You learn a lot about his character.”

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