I opened my mailbox to discover an envelope from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. About 5,500 hunters apply each year for 5,000 tundra swan permits available in North Carolina, so I knew my chances were good. Still, I knew 500 people would come up empty, and I have never been very lucky at permit or special hunt drawings. When I tore the envelope open, I saw the big orange tag: My 2008-09 tundra swan permit!

Now it was time to find a guide. I was hoping to make it a combination hunt for a swan and greater snow geese, and maybe Atlantic brant, as well. The Web site of Aaron Mathews and Fourth Generation Outfitters caught my eye because Mathews mentioned his passion for snow geese. With access to 16,000 acres of private farm ground in northeastern North Carolina, he has plenty of options. He also has 12 licensed pole/brush blinds on Currituck Sound for water hunts.

As I checked further, I discovered he had recently won the 2008 World Swan Calling Championship in Washington, N.C. Combined with a 100 percent success rate for swan hunters, I figured he was a good choice. My first call to Mathews satisfied all questions, so I set up a mid-January hunt.

Setting a Spread
I arrived at Currituck Sound on a Sunday afternoon. After I was settled in, Mathews came by to discuss plans for the next morning's hunt. At 27 years old with six years as a professional guide and several more years assisting his father as a guide, Mathews is very serious about waterfowl hunting and the habits of the birds.

"There have been a lot of snows feeding in the fields," he reported. With winds of 15 mph forecasted, he recommended a hunt in a wheat field. I was the only hunter, so he would pick me up at 4 a.m. because it would take nearly 45 minutes to reach our field, and we would be setting a large decoy spread.

With big white birds on my mind, I awoke early and fixed hot cereal. As I stepped outside, north winds and cold temperatures greeted me, but not nearly as cold as the single digits and teens I had left behind in Missouri. When Mathews pulled up with his truck and trailer, I quickly loaded my gear and we were on our way.

The stars were noticeably absent, and only a dull glow from a near-full moon as it struggled to let light show through the blanket of clouds.

After pulling off of the highway west of Elizabeth City, we were headed down country roads when the headlights startled a trio of ducks from the ditch. I asked if ducks would also be a possibility in our field, but Mathews said the ducks were rare in the fields. Two inches of rain a few days earlier had put water in the ditches and that was the only reason we had seen the ducks.

We rolled to a stop with wheat fields on each side of the road. The table-flat fields offered no cover, so we made our hide in a ditch and set the decoys into the field. Hopefully, that would pull incoming birds right over us.

I put my waders on as Mathews opened the trailer and began to get decoys ready. We carried the first tub of Texas rags across the ditch and 30 yards out into the field. The cloud-shrouded moon was all the light we needed as we began setting the 600 white rag snow goose spread in a three-legged X. The stakes went in the unfrozen ground easily, a far cry from the rock-hard frozen ground in Missouri's fields.